Radio programme discussing the biological changes experienced by girls - and its on the BBC!

[IwantToRetire]

I cant necessarily recomment it for its detail as it was sort of on in the background. And it was more each time a heard a bit about how the female body is different to the male one I was sort of astonished.

If anyone wants to listen, and maybe even comment on how good or bad it is in terms of talking about the changes a female body goes through around puberty, it can be found at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002tzlz

It looks like there are going to be episodes all this week.

Today they talked to young women in the Girl Guides (no mention of trans issue at all).

Not sure if it was the editing but the programme made it clear that the young women being interviewed did not trust men (boys).

One talked about how at the age of 11 she was controlled by an older boy.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002v0z7

Thanks Retire they’ve been hyping this for a while on R4. Part of me thinks good, part is waiting for an episode on special women…

Hadn't realised that. I accidently listened to the first episode yesterday.

In some ways it was heartening, so young be seemed very aware.

But wonder if they will even mention between now and friday anything, even in passing, about trans ideology.

If it is meant to be about growing up a girl in the UK today how can they not talk about the pressure from the trans lobbyists and their supporters.

Listened to today's edition.

Really depressing information about how young women are expected to accept men (boys) ideas about sex.

I almost wish young women would form themselves into a huge support group and say to men and boys unless you grow up and start respecting women and girls, dont come any where near them.

I with there were more programmes, newspaper articles telling women no they dont have to in anyway accept demands from men.

I can imagine how I would cope if I were a young adult female in this day and age.

Other thread; it’s a series that follows on from about the boys a couple of years ago. I agree that some episodes are a hard listen.

As a pp says in this thread, worth writing in to praise the bbc on this case.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5515026-radio-4-about-the-girls?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

No, they won’t.

I genuinely think we’ve had more about the issues of trans on the bbc a few years ago (WH covered transwidows, there was a program about detransition etc). I don’t think they’re going to touch it with a barge pole for a long time.

It feels like they just hope it will go away with changes to the nhs rules and in education. Unfortunately, it won’t.

Hadn't realised the other thread was about this series.

I got so carried away after hearing the first episode and all the references to the reality of biological sex I never really registered the series title!

Which makes me wonder whether any of the young women taking part did raise this as an issue.

Which is worse that they did raise it and the BBC ignored it.

Or that they didn't raise it.

It seems to be quite an active issue in schools, so cant see how it wouldn't be referenced.

But I suppose in the end, any programme like this is not the real version but the one the programme makers mould into being about what they think is the reality.

I see tomorrow's episode is already available and from the programme title not going to be looking at the impact of trans ideology in schools and the impact on young biological females.

Iirc it's been made by an external company and reporter; but o/c the bbc have paid them.

I think I heard her on the today programme this morning as she’s written a book about siblings. I think they mentioned she had a podcast? It would be interesting to see if there’s anything else there

Agree. The Beeb is finally starting to report sex and gender slightly more accurately, and that will be peeing off the men who claim to be women. It only takes a minute to fill in the feedback form to say how welcome this is.

On one level I agree, but cant believe that in this day and age talking to girls about growing up that no mention of trans culture.

Many of the interviewees are in the girl guides.

Unless off course FWR and others are totally exaggerating the issue?!

So the programme was made by Whistledown Productions with Catherine Carr not only the producer but the interviewer of the various groups of girls. Research by Jill Ashineku.

Both of these women seem to have given up on using social media.

I asked AI (!!) and it tried to say that because the series was about biological sex it didn't look at those who say they are trans. But when I pointed out the trans position challenges the reality of biological sex, it lapses into well this has been a contraversial issue for the BBC so the probably just avoided it.

Overall I wasn't sure it was that effective because although I reall appreciated hearing young women speak up for themselves it totally ommited which the broadcast made obvious, the differences of the focus of those being interviewed was totally influenced by their back ground, school they were attending.

