Drag Performer Barry Humphries To Trans Women 'You're A Self Mutilated Man'

The world famous performer Barry Humphries, the man behind the drag alter ego Dame Edna Everage, has gone on record to support his close friend, and transphobe, Germaine Greer, calling trans women self mutilated men.

During an interview with The Telegraph Humphries said that he agreed with the comments that Germaine Greer and her views on Caitlyn Jenner, that sparked controversy last year following an interview on BBC's News Night.  Greer described Jenner, and by extension all transgender women, as men 'who believe that they are women and have themselves castrated'.

'I agree with Germaine!  You're a mutilated man, that's all,' he told The Telegraph.  'Self mutilation, what's all this carry on?  Caitlyn Jenner - what a publicity-seeking ratbag.  It's all given the stamp - not of respectability, but authenticity or something.  If you criticise anything you're racist, sexist or homophobic.'

These statements have already been met with outrage from the trans community and their supporters, with many taking to social media to decry his comments.

One such person to speak out about the content of his interview with the Telegraph is the BBC's leading transgender actress Rebecca Root.  Rebecca has said that Humphries should either apologise for his comments, or be fired from his BBC radio show.

'If he retracts his statement then I'd say he's said sorry, and move on.  But if he does a Germaine Greer, I'd say he's gone too far and the BBC should reconsider its position on giving him a show.'  She said.  'It's rather disappointing for me as I've always likes Barry Humphries, and I've seen Dame Edna on stage.  The fact is that this sense of humour resonates with the bad old days of Bernard Manning and Jim Davison; dinosaurs from the 1970's.  It's very retrograde, and I hoped we'd moved on from it.'

Sadly it would seem the BBC has fewer morals than Rebecca, as a spokesperson has already said 'Barry Humphries is a freelance presenter for BBC Radio 2 and these are his personal views, which are not reflected in his radio programme'.

Amy.

xx

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Star Wars Monopoly Missing Lead Character - Hasbro's Poor Response

Before this article begins I have to state that it will contain some plot and character spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  If you have not watched the film yet and do not wish it to be spoilt then please do not read further.

---  SPOILER ALERT!  ---

Hasbro has released a new edition of the board game Monopoly in the build up to the massively popular Star Wars: The Force Awakens.  The set comes complete with four figurines for the players to use, Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from Return of The Jedi and Finn and Kylo Ren from The Force Awakens.

What is missing from the set, however, is The Force Awakens' main character Rey.  With the inclusion of the original trilogy's main antagonist and protagonist fans are asking why Hasbro has not included the new films protagonist instead of a supporting character, prompting the question #WheresRey?

Unfortunately this isn't the only piece of merchandising that has not included the films lead, with various figure sets, posters, clothing and other merchandising pushing the films male supporting characters to the forefront rather than the films hero.

Some could argue that it could be to protect certain aspects of the story, after all, from all of the advertising and promotional material everyone went into the film expecting Finn to be a Force user and the next Jedi, instead we discover that Rey is incredibly powerful in the Force and even beats the crap out of Kylo Ren in a lightsabre duel.

It would appear that Hasbro are using that very reasoning to justify not including Rey within the set after releasing a statement to one of the people who raised the issue.

The statement read, 'The Star War: Monopoly game was released in September, months before the movie's release, and Rey was not included to avoid revealing a key plot line that she takes on Kylo Ren and joins the Rebel Alliance.  Rey is featured in the following Star Wars games; Hands Down, Guess Who and Chess as well as our 6" Black Series figures, 3 3/4" figures and vehicles, Black Series Titanium and Micromachines.  Additionally, fans will see more Rey products hitting shelves this month, including 6" and 12" Rey action figures.  We are thrilled with the popularity of this compelling character and will continue to look for ways to showcase Rey across all of our product lines.'

Okay, I'm calling bullshit on this excuse.  How does including Rey in the monopoly game spoil the fact that she will fight Kylo Ren in the film?  It doesn't, unless she's labelled as 'Rey - Force user and potential future Jedi who fights Kylo Ren with Vader/Lukes lightsabre'.  They could include her in the set and have her holding the staff she carries at the start of the film, and in most of the merchandise and advertising material, and not have it be a spoiler.  After all, Finn is carrying a gun rather than a lightsabre.

