This morning on his CBC programme “Day 6”, Brent Bambury hosted Karla Beauty Marx for a response to the recent public statements made by JK Rowling about transactivism and the attempt to silence the voices of women and and a feminist analysis of sex and gender.
CBC’s obvious bias, on this programme and many others, couldn’t be more clear. We need to challenge CBC clearly, consistently and continuously to step up and define the issues and responses to the issues in a way that doesn’t completely and almost absolutely silence feminist analysis.
PLEASE COMPLAIN! I did.
To the CBC Ombudsman:
“I have just listened to a radio piece in response to JK Rowling’s statements about women’s rights and sexism in the context of the movement to entrench rights for transgendered people on Day 6 with Brent Bambury featuring Karla Beauty Marx, a drag queen who identifies as transgender non-binary. This piece exhibits profound ignorance with respect to the issues being raised by Rowling and many others relating to the silencing of women who have articulated a rational set of criticisms of some of the demands made by trans people and transactivists with respect to their human rights claims. As such it is biased, discriminatory and sexist.
There is more than one point of view on the claims made by transgendered people. Both Day 6 and CBC in general have for some time engaged in amplifying the voices and claims of transgendered people almost to the complete exclusion of the voices and analyses of women and feminists. Both Rowling and those who articulate a feminist response to the claims of transgendered people agree that trans people are entitled to live free from hatred and violence and discrimination in terms of employment, housing and other rights entitlements. Where we do not agree is important though and there needs to be some genuine and unbiased coverage of discussions around the unchangeability of biological sex and the fact that women’s oppression and exploitation is based on biological sex. Women’s ability to identify the sex-based nature of sexism is crucial to our ability to organize to eliminate systemic sexism. Further, ideas that encourage people to engage in thinking that denies both the reality and the importance of biological sex are dangerous not only to the health and well-being of women, but also to the health and well-being of trans people, who have very specific needs and require specific responses.
As Canada’s public broadcaster, you have an absolute duty to present more than one view on the issues and to work resolutely to represent all human members of classes who experience systemic discrimination and inequity. I would think that in these times when so much attention is finally being paid to systemic racism, you would not forget that women are also people who feel the effects of historical and continuous subordination and whose lives and voices are so often suppressed and forgotten.
I urge you to examine the way that Day 6 and CBC in general has responded to the issues raised by conflicts between transgender rights and women’s onoing struggle to define ourselves, our oppression and the route to women’s liberation.”
Here’s how you register a complaint to the Ombudsman: https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/ombudsman/contact
DO IT!
Last Wave Feminist 