Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

What are fishies? Channel 4 Big Fat Quiz of the Year

247 replies

Procrastinator2 · 26/12/2019 23:40

Just that. A question on the Big Fat Quiz of the Year posed by drag queens, what are fishies.

Programme presented by Jimmy Carr. Participants Noel Fielding, someone who does the BA security videos, @AsimC86, Roisin Conaty, Maya Jama, MTV presenter and former girlfriend of Stormzy, Richard Ayoade and Dara O'Briain.
It would not be acceptable for any other group of people to be named accordingly to the supposed smell of their genitals, but it's ok when it comes to women, channel 4.

OP posts:
Justhadathought · 28/12/2019 16:52

Here's a clip of Baga Chipz' 'Best Bits'

Baga Chipz was just gross on Ru Paul - every misogynistic trope on display.

Justhadathought · 28/12/2019 16:55

dressing up as Amy Winehouse and portraying her in the throws of her drug addiction for laughs (can anyone imagine a woman doing that for someone like Kurt Cobain and having anyone find it funny

I recall Graham Norton doing a similarly disgusting joke at the expense of Amy Winehouse - saying she looked like " a campaign poster for maltreated horses". Just nasty!

Justhadathought · 28/12/2019 16:56

I interpreted it (possibly wrongly) as that C4 associate drag with gay culture and are trying to push the idea that disliking drag is unacceptably unwoke

Yes, that's what I meant.

Sorry if it came across as other than I intended. As homophobic.

Franku · 28/12/2019 17:11

I've complained to C4 and now I am complaining to Ofcom as well. This is misogynist slur -- hate speak.

ofcomforms.secure.force.com/formentry/SitesFormCSLEStandardsComplaints

Franku · 28/12/2019 17:23

I've just discovered on Twitter that the trans activists are up in arms about it too, and the programme is having to defend itself - not over misogyny but over 'transmisogyny' ...

" fishy refers to the smell of a vaginas and meaning femininity is defined by having a vagina, when there are many women who don't have vaginas making it transphobic"

Head. Spinning.

RufusthebewiIderedreindeer · 28/12/2019 17:25

Oh good lord frank

Kit19 · 28/12/2019 17:27

Hahahaha you can NEVER be woke enough for the TRA channel 4

Hairybauble · 28/12/2019 17:39

I just came on to see if anyone else was as disgusted by this as I was - particularly the "wafting" of the genital area to illustrate exactly what "fishy" meant in relation to women.

If it was Jim Davidson making these jokes, the panel comedians wouldn't dared have laughed along. Somehow, misogyny is absolutely fine so long as the man is wearing a dress.

Will be complaining to Channel 4 and Ofcom.

Aaarrgghhh · 28/12/2019 18:01

I really look forward to this every year. Haven’t watched it yet but that part is going to annoy me. Hoping the rest is okay because it is something silly that I enjoy each year.

MrsKCastle · 28/12/2019 18:14

Franku I just checked out Twitter, because I was astounded that trans people could make this about them. But they really can, and do.

How can you believe that it's only offensive to call women 'fishy' because not all people with vaginas are women?

RuffleCrow · 28/12/2019 18:18

Femininity?! @franku

These males are literally the only people left who buy into femininity - let em have it, I say. For me it's a word covered in cobwebs.

ClosdesMouches · 28/12/2019 18:32

Isn't Justine Roberts' partner/DH in some lofty position at C4 ?

fridgegrazer · 28/12/2019 18:56

fishy refers to the smell of a vaginas and meaning femininity is defined by having a vagina, when there are many women who don't have vaginas making it transphobic

OMW Frank - what's the betting that if C4 do apologise it will be because they think they have offended trans women, not women - because that'd be alright, it's not a protected characteristic after all.

Justhadathought · 28/12/2019 18:59

I've just discovered on Twitter that the trans activists are up in arms about it too, and the programme is having to defend itself - not over misogyny but over 'transmisogyny

Yes! Trans activists managed to stop drag queens appearing at a Glasgow pride event because they considered drag "offensive to men transitioning to women"; also ru Paul came under attack for transphobia - because he didn't want trans women on Drag Race.

You can't win with TRAs - everything unless totally compliant is considered transphobic.

Actually find it all quite amusing, really......

Justhadathought · 28/12/2019 19:13

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drag-queens-banned-from-performing-at-free-pride-glasgow-event-over-fears-acts-will-offend-trans-10405214.html : Drag queens banned from performing at Free Pride Glasgow event over fears acts will offend trans people

GeriAtric · 28/12/2019 20:06

C4 will most likely apologise for the 'transmisogyny' rather than the misogyny then. FFS, is it just accepted that vaginas smell of fish now?

"Not all women have vaginas" FFS. I think you'll find they do. OTOH, transwomen don't have vaginas. Or is it more preferable to say 'cis' women have vaginas? Whatever, there are biological distinctions and describing vaginas as fishy is offensive towards women and women only.

BrandineDelRoy · 28/12/2019 20:30

Maybe it's transphobic to say neovaginas don't small fishy? I can't keep up.

BrandineDelRoy · 28/12/2019 20:31

Smell not small.

Aaarrgghhh · 28/12/2019 20:43

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

shedquarters · 28/12/2019 21:33

Have just seen the fishy is transphobic stuff on twitter too. So women cant even now be the victim of disgusting mysoginistic abuse without trans women trying to take that off us too! Bloody hell. Fishy is most insulting to trans women because they don't have fishy vaginas, and people talking about fishy vaginas are excluding them, and this hurts their feelings and invalidates them.

I can't actually believe how totally bat-shit crazy the world is.
On a funny note though, TheVivienne has found out the hard way that even Drag Queens can be publicly attacked and harangued for being transphobic. Hilarious.
He has had a meltdown about how much he has done for the trans community and this is how he is treated. Worth a look.

JellySlice · 28/12/2019 21:59

It's as rational as claiming that periods are transphobic.

NextdoorNeighbourIsATwat · 28/12/2019 22:56

I was just thinking the same Aaarrgghhh

Fraggling · 28/12/2019 23:12

The most insulting thing about referring to women as 'fish', based on the enduring idea that our genitals are dirty and revolting, is that it upsets women who don't have vaginas.

Well ok.

If the transfolkx don't like it, I expect it will be gone soon.

Meanwhile misogyny continues unabated.

shedquarters · 28/12/2019 23:27

Yes. A general feeling of bafflement and distress from twitter threads about being accused of transphobia, but missing the point entirely about slurring women. Why would that matter after all.
Trans women not upset in solidarity with their 'cisters', but feeling excluded from the nature of the slurs.
The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

FloralFestiveBunting · 28/12/2019 23:37

And this is why we use the word 'erase'. Because if the complaint about the use of fishy is because it excludes persons wot was not born in possession of a vagina, then there is no examination of exactly why it is such a nasty, woman-hating thing to say about a woman.

We don't use 'erase' because we are going to stop existing. We use it because there is now a clumping great male bodied trans person standing in the way and obscuring our words and voices with their complaint about not being THE centre of attention.