The BBC strikes again…

[NitroNine]

I started reading the article on inclusive Morris dancing because - foolishly, I know - I thought it might be about people facilitating the participation of disabled dancers. Nope. Queering Morris. 🤦‍♀️ (With an extra 🤦‍♀️ for the attempt to claim it’s something recent/new - Molly sides, in particular, have been LGB[T] friendly for at least the last quarter of a century.) I read all the way to the end just in case there was something about adaptive/disability-friendly Morris &/or about trying to reach people from communities that don’t traditionally engage with Morris dancing. Nope.

”Inclusive” now seems to be a synonym for “LGBT-centric”. Of course, it’s much easier to promote a non-binary Molly side than it is to, for example, facilitate a side of wheelchair users. Or one for people with learning disabilities.

How is so much of the UK’s publicly-funded broadcaster’s news output pure TRA propaganda? The endless stories of this kind sitting alongside things like a journalist’s struggle to get the man who made obscene phone calls to her prosecuted & the use of private nursing homes to effectively hide unmarried mothers & facilitate the [secret] adoption of their children really does jar. There are of course “light” stories about women too - like the Zambian granny who’s become a fashion icon. It cannot be denied, however, that there’s a disproportionate amount written about the T (& of course drag queens); & the volume of non-news [skewed to be] focused on them is absurd.

I read that this morning and had a splutter. Tie the bells on their and wield the staves judiciously 🙄.

I thought this was going to be about Smoggie Queens. The new BBC comedy about drag queens.
I would like to thank the BBC - as I have spent so much more time reading this year, rather than watch any of the shit they are coming up with.

This story has appeared on Morris Facebook where it has indeed been pointed out that this is a pretty narrow definition of inclusive, and that Molly dancing is not in fact a new thing. Horrible BBC article but I'm inclined to think that anything that gets young people involved in Morris is no bad thing.

There was a similar BBC article about "inclusive" music sessions recently which I'll see if I can find. I think the problem there was not the LGBTQ identity of the people involved but the racket they were making, some sessions can handle niche instruments and don't mind if you're not a perfect player. Others..... Not so much.

Here you are, enjoy reading about Mx and theys ocarina
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgmgrel7rlyo

I appreciate the BBC because I struggle to understand any issues (like diabetes or Morris dancing) if it isn't explained within the context of drag.

I'm not entirely sold on climate change yet, because I haven't been told about the impact that it has on drag queens (although I know there is an impact on transgender sex workers).

I'm not clear what has ever stopped people of "all genders" getting involved in Morris dancing or folk music. One's pronouns seem not that relevant.

(Can I tell everyone to use "one" as my preferred pronoun from now on, btw? Sod your Mx nonsense, call me HRH. 👑)

(Actually that should be ORH, one supposes.)

😂😂😂

The BBC is almost beyond parody at this stage but that really made me laugh - I await this story in the next few months!

Story should be headed "Bells or Balls?"

I've come across a morris side including a woman in a wheelchair. It was great; they'd obviously put some thought into making it work, and all the onlookers as well as all the dancers seemed to be having a great time. I've also seen a huge variety of clothing, hair colour and styles, and there are many flavours of morris, including some that are controversial because of blacking faces, though any link with racist "blackface" is disputed.

Morris being inclusive in a trans sense is no surprise whatsoever, and I think most people would be OK with that unless it became so important that it overshadowed the traditions of morris. Of course, there are some who didn't like women becoming morris dancers, but women's sides are generally well accepted, and mixed sides are not unusual these days. In a mixed side, why would anyone object to a woman who thinks she's a man or a man who thinks she's a woman? I don't see any safeguarding issues, and I don't see anyone being displaced, unless it's a determinedly single sex side.

The bbc are obsessed with blokes in frocks.
If only us disabled people got half as much attention.
I sometimes wonder when I encounter the depressingly frequent lack of accessibility in life and the zero fucks given by most people whether I should pretend to be a man in a frock (except I haven’t worn frocks or skirts for about 20 years now but I could buy a suitably sexualised one specially) and see if that got me further than hobbling along with my rollator.