It's also hard to take them seriously when they can't even get the facts of the film right.  I've only seen it once so far but even I know that the Rebel Alliance doesn't exist in the Star Wars universe anymore, it's the Resistance.  You'd think if someone who only saw the film once can remember that then the company who have to make a lot of the merchandise could get it right.

This isn't the only piece of Hasbro merchandise they did this with though.  During the events of the film Rey helps to steal, fix and fly the Millennium Falcon.  At the end of the film she even flies off to find Luke in it with Chewbacca.  However, in the action figure set the Falcon comes with Chewbacca, BB-8 and Finn.  Finn, a character who states several times during the film he can't fly anything.

I can understand not wanting to give away major plot points for the biggest film of all time, especially when you're trying to make a profit from the merchandise before anyone's even seen it.  There are ways around not spoiling a film and still representing the lead character though.

The Force Awakens Platinum Series action figures have been released by The Disney Store, and have been massively popular.  The series was initially released with an action figure of Rey available.  She came with a BB-8, her scavenger backpack, the pistol Han Solo gives her and her staff weapon.  Since the film has been released though, they have released another version of the figure, one that comes with a lightsabre.

They somehow managed to hide that spoiler, release more merchandise after the film's release, like Hasbro say they want to do, but still managed to produce an awesome action figure of the film's lead. They didn't just leave her out.  If anything, a lot of the merchandise in Disney Stores are much more balanced than a lot of other places I've seen, with a lot of Rey, Phasma and even Leia merchandise.

Hasbro, and other merchandise manufacturers, need to remember that their audience isn't exclusively male.  A lot of girls are into Star Wars, and geeky things in general.  They need to be able to produce products that represent the characters that young girls look up to.  Besides, I know a lot of men who want their Rey merch more than Finn stuff.

Unfortunately this problem doesn't seem to be going away any time soon, with #WheresRey being only the latest in a long line of popular series that neglect their female characters.  Other Disney owned properties have come under fire for their lack of female representation, with the lack of Black Widow and Scarlet Witch merchandise for Avengers and Gamora for Guardians of The Galaxy.

Hopefully if people keep asking these kinds of questions and hold companies accountable to represent female characters this can become a thing of the past.

Amy.

xx

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Gay Teen, 15, Sets Himself On Fire Following Homophobic Bullying

A fifteen year old boy from Agra, India, (who has remained unidentified by the press) set himself on fire this Sunday following homophobic abuse he received from school mates.

Reports are saying that the student was discovered being intimate with a fellow male student in a local park, and subsequently received harassment and abuse.  Following the abuse the young man locked himself in his room over the weekend.

Witnesses say that he emerged from his room on Sunday afternoon, running outside and proceeded to pour diesel over himself before setting himself alight.  Family and neighbours quickly poured water over him to put out the flames, wrapped him in blankets and rushed him to hospital.

Doctors are saying that he has received burns to 40% of his body.  His father spoke to local news
to say, 'He is unable to speak properly.  The doctors say he is out of danger but I will only believe it when my son speaks to me.'

Despite not revealing the young mans identity sources are stating that he was an exceptional student and earned distinction grades in his previous year.  He is currently pursing higher studies and plans to become an engineer.

Amy.

xx

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Twitter Issues New Guidelines For Tackling Hate Speech

The social media giant Twitter has come under fire over the years for it's somewhat laid back approach to policy regarding what is and isn't acceptable conduct on their website.  Well, it would appear that Twitter have taken some of that criticism on board as they have issued new rules regarding abusive behaviour from its users.

The new rules will cover abusive conduct and harassment that can target people for race, ethnicity, sexual orientation,age, national origin, gender, gender identity, religion, disability or disease.  Under the new rules being rolled out anyone found to be in breach, and engaging in harassment of other users or issuing hate speech, can have their tweets deleted, or even their account locked.

The express inclusion of gender and gender identity is good news for the transgender community, as it would mean that any transphobic hate speech, or direct abuse towards transgender users, can be reported and, hopefully, action taken.  Considering the amount of abuse members of the trans community receive on Twitter this could create quite the backlog of reported accounts.

In a blog post, Twitter's Safety Director Megan Cristina said, 'As part of our continued efforts to combat abuse we're updating the Twitter Rules to clarify what we consider to be abusive behaviour and hateful conduct.

