Around a third of the UK population is unaware that so-called “transgender women” are biological males, according to campaigners, who blame the LGBT community and legacy media of employing “intentionally” complex jargon to muddle the argument around transgenderism.
According to a survey done by policy analysis firm Murray Blackburn Mackenzie (MBM), 35% of Britons wrongly assume a “transgender woman” is someone who was born as a biological woman or are unsure what the phrase means.
The research found that there was even more uncertainty about the phrase “trans woman,” with 40% of the public unable to define it accurately.
The MBM survey found that there were disparities in understanding among different age groups, yet interestingly, it was the 25-34 age group that was most confused about the issue, with just 55 per cent being able to correctly state that a transgender woman was born as a man.
Their younger cohort, from 18-24, showed a better understanding of the terminology, however, it was the elder generation, those above 55, that understood the terms the best, with 62 per cent being able to define “trans woman” and 70 per cent understanding what “transgender woman” means, The Telegraph reported.
The policy analysis firm placed the blame on legacy media institutions such as the BBC for broadly adopting new-fangled terminology surrounding gender without considering that the public might not be aware of what they are saying.
Indeed, the BBC has previously come under criticism last year for failing to relay to its audience that an American serial killer was in fact a biological male, and was forced into editing an article to reflect that the transgender killer was not born as a woman as the original article had implied.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Lisa Mackenzie of Murray Blackburn Mackenzie said: “Using these terms, without spelling out what they mean for a person’s sex as matter of course, will leave a large minority of people at best uncertain. At worst, they will have a back-to-front understanding of what they are being told or asked.”
“These results show that to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, journalists and others need to spell out clearly what sex of person is being referred to, in any context where sex matters.
“We also hope organisations which need to communicate with the public will commission further research as necessary, to understand how language here may confuse or clarify.”