Bloody hell BBC

[WorkingItOutAsIGo]

Reading the BBC news online this morning and there is not one, but two stories about transgender people. One promoting the transition of a small child, and the other promoting sport for transgender athletes. The latter in particular looks like a direct attempt to counter the news discussion over the last few days in sport.

This isn’t news, it’s wartime propaganda.

Sorry but I really don’t agree with parents whose kids are experimenting with something and who like dressing up going and putting their kids lives into the national media like this.

And even if the parents lack judgement, the BBC should know better.

The two towels thing reminds me of that episode in Friends when Chandler listens to the stop smoking hypnotherapy tape which tells him he is a 'strong confident woman' and he comes out the shower with the two towels!

Agree about pushing into the spotlight making it harder to desist. Jazz Jennings has pretty much the weight of the entire movement squarely on their shoulders now. I mean, they are too far gone to reverse anything now anyway, but Jazz turning around and saying that they regretted any of it would be catastrophic for the trans movement and everyone knows it.

The BBC don't give a fuck, they recently did a fawning article about Desmond Is Amazing.

RockyFlintstone Talk about erasure of gay men...

(Also, love your username!)

Let's not forget how much our culture prizes celebrity and attention. I'm absolutely convinced that a lot of the cases of trans kids with 'supportive' parents are a mixture of pliable children and fame hungry parents, looking for their step into admiration and their own reality show/book deal. The very last thing I would do with my troubled, image focused child would be to parade pictures of them on the media. I have no respect for parents who do in these circumstances.

The BBC is done for me - the intro on the news to that Scottish footballer story was so biased, insulting to Martina and Sharron, telling us we need to listen to this footballer and "the science" - as if prominent women athletes aren't able to understand "science"!
On top of promoting transing children and child drag queens, no-platforming female speakers several times - I've had enough. Boycotting BBC news now, aiming to boycott all BBC and cancel licence fee.

I've complained about the article about the 9 year old child here:

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/

It's so irresponsible of the BBC to run it - what are they thinking?

text of my complaint below, editing slightly to comply with MN modding rules (blimey replacing correct pronouns with Autumn's name makes the text clunky)

The article itself contains the following information:

'The NHS says most treatment at this stage is psychological and not surgical, because the majority of children with suspected gender dysphoria do not have the condition once they reach puberty'

It is very likely that in a few years Autumn will decide that Autumn does not have gender dysphoria and does not feel compelled to comply with typically feminine stereotypes.

Given what's at stake for Autumn if Autumn does persist (drug treatments with harmful side effects, surgical intervention which could render Aumtum sterile), the BBC should not be doing anything to make it harder for Autumn to make the best decision for Autumn's self about Autumn's future. This publicity will make it harder for Autumn to reverse Autumn's current decision if that is what feels right for Autumn in the future.

In addition, Autumn is 9 years old. Autumn is not capable of consenting to having Autumn's private life publicised in this way. Autumn my well feel when Autumn is older that Autumn does not want this information about Autumn in the public domain. Why is the BBC invading the privacy of this child?

Indeed Floral
The article even says that Autumn's mum is writing a book about their journey...

merrymouse yes, it appears the school is going out on a very questionable limb here, as the rest of the quote makes plain:

although the children have had "mixed reactions", teachers have tackled the issue "head on".
"They will say things like, 'Do you remember Anthony? Do you remember how upset he could get, and how angry he could be? Don't you think Autumn is happier?', and explaining Autumn is who she wants to be," Ms Norris says.

This is shocking.

FFS why are these young trans girls wearing ridiculously heavy makeup, I wouldn’t let my 9yo actual daughter do it 🙄 experimenting sure, but that? Plus duck face pouting? No

That’s not what being a girl means

Excellent letter Bernard. I've started writing one too - I get too angry to write anything coherent!

FFS why are these young trans girls wearing ridiculously heavy makeup, I wouldn’t let my 9yo actual daughter do it 🙄 experimenting sure, but that? Plus duck face pouting? No

Girls in skirts a cm above the knee-bad.

Boys in a gay club at 3am having money thrown at them - good

Gay club? No no, they’re not gay, despite wanting to marry a man, they are just totally female.

Oh for christ's sake.

I could almost have written articles like this word for word about DS between the ages of about 3 and 12 (in fact, I did have some contact with CAMHS about him as he got so furiously distressed about things like not being allowed to nick his sister's dresses). He believed in guardian angels and Father Christmas at the time and would definitely have believed that he could magically be a mummy.

What he, personally, needed was a change of school; new friends; a drama group so he could 'be' someone else as he chose; some fabulous colourful but not stereotypically 'girl' clothing; and more of the time and attention that his disabled sibling was mostly monopolising.

