jacolan

literature undergrad student supposed to be talking about recently read texts, but probably other cool stuff too :)

[jacolan]

Brianna Ghey and the biased reporting of the BBC.

‘[...E]ven [trans] corpses won’t be treated with dignity by cis society’[1].

This rather harrowing sentiment has never been more prevalent than in the case of Brianna Ghey – after her death was covered on social media, hundreds if not thousands of transphobes crawled online to deface her name, her identity, and her personhood in a barrage of tweets I'll save you from having to read. Alongside this, even apparently ‘non-biased’ news sources reported, and continue to report, the story in a way that encourages scrutiny into Brianna’s life, including cherry-picking parts of the trial and emphasising her identity as a trans girl (through the use of cruelly non-inclusive language). In this article, I will focus on this unfair means of reporting, and the right (and wrong) ways to treat trans people – who, unequivocally and obviously, deserve just as much respect as anybody else.

Whilst The Guardian reporter Roger Harrabin exerts that [t]he truth is that BBC staff overwhelmingly strive for political impartiality’[2]this has never felt less true in recent years – something not noticed only by the newer generation: according to a 2018 poll by BMG Research of 1,004 British adults, a minority of 37% thought that the BBC was truly non-biased. This bias has largely been suggested to be right leaning, a conservative political perspective that advocates for more ‘traditional’ modes of society. Many right wingers, as a result of this traditional worldview, are unaccepting of any diversions from the social norm – trans identities being one of these ‘diversions’.

This ignorance can be seen in the BBC’s way of reporting sensitive topics such as the transphobically motivated attack on, and subsequent murder of, Brianna Ghey – a 16 year old girl who was stabbed 28 times in a "sustained and violent assault". Whilst not all individual reports under the BBC are encouraging transphobia, many are cherry-picking aspects from the trial to spread certain rhetoric such as that the teens who committed the murder were mentally ill, and therefore exempt from responsibility. Many reports also place an uncomfortable emphasis on Brianna’s deadname (name assigned at birth that the individual does not identify with), and her sex assigned at birth. Both of these issues can be seen in Judith Moritz’s (@JudithMoritz) X thread covering the trial of Brianna’s murderers.

Whilst Moritz does respect Brianna to an extent by referring to her by female pronouns, many transgender people on the site have expressed their discomfort with her apparent choice to focus on Brianna’s gender identity, seen here:

‘She tells the jury that Brianna Ghey was a young transgender person who was born male but lived as a female.’

‘Brianna Ghey was transgender. She was born male and given the name Brett Spooner.’

Many have defended this preoccupation as a simple recount of the trial, however when observing the trial, it is evident that Moritz has cherry picked certain aspects that focus on Brianna’s identity. As a result, the thread has attracted transphobic attention, including responses to the criticism mentioned earlier such as:

‘What do you think it said on his death certificate?’

‘Brett Spooner clearly had mental health issues he didn’t get the help he needed

because of people like you who support transing. You killed him. Transing killed him. [sic]’

Furthermore, as a result of this preoccupation with Brianna’s gender identity, Moritz has failed to include in her thread the extent of cruelty the defendants possess – she has neglected to include the worst of their exchanged text messages. A reporter that has been hailed as a better, less biased alternative to the BBC revealed that the teens exchanged texts leading all the way up to before Brianna’s murder, including ‘X told Y that after they met they would “go over plan again and I’ll show you where I’m killing her and then we both walk to the library to meet her and grab onto Brianna slit her throat when she starts to fall stab her in the back then pass me knife. I want to stab her at least once even if she’s dead jus coz its fun lol [sic]”’.[3]

Moreover, Moritz has been accused of emphasising their autism in a way that has been suggested to be an attempt to enable their exemption from legal responsibility. This is a tactic that can be seen in many other reports on murders committed by those who most of society cannot comprehend, as a result of internal biases, as evil – often, the defendants are white people. This can be exemplified in the recent case where a man shot and wounded three Palestinian young men, in an obvious hate crime. Rather than being portrayed as the xenophobe that he evidentially is, the BBC (among other news sources) represent him as mentally ill:

'Mr Eaton's mother, Mary Reed, told The Daily Beast her son had struggled with mental health and job security but had been "in such a good mood" when they met for Thanksgiving on Thursday.

"Jason has had a lot of struggles in his life," she said. "I am just shocked by the whole thing."[4]'

This trend of presenting offenders with sympathy is largely, as I have said, reserved for white people as a result of (sometimes) subconscious biases presented by a society built on racism, and can be brought back to Brianna’s case, where Moritz asserts – in what many have argued is a likely bid for sympathy/ exemption - that the teens have ‘varying diagnoses of autism’.

Of course, this is a court case, so facts concerning both the defendants and the victim are necessary, but Moritz’s choices to cherry-pick the specific examples I have listed suggest a rather insidious attempt to present both Brianna and the two teens in a certain light that removes the reader from the true point of the case which is surely that a young teen has suffered a brutal attack and murder as a result of unfounded, sadistic hatred.

