How was ITV’s trans drama Butterfly ever made?

[MidsomerMurmurs]

Great article about watching Butterfly then (2018) and now (Spectator has a paywall but it let me read it free).
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-was-itvs-trans-drama-butterfly-ever-made/


‘Please darling… We only did what we thought was best,’ stammers Vicky at one point to Maxine’s furious and neglected older sibling. For all involved in this beautifully made, flawlessly acted and – in the light of what followed – shatteringly irresponsible and proselytising piece of television, that defence may now be the best one left to them.


Also reminded me of a great tweet by James Dreyfus bemoaning the content warnings on innocuous old TV shows:

https://twitter.com/DreyfusJames/status/1779836721107992942

Perhaps Butterfly needs to be preceded with a content warning about “offensive attitudes of the time”.

[Runskiyoga]

Thank you, there's several related articles linked there and I just looked up this week's issue of the Spectator on my library app, it's leader is titled 'sense prevails' and reminds me that The Spectator never looked away from this story. I thank them for that.

[RethinkingLife]

I know.

I feel like that about a number of storylines and dramas. They were acting as advertising for the dismantling of women's rights and the safeguarding of children.

[CantDealwithChristmas]

The sheer propaganda of this show was spine chilling. Pro child growth stunting and castration. Horrifically offensive and regressive attitudes towards women. All dressed up in a schmaltzy, stifling sentimentality.

If a show was made about a 'camp-acting' little boy being forced to wear calipers to make his walk 'more masculine', beaten for having a Barbie doll, forcibly injected with testosterone to render him 'more manly' and forced against his will into taking up boxing, would that be made by ITV with a huge budget and have Anna Friel gushing about how privileged she felt to play the role of his mum? No, the producers of the show and everyone who starred in it would rightly be a pariah. As the people beind this should be.

[HoneyButterPopcorn]

Can you imagine a 2024 follow up version? That would be beyond grim.

[NotBadConsidering]

@HoneyButterPopcorn

Can you imagine a 2024 follow up version? That would be beyond grim.

Maybe Anna Friel’s character can be shown setting up a helpline while Maxine struggles with a myriad of health issues and the slow realisation he will never know what sex feels like.

[RethinkingLife]

@HoneyButterPopcorn

Can you imagine a 2024 follow up version? That would be beyond grim.

I was wondering about a detransitioner version as a follow-up…

[CantDealwithChristmas]

@RethinkingLife

I was wondering about a detransitioner version as a follow-up…

You jest but I would genuinely want to watch a film about a detransitioner. The struggles and strength of people like Ritchie and Keira Bell never fail to impress me, they are truly the epitome of bravery. Speaking one's truth and exposing a corrupt industry against the will and opinion of the bien pensant is difficult and brave. I'd ewatch that.

Especially if it had a scene showing the Glorious Terf brigade (JKR, Maya, Julie Bindel et al) when they had their meet-up at the pasta restaurant. I'd watch it just for that tbh.

[HoneyButterPopcorn]

And those pushing this clown show get their day in court /jail.

[RethinkingLife]

@CantDealwithChristmas

You jest but I would genuinely want to watch a film about a detransitioner. The struggles and strength of people like Ritchie and Keira Bell never fail to impress me, they are truly the epitome of bravery. Speaking one's truth and exposing a corrupt industry against the will and opinion of the bien pensant is difficult and brave. I'd ewatch that.

Especially if it had a scene showing the Glorious Terf brigade (JKR, Maya, Julie Bindel et al) when they had their meet-up at the pasta restaurant. I'd watch it just for that tbh.

I wasn't jesting.

A drama about a detransitioner would be eye-opening. It would be a public service as to what an unbelievable aberration it was to think that young people could actually give informed consent for this. That parents were being told to consent because the options was suicide/unaliving.

[FlippinFumin]

All the bollocks about banning conversion therapy. And all the while cheering on this rubbish and Susie Green openly transing possibly just gay kids. Susie Green admits her husband did not want a gay child. And still we are the bad guys. What the hell has happened to people?

[rabbitwoman]

Well, there have been dramas about Rotherham, Savile, the Catholic church; so yes, there should be a drama. As well as at least one documentary, it can form part of the reparation package from MSM.

and I for one would like to suggest John Hamm for the mighty @Glinner xx

[PTSDBarbiegirl]

I would love to see a big drama following this up where the child is detransitioning. The good intentions of the mother could be examined in the cold light of day. The flashbacks to the experiences that led to internalised homophobia. That would be an incredible presentation. Maybe JKR can write one. I wouldn't want any of the big names and how it played out in UK to be featured though, purely focus on the moments that led to these horrendous decisions, the fathers who reject the notion of a son being gay, the bullying, the autism, the 'correcting' of play choices, clothes.