Thank goodness he was born nearly 20 years ago and not 10, and the school's reaction was mild bemusement rather than assemblies suggesting he might/must/should be actually a girl.

Great letter Bernard

I don’t think it’s ethical for broadcasters to refer to ‘trans children’ at all. They wouldn’t refer to ‘Labour children’ or ‘Conservative children’ or ‘communist children’ or ‘fascist children’ would they?

and IMHO broadcasters shouldn’t actually refer to ‘religious’ children either.

These are all adult concepts, beliefs and labels that their kids are going along with.

The kids may well passionately believe in these things very strongly but they are kids - they are without the experience judgement or maturity to really understand or have the freedom to think what they think for themselves, as distinct to what the adults around them think.

So instead of saying ‘trans child’ broadcasters we should insist that broadcasters should always say ‘child from a family who believes in genderism’.

Just exactly like they would say ‘child from a Christian family’ or ‘child from a family of long-standing Liberal Democrats’ or whatever.

This acknowledges that these are adult views and beliefs, which children are brought up into.

It should be against BBC editorial guidelines and that of the other broadcasters to ascribe political views to any child under 18.

(Regardless of any personal financial or other gain, attention or approval the parents of children may be seeking for themselves or the child, in giving their child such a label. )

They've been ignoring facts for a while now. Noticed yesterday Humphries interrupting the female expert every 5 words or so "Why? When? How?", then allowing the man to get paragraphs out at a time .

Oh dear, my two sons may be as well - they both use two towels after the bath. (one for hair and other for body).Maybe I should get them checked out. They do use blue towels though.

YY regarding Autumn’s school lecturing all the other kids in sex stereotypes. I would be so fuming if I was a parent at that school- what the regressive actual 1950s fuck are they on about?

I don’t come from a religious family at all but I massively believed in god until about my mid-20s because all my schools had told me it’s good and right to do so. and to disagree would have caused a massive fuss and caused me to be left out of lots of things like singing and daily assembly with the rest of the class. I came home and argued with my parents that God is real. I just accepted it all as absolute truth and it was encouraged to be really keen about religious belief, so I was.

I’m not trying to be offensive here to anyone who holds religious beliefs and I have absolute respect for that- I just mean to say that schools really shape children’s thinking in a lasting way.

Which is exactly why Stonewall and Mermaids are targeting them.

DD is 8yrs old, has no interest in makeup, uses one towel (blue) after a bath, and plays football after school.

When do we need to tell the school that she's clearly a boy?

insulting to Martina and Sharron, telling us we need to listen to this footballer and "the science" - as if prominent women athletes aren't able to understand "science"!

Do Stonehaven Ladies play in a league that does IOC standard testing? What is the relevance of ‘the science’ here?

Humphries is a sexist twazzock- you should hear him on anything to do with abortion. Same shit. 🙄

Wow and who could we complain to about the coercive control from the school? 9 yos don’t have the understanding to process this information correctly. This is sending the message that if you are an angry boy, transitioning will solve your problems.

It should be against BBC editorial guidelines and that of the other broadcasters to ascribe political views to any child under 18.

That's a very valid points. I don't think you'd even refer to a 9-year-old being gay/straight usually would you? So why trans?

It was the BBCR4 that 'peaked' me. I could not believe the unquestioning interview with the woman who was bringing up her 4 year old as a girl did not need any questions answering.

Bizarrely, this was just before a family law case hit the headlines (briefly on the BBC and not on their website) where a 4 year old was returned to the father they were estranged from, after the mother was bringing him up as a girl and had progressively cut herself off from support and official safeguarding, on the advice from a transgender organisation. The court found that the boy, given the space to follow his own inclinations, relaxed and was happy, and rapidly reverted to living as a boy.

Who thinks it sensible to promote the lifestyle of a young boy as a drag artist? People have always looked at the BBC to do the right thing, research things properly and to be on the side of common sense. I think people are abusing this trust that the general public have. You would have expected more sense since Saville .

It looks very much as if, in the face of interest and debate in the wider world, the BBC are doubling down on some wild PR crusade.

So instead of saying ‘trans child’ broadcasters we should insist that broadcasters should always say ‘child from a family who believes in genderism’.

Just exactly like they would say ‘child from a Christian family’ or ‘child from a family of long-standing Liberal Democrats’ or whatever.

This acknowledges that these are adult views and beliefs, which children are brought up into.

It should be against BBC editorial guidelines and that of the other broadcasters to ascribe political views to any child under 18.

I completely agree.