Who Decides if I'm a Woman?
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2013
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A spat between feminist Suzanne Moore and transgender rights activists played out on social networking sites, and then hit the headlines when journalist Julie Burchill joined in too.
Jo Fidgen explores the underlying ideas which cause so much tension between radical feminists and transgender campaigners, and discovers why recent changes in the law and advances in science are fuelling debate.
Contributors:
James Barrett, consultant psychiatrist and lead clinician at the Charing Cross National Gender Identity Clinic
Julie Bindel, feminist and journalist
Lord Alex Carlile QC, Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords
Melissa Hines, professor of psychology at Cambridge University
Richard O'Brien, writer of the Rocky Horror Show
Ruth Pearce, postgraduate researcher in sociology at the University of Warwick
Stephen Whittle OBE, professor of equalities law at Manchester Metropolitan University
Producer: Ruth Alexander.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | You're listening to a program from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:40.0 | In this edition of Analysis, Joe Fijon asks, who decides if I'm a woman? |
| 0:45.0 | It's a pretty safe bet that you're a man or a woman. |
| 0:49.0 | Isn't it? |
| 0:50.0 | Gender queer, gender fluid, androgynous, bi-gender. |
| 0:55.0 | Who decides whether we are men or women? |
| 0:59.0 | Is it the midwife who, you know, has a quick glance. |
| 1:03.0 | I've seen four children be bored. |
| 1:05.0 | I know how quick that glance is. |
| 1:06.0 | You know, you've got a girl. |
| 1:08.0 | Well, how do you know we've got a girl? |
| 1:09.0 | You've not done anything but a quick glance. |
| 1:11.0 | Transvestite, transgenderist. |
| 1:14.0 | I believe myself probably to be about 70% male, 30% female. |
| 1:20.0 | Third gender, pangender. 70% male, 30% female. |
| 1:26.0 | That's Richard O'Brien, by the of sexual propriety of the time into the air |
... |
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