by Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic
The BBC has defended its use of female pronouns to describe a male transgender killer who stabbed his partner to death with a samurai sword. The Telegraph has more.
Joanna Rowland-Stuart, who was born male and was known as John Stuart, attacked Andrew Rowland-Stuart at their Brighton home in 2024, in what a jury found was an unlawful killing.
The couple had married in a civil partnership but reporting on the court hearing earlier this year, BBC News headlined one story ‘Wife killed husband with samurai sword’ and began: “A woman killed her husband…”.
The BBC used the pronouns “she” and “her” throughout its coverage.
A number of people contacted the BBC to complain. One wrote: “Using female pronouns to refer to a man is not accurate.”
Another said: “The suspect is a man. When the public see the words ‘wife’ and ‘woman’ they will assume you mean an adult human female.”