Cambridge university debate

[WarriorN]

I’ve just started to watch; Buck Angel opening, which was never something I thought I’d see at Cambridge University - but this is how the de programming begins.

https://www.youtube.com/live/wE0JY9d7f-w?si=R65X7xp-ohfHJg2x

Bloody hell. A member of the audience is describing being transed by listening to an episode the archers when she was ten.

she’s now non binary

Posh bloke with a pint is very good actually. Tells them all to stop navel gazing

Thanks for the link. I don’t think I’m strong enough to face this quite so early in the day.

oh. Just seen that Helen Webberley is at the end and I can’t face her at all

I'm watching her now - what an extremely dangerous individual.

Maeve was amazing, just ON FIRE.

Oh, the 'non-binary' woman (yeah, I know) who suggested there was an assumption of some of the debaters that transpeople aren't real. She countered that belief by recounting having listened to The Archer's and how their transwoman storyline made her wish she could do that too, but the other way. She then goes on to say 'it's not because you've heard a label' that makes you decide you are trans. But but...that is exactly what she has just described happening to her, fcol. If she hadn't heard that concept being introduced on The Archer's when she was ten it's just possible she would have grown up lesbian, and fine with it.

Help. I have listened to The Archers in and off for most of my life and I can't recall a trans story line. When/who was it?
(When Amber was first introduced and there was weirdness about her being different from at school I briefly wondered if we were going there but seemingly not.)

Never listened to it! In our household when the theme tune comes on the radio gets turned off

yes to be clear, hearing the archers helped her see the light about her own transnesss!

AI doesn't think there has ever been a transgender character in the Archers which is ironic as the speaker who claimed this was arguing that the perception of trans & non-binary is that they are lying.

I've listened to the Archers since... gulp...1998 and do not recall a trans character.

Maeve Halligan is am impressive young woman!

On the other hand I can see how 'little twerp' could be quite apt for that Sammy individual, sorry to say.

Listening to Webberly non stop lie, obfuscate and, infuriatingly, apologise for others 🙄was almost too much. Good to see there seemed to have been many audience members wanting to question her drivle though.

I have listened since the 70s.
I too do not recall a trans / non binary character.
Gender non conforming (ie perfectly normal people) aplenty.

I forget the name of the other young woman who proposes to abstain; she describes how lesbians have been treated including the couple who were murdered by Dana Rivers. Fantastic speech!

My googling doesn’t bring up a trans character in the archers either 🤔

im not sure how they’d do it.

I expect they passed so well that nobody knew, except of course whatshername who spoke.

I too haven’t listened to TA for a very long time - since a ridiculous plot line involving female players in the cricket team - but my money would be on Brian. Is he still alive?

im not sure how they’d do it.

Pronouns

Maeve was brilliant.

Was there a vote?

Giving the young person the benefit of the doubt I can imagine a scenario in the Archers where eg one of the fruit pickers (transient, maybe non speaking characters) is said to be trans and there is embarrassing dialogue about how lovely they are, how brave and stunning and how you totally cannot tell. But if that did happen I am sure there would be an internet trace.

God Webberley was vile wasn't she?

are rohypnal.

of course!

Looking forward to everyone fucking off out the house watching this tonight!

Ironically, seeing Buck Angel on a daytime TV show with her wife (who cheated on her for the brothers who made The Matrix, and also transing them... food for thought) was what planted the idea in my brain back in the 90s.

Buck still goes on about True Trans, and plays on the idea that she's a leader for those true believers, literally Not Like Other Girls nonsense, while still profiting on her weird BDSM porn career as a circus act.

I'm grateful for what she does for the GC debate now, but she's still influencing girls who feel like their bodies are an alien planet, she's just better at gatekeeping it.

I am an Archers obsessive. My Mum had it on in the kitchen when I was growing up on and off and I started listening by choice in the early 1980s and have scarcely missed an episode since. I would bet my house there has never been a trans or non-binary character in The Archers. Could she have got confused with a TV soap? I believe there have been several there. Far easier to do with visuals.

I would have expected The Archers to have the opposite effect, actually, given that there are quite a number of women farmers doing extremely physical jobs, a female engineer (we'll pass over the fact that she turned into an alcoholic) and several female entrepreneurs. There are several gay men, a prominent lesbian couple and a bisexual man, including some with Archer blood. And finally, as a soap opera set in the countryside with a big focus on farming and wildlife you really can't get away from the realities of sex and reproduction, as frequently mentioned when the AI man turns up to inseminate the livestock or when the birth of a female dairy cow is celebrated or Pat comes up with a scheme to rear male dairy calves for rose veal.

I think Buck opening is quite good, actually. Having a very vocal and well known 'trans' person criticising the current situation helps to prompt people to ask questions and think critically.

I agree that she is muddled, but imo as soon as the discussion moves from 'we are what we say we are' and towards 'true trans', there's really only one way it can go.