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?

So pleased about EB if that is correct, I love her interviewing style. I’d stopped listening to WH altogether because Nuala and (especially) Anita are so dire IMO. I’ll be tuning in on Monday with fingers crossed.

Just heard the presenters on the Today programme confirm that Emma is back on Monday. Woohoo!

Today's episode is sounding all very lovely about comforting smells, but COME ON BACK EMMA I NEED INTELLECTUAL DEBATE AND ANALYSIS SOOOOON!

Though this piece on Sunderland carers is very important and absolutely shocking.

I was in the car and heard Anita introducing guest Nadia Hussein by saying how beautiful she is. 🙄🙄

Very much looking forward to Monday.

Anita definitely floundered a bit interviewing Jane Casey (author of the killing kind) talking about not enough angry women portrayed on television ...

Ah, but lots of pretty women so that's good.

Which is great for radio 🙄

Presumably this is why she has to mention it. So us plain old listeners at home can be impressed by the 'absolute beauty' too and give Nadia the special attention and admiration that is her due.

I also felt slightly nauseous listening to all the pap about comforting smells and how beautiful Nadia is. I switched off and am not switching back on until Emma is back in the studio.

I mentioned this thread to my DH and he said he’d been without podcasts in the car and so listened to WH yesterday morning. He apologised as he’d assumed I was exaggerating. Couldn’t believe how awful and disengaged she was. I tried listening today and yes also clocked Anita being vapid about Nadiya’s looks when she was making a really lovely case for the value of independence.
I feel like Anita is trying to give the auditory equivalent of Live Laugh Love and scented candles, possibly a cheeky prosecco, when I want something more like an interesting book. So shallow, so dull.
Anyway, huzzah for Emma’s return. Hope she is all fired up. I was pretty pissed off at the world by the same stage when I had DC2 and would have enjoyed some good chunky discussions that didn’t revolve around cradle cap.

I came here to write that same post CriticalCondition.

"You are just so amazing!", "oh you're beautiful!", "go girl!", "did I tell you just how amazing, and beautiful, you are?"

My radio went off just as I was about to expire from suffocation by fluffiness.

Nuala often comments on the attractiveness of the guest, I’ve posted about it on here before. It’s not Loose Women FFS.

It was on today and I switched it off. My thought was 'It feels like I'm listening to Loose Women'.
Gush, gush, gush.

I was pretty pissed off at the world by the same stage when I had DC2 and would have enjoyed some good chunky discussions that didn’t revolve around cradle cap.

Yes me too, you miss the political debate but definitely have one foot still firmly planted in what it's like to be a mother and a woman.

I feel like Anita is trying to give the auditory equivalent of Live Laugh Love and scented candles, possibly a cheeky prosecco, when I want something more like an interesting book. So shallow, so dull.

This. I keep wondering if it's because I'm older (60s) that it seems so vapid, but clearly I'm not the only one. It seems to me that the whole of R4 is being redeveloped in order to appear more 'fun'.

I am boycotting the bcc because if their cancellation of Roisin Murphy but even if I weren't I cannot bear this valid pair.

If I wanted a lowbrow hair and celeb chat show, I'd turn on the tv. Daytime telly is full of that.

@Pluvia , I'm not that much younger, but vapid sums it up.

I do think WH is chasing a younger audience with its vapid content. Which is insulting to the younger audience. My 35 year old self at home with small children didn't want to listen to this kind of gushing any more than my almost 60 year old self does. If shallow puddles of vapidity are your thing then there are plenty to splash about in elsewhere. I want a bracing wild swim in the cold water of analysis and proper journalism!

Yes - if you wanted this rubbish you’d watch daytime TV. I listen to R4 quite a bit and R2, but have semi abandoned the latter so that I can still listen to Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits ( hate the ads tho). Does anyone know if Jenni Murray does a WH type programme elsewhere?

@CriticalCondition , I remember NH on WH with Jenni Murray and I didn't switch it off then. I'm not really interested in NH anyway as I didn't watch GBBO, so all that comes across is that she's absolutely amazing because of the way she looks, and that she's a wife and mother who is muslim and bangladeshi-british. AR was so gushy it was nauseating.

The fact that Nadiya Hussain is beautiful is the least interesting thing about her

Exactly.

Have to say.... loving the london Hughes interview, who's book opens with a description of the party that Dave Chapelle threw for her with marijuana infused macaroni cheese with Anita, and to be honest, if the giddy younger style stuff gets younger listeners listening (there was more "you're glowing! 😍") then good!

Because then if bbc are being balanced and getting Stock, Davis and Duffield on to point out the issues around women's rights, they'll hear that too.

I thought London Hughes sounded as if she was on something… although maybe it was the jet lag. Not much of an interview was it though. More a sycophantic drool.