The Guardian's phobia of the L-word

[GCAcademic]

Another attack on a lesbian couple, and the Guardian can't even bring itself to use the L word. The victims are described as "gay actors" throughout. I got to a late stage in the article before realising that these were women who had been attacked, and that was only because of a direct quote from the police:

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jun/09/southampton-theatre-cancels-lgbt-play-performances-after-actors-attacked

On the play's Twitter feed, the same thing, with the added joy of a TRA describing the attack as "transphobia".

How the fuck is an attack on two lesbians transphobic!!! Trans women cannot by definition ever be lesbians

And why have we stopped calling lesbians lesbians? I've noticed this too. I'm a lesbian, not gay.

Interesting that when Julie Bindel was attacked it was dismissed by TRAs as not happening as the (alleged) punch missed.
By the same argument this was not an attack either...
Just shows how nasty some of he TRAs are.

Only males use the word now. Kids are queer, trans or non binary. Same with the word woman, women are cis only males are women.

Reviews of the production say that all the actors are trans or non binary so maybe these were not ordinary lesbians?

If that were the case then why doesn't the Guardian mention it?
(Not a critisism just wondering)

Reviews of the production say that all the actors are trans or non binary so maybe these were not ordinary lesbians?

If that's the case, the comment on Twitter at least makes sense. But it makes the Guardian's reporting even more opaque. Rather than reporting facts, they are obscuring them. I am now genuinely confused as to whether this was an attack on two males or two females, and that's before we even get into how they were perceived by the attackers and whether this therefore amounts to a homophobic or transphobic attack, or both.

The victims are described as "gay actors" throughout

I don't know if the article has since been edited but they're just called actors in the current version. They don't use the word gay or lesbian at all actually, I guess because it's implied by the fact that it was two actors in an LGBT play who were victims of a homophobic attack.

So basically, because our language is now totally fucked, we don’t know whether these were two lesbians subject to a homophobic and/or misogynistic attack, or two transwomen subject to a transphobic attack, or one lesbian and a transwoman subject to a misogynistic/misogynistic/transphobic attack?

But we are absolutely clear on who committed the attack?

When everything is performative, even gay ‘actors’ becomes ambiguous.

The police statement refers to two women though. IIRC, the play's cast consist of a female who identifies as non-binary and two other females, who are all either lesbian or bisexual as well as a man). And the articles and the police statement refer to a homophobic hate crime throughout.

I'm confused, nowhere in the article does it mention transphobia unless it has been edited. It mentions hate crime and homophobia.

It doesn't mention the sex of the victims, it mentions the separate attack on the bus where the lesbian couple were attacked but not clear who was attacked here.

So basically, because our language is now totally fucked, we don’t know whether these were two lesbians subject to a homophobic and/or misogynistic attack, or two transwomen subject to a transphobic attack, or one lesbian and a transwoman subject to a misogynistic/misogynistic/transphobic attack?

Yes, that's about it. This is why words need to have accepted meanings. It does no one any favours otherwise. That includes trans people, as we now don't know whether this attack was homophobic or transphobic.

I'm confused, nowhere in the article does it mention transphobia unless it has been edited.

I think we're all confused. But "transphobia" was mentioned by someone on Twitter, not in the Guardian article.

There is only one male actor in the play. He wasn't attacked and if he'd been attacked together with one of the three women in the play, it wouldn't have been reported as a homophobic hate crime.

One of the victims identifies as non-binary, but given that the theatre cast listing uses female pronouns and she looks very clearly female, as do the other two female cast members, it's quite clear that this was a hate crime directed at two women perceived to be in a same-sex relationship.

This is the BBC report. I don't think it is necessary to spell out the actors are lesbian. It is clear what happened.

BBC News - Actors targeted in 'homophobic' attack in Southampton
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-48572800

Let's say this sort of thing continues. Can you imagine what it's going to do to juries being completely baffled listening to accounts of who did what to whom in trials?

That’s the same “journalist” who reported misrepresented Martina Navratilova and the cycle path, an article that so enraged me I wrote to the editor. Problem with lesbians?

What is the best way of writing it concisely?

Attack on lesbian actors?
Misogynist attack on gay actors?
Homophobic attack on actresses?

I got the impression from the initial article that the victims themselves were insulted by the term "lesbian".

In a Facebook post, Geymonat, a flight attendant originally from Uruguay, said in both English and Spanish that they were subjected to homophobic abuse while being beaten up: “They started behaving like hooligans, demanding that we kissed so they could enjoy watching, calling us ‘lesbians’ and describing sexual positions … The next thing I know is that Chris is in the middle of the bus fighting with them.

She almost seems to imply that calling them lesbians is abuse alongside the actual abuse that they suffered. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it, but that caught my eye immediately.

What is the best way of writing it concisely?

Attack on lesbian actors?
Misogynist attack on gay actors?
Homophobic attack on actresses?

The top one is the clearest to me - except our language has been hijacked and we don't know what a lesbian is anymore.

The Age in Australia called the women on the bus "gay women" rather than lesbian. I suppose that's because nowadays lesbians have penises.

The Telegraph article describes the attack in clearer terms I think than either the BBC or the Guardian. Despicable behaviour from the young men in both incidents, and very frightening for the women concerned.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/09/theatre-cancels-lgbt-play-two-cast-members-subjected-homophobic/

Homophobic attack on actresses?

They don't use the word "actress" in The Guardian so that's not going to be an option.