Woman's hour today, 28th may

[WarriorN]

'Interesting' mix of biology, gender and violence against women and girls...

Did WH read anything that Lees has previously said or written? It's so obviously counterproductive to women having rights and being seen as fully human.

I accept that Lees may well have some unresolved trauma from abuse that makes them think and say these things. But they are still disgusting and damaging.

If PL is on radio 1, it sounds like, given book to plug, there was an internal pressure to be included.

Thank you WinterTrees and jellyfrizz

It strkes me that PL didn't seem to have any kind of support from the adults in PL's life.
The kind of parenting that involves 'giving a clip round the earhole for talking like a poofter' (paraphrasing PL) and not being aware that your under 16 year old is having sex with adult men in the public loos, seems, well, problematic. Violence was mentioned a lot in the interview.

There is a non-binary person living not too far from me who has just been sentenced to 12 months in jail for several offences, and reading between the lines of the newspaper report I thought perhaps if they'd had the right support from the right adults at the right time, they wouldn't be in this situation.

I feel like we're letting confused young people down.

Sorry, took me ages to press post and many of you had already mentioned the troubled childhood.

I'm surprised Anita doesn't know what a woman is, as I remember her episode of 'Who Do You Think You Are?' Doesn't she realise her silly female relatives could have just identified as male? It will be the pink fluffy ladybrain not letting them think straight.

www.independent.ie/style/celebrity/celebrity-news/anita-ranis-life-changed-by-horrifying-bbc-documentary-discovery-31575451.html

"We were all gathered together and my father had a large sword. The Muslims were demanding a girl. They said 'give us a young and beautiful girl and we will let you alone, let you get on with your lives'.

"Our father rejected their demand and said 'No, we won't give you our girls to save ourselves. Rather than let our girls succumb to this shame, we will kill them ourselves and hope they forgive us'."

Rani, who described herself as "not a traditional Indian girl", was reduced to tears as she heard how wives and daughters were beheaded by their husbands and fathers, while other women threw themselves down wells to escape "shame".

She said: "So your father took the decision that him and a couple of other men of the village would murder their own wives and daughters?

"It's so cruel. The rest of the women who were left, they made the decision that they would jump in the village well.

She said: "So your father took the decision that him and a couple of other men of the village would murder their own wives and daughters?

That's so utterly awful. I've never heard of this before.

I wonder how on earth Anita thinks they would have worked out who the 'wives' and 'daughters' were, if there was any significant unifying feature about their sex class and if any could have identified out of their fate?

Or if she truly believes any males would chose to identify into the female sex class at such a time as that?

*chose = would have chosen to identify

Wow, that tweet by Anita Rani. Great way to alienate loads of listeners. No attempt to understand their concerns, just the usual shut the discussion down accusation of transphobia as usual.

I went to archive that tweet but unsurprisingly it had already been archived:

archive.fo/1AlUN

Anita Rani's tweet is everything that is wrong about the BBC. She sounds like the Labour councillor who said the voters have let us down. Her tin eared accusatory tweet suggests that she thinks women should listen open mouthed without thought to whatever she has to say to them, take it all on board and think themselves lucky to hear it.

Her abuse of the people making perfectly reasonable complaints is just not acceptable. When even the EHRC say women should be able to raise concerns in this area without being transphobic AR and the BBC should listen.

If you missed the tweet is here twitter.com/itsanitarani/status/1398221484779347968

I actually think her response is even worse than the initial issue of guest choice. I'm going to complain (yet again, but I don't want them to say no objections were raised).

Wow, that tweet by Anita Rani. Great way to alienate loads of listeners. No attempt to understand their concerns, just the usual shut the discussion down accusation of transphobia as usual

Can't bear Anita Rani; her tone is so patronising and supercilillious and she talks over speakers ( Any Questions/Answers - Radio 4 weekend)

Isn't that Anita Anand?

Isn't that Anita Anand

Yes, you're right........

The, "you're transphobic" riposte is losing its effect though, isn't it. The BBC, in continuing to push the agenda, is just opening more and more eyes. They have zero humility. They have learned nothing from all the recent criticism of them as an institution. People are getting bolder and not backing down, nobody anymore thinks it must be ok if the BBC says it is.

