Robert Webb - Strictly

[GrimDamnFanjo]

forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2416445/how-influenced-are-you-by-a-contestant-pros-past-comments-behaviour

I think it's heartening that the obvious attempt to instigate a pile on has been met with polite refusal so far....

"When I saw that one of the popular Strictly podcasts are refusing to review Robert & Dianne's dances, I thought that was a sad moment."

Someone should send the podcasters the Abigail Shrier interviews from yesterday (see other thread).

The public tend to dislike this sort of partisan and political nonsense and usually vote accordingly. I hope this gets a bit of sunlight. Very distasteful.
I'm voting for him even though I don't concentrate when Strictly's on. It seems to have become a bit shabby, maybe the covid effect

Was there this kind of nonsense when Ann Widecombe was on, or Edwina Currie?

Not that the very progressive Robert Webb is comparable to them but you know what I mean.

I'm not an avid strictly fan or voter but it's interesting that on that forum even ppl who basically disagree with Robert and think he should apologise are not so adamantly against him that they think he shouldn't be on the show, or that people should boycott him. I guess that strictly enthusiasts and ppl who like punishments for wrongthink might not overlap much as groups. But still it's more balanced and healthy than you often see about this issue.

@TheMarzipanDildo

Was there this kind of nonsense when Ann Widecombe was on, or Edwina Currie?

Not that the very progressive Robert Webb is comparable to them but you know what I mean.

There was a bit of grumbling iirc

There seemed to be a threat by TRAs to campaign against him when he was announced but I think this is the first real mention on DS.

And most of the responders so far seem a bit confused about it all tbh.

GBBO, on the other hand.....

It's the 'JKR didn't write Harry Potter' brigade, isn't it? Fantasy and denial. To go so far as to pretend someone isn't actually in a programme that everyone else can see, because they won't say the right mantras, is absolutely insane.

Reality is clearly a massive problem for these simpletons in more ways than one. I hope Robert wins as they'll be up the spout then

It's a shame they can't look into WHY he criticized Mermaids (out of concern for children) rather than just call him a transphobe, but I get the impression that these people are kids themselves and presumably want to be given the opportunity to ruin themselves for life...... :(
Criticizing a charity is not a bad thing, look at what's been happening with Oxfam and the Samaritans.....

I saw something on Twitter last Saturday where TRAs were saying they would donate to Mermaids for every point/vote Robert Webb got.

That's fine, kids don't have much money anyway....

@NapoleonOzmolysis

I saw something on Twitter last Saturday where TRAs were saying they would donate to Mermaids for every point/vote Robert Webb got.

They seem to be so wilfully ignorant. I bet most don’t know what Robert said, or understand that Mermaids have come in for criticism from many sources.

Charities shouldn’t be beyond public scrutiny. They need it in abundance, particularly if they are working with children (and suggesting that if your 3 year old son likes playing with dolls he must actually be a girl...)

If they’re going to donate every time Mermaids is criticised then I hope they have deep pockets in the future.

I've now looked at the links and quite frankly he has bottled it. There was a lot of coy response in the links. I am quite disappointed. He was quite clear in the original interview as to why he was commenting and the update is all well I am not an expert, you are a parent etc.

I am not a parent of a trans child and still have the intelligence to understand that medical intervention at puberty cannot ever be the best idea. But it does show how unwilling the activists are to ever read on. It seems like 1 article and they are hate forever.

Mr Webb is an actor and has played some gits. Clips of the gits can be used against him. He has a family and a heart condition. I would class Mr Webb as doing what he can.
Thank you to all of you who have done more.

So it’s no longer a dance contest? It’s a wokeness and purity contest, with incidental dancing. Ok, got it.

Babdoc

Only for a tiny, unhinged minority of the population, who are being given too much airtime. The majority of the population are totally unaware of any of this. Yes, it is concerning, mainly because the MSM is not treating this subject in an unbiased way.
If for instance, the MSM reported that the police had a "gender-fluid" officer, who on a Tuesday could carry out intimate searches on men, then on Wednesday they could carry out intimate searches on women, the public would be up in arms.
The problem is the way in which the news is presented and the agenda of those in charge of presenting the news.

@BraveBananaBadge

It's the 'JKR didn't write Harry Potter' brigade, isn't it? Fantasy and denial. To go so far as to pretend someone isn't actually in a programme that everyone else can see, because they won't say the right mantras, is absolutely insane.

Reality is clearly a massive problem for these simpletons in more ways than one. I hope Robert wins as they'll be up the spout then

I've never watched Strictly before and tuned in this year specifically to see Robert Webb, because of all the hoo ha. As far as I can make out, the anti-RW faction is getting very little traction on Twitter. In fact, I think, as so often, their efforts are counter-productive, because every mention of Mermaids etc brings in a great many responses pointing out the obvious problems. Sunlight.

However, I'm not an expert (by any stretch of the imagination) but I'd be surprised if Robert wins. He's working hard, but has stiff competition. I hope he's looking after himself. He had major heart surgery not that long ago.

Robert Webb was already my hero and is more so now.

I'd just like to see them try and get a podcast episode out of that if they'd been pretending he wasn't there for the whole series Gasp0de

Hope he looks after himself.

The worsf they can seem to come up with is that he's "not a trans-ally". When did that become a prerequisite for being on Strictly, exactly?

He has in the past criticised Mermaids for its automatic affirmation policy, saying that he and his wife were both gender non-conforming children who grew up to be happy-in-their-own-skins adults and just needed to be left to be themselves and get on with growing up.*

*My words, not a quote.
I suspect he shudders at the thought of what is happening to kids like them these days if they fall under the influence of the TRAs and trans allies. As do I. He seems to be coming at the issue from a safeguarding children concern, as indeed are many of us who work or have worked with children professionally.

I hope he wins, too - he's a shedload of fun and any man - or woman - who can send themselves up and have a laugh about it is alright by me! And he's been properly poorly, too, so I hope being on the show helps him back to full health and fitness.

We need more like him and fewer sour-faced, teeth-sucking purity spirallists.

We need more like him and fewer sour-faced, teeth-sucking purity spirallists.

Amen to that!

@Babdoc

So it’s no longer a dance contest? It’s a wokeness and purity contest, with incidental dancing. Ok, got it.

It's never been solely a dance contest. It has always been a popularity contest. The best dancers rarely win. I would imagine that, of those voting, there are more phone and internet bill payers of a similar age to RW, who understand where he is coming from and admire his career, than there are these silly children who really need to grow up.

@spongedog

I've now looked at the links and quite frankly he has bottled it. There was a lot of coy response in the links. I am quite disappointed. He was quite clear in the original interview as to why he was commenting and the update is all well I am not an expert, you are a parent etc.

I am not a parent of a trans child and still have the intelligence to understand that medical intervention at puberty cannot ever be the best idea. But it does show how unwilling the activists are to ever read on. It seems like 1 article and they are hate forever.

He hasn’t bottled it. He has been very unwell and doesn’t want to be further embroiled (and abused). He was blindsided in an interview by Jesse Thorne, father of a trans child, who demanded that Robert Webb should comment. Webb was obviously not warned beforehand. It was awful as the interviewer made the questions deeply personal and was so filled with negative emotion that he could barely express himself.

Webb basically said he didn’t want to discuss it, and that was the context in which he gave the excuse he wasn’t an expert. It was either that, or be truthful and say, yes, I think you’ve probably allowed your child to do something really harmful that you are all likely to regret. In the circumstances, I think he showed courage not to apologise or back down from his stance.