A top BBC executive intervened to reinstate the word ‘women’ after a backlash against a journalist who substituted it for the phrase ‘assigned female at birth’.
Rhodri T. Davies (director of Nations at BBC) reportedly requested that ‘women’ be included back in a BBC 26 March feature about endometriosis.
Online article to raise awareness for the condition received criticism because it used language that was said to ‘obscure data about this already misunderstood, overlooked women’s issue in health’
Rhodri Tallfan Davies (above), the BBC’s director for nations requested that ‘women’ replace the phrase “assigned male at birth” in an April 26 segment about endometriosis.
Milli Hill, a best-selling author on pregnancy, led the backlash. After ‘hundreds of complaints’ the article was amended to say that endometriosis affects one of 10 women in any age group in the UK.
Milli from Somerset faced an angry backlash after she challenged the use of the word ‘birthing persons’ when she spoke about obstetrical violence, which is medical intervention during childbirth that takes place without the consent of a woman.
Nickie Aiken (Conservative MP for London and Westminster) also weighs in. She stated that she was born with her gender, but not given it.
She stated that she was like 51% of UK’s population and wasn’t given a gender at birth. After approximately 500 periods, 2 pregnancies, labours, and the menstrual cycle, it’s no easy task. It’s hard to imagine how it must be like living with #endometriosis.
Before the BBC article was changed: “On average, it takes eight years for a diagnosis to be given – this figure has not been changed by Endometriosis UK in the past ten years.” No cure or cause is known.
Hill is a pregnancy campaigner who was also the bestselling author. He argued that there’s no cure for endometriosis, “because it’s an issue that only women have to deal with.”
In the original March 26 article, endometriosis was stated to affect one in ten people in the UK. These individuals are usually assigned a female gender at birth.
An edited version of this article was published, in which ‘women were’ reinstated following backlash
The original article was shared by her. She wrote that sex is not “assigned at birth”. It is misleading to say that 1 in 10 people has sex. It is also undoubtedly that this issue only affects women and has been repeatedly overlooked.
Although the Corporation claimed that it was making this change because the reporter had interview two women, higher reservations were expressed by top BBC staff.
An insider said to the Times that management saw the changes and believed they were appropriate.
The second source stated that the management was now more open to taking on stupid people.
Harvey Marcelin is the alleged killer. The article was originally published in New York City. However, it was changed after publication. Marcelin had been identified as a male and was now identifying with her opposite gender.
A second article about a serial killer was updated recently to clarify that she only just started identifying herself as transgender.
The piece about alleged murderer Harvey Marcelin, from New York City, was amended after publication to reveal she was in fact male-bodied and had recently started identifying as the opposite sex.
Marcelin, who murdered two women between 1963 and 1984 was accused of murder, criminal evidence tampering, and concealment of an unidentified corpse.