Russell T Davies says he has gender critical friends - drama ensues

[fromorbit]

RTD's new drama Tip Toe is about to start. A Guardian article on it has seen online drama.

‘How often I’m called a paedophile online is shocking’: inside Russell T Davies’s horrifying drama about rising hatred
The creator of It’s a Sin is back – and he’s furious. His new series, Tip Toe, explores the rise of homophobia through a feud between two Manchester neighbours. He and stars Alan Cumming and David Morrissey talk death, fear and ‘joy as a form of protest’...

Trying to get in as well rounded a view of the issues at stake here is a deliberate choice by Davies. Spit & Polish’s employees are mostly a younger generation of LGBTQ+ people. He sought advice from the writer Juno Dawson, with whom he worked on Doctor Who, about how to portray the trans characters in the show, including the charming and endearing employee Zee (Iz Hesketh). Stephanie (Elizabeth Berrington), Leo’s close friend whom we see throughout the series, is gender-critical – believing that biological sex cannot be changed from birth.

“I wanted all sorts of voices in there,” says Davies. “I’ve got friends who are gender-critical. It’s only online you end up screaming and shouting and being attacked by them. In real life, you have a chat, and we all kind of sigh and put up with each other. That’s how the world works. It’s actually how the world is ceasing to work.” As terrifying violence looms towards the end of the series, Stephanie and Zee end up on the same side.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/may/29/inside-russell-t-davies-tip-top-drama-alan-cumming-david-morrissey

It is now over for RTD he can't have friends who think like that according to the TAs. That makes him "intolerant". On Bluesky there is massive push back. RTD has aroused the hatred of Windy!!! Someone else has threatened to kill RTD over this.

Details and screenshots from James Dreyfus.

James Dreyfus

Russell T Davies says, in an interview, that he has “gender-critical friends”. Bear in mind, that he is extremely vocal in support of the LGBTQIA+, especially the QT. (Although, curiously there were NO trans or non-binary characters in “Queer As Folk”…an odd oversight, considering they apparently “fought for our rights” & were ‘ubiquitous’ in 1999…🤔) Anyway, apparently his support is not meeting the skyscraper-high threshold for their purity test & he’s now being attacked for his choice of friends by the very people he champions. Which seems to me to be a trifle harsh, irrational & certainly predictable.

This outcome probably demonstrates that it’s perhaps unwise to engage in genial horseplay with your pet rattlesnake, unless you’ve a fridge packed with anti venom & are handy with a needle…

James Dreyfus
16h
Re: my earlier post.

It’s odd to be in a position where my instinct is to defend Russell T Davies, when I’m pretty sure the favour wouldn’t be returned, but to see the outpouring of venom directed at him today for daring to have ‘ GC friends’ patently shows how ANY deviation from the approved narrative is as dangerously precarious as stroll across a barbed-wire tightrope…

These reactions are just insane.

https://nitter.net/DreyfusJames/status/2060768949059674466#m

So will RTD experience this backlash and see things from a different point of view?

The other big question is will the Terfy character in the series suddenly convert to thinking biology is not a thing at some point. Presumably a man is going to do some violence at some point. If this prompts any women character to go - "oh no men are being violent - IT MUST BE MY FAULT! Why did I have opinions!" It will be very very dumb.

If on the other hand you have a trans type and a gender crit being jointly horrified by male violence and managing to unite to condemn it you might have something you don't see in any drama so far, but happens IRL a lot. Because men being violent is kind of a thing.

Trans Dalek Susan

Eh? What confession? I only remember him saying he was afraid of drag queens

OMG, I'm dying!!!

there’s a boy in years and years who we see fully transitioned at the very end.

the story line is never explicitly spoken about but it’s there on screen. Most miss it

They turn on everyone in the end. They are not reliable allies as many have discovered

Fuck about and find out seems to cover it.
It's what will finish them in the end.

Exterminated!

This is what happens when you step outside the Borg Collective.

No doubt he'll make a statement soon suggesting he was 'misquoted/taken out of context' and will swear fealty to the Purity Police.

But they never forget Russ. You've blotted your copy book.

Frankly you reap what you sow.

But I'll be charitable and wish you strength and honour mate. You're gonna' need it. 😂

"Exfoliate!!! Exfoliate!!!"

Well I'm gonna be drinking in 'Spoons from now on. The loos are always 5 miles away and up ten flights of stairs (and not even the trans Daleks can climb stairs- in spite of their great bravery and hallowed status amongst the other daleks).

To be fair, Susan's quite pretty, though. That shade of pink really suits.

(ducks for cover)

Link? I can't find it.

Ah but RTDs Daleks can levitate up stairs - and fly apparently in wondrous formation.
No one is safe

They bloody would, wouldn't they? Well he'll regret that now, won't he? (sniffs).

Loving trans Dalek Susan.
Ive just discovered that the secret MN tardis emoji still exists (or I think they used to be emoticons)

https://www.reddit.com/r/transgenderUK/s/GYShsTQmms
Enjoy 😉

Thanks x

One of those blokes on Reddit has the tag "Woman (refurbished and upgraded). Can't really expect much from hatred like that.

I've been thinking: when the trans Daleks take over, Russell's going to be top of the list.
He's a clever guy, did he not realise traitors are often treated worse than the enemy?
It's his fault for inventing them and bringing out their feminine side, before that they were just ruthless killing machines. Hoisted by his own petard, killed by his own creation and so on.

And if been informed here that he made them climb stairs so no hiding in the attic, either.

Coming to getcha

James Dreyfus is just lovely. I really wish Mr Menno would interview him - would love to see their conversation. Two lovely men who really see women as full human beings. Can we clone them?

RTD on the other hand clearly doesn't consider women fully human. For someone so successful it seems he's too dim to realise the strength differential between men and women (with men having 160% the punch power of women on average) which would make the threats he's receiving now far more scary if he was a woman.

RTD has never felt fully on board the trans train to me. People have noted the lack of trans characters in a couple of his shows. His 2005-2009 Doctor Who work only had one character mentioned (in passing) to be trans, an extremely vain villain with ridiculous levels of body modification. One plotline in Years and Years could reasonably (if unintentionally) have been read as a critique of transism. The prominent trans character in his more recent DW work displayed a general lack of understanding and was quickly relegated to an extremely minor recurring role.

That said he clearly very much wants to portray himself as trans-friendly right now.

Juno Dawson writes pornographic novels marketed at 12-year-olds.

I always thought that Daleks are asexual?

I don't like male trans allies.
They're too 'airy fairy' to me- be they gay or straight. The lack of logic puts me off.

I don't trust them and I never will because there's no inner core to them. They just sway with the wind. Whatever trend is popular.

And as a PP pointed out, would Russell T. have sex with a trans man?
I can't answer that, obviously, but I do know that most straight male trans allies wouldn't have sex with a trans woman.

Why not, I think she is a woman in your eyes, right?

They're full of shit.

I suppose with women I cut them more slack: we're conditioned to be kind and I get the fawn response as it's bloody scary to argue with these trans females.
Men, though, no excuses.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/08/celebrity-big-brothers-india-willoughby-talks-sex-woman-admits-turned-dalek-couldnt-find-clitoris-7213901/

IW later gave more detail on Twitter

Well, when you think about it, they always did wear dresses...