BBC commissions new series based on Paris Lees autobiography - 'What it's like to be a girl'..

[Xoxoxoxoxoxox]

This is the BBC's latest offering aimed at educating us on the lives of trans people and their struggles. Paris moved to Brighton and transitioned into a middle class media reporter for Vogue but note how the promo blurb shows exactly what the producers think of working class people from the North- who 'shuffle around like the living dead' -how inclusive of them.

It's a new millennium - Madonna, Moloko and Basement Jaxx top the charts, and there's a whole world to explore. But teenager Byron is stuck in a small working-class town that hasn’t been the same since the coal mine shut in the 80s. Sick of mam, sick of dad, sick of being beaten up for "talkin' like a poof". Sick of everyone shuffling about like the living dead, going on about kitchens they're too skint to do up and marriages they're too scared to leave. Byron needs to get away, and doesn't care how.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2023/what-it-feels-like-for-a-girl-bbc

I am at a loss as to how Paris Lees can know anything about being a girl, being as he is a man.

For those not familiar with the Catcalling article https://www.vice.com/en/article/enjoying-catcalls-paris-lees-column/

Meghan Murphy wrote this in response at the time - the she/her sounds jarring, but it was 11 years ago

https://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/03/06/of-course-some-women-are-flattered-by-cat-calls-but-that-doesnt-make-street-harassment-ok-a-response-to-paris-lees/

I’m really sad to read this about the BBC since Covid it’s like a magazine with too much opinion and not enough real news

Well it's clear she meant the backlash to Weimar, rather than Weimar itself. Clearly a ridiculous & offensive thing to say.

I think this is a bit unfair. Lees is middle class now, but they grew up working class. I think the issue is that they seem to share the perspective they had then, rather than having a more nuanced view of the reasons why the people around them seemed to only shuffle miserably, and of the limited adolescent view they had then.

Further, a self aware, rather than ideology pushing, adaptation wouldn't take Lees' claim to have always been a girl at face value.

In retrospect, I think you may well be @illinivich. Media attention is not the same as hard sales. I still wouldn't question the BBC's decision to dramatise the book. It has been praised for its writing style and content but even I think that the incessant advertising is too much.

If the bbc schedule wasn't already proportional heavy with drag queens and trans stuff, I'd maybe give them the benefit of the doubt that this is a worthwhile adaption. Maybe there is something unique about the book, or author, to make it worthy of tax payers money over any other content they could produce.

But I realistically isnt any of that, its part of a drive to educate the population about TRA and promote trans ideology. Maybe the bbc will prove me wrong and commission work questioning any sexism and misogyny in trans ideology? Just for balance?

I think the BBC are taking a massive risk. Promoting someone like Lees is only going to bring all his past comments bubbling back up to the surface.

I can't imagine 'Auntie' wanting to be associated with a lot of that

I don't think that's clear at all. It sounds to me like she's contrasting Scandinavia with Weimar, positioning the former as being the good guy.

The irony is that if a working class lad had done what Paris did, I doubt the likes of the Beeb would have any sympathy at all? In fact, I think they’d have depicted the victim’s side of the story…