@ANewCreation and even if they have identified as such, would that have been accepted? Is such a flaw idea!

Very sad story though and so awful for those women and their families!

@lottiegarbanzo

I'm quite enjoying Emma, generally. For the same reason that I wasn't that keen on Jenni's warm, cosy and slightly twee style, though. (Much as I acknowledge she and Jane covered a lot of important issues). Emma's turned it into more of a news and issues programme, in style more than content. It feels a bit like 'Daytime Today'.

I can't get over the loss of the serial though. That is all wrong.

Totally agree on the serial. I'm really disappointed it's gone.

I used to really enjoy WH but I hardly listen anymore. I liked EB previously but haven't been much of a fan when I have heard her since she joined. I'm certainly not going to listen to the PL piece.

@Justhadathought

Wow, that tweet by Anita Rani. Great way to alienate loads of listeners. No attempt to understand their concerns, just the usual shut the discussion down accusation of transphobia as usual

Can't bear Anita Rani; her tone is so patronising and supercilillious and she talks over speakers ( Any Questions/Answers - Radio 4 weekend)

Yes, that’s why I stopped listening to WH.

And the fact that it swallowed the brainwashing gender ideology without an ounce of critical thought.

Zero integrity.

Anita Rani's tweet is everything that is wrong about the BBC. She sounds like the Labour councillor who said the voters have let us down. Her tin eared accusatory tweet suggests that she thinks women should listen open mouthed without thought to whatever she has to say to them, take it all on board and think themselves lucky to hear it.

This is such an accurate description. It really sums up the BBC position.

Complain, complain, complain:
www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints/make-a-complaint/#/Complaint

Anita Rani is the BBC's current darling - Countryfile, The One Show, the programme about strangers saving people's lives, the Hugh F-W plastic programme, a new afternoon game show, as well as Woman's Hour and places on numerous high profile shows like Strictly - we were just saying here the other day that not a week goes by when you come across her somewhere where you weren't expecting her.

In many ways it's good news - she's an Asian woman from the north of England and a very skilled presenter and it's fantastic to see someone representing all of those things being given such a platform. But her brand is based on a sort of smiley, feel-good empathy and relatability. She is a poster girl for 'be kind' in a sunny, privileged women's magazine world, or the presenter-of-choice when sincere sad face and gentle-voice is required.

She is never going to risk any of that for a second to stand up for women, or be seen to be even the tiniest bit bolshy about the rights and boundaries of women and girls. Hopefully another big TV opportunity will come along and she'll move along from WH soon, and its audience of 'disgusting transphobes'.

Rani needs to keep her opinions off Twitter. She has to be impartial. I have complained to the BBC on the basis of bias. I have asked them to treat her as they did Jenni Murray, who was deemed to have broken their impartiality rules when she wrote an article about trans activism and feminism. Jenni Murray was suspended from being on an programmes relating to this issue, so should Rani.

@sarvangasana

I had stopped listening to Woman's Hour but just caught some of this in the car. On the topic of women's periods and Covid, being introduced as women and transmen, then the expert talking about 'people' all the way through...I switched off then.

When are they going to change the title of the programme if they can't determine which people this may be more of an issue for than others?

This was the bit I heard. There were at least 2 references to "pregnant people". I really shouldn't drive when WH is on

Rani strikes me as a pleasant woman but not an intellectual heavyweight, so her stance is hardly surprising. She should stick to the One Show and similar dross.

I've complained on the basis of bias too. They can't have it both ways. And the ratio she is getting on Twitter is telling.....but they won't listen.

@WarriorN

The way I see it is that they have to "be inclusive" so it's important to get some schedule balance by including trans men for obvious reasons.

I'll listen so that I can at least critique. Don't think it's an Emma day?

I actually think "women and trans men" is fine in this context.

One of the crucial things about investigations into the vaccines is the reports from people who should "not" be having them including some trans men and post menopausal women. So the specific experiences of trans men are relevant and important here.

Mind you I filled in the Kate Clancy survey for periods and one of the options for sex/gender was "woman or woman-identifying". Now I assume "Woman identifying" means transwomen but why would they be filling in a survey on periods? So it must mean someone who is female, identifies as a woman, but is not actually a woman. Head spinning.