Radio 4: "I would probably stray into JK Rowling's orbit if I expressed some of my confusions in the transgender debate"

[nauticant]

There's a Radio 4 programme called A Point of View that is often interesting but usually too niche for most people. Over the past year or two it's sometimes been like a guerilla underground of the BBC exploring topics in ways that I'm surprised hasn't resulted in torch-wielding twitter mobs.

Tonight it was Sarah Dunant 's turn:

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000mlwl

She talked about conspiracy theories and self-radicalisation. It's a really interesting talk but while listening I was worried she'd class the gender critical among the self-radicalised but then she said:

I would probably stray into JK Rowling's orbit if I expressed some of my confusions in the transgender debate

No matter how repressive and vengeful the trans activists are being, the urge to ask questions is spreading.

I'm sure even in the months I've been following this debate, things have and are changing.

I hope I'm not being deluded, I really do hope I'm not.

Thanks for highlighting this one OP.

Last night when I heard that the speaker was Sarah Dunant I had hopes of something interesting but she lost me almost immediately and I switched it off!

I've just finished quite a thriller (from around 1999) by Sarah Dunant - she's a compelling writer, and writes from a woman's point of view, very aware of male violence.

Reported

I’m still waiting for my money from the far right religious groups of America that are apparently bank rolling ne

My DH wishes they’d get a move on as he’d like to give up work

(Also in the handmaids tale, wasn’t it astonishing how they just knew which people they needed to make handmaids so more babies were born. Almost as if there’s a biological difference...)

A tweet caught my eye this morning that asked - for every one of the many new genders can you clearly define what it is and list a number of common characteristics or traits that are shared by people who identify as that gender.

I love Dunant's historical novels, which are mainly about women in Renaissance Italy. Sacred Hearts, set in a 16th century Italian convent, is particularly good. She's obviously done tons of research about women's lives in the past, so no surprised she'd be skeptical about downplaying the role of biological sex.

This programme is being repeated in 10 minutes.

This is the speaker:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Dunant

I think this is the programme Sharron Davies went on a while ago to talk about the trans issue.