How BBC cowards betrayed Jenni Murray
When I read that Jenni Murray — she of Woman’s hour, stalwart of Radio 4 and all-round national feminist treasure — was being ‘silenced’ by her bosses at the BBC following an article she wrote about transgender women, my first reaction was: I’d like to see them try.
I certainly would not want to be the person tasked with conveying the news to Ms Murray, a woman who occupies a space somewhere between Boudicca, Mary Berry and Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons from Game Of Thrones, in my pantheon of female heroines.
not just because I know I would crumble in the face of that overthe-specs, half-amused gaze, but also because the notion she might have broken BBC rules on impartiality — as the corporation suggests — is utterly risible.
What she said was not actually that contentious. Murray was merely pointing out that there is a big difference between being born a female and making a conscious decision to become one. This is not outrageous prejudice, it is a straightforward fact.
The controversy — ‘Jenni Murray says transgender women are not
real women’ — has to be understood in that context. Perhaps a better word than ‘real’ would have been ‘natural’. But any man who, via hormone therapy and/ or surgery, transforms their body can’t truly understand what it means to be born a female.
That does not mean they shouldn’t have the option, or that trans women are any less worthy as individuals, or that they should not enjoy the same rights as the rest of us. Just that it’s not quite the same thing. That is all.
That this should lead to such a lot of hot air shows how suffocated public debate has become — and how spineless some institutions, in particular the BBC, are in the face of certain lobby groups.
Murray was scrupulous to express her respect for trans people and she had no difficulty with men doing ‘whatever they choose to express their feminine side’. But that didn’t help her. It counted for nothing. The trans militants wanted her head and demanded her dismissal.
That’s because they are not interested in debate. They would much rather cast themselves as victims of an oppressive establishment and silence dissent through character assassination.
And so, without any justification, Jenni Murray found herself being branded a ‘bigot’ and a ‘dinosaur’.
But while these tactics are well understood and, to an extent, to be expected, what’s really shocking is the behaviour of the BBC. DESPERATE that its progressive credentials should not be tarnished, it rounded on Murray instead of sticking up for her.
The idea that this ludicrous row could jeopardise a career that has spanned decades, challenged authority and pushed more boundaries than almost any other in broadcasting is a terrible indictment of the moral weakness that prevails at the BBC.
That it should betray her just before International Women’s Day is a stark reminder that this once fine corporation is not only run by self- serving cowards, but it also remains at its heart a misogynistic organisation.