from Seen in Journalism substack
‘Biological male’ is upsetting activists
A brief update on the BBC.
The BBC has ‘given way to transphobic rhetoric’, according to US activist Erin Reed. Erstwhile celebrity India Willoughby says a new editorial policy is ‘dehumanising’ trans people. Their indignation is reflected across gender activist social media.
Erin and India, in their current iteration at the BBC, are ‘biological males who identify as women’. Earlier this year they would have been trans women. Last year they would have been women.
This in a nutshell is the reason for the anger. Perhaps next year Erin and India will simply be he/hims in BBC copy.
Erin’s piece last week, and India’s latest car protest video, were prompted by the BBC describing Sophia Brooks, who accused Graham Linehan of harassment (he was cleared), as a biological male who identifies as a woman, and using neutral ‘they’ pronouns.
Erin claims: ‘The BBC is arguably backing down from ethical and scientifically rigorous coverage in order to cater to the anti-trans agenda. Instead, it has reverted back to pejorative terms to refer to transgender people in many of its news pieces’
India says it’s a ‘nasty new policy..editorial bias telling you, the listener, who to trust..a dehumanising tactic’.
Others call it ‘a reactionary hatefest’ from the ‘Bigoted Broadcasting Corporation’.
Are they right? Pink News investigated, and decided they aren’t. It asked the BBC’s press office whether it had changed its News Style Guide, which requires trans people to be referred to using ‘the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question’