Womans Hour Wed 23rd April.

[impossibletoday]

Apparently the women from FWS will be on.....

https://x.com/millihill/status/1914732862894694516?t=dVRYwM118BO_24mO21-05g&s=19

Very tightly managed interview. WH clearly paying lip service to the ruling and FWS. Susan Smith was great. Suddenly so much excitement about bad women friends. The irony. Do we think WH/R4/BBC has been a bad friend to women and women's rights?

Susan is wonderful: clear, calm and talking total sense.

I see WH has decided on an alternating question style so that no one can accuse them of bias, but which has the effect of undercutting everything Susan says and throwing her back into the defensive position each time:

Tell us about you and FWR.
What about the people who feel hurt/ marginalised by you?
Tell us about you and FWR.
You were bankrolled by JKR (implication that this wasn't a popular movement)

And wrapped up very sharply. Interviewer didn't even thank her. They cut the interview and she said 'That's Susan Smith, one of the founding members of the campaign group For Women Scotland' in a chilly voice.

Other women who've won court battles for women's rights are celebrated. FWR. don't even merit the basic courtesies. I'd hoped that this interview would give me hope but it doesn't. The people running WH are misogynists.

Susan was brilliant! If you are reading this - thank you!! So clear, warm and reasonable. The interviewer let her speak but gosh she was cold! It sound like she was reading a list of question against her will! Her friendliness and change in tone for the next segment was so striking - she’s now using a completely different voice. Edited for typo

Susan was brilliant. I mean, the bar was low as I was very busy with the eye rolling and banging my head on the desk repeatedly and she didn't do any of that. She was polite, considered and more kind to Clare than she needed to be. The funding, the be kind, the social contract, the use of "other men," prisons etc. All in there.

I’ve just looked on Wiki to find out more about For Women Scotland-anti-trans my arse!

For Women Scotland (FWS) is a gender-critical feminist[1][2] and anti-trans[3][4][5][6] Scottish campaign group that opposes proposed reforms allowing individuals to change their recorded sex in legal documents by means of self-declaration.[7]

Do we think WH/R4/BBC has been a bad friend to women and women's rights?

It's Women's Hour. They should have been all over this from the beginning. Instead they cancelled Jenni Murray and interviewed Grace Lavery. Just being even handed with "both sides" would have been better than the fawning

I refuse to use either term. I alway use trans identified man (TIM) or trans identified woman (TIW). I will not use a word that must be reserved for women. Please follow Milli Hill on Substack as she regularly points out all the ways that the word ‘woman’ has been erased or stolen.

It angers me so much that these woman have literally gone against the actual government to protect women's rights in everyday life, received abuse for it, won, and are being questioned by a steely toned presenter on woman's hour as if they've done something wrong! The presenter is much happier on the fluff piece (not to diminish it as I actually am enjoying it) but fgs FWS should be being celebrated on woman's hour for achieving something so significant and consequential to the whole population of women in this country.

It really feels like women enforcing the patriarchy on WH.

The interview with Susan Smith was pre-recorded so that the BBC could control what was said. The interviewer (no idea who she was, possibly a freelancer hired in to handle the radioactive topic none of WH's handmaidens would touch) was following a script and had been instructed to be as chilly and unenthusiastic about the verdict as possible and avoid anything that might be even vaguely celebratory. I would say that the absence of human warmth or interest is an indication of bias.

This is the BBC Complaints form for you to fill in on line.
www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints

I'll be Tweeting WH, too.

Thank you @JellySaurus and @ClarafromHR I agree with you. "Woman" should never have been included at all, there should have been a whole new name for the pretence.

Edited to thank Clara too.

Just gone to edit and someone beat me to it 😁

Have another look... It's changed but no doubt will be changed again

How fantastic was that??
Susan Smith was excellent. Answered clearly, intelligently and compassionately and in plain language that anyone could understand. Covered so many bases too.

I thought the presenter handled it perfectly. I took it that she was asking these questions in order to let SS to refute them. She asked the questions then stayed quiet and let her answer fully with no interruption whatsoever. I got the impression that she was 100% on our side and asked clever questions so that Susan could put her side across, which she did with ease and eloquence. Especially loved that she gave her space to talk about the women who formed FWS and the background to the case.

GC views given space and time. On Woman’s Hour. At fucking last.

Feeling yet more waves of relief, and gratitude towards FWS and all the other others.
Still can’t quite believe this is all happening.

*Edited for poor grammar 🙄

IIRC, the word started as 'transwoman'. This was back in the early days (1970s?) of sexologist/psychologists Ray Blanchard and Ken Zucker writing academic papers. It is the later transactivists who inserted the space, then claiming that trans was an adjective - but it's just not.

Once again I’m struck by how much people in general - both men and women - get really uncomfortable/angry/defensive when women say “no”, pushback in any way or simply aren’t deemed to be sufficiently kind.

It’s been hugely evident over this past week since the ruling.

I too thought it was a good interview.

The interview put the 'opposite' points but then sat back and let Susan clearly refute them.

The presenter was Clare McDonnell. She's not one of the main ones but does episodes here and there.

Screenshot (to follow no doubt)

Excellent interview- well done Susan!

In addition to or instead of writing to BBC complaints, consider writing to the Feedback programme. The next edition is tomorrow, repeated on Sunday, which might be too soon for them to gather responses.

Image follows with contact details. I managed to delete it on the last post.

Susan Smith was brilliant, so calm, measured and eloquent. I'm glad that the interviewer gave her plenty of time to talk, but dear God, why does every other question have to be about how this affects "transwomen" ? Why is it women's responsibility for ensuring that some men aren't sad at not having access to women's single sex spaces?

The interviewer was so audibly relieved to get onto the next much fluffier item that it made me laugh.

Woman's Hour though - how disappointing it has become. How I wish they'd grown a fucking spine.

She’s usually on R5 Live in the afternoon. A mixture of serious and humorous stuff.

I forgot about this but will listen later, as I was listening to Nicky Campbell's phone in on 5 Live. From 10-10.30am they were discussing with a panel of MPs the Supreme Court decision and Keir Starmer's reverse ferret and it was by turns infuriating and comedy gold. Lots of mentions of Rosie Duffield too - the Labour guy was an absolute prick, to be honest. My favourite part was when 'Marilyn' called in to ask in a very deep voice which toilet 'she' should use…

I also hadn't realised that For Women Scotland was originally literally four women! Interesting that although there has been a lot of coverage of JKR's donation with the implication that they have been completely bankrolled by her, the average is £37 from thousands of women via crowdfunding.

I might get a badge... forwomen.scot/badges/