A short history of BBC misogyny 2013-2024
The not quite 100 women of 2024
The BBC has just published this year’s annual 100 Women List and, as we’ve come to expect, it includes a trans-identified male.
In 2013 the BBC launched its 100 Women initiative - a list of ‘inspiring and influential women from around the world’ - and promised to better represent women in its international news output.
The BBC 100 Women List is now in its 11th year. In only two of those eleven years has the list solely been comprised of women; at all other times it has included at least one trans-identified man. Even with approximately 3.905 billion females in the world to choose from, the BBC shoehorns males into what is supposedly a celebration of womanhood.
In 2014, only a year later after the initiative first launched, the 100 Women List included a drag character, Conchita Wurst, the onstage persona of a man called Thomas Neuwirth.
Neuwirth, a singer from Austria who won the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest, doesn’t even ‘identify as a woman’. He’s simply a drag performer. But the BBC listed him - or at least the character the plays - in an index of inspirational women.
In 2016 The 100 Women List included trans-identified male, Seyan Arman, a DJ and entertainer from Turkey. In 2018 it featured trans-identified male, Ophelia Pastrana, “An outspoken transgender media personality” from Colombia. In 2019 it included trans-identified male, Nisha Ayub, a Malaysian transgender rights campaigner.
In 2020 The 100 Women List included trans-identified male model, Lea T. Amongst all the inspirational and pioneering female scientists, teachers, sportswomen, politicians, aid workers, engineers, artists and activists etc was a trans-identified male who performs stereotypical femininity to model swimwear in Marie Clare.
In 2021, The BBC 100 Women List included two trans identified males. They were Alba Rueda, a trans activist and politician from Argentina, and Iman Le Claire, a performer and activist originally from Egypt now living in NCY.
In 2022, yet again, the BBC included two trans-identified males on its 100 Women List. They were Erika Hilton, an LGBTQ+ campaigner and politician from Brazil, and Efrat Tilma, an LGBTQ+ campaigner and volunteer with the Israeli Police.
Last year the BBC 100 Women List featured trans-identified male, Rukshana Kapali, a housing campaigner and LGBTQ+ rights activist from Nepal.
This year, yet again, the BBC has included a male - Brigitte Baptiste - on a list supposedly intended to recognise the work and achievements of women.
61-year-old Brigitte Baptiste is a Colombian ecologist. He is currently the chancellor of Ean University. According to the BBC, Baptiste uses a “Queer lens to analyse landscapes and species in a bid to expand the notion of ‘nature’” and he “Explores the common patterns between biodiversity and gender identity”.
The father of two daughters, Baptiste ‘transitioned’ in 1998 when aged 35.
The courageous rape survivor, Gisèle Pelicot, now finds herself on the BBC’s 100 Women List alongside not only a man, but one who sports a grotesquely sexualised naked woman on his arm.
No doubt many of the trans-identified males erroneously included on the BBC’s list are experts in their field, make an outstanding contribution to society, and are more than deserving of praise and recognition. But none of them belong on a list that is supposed to celebrate women.
The BBC claims that its 100 Women List is “Putting women at the front and centre of news stories”. Surely it must see that by including males, it is excluding women? Every time the BBC features a trans-identified male on this list, it robs a woman of her place on it. A woman whose story will now not be heard.
What a disgrace the BBC has become. Why don’t they just release a list of AGPs of the year and be done with it? They obviously have zero respect for women. When our national broadcaster is so fully on board with the ‘queering of society’ then we really have reached the sewer in terms of the acceptance of fetish normalisation.
Thanks JL. Another great piece of evidence for the battle we are in.
Clearly the 100 Women List is wrongly named. It ought to be "The 98-99 Women List (plus one or two male sexual fetishists / men with mental health problems)".
Then we couldn't complain: except about why such a bizarre mixture? Why not have TWO lists?
The "98-99 Women Lisr": because the BBC couldn't be arsed to find one or two more sufficiently distinguished women from a choice of 3.905 billion.
And the Other List, a BBC Exclusive "One or Two (fetishistic) Men List". For the most outrageous and/or revolting of all the drag queens, AGPs etc with bared double G plastic boobs, naked women tattoos, and the most extreme parodies of "femaleness" the male mind can dream up to indulge in.
BBC List choosers clearly have very poor taste, muddled thinking and defective vision: to be able to mix up these two wildly differing groups -- way beyond the fact that they are not even the same sex.