Jameela Jamil put Janet Mock top of her list for International Women’s Day inspiring women for the BBC.
So far so predictable from Jameela Jamil, but I think it’s very poor journalism of Newsround as the BBC’s kids news programme, not to mention (in their explainer piece for kids about the inspiring women nominated): that Janet Mock is a transwoman, or a male born person who identifies as a woman.
Surely this material fact is also why Mock has done the campaigning work Mock has done, and Janet Mock’s work is presumably what has inspired Jameela Jamil?
www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51756203?collection=international-womens-day
I think the BBC has a duty to be clear for kids that transwomen are not the same category as biological women. Some kids watch Newsround every day at school, because it is ‘the news’. Children will take what is said as fact.
The BBC are making a political choice, that TWAW, as our national broadcaster and are presenting that as a factual matter. Mock is American so no UK GRC outing legal issues would apply to mentioning Mock’s gender identification reason for being included in womanhood.
I think it’s highly inappropriate to present purely political and highly controversial ideas as fact like that. It would have been fine if they had just said ‘transwoman’ in the blurb. Or do they think this is not an issue to be mentioned because Mock passes in photos, which is surely a transphobic notion even within genderist politics?
Mock is quoted on this as saying: ‘I have such a difficult time with the concept of "passing" because I feel it gives this idea that there's some kind of deception or trickery involved in our identities. I am a woman, people perceive me as a woman, and when I walk on the street, I am not "passing" as anything. I am merely being myself.
Often, my trans-ness does not lead the way when I walk into spaces and that allows me safety and anonymity. And because trans people are marked as illegitimate, our bodies and identities are often open to public dissection – and this is a major burden for many trans people, a burden that I often do not have to carry in every space I enter because of the way that I look. Our safety should not be based on the way that we look. ’
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/20/transgender-janet-mock-passing-realness
Also: ‘ Mock often talks about the burden of representation. She might be regarded as a spokeswoman for trans women, but she does not pretend her experience is representative. For one thing, she was fortunate enough to be able to choose whether to disclose she was trans. Many trans women do not have that privilege – their appearance gives them away.
[Mock] has said that without her smile and her MA in journalism, nobody would have listened to her. “The ‘pretty privilege’ can give you access to spaces, just like your able body gives you access. But it makes impossible beauty standards for many other trans girls who are struggling with that right now .’’
www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/15/janet-mock-id-never-seen-a-young-trans-woman-who-was-thriving-in-the-world-i-was-looking-for-that
Choosing a transwoman in the first place as one of or thenmost ’inspiring woman’ on one’s personal list on International Women’s Day is a whole other post, but that’s all on Jameela Jamil..