Anyone listening to Woman's Hour? (Weds 14/6)

[WinterTrees]

My radio is on, but the signal keeps dipping in and out (often does this in hot weather for some reason) and I wasn't concentrating properly. It seems to be a discussion about the rise of the anti-abortion movement, and the role of the far right in this.

The young interviewee (Sian someone, I think, but I didn't catch her full name) has just brought in the general rise of 'wokeism' and the 'culture war' around LGBTQ+ issues as being part of the problem. She cited the push back against Drag Queen Story Hour as an example of this far right influence, and then circled seamlessly back to abortion, with no challenge at all from Nuala McGovern.

I didn't hear it properly and will listen again when it becomes available. I'm hoping that I've misunderstood, and the BBC's flagship women's programme was not promoting the narrative that women who object to pornified men breaching safeguarding best practice and blurring children's perception of appropriate boundaries are dangerous far-right zealots. Did anyone else hear it?

I'm sure. That doesn't mean anyone should bludgeon them to death

You do know that they didn't like each other, don't you? Jane and Jenni. Neither has bothered to deny it when asked. I now understand why Jenni would have no time for Jane.

Whoever the Producers are on WH they are thick as two short planks and completely ignorant trans allies.

I was in a Twitter thread where one of the TW who has been convicted of violence against women was complaining about lack of trans representation on WH and this woman piped up in reply saying she was the WH producer and asked if this person would like to come on WH in two days time? Who were they? Were they in the UK? How could she facilitate this? etc.

She had NO idea who she was talking to, just, "Hey! If you are trans, come on WH! Whoever you are, I don't care! We'll give you a voice! On Woman's Hour! Hooray!!!"

Bugging me that I can't remember who she was inviting but plenty of people weighed in saying, "You cannot be serious! Do you know who this is?!"

Another missing Emma on WH. Intelligent, incisive, sharp and articulate: the polar opposite of Nuala. I've listened all my adult life to WH but now rarely bother as it irritates the hell out of me.
So mostly it's Times Radio, where I especially like Mariella Frostrup, and Fi Glover and Jane Garvey.

And yet Helen Joyce isn’t allowed anywhere near the BBC.
has WH ever covered Hannah Barnes’ work? She is a credit to the BBC.

Did you hear the interview with Fi and Jane giggling and fawning over Eddie Izzard and pretending he's a woman?

And yet hedgehogs, foxes and badgers existed in natural equilibrium for millennia. If you want to look at what species’ behaviour has led to the decline of hedgehog populations you might want to look at your own.

Yes! My mother always had womens hour on and I carried on the same. We are all big Jenni Murray fans and also enjoyed Emma B. But if it’s Nuala or Anita I generally can’t be bothered. I miss woman’s hour !

Olivia, I missed that sadly. Although probably for the best, I might have spontaneously combusted with anger and frustration.

Who the hell is Olivia??!
I meant Pluvia.

I am quite sad about women’s hour. My mum always had Radio 4 on, women’s hour every day. I too listened for years, and still do, because I often have Radio 4 as the default background.

But bloody hell WH is just so jarring in it’s mediocracy, the inane chit chat about nothing, the uninformed robot responses and the female presenters only seem to get animated at some very ultra woke issue, and not having any enthusiasm for science, politics, general women’s issues, inequalities…

so much so that I don’t even register it’s women’s hour until I find myself getting really bored/fustrated by the lack of any quality or interest… and then I realise… It’s the ‘new’ women’s hour! I find myself being very cynical about it.

There last time nature in the UK was in balance we had a full set of apex predators. Sadly this is now a very heavily populated set of islands where wolves, lynx and bears snacking on people's cats, dogs and small children would not go down well.

Inane is the exact word. It’s such a shame.

Emma Barnet is back next Monday. I am very excited. Had given up listening unless it was a non Nuala or Anita day. I like Jessica and Krupa but can’t work out how to tell who is on beforehand. Topics so bland, presenters so uninterested and unengaging. Not sure if they are unintelligent but they definitely come across as such.

I've not listened since EB went on ML. If it's been on it has seemed lightweight and not worth hearing.

Agree. I've stopped listening to the bland pap.
Hope Emma hasn't lost her edge.

Look forward to this very much. Just browsing back through her twitter I'm reminded she has interviewed Kathleen Stock, Nancy Kelley and, how could I forget, that staggering penis Grace Lavery.
Welcome back, Emma. You get it. My dream guest? Helen Joyce.

I think Nuala and Anita are too similar in their presenting style. Anita and Emma complement each other. Krupa and Jessica are excellent but they are only on occasionally. Personally I was delighted when Jane and Fi went off to Times Radio. Fortunately was like listening to a meeting held by a club to which only a select group of people are allowed to join.

Nuala grew on me but been missing Emma.

Struggled with the loss of Jenni for ages as I grew up listening to her and actually actively listening to WH as a teen and onwards. <Ponders if that's how all this makes so much sense 🤔>

Jane grew on me and I missed her but actually have preferred Emma's no BS.

I'm a little sceptical about that. I had a bias complaint (on Sex and Gender) responded to with an apology and a change to the article a year ago. I doubt I'm 1 in 25.

I'm absurdly excited about this! Like lots of pps I've largely abandoned a 30 year WH habit (and, like others, Jenni Murray's voice in my mum's kitchen was also the backdrop to my teen years.) I've found the bland topics and unchallenged opinion-as-fact points make it irritating rather than interesting these days.

Really looking forward to Emma Barnet's return. Thanks for the update Chillin!

I'm guessing Emma will have been following the Roisin Murphy story... Where better to cover it than WH?! (with a presenter who hasn't abdicated all critical thought in favour of luxury beliefs and virtue signalling?)

Oh yes excellent point, surely that Guardian review of Roisin Murphy’s deserves a bit of a discussion.

You'd hope so given she was on only a few weeks ago ...

Great news about EB. What was it about Jenni Murray that made her so compelling to listen to? She really seemed interested and I also felt that if someone said something dodgy or muddled she'd pick them up on it and seek clarity or comment. The current vanilla crew give the impression that this is just another tedious freelance gig. I can't bear the girly cosiness. The only time I've listened to WH for months has been in the car and on Anita days I turn it off and go straight to a podcast on my phone.