[1] X user @PPreoccupied

[2] Roger Harrabin, ‘Stop kicking the BBC on bias. A right turn was needed, but now it’s gone too far’, The Guardian, March 2023

[3] @jessothomson, X

[4] Lisa Lambert, ‘Suspect pleads not guilty after three men of Palestinian descent shot in Vermont’, BBC News, November 2023

[jacolan]

Marlowe's Hero and Leander

This mock-epic is a poem concerned with themes of love, sexuality, and obsession, conveyed through various literary techniques.

The most immediately obvious of these techniques is the couplet form throughout the epic, and this allows Marlow to place emphasis on, and correlate/ connect, certain words/themes/ideas/events. It provides a more complete, purposeful tone - each couplet is paired together for a reason.

 'It lies not in our power to love or hate,

For will in us is over-rul'd by fate.'

This couplet, for example, places emphasis on '(love or) hate' and 'fate', a choice reiterating the message of the couplet - even our most passionate emotions are beyond our control; they are overruled by fate. The use of a couplet here, with its cohesive, 'closed' form, creates a conclusive tone of finality - no matter how much we want the story of the two lovers to end differently, that is simply 'not in our power'.

The theme of both homo and heterosexuality is considered in both the titular pairing and in both the gods and deities surrounding them. Young male sexuality is presented as powerful, all-consuming force which leads to unrelenting pursual of the subject - this is seen in both Leander and the men surrounding Hero. Contrastingly, young female sexuality is presented as something that, whilst it is there, should be repressed for the sake of maintaining virtue and respectability - seen in Hero's pretence that she does not reciprocate Leander's feelings.

Same sex desire, although only explicitly discussed in one instance, can be extrapolated from throughout the poem. This is clear in the extensive, blazon-like description of Leander's beauty. Indeed, homosexual consideration of Leander's beauty can further be seen in the suggestion that he is mistaken to be a maid in male clothing - this appears a (possibly (likely?) ironic and self-aware) way to excuse homosexual attraction toward good looking men.

Neptune's desire for Leander does not stop when he reveals he is, in fact, not a woman, and this is seen in his caressing and accidental self-harm - elaborate on this when I get back Lol. His interrupted story, although he doesn’t state it yet, appears as though he is about to excuse his attraction in some or other way.

[jacolan]

Oil, Ella Hickson - A petro-fictive play

This play presents a semi-realistic world where, whilst geography, politics, and events remain the same, we witness 162 years - the conception, rise, and fall of the oil industry - through the lives of two women whose ages at the start and end of the play suggest only around 50 years have passed. This manipulation of time is a meaningful literary device used to convey Hickson's concern toward anthropogenic actions surrounding the oil empire.

This impossible timespan perhaps encourages audiences to 'zoom out' - in presenting a single human lifespan over the lifetime of the oil industry, we can more clearly see the impacts that the resource has on society. Whilst it is one thing to read about projected impacts of non-renewable energy on the climate and ecosystem that will not impact this generation, to see these impacts on stage affecting someone we can relate to perhaps encourages a more visceral recognition of the environmentally problematic nature of the oil industry, something emphasised by the characterisation of Amy as representing climate activists of today. In the same vein, witnessing the mistreatment of the non-Western world as a result of (post-) colonialist power appeals to more peoples empathy than just reading about the fact that it happens – it is harder to truly imagine something when it is presented to you simply through fact.

The illogical passage of time in the play may also be to emphasise the comparatively tiny amount of time it has taken for humans to deplete something that takes an immeasurably long time to form - whilst >150 years feels like a long time to us, seeing it as if it were a human lifespan puts into perspective how minute an era it really is in comparison to the millions of years petroleum takes to form.

Moreover, the cyclical nature of the play serves to reflect that in the same way the oil industry was doomed to collapse, so will the upcoming nuclear energy industry. This is seen in the similarities between the first and last scene - in the same way oil was seen as a revolutionary, infinite resource with no negative impacts, the newly extracted nuclear energy will turn out to be finite, and have an impact on the planet - yet humans, as always, will be blind to it until it is too late.

[jacolan]

obviously trisha paytas has been problematic in some aspects but i think at the end of it all she was just a young abused girl in the a predatory world

[jacolan]

the two copulating snakes were the first trans allies

[jacolan]

don’t feel like socialising -> wanting to socialise but not -> socialising and acting incredibly offputting due to lack of exposure to peers pipeline

[jacolan]

study tips

when you aren’t studying, look at romanticised study posts (tumblr, pintrest) to get yourself in the mood - when i do this i start to get genuinely excited to study

do this hard stuff first, and then do the stuff that you like/ find easy at the end of each session - boosts morale and confidence

write things over and over and over, helps it to get in your head

read a paragraph (/page/chapter) summarise the key points without looking at it - active recall >>