R4 programme on "Moral Panic" uses the notion of querying autistic girls about transing is denying them agency and the result of "moral panic"

[stumbledin]

This was on in the background and only half heard it. Some talk about how the media over hype things to get good headlines. ie Mods and Rockers were going to wreck society.

But then at the end that had a young autistic person saying it was okay that autistic children who were aware of what seemed to be a common link of identifying as trans, had somehow their discussion had been co-opted by reactionaries. And this was an example of moral panic.

Not dentying that that is what they thought. But given that the medical jury is still out on this, not appropriate for the BBC to use this personal assertion by one individual to indicate a current "moral panic".

Did anyone else hear this?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kvmr

I only heard a tiny bit stumbledin, which was someone talking about the term moral panic being flung around willy-nilly now and it not being used correctly.

Cut to the presenter giving us an "actual" example of one as detailed by Felix ...weirdly, in the seconds before the presenter told us what the moral panic was I had a premonition it was going to be trans related. Rolled my eyes and continued mopping the floor.

Fucking BBC, they just can't help themselves.

The ironic thing is that there is an actual moral panic here.

The panic that if anyone ever disagrees with anything trans related a trans child somewhere will dissolve.

It's that moral panic that means we have to let males into rape shelters and compete in women's cycling. Think of the poor vulnerable trans children.

It's a moral panic, not actually stopping to think it through.

I think this is a repeat - I heard this a little while ago. They've misunderstood what moral panic means. Raising legitimate concerns about giving children unlicensed drugs is not a moral panic.

I heard that too. Every opportunity, every single opportunity...

How on earth is 'moral panic' applicable to the discussion of a phenomenon involving children and young people being medicalised, often irreversibly? It's got nothing to do with 'morals'. It's got quite a lot to do with ethics, and lack thereof.

RoyalCorgi - you are right - it was first broadcast in July.

They are saying that "moral panic" is usally a false concern egged on by tabloid media.

That's why I thought this was such a dubious example. Even if a young person is convinced they are trans (or anything else) it is right that an appropriate adult/s stand outside of the emotion and evaluate.

I vaguely listened on the background because of Laurie Taylor and mention of Stan Cohen - sociology degrees.

I'm really not sure that the autistic/trans issue qualifies. My autistic DSs struggle with the notion of 'feeling' as opposed to 'being' human so also struggle with the notion of a socially constructed gender identity - as do I. I don't know what feeling like a woman means, despite being one, but apparently, men do.

But the theory of moral panic which illustrates how the moral majority pathologise minorities they perceive as a threat (under-employed youth) doesn't really fit unless we import a generational dynamic and import a counter cultural youth movement such that a significant amount of young people challenge their biological sex in opposition to an older generation and that this is somehow socially significant. Protect female only spaces and no one really cares. Fill your boots.

There are clearly issues that divide generations (largely economic) that are significant but I wonder how relevant gendered identity really is (maybe 40 years ago) and autism seems to be irrelevant.

Maybe I should listen again and concentrate.

The transman, Felix Moore (whose uncle is actually Charles Moore) came across as very fragile and as a result the presenter David Cannadine thought it was best to accept whatever they said without challenge.

The role of the media in creating and stoking moral panics refers to the media when the research was conducted. The age of media studies when there was a strict differentiation between the producer and the consumer and the media was considered a major player in the production of hegemonic ideology.

Before there's any accusation of my post outing Felix Moore, he's a long article with them explaining how they see themself:

www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/came-trans-man-elderly-grandfather-surprising-results/

The "moral panic" line is pushed in that article too.

"Moral panic" is just a stock phrase that people like to throw around to undermine whistle-blowers and shut down debate. A bit like "Elf and Safety" and "won't anybody think of the children!".
In other word, manipulative bullshit, that should always be questioned further.

I listened to this and put in a complaint pointing out that nobody was demonising girls that were transitioning, and that, ironically, they were using moral panic in the way that they had identified as pejorative, to dismiss people's concerns about the number of girls transitioning as groundless. I'll wait to hear what they say.

ariel333 - well said and fanatastic you too the time to do it!

Yes, well done, ariel333 and agree with Kaiserin. You can use the term "moral panic" to describe anyone raising concerns about anything. Parents concerned about grooming gangs? Moral panic. Feminists raising fears about the exploitation of girls in pornography? Moral panic. Worried about Eastern European women being trafficked into prostitution? Moral panic.