[SometimesIDowonder]

What a shame he couldn't be accepted as a boy that loves bright colours or 'girly things'. No wonder people in this situation have such mental health issues.

[RethinkingLife]

@FlippinFumin

All the bollocks about banning conversion therapy. And all the while cheering on this rubbish and Susie Green openly transing possibly just gay kids. Susie Green admits her husband did not want a gay child. And still we are the bad guys. What the hell has happened to people?

It goes beyond 'bad guys' into people who advise the police telling them to treat women with GC views as terrorists. A friend lives in Essex:

‘I believe the College of Police is inherently corrupted by gender ideology'

'Recently, a man named Clare, Head of the Independent Advisory Group to Essex Police, said women with gender critical views should be treated as terrorists’

- Sarah Phillimore, Co-founder WeAreFairCop
 
https://twitter.com/GBNEWS/status/1769464221874434067

Note that it's women, not men, with GC views. As always bros before [insert preferred misogynistic term].

[DifficultBloodyWoman]

It was made because people are so keen to be seen as open minded that they let their brains fall out.

Critical thinking skills have been outsourced to the internet.

[DialSquare]

I live in Essex. I'm going to investigate how I can complain about that comment.

[HoneyButterPopcorn]

@SometimesIDowonder

What a shame he couldn't be accepted as a boy that loves bright colours or 'girly things'. No wonder people in this situation have such mental health issues.

If that had been about my sister (in the 70s):

mum I want my hair cut short!
ok
i don’t want that skirt! I want trousers!
ok
mum - I don’t like those glasses, can’t I have the camouflage pair like that boy?
ok
i want action man - I don’t like dollies!
ok

… few years later on…

mum… I like girls
ok (not surprised, what took you so long to tell us?)

[KellieJaysLapdog]

I couldn’t stomach watching this obvious Mermaids propaganda when it aired, I just read the MN threads about it.

A sequel would be good tho, especially if Anna Friel gets a prison sentence for taking her son to a foreign country for a birthday castration.
Maybe Dad/Nan could call social services and the police could arrest -Susie- Anna Friel at the airport?

[teawamutu]

I'd love to see Ms Bell Vs the NHS.

[CactusMactus]

Another really good article this week - Teenage life is scary — even without gender clinics by Hadley Freeman.
Sorry for the paywall - but you can do a free trial.

[LakeTiticaca]

I wonder if any TV company would be brave enough to do a detransioning follow up series,?

[KellieJaysLapdog]

Maybe we should petition Tony Marchant to write the sequel and undo some of the damage he caused by writing the first one and subsequently promoting the concept of the Transgender Child on prime time ITV?

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/butterfly-writer-tony-marchant-interview_uk_5bc36c6be4b0bd9ed55b19f6/

[Ingenieur]

I recall GIDS wasn't happy with many aspects of the drama either.

At the time they released a statement countering the 48% suicide attempt stat, which I can't find now but is alluded to in a Times article from 2018

However, Gids released figures showing that among the roughly 5,000 young patients referred to the service between 2016 and last August, there were three suicides and four attempted suicides — less than 1%.

Gids says suicide among such patients is “extremely rare.” In a statement about the show, it told The Sunday Times: “Suicidality in young people attending the Gids is similar to that of young people referred to child and adolescent mental health services.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/teen-transgender-drama-butterfly-inflates-suicide-risk-9ng3z22mv

[KellieJaysLapdog]

I just looked up the kid who played the main role.

I often look up little transitioned kids from off the telly to try and find out what they are doing now (if they are healthy, thriving etc) and obvs Callum Booth-Ford wasn’t actually transitioned by his mum but I still had a moment of relief to find he seems to be doing well (and was playing a role in Peaky Blinders right up to the end of that series).

Funnily enough one of first sites I clicked on is a fan casting site (like Fantasy Football but for actors) and he is a very popular pick to play the young Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter reboot.

Which would be a lovely little poetic closing on a pretty awful chapter. Come on JK, make it a thing!

https://www.mycast.io/talent/callum-booth-ford

[NameChangeAgainandOncemore]

@KellieJaysLapdog I would love to know how Leo from 'I am Leo' is doing.