BBC Bitsize - Pronouns

[OhHolyJesus]

I mean I'm not surprised but Bitesize is used by schools through the country as a supposed reliable, unbiased source of education material.

mobile.twitter.com/SafeSchools_UK/status/1319025713475952641?fbclid=IwAR0rTBD2j5PKOeTKvYSSX90c4RUDmJDo7Zg613qnDBXNaAncv3J8epYWLSQ

You can complain here:

www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint

Or email your MP and cc MPs Safe Schools Alliance on info@safeschoolsallianceuk.

In the tweet thread there are some people already complaining. I'm not a defund the BBC kind of person but I can see why license fee layers are questioning what the BBC are doing with their money (there is a website 'BBC complaints' that's all about biased Brexit coverage).

I got the same reply to my second complaint. Come back to them again, or escalate to ofcom?

I've got a feeling we have to exhaust the procedure within the BBC (possibly mentioned on another thread recently) before escalating to Ofcom but I'll have a look.

It is a very strange article - reminiscent of the writing style I have seen on other ideology promoting sites. The 'facts' they present seem to be shoehorned in, in a way that says 'look I have a fact that backs my point!!' but actually it doesn't really or is not a fact at all.

Very poor quality, and if the person who wrote the complaint response could read it back and make some sense of it, I would be surprised. They are very much mistaken if they think that the article achieves any of the aims they state.

How has the article been updated? Is it just the removal of the image and the addition of another LGBT charity?

Because I could have lived with the image. I would have preferred to have seen removed the suggestion that if one doesn't fit in comfortably to 'male' or 'female' categories then one is non-binary. And the recommendation that we should be 'accepting people for who they are and being inclusive of everyone, regardless of their gender identity.'

Apparently teaching people about pronouns and how to be supportive is bad because... Some people are bad I guess.

And this is just about pronouns, it's not about transitioning or GRC. Why so offended? Feels like you'd just prefer us to shut up and never talk about our issues EVER.

Why so offended? Feels like you'd just prefer us to shut up and never talk about our issues EVER.

Isn't that exactly what GC women are trying to say too?

I would be completely supportive in talking to a person who has such a degree of emotional distress that they struggle to accept their sexed body.

However, I will not be told to ignore the evidence of my eyes or teach my daughters to ignore the evidence of their eyes.

We navigate the world according to what and who we see. I am responsible for my (and my daughters’) personal safety and I will not be discouraged from trusting my eyes or my instincts by anyone.

I don’t believe that it helps anyone for me to collude in and reinforce their own personal crisis.

I will offer everyone kindness and respect but in the same way that assisting an anorexic to avoid food would not be a kindness, I don’t believe that submitting to an ever growing list of rules of how I can refer to someone not in their presence is any kindness that I can offer in all conscience.

Using pronouns is about transitioning though as it's announcing that you require others to see you how you want to be seen which is not what you are or how others naturally see you. It's an I social transitioning but forcing society to participate so it becomes a social transition, and in this case it's from an education source from our national broadcaster, funded by the license fee.

Pronouns are compelled speech and therefore is asking someone to shut up and do as they are told which is precisely what you said 'we' are doing to you. Declining to use preferred pronouns is also often followed by 'misgendering' and accusations of transphobia, bigotry, "literal violence" and the claim of harm being done by words. That's a lot do anyone to get their head around when they were just calling something as they see it, let alone a child having to deal with all the language and confusion around denying the truth they see before their eyes.

No one if stopping anyone from using words they like and no one is forcing me to use words I don't like.

And this is just about pronouns, it's not about transitioning or GRC. Why so offended?

Yeah Crazy, it's just pronouns. Why are you so offended?

Pronouns are what enable men to take the place of women on public boards in Scotland. If I call a man ‘she’ then he can push out women’s representation and, take a place that has been set aside for those who had to struggle against sexism and maternity career costs to get to that level. If I call several men ‘she’ then there may be no women represented on that public board at all and yet it will be claimed it is ‘equality’. No one to ensure the women’s voice is heard, no one who has experienced being at the receiving end of this misogynistic culture, no one who knows what it is to be a woman, what are the barriers women face. That doesn’t just harm the women who got pushed out of their places. It harms all women as the services those organisations manage (including health provision) will no longer be listening to women at their strategic level. All because you want me to ‘be kind’ and use the wrong pronoun.

expecting girls to pretend boys and men are not boys and men is a safeguarding issue

worth repeating, and repeating

Crazy I don't have preferred pronouns because I've just been landed with she/her pronouns by virtue of being born female. Some days being female is great, but there have been many days when I've resented my biological sex, resented the way people speak down to me or look at my tits when I talk, and there have been days when I've known the reason I was targeted was because I of my sex, those days have been painful. Some days, many in fact, I choose not to acknowledge the gendered expectations of my sex and go about my business without my hair and make up done, some days I dress up, some days I hate my big boobs because they make me feel weak and people stare at them (see above), other days they make me feel powerful because they fed my children. On no days do I identify as 'cis' because I do not identify into the gendered expectations of my birth sex. She/her are my pronouns because they reflect my birth sex and using pronouns that reflect birth sex helps other people to navigate the world, by responding to what they see with their own eyes. It means they don't have to feel confused or wrong or constantly need to self flagellate until they get it 'right'. I don't care what the people with he/him pronouns and she/her pronouns look like or wear as long as I know where I stand and who I'm sharing single sex spaces with. Pronouns are compelled speech - the purpose of which is to divide us into good and bad people (why not just hand out badges so you know who the bigots are?) and they enable pronoun champions to shut people down and stop them talking over the most minor transgressions. They also encourage young people to categorise themselves when youth should be about defying categories. Hey kids, why not 'expand the bandwidth' of male and female? I expect you'll need to spend a whole lot less time telling other people off.

expecting girls to pretend boys and men are not boys and men is a safeguarding issue

worth repeating, and repeating

Absolutely - up there with Woman = Adult Human Female