Here's the programme page, if someone else has the same problem accessing the links upthread (broken/404 direct links):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002tzpy/episodes/player

Edit: I can't access the recordings. Maybe because I am not in the UK? Anyone else have this problem? (Clicking on play ends with a 404 page)

Okay, found the explanation: BBC Sounds, and effectively the radio archive of the BBC was geofenced in 2025, meaning that listeners outside the UK cannot use the Sounds archive anymore/ open the Sounds page/app. 😢
https://help.bbc.com/hc/en-us/articles/42652680528659-Update-on-access-to-BBC-Sounds-outside-the-UK
I used to listen quite a bit to BBC Radio from the archives (but not in the last year and a half, which is why I missed the announcement). 😭
Back to the 80s when I was listening to the BBC live only on shortwave.

Have to say I missed that announcement.

She used to be a WH producer

It makes sense that girls would talk about "girlhood" in terms of biological sex without any reference to trans.

It's two separate mental universes.

"Trans women are women" and all the rest of it are just phrases - they don't penetrate to any deeper level where you actually change your perceptions of reality.

So if an interviewer asks a question like "what is it like to be a girl today" female children will quite naturally talk about life from the perspective of a biologically female young person. Trans won't even enter their heads.

If the interviewer asked "are trans women women" they'd probably say "of course".

This is why we get the classic lines like "men and birthing people". People who try to use this sort of language just substitute "birthing person" for "woman" - they don't actually alter their underlying knowledge of who is the sex giving birth.

If you listened to the programme you would know that they talked about their experiences.

Some of which for instance is what happens at school.

So if as both FWR and other forums have made clear that girls are experiencing problems in toilets etc., because trans identifying boys, why did no one mention this in a programme which was based on the fact that girls are biologically female.

The question is therefore, is is that in fact most girls at school, in the Girl Guides dont think TW or girls is an issue? Or did they think they couldn't mention it because of social pressure? Or did they mention it but the programme makes chose not to include.

How could anyone on FWR not think that that it is extremely strange that there were no references at all.

And as an after through some talked about how sport was a good outlet for them.

So this alone, ie womens and girls sport being colonised by men and boys, makes it really, really unlikely that it didn't come up.

Unless as I have already said not only FWR, but Sex Matters, FWS, etc., etc., are just totally exaggerting the issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is WH if you mean Women's Hour than it seems more than likely that the issue of trans was carefully parked somewhere off tape.

Yes she was a woman’s hour producer.

The thing is that this series is about girls. I think it will do more to draw the boundaries around girls and not let the trans shit muddy the water. The girls deserved an unpolluted focus imho. I also think it underlines what it really means to be a girl to those who think differently without getting into the hurty feeling shit.

As I posted on the other thread; when the series was covered on woman’s hour last week, Carr noted that after the series one sports org contacted her to say they were upping their single sex offer for girls after realising how important it was to provide those opportunities.

Yes here on FWR it would have been good to hear a GC perspective but I don’t think it would have been for the girls involved in the documentary.

I’d prefer that the whole trans thing was properly looked at from the safeguarding/ medical negligence perspective, and looked at the issues of both boys and girls. We may not see this till kcsie is cemented and the new RSE guidance is being used (statutory in sept)

It also took Carr two years to make the series.

The bbc is still full of TRAs. New director however, newly clarified laws, big changes in the nhs and schools just starting (still a LONG way to go)

What I desperately WANT to hear and what is realistically going to happen given the context of the last decade, are two different things.

Obviously now, when an org makes moves to provide more single sex sports provision, the law is clearer that yes, it’s for females only.

it does frustrate me that probably many of the things we will hear on the bbc will be as if none of it ever happened; you can bet people like Nick Wallis et al will not allow this to happen.

I believe he will write a book. Baring in mind the impact he had on the post office scandal, it could be televised. I’d prefer that he had complete independent control rather than bbc fucking balance.

I dont see how you can not refer to it.

As I said before, assuming everything that has happened is real and not just a fantasy of those who post on FWR, not to ask young women what the impact has been on them is manipulative.

It is part of their every day life. Even if there is no issue in their particular school it is being forced on them through social media etc..

How can you talk about women as a biological sex and not refer to that fact that many people now appear to believe sex is not a fact.

How can you not as a young women growing up today not wonder about that.

And also is disrespectful to the young women who have considreed they must be trans (rather than say lesbian, or having "male" interests) when we have their mothers coming on FWR desparate for help and support.

This is real life, not a Disney cartoon.