BBC Woman's Hour talks drag today

[WomanBornNotWorn]

10.00 today (Tuesday 12 Nov)

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b5kb

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b5kb

Starts in a moment

Listening

Talking about descriptions of female anatomy on Ru Paul’s Drag Race and bbc.

Fishy, seafood platter, pink furry box.

Great. Everything else gets 15-20 minutes, drag gets five with one dissenting voice allowed two comments with the others wittering on about gender assigned at birth and being fabulous. At least we were allowed one voice of reality nailing the mysogyny of the 'fish' references.

Plus ça change...

I emailed a complaint to the BBC yesterday, about Ru Paul's Drag Race.
They seem to be pushing it very heavily, at present, at peak viewing times, such as just before the 6pm news. I find it ugly and inappropriate for all of the reasons mentioned above.

One of the drag artists presented in the advert wears a cattle ring through his nose, and has cow horns - implication " She's a cow".

I pointed out that even on the first episode of drag race, women are being referred to as 'slappers' and 'slags' and other terms of reference which have long been used to demean women. On top of this insinuations that female bodies and especially genitalia are dirty and disgusting.

That just because it is a central part of gay male culture, it does not invalidate or disguise the misogyny inherent in it.

It would be good if others could do the same. The timing is appropriate right now - because of the repeated pushing of it on BBC 1 at present.

I was really pleased to hear that this was going to be discussed today, and then predictably let down that it got BY FAR (disproportionately and insultingly) the shortest slot on the programme. I mean, I love Elizabeth Strout's books, and addiction in professional women is a very discussion-worthy topic, but both of those conversations could have easily given a couple of minutes to the drag discussion (and so doubled its length) without significant impact.

It felt very much a like a typical BBC box-ticking exercise. 'There, we've covered drag and it's glaring misogyny, and brought in some lovely queer folk on to explain that it's really not so bad after all! And now for the drama...'

So disappointing, though tbf I got the impression Jane Garvey was onside.

Yes, it was on at the last minute, as with the Winifred Robinson M&S interview but this is an advance on the ‘no platforming’ separate discussions we had last year or the refusal to interview Nic Williams on Stephen Nolan. It was good that they managed to cover the ignoring of drag king and the number of young women viewers in the time too.

Agree that the addiction slot was quite long but worth covering. I think the interview with the woman who had had an abortion needed time too - she had never really spoken about it and it would have been insensitive to have been perfunctory with her.

7/10 ‘good effort but you can do better’ from me.

That just because it is a central part of gay male culture, it does not invalidate or disguise the misogyny inherent in it.

Agreed. Because it's gay men doing it, they seem to get a pass to be as misogynistic as they want. All of the fish references are disgusting and degrading.

We are being mocked and ridiculed in plain site, and it is being pushed as 'progressive' entertainment. The worst part is how they are targeting children with it now. Terrible.

Extended podcast here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007qlvb/episodes/downloads

Wears different clothes, realise they are non-binary.

Sheesh.