BBC Woman’s Hour has come under fire for issuing a ‘clarification’ that its all-woman Brain of Britain competition included a transgender contestant.
Radio 4 presenters Russell Davies and Emma Barnett celebrated that the contest had its ‘first ever all-woman final’ in its 55-year history.
It was also mentioned in a tweet on the Woman’s Hour Twitter page to announce that Emma would be chatting to Brain of Britain’s 2022 champion Sarah Trevarthen and co-founder of feminist quizzine @quizogyny, Becky Howell, to ‘discuss the rise of women in quizzing’.
However, it was then followed-up by another tweet on Wednesday that read: ‘The BBC has confirmed the following: ‘We can clarify that Brain of Britain’s list of women finalists included a trans woman, a detail which was not made available to the Woman’s Hour team when they covered the story.’
Many in the comments of the original tweet began suggesting it was ‘not an all-women final’ due to former Mastermind contestant Emma Laslett, who is a transgender woman, taking part.
‘But did it though?’ one commented while another said: ‘It’s not all women though is it?’
One argued: ‘No. There hasn’t been an all-woman final yet. We know it and you know it.’
Once the BBC made its ‘clarification’, others swooped in to criticise the broadcaster for ‘pandering’ to the critics.
‘Absolutely pathetic tweet,’ one outraged social media user said.
Another hit back that it ‘doesn’t change anything. It was still an all-woman final. This is information that didn’t need disclosing other than for you to stir up hatred’.
‘This tweet is one of the most embarrassing things I’ve ever seen, good job,’ one wrote.
One other described it as ‘bizarre’ to issue a statement of its kind.
Laslett is known for appearing on BBC’s Mastermind in 2014 and again in 2020, with her specialist subject the 1969 Stonewall riots.
