Another sign of the times

Another sign of the times. 

This morning's Broadcasting House paper review heard Helen Pidd of the Guardian bringing up a Daily Mail piece headlined Our swimming pond is NOT gender fluid: Fury of Hampstead Heath ladies after men identifying as women are allowed into their famous bathing lake. 

I'd already read a similar story in The Times, headlined The female NHS nurse I asked for came with stubble which began, "A woman who requested a female NHS nurse to perform her cervical smear test was “embarrassed and distressed” after a person with stubble and a deep voice summoned her for the intimate procedure." 

Being a good Guardian gal (if I'm allowed to say that), Helen declared, "But what we need to remember here [a very Guardian way to put it] is we're not talking about men. We're talking about transgender women who who've taken the very difficult decision, a very painful, costly decision, which will probably mean they're subject to a lot of abuse, to transition into a woman and I just don't think they'll be there to perv on woman in the changing rooms". 

So far, so predictable. But then came the two male press reviewers (if I'm allowed to call them that). The first said, "I'm not sure it's my place to comment on it". The second said, "Probably not" to Paddy's question, "Do you want to wade into these waters?".

Paddy read out feminist Julie Bindel's response.