Paula's Place

Paula's Place

Friday 8 August 2014

Mrs Angry

I am a great fan of BBC Radio Four, and one of my favorite magazine programs is Woman's Hour, for those of you not familiar with the show - shame on you - it is a pretty general magazine, aimed at Women, but not exclusively, yes there is an irregular cookery slot but we are much more likely to ear about politics, sport or the arts.   Today there was a discussion slot between a radical feminist, I think from Australia, and a trans Woman here in the UK, unfortunately since I was driving at the time, I did not fully register the names of the participants.   I was shocked by what I heard, nw I would generally consider myself a feminist, but what I heard was not feminism, but hate for all men, and the constant assertion that if born a man always a men, and therefore a probal rapist!

I normally restrain myself when I get cross with things I hear on the radio, and I also normally restrict my writings to this blog, on this occasion I have made an exception and have written to the program voicing my opinion; this is what I wrote;-

Listening to Woman's Hour today in the car I was shocked by the ill informed hate filled tirade from the "Radical Feminist" taking part in this discussion.   Her apparent hate for anyone who has, or may have once had, a penis sets  all sensible feminists and feminism cause back decades.

I was so impressed that the Trans Woman was able to stay so calm and remain polite in the face of so much insult, miss gendering and miss information while my blood was boiling.   I can't help but think that if this type of hate was directed against any other minority group the speaker would end up in court, however the real worry is that having heard it on the BBC some people may actually believe some of what she said!

I have to say that I was actually reminded of the sort of thing I used to hear my parents generation say when talking about black people, the generation that used hang out the signs saying, "No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs".   I was shocked not only t hear such stuff, but to hear it on the BBC!

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