I feel like any time I turn on the BBC, there's some shit about drag on.

I randomly tuned into R2 last week to hear gushing over this new show. Just tuned into Strictly and two men in drag are reading out the phone numbers. BBC is obsessed.

Aaarrgh. I get so confused about pronouns these days! "... or a man who thinks he's a woman".

Just about to post the same thing about Strictly.

I really don't get this obsession with drag queens. They're bloody everywhere.

At what point were either of these not inclusive?

Morris dancing at one point wasn't inclusive of women, despite the fact that traditionally women were involved. No surprise really.
https://maymorning.co.uk/426147313/427966649

The BBC keep sending us threatening letters because we haven't paid our licence fee and haven't bothered to let them know that we have no TV, don't watch iPlayer (though I regret missing the latest Mantel) and watch nothing live either

This sort of shit increases my determination to continue to be petty and unhelpful. I don't feel obliged to tell anyone that I'm not breaking the law. Innocent until proven guilty and all that,

As for inclusiveness - I was reading or listening to something the other day, cannot recall what, that wittered on about inclusion of every protected characteristic except a) being a woman and b) disability.

Takeaway: no one who has clout gives a shit about you if you are female and/or disabled. But call yourself 'zir' and they're falling over themselves.

FML.

Or old.

Ah I haven't managed to catch up with tonight's Strictly yet, it's been better this year as well and I just about managed to convince my MIL to watch it from last week (she didn't want to watch it this year after last year) but if she tunes in and sees the drag queens she'll refuse to watch it again as she really hates drag queens. I'm not a big fan of them either but my MIL feels very strongly that it is offensive womenface. She doesn't like their overly sexual name puns either and doesn't think it is appropriate before the watershed (if indeed the watershed even exists anymore, I'm genuinely unsure if it does).

@EdithStourton Yeah, I'm getting them too! (Although my super terven friend who doesn't have a TV licence hasn't got any, her and her husband own their house, nor has another of my friends, her and her husband also own their house.) I'm in social housing. We have theories about this. Mainly that they think someone living in social housing doesn't know their rights and must be watching TV, and is a soft touch. They're going to try visiting next. It's all to 'the legal occupier' otherwise I'd have more theories about how they view single mums on universal credit (although I'm on mat leave I do get help from UC.) We know a lot of women get sent to prison for non payment of the TV licence, far more than men do.

We own our own house so it's not that.

They asked WHERE WILL YOU BE ON 13 NOVEMBER? saying that an agent might visit. I forgot all about it. No one came.

I await their next threat with interest. I did mean to save them all but I think DH has been using them to light the fire.

@EdithStourton Ah, so they're just being obnoxious. Yeah, still haven't had a visit yet here. I did buy myself a new laptop as my old one has gone funny (pink and green screen.) 😁 Although even with multiple ad blockers YouTube still sneaks ads past them.

Why don't you simply tell them that you don't have a TV?

I did this with a property I was responsible for that no-one was living in. I called them, had a perfectly reasonable conversation with them, and that was the end of the matter.

If you don't respond to them, they'll keep sending you letters telling you that you should have a TV licence. Anyone who has a TV is required by law to have a TV licence, so they are simply enforcing this.

Because they're treating me as guilty until proven innocent. The attitude of enforcement is aggressive and unpleasant.

They have every right to keep asking you to buy a TV licence unless you tell them you don't need one.

You could have stopped this right at the beginning, after the first letter, by telling them you don't have a TV. That's exactly what I did, and I've had no letters from them since.

You refuse to do what they ask, namely either to buy a licence or else tell them why you don't need one. It is the law that everyone with a TV needs a TV licence, and it's reasonable for that law to be enforced.

Sure, but I'm not constantly badgered about whether I break the speed limit or not...