Times: BBC changed pronouns in rape story

[ResisterRex]

In today's Times. "He" was changed for "they".

BBC ‘altered gender in trans rape claim’

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/21652568-e04f-11ec-baab-53d14c642149?shareToken=38e0f278e660e48bd9eaf400da7a628d

"The victim’s quote was published last year in an online BBC News article about lesbians being coerced into sex with transgender women.

The article, which was the subject of thousands of complaints, cited a self-selecting social media study by Get The L Out, a lesbian campaign group, which questioned gay women about their sexual experiences with trans women."

Surely if it is a direct quote they should use the pronouns used by the interviewee even if they are "wrong"?

To be fair to the BBC, the Times article gives the wrong impression that the changes were made quietly.

But the published quote was full of square brackets showing what was edited (I double-checked this in the archive - doesn't look like it ever changed):

"[They] threatened to out me as a terf and risk my job if I refused to sleep with [them]," she wrote. "I was too young to argue and had been brainwashed by queer theory so [they were] a 'woman' even if every fibre of my being was screaming throughout so I agreed to go home with [them]. [They] used physical force when I changed my mind upon seeing [their] penis and raped me."

So, if anything, this actually highlighted the way their hands were tied by the style guidelines. We discussed it a bit at the time, but we were mainly concentrating on the content.

Good to see it highlighted now though - it's an example of the sort of thing that new Policy Exchange report was talking about.

That is unethical.

Comments are turned off I see. I remember being amazed when that article appeared as until then the BBC hadn’t really allowed any balanced reporting and just followed TRA lines.

The style guide — in-house rules governing the use of language in BBC reporting — was updated in November 2020 with the diktat: “Where possible, use the term/s and pronoun/s preferred by people themselves, when they have made their preferences clear.”

The rape victim seems to have been clear that her preference was that the male who raped her should be referred to using male pronouns. Do these BBC people really believe that the preferences of the rapist should override the preferences of the victim?

I think this is rather smart - I'm going to guess someone involved with getting that story into the BBC in the first place - the quoted "person with knowledge of the matter" - went to the Times with this, as a way of getting the piece back into the spotlight.

On public consciousness, it provides more descriptions of the lesbian coercion stuff people may have just heard in the Allison Bailey case, and demonstrates the bias against women's experience described by Policy Exchange report.

And it pre-empts the pending ruling from the BBC's "executive complaints unit": never mind what the people who didn't like the article are complaining about, look what the article itself shows we should be complaining about.

I'm amazed the story ever made the light of day, given what's emerged about it since.

Do these BBC people really believe that the preferences of the rapist should override the preferences of the victim?

Yes.

Because trans identifying male desires trumps female needs and dignity - always.

Today the BBC published an article saying that the "Best exercise time differs for men and women, says US study". Clearly this is nothing to do with identity and everything to do with physiology suggesting that when there are not sensibilities of men to take into account, they know perfectly well what a man and a woman are. What dystopian future are we in when the powers that be can't see their hypocrisy and the inherent conflicts in how they use words which denote a man and a woman.

I just read that exercise article!! 😂 First thing I thought of was this and if there would be complaints

Indeed! Though of course there is no reason to investigate whether there is a correlation between an undefined identity and the best time to exercise. It reminds us really that pretty much much all 'gendered' research has been done on sex-based difference and people pretending that men are like women are choosing to ignore all the research which shows how women are disadvantaged because they privilege and feelings of a few men over the actuality of women's experience. It's clear misogyny.

Yes they do. Which is why Ricky Gervais was so hated when he nailed it with his her penis and she raped you, skit.

Not being allowed to correctly identify the male sex eclipses everything else. It's forbidden.

Sadly I'm not surprised by the BBC. They seems to have waved ethics and good, solid, unbiased journalism bye bye along time ago, especially, but not exclusively on trans matters.

The final straw for me was when I commented on the BBC website on an article about Labours chances of being re-elected. I said that while Labour put trans rights above women's rights they wouldn't be getting my vote, nothing disrespectful, just those words.

My comment was deleted and I appealed. About 5 minutes after sending my appeal I was told that my comment wasn't relevant to the discussion about Labours chances of re-election. I argued against this saying my comment was very relevant but each reply I sent was met with a very speedy negative reply. I felt that they just wanted to shut down any trans-related dissent from their website ASAP.

I now look at all BBC new items with a large dose of scepticism which is why the report that has come out today in the Times doesn't surprise me in the least.

They should have a line saying that the rapist prefers the "they" pronouns but the quote should be the words the victim used 🤷🏻‍♀️

If the news article was about racism, for example, they wouldn't change the words to nicer ones that the victim prefers 🤦🏻‍♀️ (just hide the swear words)

I doubt the rapist has made a statement of preferring "they" pronouns. They've just decided to use them.

Great idea grey12

But if the alleged rapist in the quote isn't even identified in the article why is anyone under any obligation on their pronouns at all?

The published quote was full of square brackets showing what was edited
I actually noticed this at the time and thought the BBC made a good decision.

That the BBC felt they had no choice but to edit a rape victim's own words, doing so in a way which would have slowed down most readers and forced them to wonder what on earth was going on, will have jolted readers in a way that simply using "he" throughout would not. Plus the inevitable complaints to Ofcom about use of "he" - complaints which Ofcom might have upheld - would have overshadowed the story, and those who hadn't followed it would have simply shrugged and assumed the BBC was transphobic.

The demands of gender fundamentalism need to be given as much exposure as possible so the public can decide if these are a reasonable means to achieve equality and dignity for trans people, or a grotesque effort to control people's - women's - bodies and thoughts. That's what Ricky Gervais did so well: "if she rapes you, you fucking terf whore".

If "sunlight" is encouraging the proponents of these beliefs to articulate them plainly and publicly, then ostentatiously conforming to these ideas to draw attention to how they are being used to bully and control people is the "snotned" strategy - the anti-Dentons.

It's so ridiculous, isn't it?

And apart from anything else, the rapist wanted she pronouns, not they. The BBC have misgendered them, too. But because it serves their purpose, it's okay.

Isn't it also disrespectful to the trans people who aren't that bothered about pronouns to assume they would always have to have the opposite-sex one? IIRC Miranda Yardley isn't fussed

The convention used by Times readers is that, when comments are not allowed under an article, we post them anyway, under the next nearest article.
So comments on the BBC can be found today under an article about training prisoners as chefs.

The comments at the Times have been turned on again for this article

Here's an update:

BBC amends controversial trans story but silent on pronouns claims

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fb4753ea-e0fa-11ec-baab-53d14c642149?shareToken=b7759bb6b77be449d74323b5ed11b453

I hope they add a similar caveat to all the unsubstantiated trans claims which abound on the internet.