'The updated language emphasises that Twitter will not tolerate behaviour intended to harass, intimidate, or use fear to silence other user's voice.  As always, we encourage diverse opinions and beliefs - but we continue to take action on accounts that cross the line into abuse.

'Over the past year, we've taken several steps to fight abuse, including increasing our investment in policy enforcement so that we can handle more reports with greater efficiency.  One of the areas we've found to be effective in this multi-layered strategy of fighting abuse is creating mandatory actions for suspected abusive behaviour, such as email and phone verification, and user deletion of Tweets for violation.

'These measures curb abusive behaviour by helping the community understand what is acceptable on our platform.'

The new rules will go a long way to helping minority groups that have previously suffered abuse at a frequent rate on Twitter, and may even go a way towards deleting hate groups that have so far suffered no repercussions, such as Westboro Baptist Church.

Despite being established to combat hate speech and abusive behaviour some people have already taken to Twitter to voice their disapproval at the new rules, stating that it infringes on their rights to say what they want, or blaming an LGBT+ anti-white, anti-christian movement for the changes.

It's not surprising at all that the people most vocal against these new rules are accounts that have themselves engaged in harassing other users in the past and using 'troll-like' behaviour.

Time will tell just how effective these new rules will be, but hopefully they will go on to help make Twitter a safer and more enjoyable experience for those using it.

Amy.

xx

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Maria Miller Calls To Degender UK Passports & Drivers Licenses

Conservative MP Maria Miller, who chaired the recent Transgender Inquiry, has called for official documents to be degendered.  She claims that gender markers have no place on identification such as driving licenses and passports as they serve no real purpose, and that they cause issues for the transgender community.

Miller has called for the government to 'strip back' discussions about gender unless it is absolutely necessary, saying that gender leads to biases in things such as job and university applications.

'As a society and a government we should be looking at ways of trying to strip back talking about gender, and only do that when absolutely necessary.'  She said in an interview the the Time.  'We need to understand that gender stereotyping can be as damaging for men as it can be for women.'

'For people who have decided to transition but haven't necessarily got the right documentation, it can cause problems.  Why do we need gender on our divers license?  Why do we have to have it on our passport if it really doesn't add identification?  It's not relevant.  Australia has decided to degender their passports.'

It should immediately be noted that Australia have not degendered their passports at all, but have added a third gender option of 'X' for those who do not wish their gender to be listed, or feel that they do not fit into the male or female categories.  Whilst this does help transgender and gender non-conforming people, it is certainly not degendered as Maria Miller is trying to make people believe.

Since the news of Millers asking the government to scrap gender markers there has been a lot of debate around the subject already.  Some people are supporting the proposal, agreeing that gender markers hold very little purpose on official documents.  These supporters are even going so far as saying that you don't need to include gender because you don't include religion or sexual orientation on these documents either.

Whilst in a lot of cases gender means very little on ID's towards proving you are who you are, for transgender people it can be extremely important to have these gender markers on your official identification.

There are many transgender people who will at one time or another face challenge over who they are, they will be denied recognition of their gender and their identity.  For these people, being able to produce an official document that clearly states whether they are male or female can be a very easy way to bring any discussion over the legitimacy of their gender to a close.

Having their true gender listed on a passport or drivers license can help them in difficult situations, it can validate who they are, it can shut down naysayers and abusers.  It can do a lot of good.  Removing gender markers from these ID's can actually take away these opportunities though.

Imagine if someone is trying to deny a trans woman access to a women's only space, stating that they don't believe that she is female.  That trans woman can produce her passport or drivers license, show that she is female and hopefully defuse the situation.  But, imagine if she produced these documents, but they do not list her gender, then it won't help against that person denying her access at all.

The problem that transgender people face isn't that they have ID's with their genders listed on them, it's that changing your ID's so that they display your correct gender is so difficult for a lot of trans people.  Which is something Maria Miller should have learnt through the trans inquiry.

If there are problems for trans people getting their correct gender on their ID's because the system is too difficult or it's stacked against them, the solution isn't to scrap the whole thing, but to make changing gender markers easier for people.

There will be people who argue that scrapping gender markers is the best solution, that in the long run it will help trans people, but I personally think that having those gender markers are important tools for trans people to prove and justify their genders and that losing them will put trans people at a disadvantage.

Amy.

xx

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