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”.

Has a beard, a girlfriend and works in a pub.

Looks happy enough on FB, so that’s good! Hopefully healthy 🤞

No evidence that paediatric transition was anymore aesthetically successful than an average adult transman transition tho.

@KellieJaysLapdog that's good to see, that they are happy in their skin (or it looks like it from these pics). The worst would be if they regretted it.

Absolutely!

Much as I disagree with the entire practice of transitioning minors, I do hope that those who have already been through the medical and surgical pathway (eg Jazz Jennings) are able to have happy, long, and non regretful lives.

Anything else is too awful to contemplate.

I never watched the original program, but I was always surprised at the amount of makeup worn by the main child Max/Maxine. You just wouldn't see that level of makeup on a girl that age without it being commented on. It felt like a really strange sexualisation.

Found this in the comments on that Spectator article:

This was the hero, Graham Linehan at a Commons Select committee hearing on the topic in 2021, as reported in the Telegraph. His argument was cogent, but he was of course ignored:
"...And then, further on, trying my best to ignore the glazed-over eyes of my hosts: “If you believe that JK Rowling is transphobic, a woman who has devoted her work and much of her fortune to the vulnerable, the bullied, the forgotten and the abused, then you are under a spell.
“If you believe that men can fairly compete against women in their sports, then you are under a spell.
“If you believe that men will not go to the most extreme lengths to gain access to women and children, then you are under a spell.
“If you believe that children as young as three years old can agree to a procedure that puts them on a medical pathway for life, that arrests their natural puberty, and that has almost no scientific proof as to its efficacy as a treatment for dysphoria, then you are under a spell.”"

There seems to be a bit of a thing about sexualisation of 'trans girls' in a way that would be considered generally inappropriate for natal girls.

I hate the poster for the stage show Jamie for that reason (boy dressed up as sexy schoolgirl). It plays into the grim old sexist trope. Let kids be kids.

The posters for that show make my eyes roll so much. Old ones were just an effeminate lad looking a bit girls. Not its full on drag with fawning folks gazing at him as if he is the new messiah.

drag drag drag. Drag as far as the eye can see… culture is dead.

And in fact, for all its cutting-edge aspirations, there was a rigid sexism about the series. At the playground in Max/Maxine’s school, boys kick balls around and girls practise dance-routines. When Max joins in with the second group, the soundtrack swells triumphantly.

How can Suzie Green still think that toys and pastimes dictate sex?? Rigidly adhering to rank sexism as a reason for transition.

She constantly doubles down on it.

It's so fucked.

Billy Elliot eat your heart out. Of that film was made now, Jazmeen Glitter would be gallumphing around as the sugar plum fairy with everyone weeping into their hankies.