By
Les May
INSTEAD
of standing her ground Jenni
Murray, a
presenter
of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, has spinelessly
pulled
out of a talk at Oxford University, following an
accusation
of transphobia.
The
accusation came from the Oxford University LGBTQ Society, the Oxford
SU LGBTQ Campaign and the Oxford SU Women's Society, who have
excavated an article from the Sunday Times Magazine which appeared in
2017 in which Murray had written "Be
trans, be proud - but don't call yourself a 'real woman'."
Now
as a man I might just take exception to her opening gambit "Can
someone who has lived as a man, with all the privilege that entails,
really lay claim to womanhood?"
I
might for example ask just what privileges
most men actually have? When
I see the jobs that many men do it is certainly not obvious to
me that
they are more privileged than Murray. It’s
also the case that Murray seems to be more privileged than many
women I know.
The
Oxford SU LGBTQ Campaign wrote
in a statement
which has appeared on Facebook;
“Her
views, which clearly reflect a lack of engagement with the vast
majority of actual trans people, and are in sum deeply harmful to
trans women and trans feminine people, contributing to and
exacerbating the harassment, marginalisation, discrimination, and
violence that they already face.”
Quite
how you engage with a bunch of people who have already decided that
they are victims of harassment,
marginalisation, discrimination and violence, I
don’t know. Murray has simply expressed an opinion which is open
to challenge. I’ve
previously expressed the opinion that the crux of the matter for me
is whether a man who decides to transition to being a woman is
willing to lose his wedding tackle.
If
what I have written offends you, feel free to be offended. But first
you
might like to scan the web pages at
which
include the comment; ‘Terms
are always changing in the LGBTQ+ community. This list will be
updated as often as possible to keep up with the rapid proliferation
of queer and trans language.’
These
pages look like an exercise in narcissism,
one
aspect of which is an excessive desire to be admired and an excessive
need for affirmation. You
really know when you are accepted when people ignore you.
************
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