It's not what Stanley Cohen meant by the term at all.

Interesting to compare the programme description with the programme content . . . the last two sentences in particular:

”But the term (moral panic) is often used - and misused - as a weapon by those who want to dismiss or trivialise the concerns of rival political or different cultural groups. The issues they seek to raise can be waved away and dismissed as merely a "moral panic" - for which read "groundless hysteria".

The programme seems to have fallen into the very trap that it sought to warn about. How did that happen??

Moral Panic

How do buzzwords like Moral Panic, Nudge and FOMO become so widely used, and where do they come from? In this new series, Professor Sir David Cannadine, President of the British Academy, traces the biographies of some of our most-used buzzwords.

David looks at how these buzzwords have become central to our current conversations and debates and traces their evolution from college campus to kitchen table. He explores how they have come to shape the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate with each other and the way we see the world around us - often without our even knowing it.

Episode 1: Moral Panic

“Societies appear to be subject, every now and then, to periods of moral panic. A condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests.”

So wrote the sociologist Stanley Cohen in 1972, in his book entitled Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Since then, the use of the term moral panic has exploded and it has become a buzzword with considerable power. But in doing so, it has also taken on a life of its own and sometimes been given a different meaning to the one Cohen originally intended.

David Cannadine returns to Stanley Cohen’s original case study of moral panic, which explained how the media and British public reacted to the rivalry and confrontations between gangs of Mods and Rockers during the early 1960s. They were depicted as a social disease – an aliment that needed to be cured.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, one moral panic followed another - the public horror that ensued when Leah Betts died after taking an ecstasy tablet on her 18th birthday, the scare that video nasties rot your brain, and renewed soul searching about the state of Britain’s youth after the murder of Jamie Bulger by two 10-year old boys.

Nowadays, the news has become more diversified and the nature and scale of these outbursts of orchestrated anxiety have changed - instead of one big moral panic at a time, we tend to get smaller moral panics popping up more often and everywhere. But the term is often used - and misused - as a weapon by those who want to dismiss or trivialise the concerns of rival political or different cultural groups. The issues they seek to raise can be waved away and dismissed as merely a "moral panic" - for which read "groundless hysteria".

With Laurie Taylor, Angela McRobbie and Felix Moore.

Researcher: Joe Christmas

Produced by Melissa FitzGerald

A Blakeway Production for BBC Radio 4

The series is made in collaboration with The British Academy.

———

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000kvmr

Terf = Folk Devil

I think Cohen, in later editions, both gnashed his teeth over the misuse of the term and expanded its use beyond a generational divide. His Third Edition makes me uneasy because of the way he describes some elements of child sexual abuse as a moral panic. I don't think he is as careful as he needs to be in describing this.

infodocks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/stanley_cohen_folk_devils_and_moral_panics.pdf

see pp. xvi-xx.

Thanks for the link, Spartacus. I note that third edition is from 2002, and I've just read a bit of what he says about child sex abuse. I think we've seen an interesting trend over the years. In the 1970s, the perception of child sex abuse was very much that it was carried out by dirty old men. Then in the 1980s and 90s there was a series of scandals and an emerging sense that child sex abuse was much more widespread than previously thought, including a recognition that it could happen in the home and in children's homes. Then there was a kind of backlash against that (particularly in the wake of the melodramatic Satanic abuse scandal) in which it was suggested that much of the public anguish about child sex abuse was exaggerated and foolish. Since then, it seems to me, we've gradually come to acknowledge that the sexual abuse of children is extremely widespread, particularly in families, but also from those adults who have easy access to children - priests, sports coaches, teachers in boarding schools, workers in children's homes etc. I like to think that if Cohen was writing today he would take a different view.

@nauticant

The transman, Felix Moore (whose uncle is actually Charles Moore) came across as very fragile and as a result the presenter David Cannadine thought it was best to accept whatever they said without challenge.

Then Felix wasn't a very suitable interviewee.

It's not as though the BBC was some giant, well-known organisation with the contacts or the influence to get an acknowledged expert who can speak authoritatively and not mind being challenged.... And it's not as though the BBC had a mandate to be even-handed and broadcast in the public interest.

...oh.