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Open Letter to the British Film Institute

565 Comments

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Flora Fairford
8 years ago

In the year when the film industry has woken up to the massive scale of abuse of women, and when dozens of female actors & directors have bravely spoken out, choosing someone born male to mansplain feminism is the most crass, ill-considered and misogynistic move imaginable.

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Zoey Stewart
8 years ago

Shut up you daft cunt

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Helen Ped
8 years ago

For Gods Sake... this is about women!!!

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Eric Armstrong
8 years ago

An unacceptable snub to women. A calculated move to shock?

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Deborah Loe
8 years ago

You are silencing women's voices.

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Jemma Morgan
8 years ago

Come on! You MUST see how crazy this is, with absolutely no offence to the trans speaker (I have a trans relative who I love dearly and have worked for LGBT+ rights), how exactly does their lived experience match women's? Do they even have the professional experience to lead this? That's mad.

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Jo
8 years ago

Anyone can be any gender they want, but women face oppression & discrimination based on their sex too. We need to hear the voices of those born women for a woman's award

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Anonymous
8 years ago

Munroe isn’t a woman. He’s a man. What’s your definition of woman?

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Tanya Beasley
8 years ago

Only women for women pleas

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J Hart
8 years ago

Keynote speaker must be a) a female b) in film.

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Kate McKee
8 years ago

Monroe Bergdoff has neither the lived or professional experience to reflect the focus of the conference.

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Sheila Marshall
8 years ago

Why would you choose to deliver such a grievous insult to women in the film industry, and women generally, BFI? Is it your intention to erase and devalue what women in film are doing, and the particular hurdles those born female face? The fact that this person, born and socialised male with all the advantages that brings, isn’t even a film maker is just an absolute kick in the teeth for actual Women with Movie Cameras. What a great idea for an event. What a shocking way to sabotage it.

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Anonymous
8 years ago

Munro Bergdorf is a bloke who isn't involved in the film industry. What's he got to do with women or film-making?

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Cait Roberts
8 years ago

The title is Women in Film, not trans-women in film.

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Cat
8 years ago

BFI can demonstrate integrity by acknowledging this mistake and replacing the speaker. Otherwise, BFI will be known as anti-women.

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Carie Peterson
8 years ago

My daughter plans to go into filmmaking. It is because of her that I know how unfair the film industry truly is to women. Women should not have to suffer sexual assault from the likes of Harvey Weinstein in order to advance in the industry. Choosing Munroe Bergdorf sends THAT EXACT MESSAGE, that women are not welcome in the industry and men who put on fake boobs and fake ass in tight dresses are "better at womaning." It sends the message that ONLY MEN can make films, even if means they have to wear a dress to do it. The only thing Bergdorf has done for women in the film industry is reinforce that women do not belong there, and men who play act as women to fill sick masturbatory fantasies are QUITE welcome.

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Louise Somerville
8 years ago

Dear BFI, you support a keynote speech which says - "Feminism needs to include everyone" and are showcasing a transwoman who is not a filmmaker or a woman. This is discriminatory and undermining to all women, as well as prejudicial towards women in the film industry. Feminism is Women's liberation. If it was to include men, it would not be feminism. Woman means adult human female. For the BFI to marginalise, sideline, and undermine women's film industry achievements in this way is disempowering and unnaceptable. MB is talking about power? Whose power? Not the power of women in the film industry who you disenfranchise by making this decision to host MBs talk.

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Anonymous
8 years ago

Completley disrespectful to all the females who have struggled to establish and actually work in the film industry. So many women you could of chosen and you pick someone who is famous for being born male and using surgery and clothing to emulate stereotypical femininity. This spot has been taken from a female, someone who other females watching, could of sought inspiration from. Instead you have given females the message that their work, efforts, struggles and achievements are not important, not to be celebrated and not worthy of acknowledgement. You have shown that as usual it is the stories of male born individuals which deserve the limelight. Sad times. So disappointed.

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Anonymous
8 years ago

A man in a dress is not a woman. The BFI is actively working to exclude women.

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Anonymous
8 years ago

Shocking nonsense bfi. You had a chance to ask a film industry veteran and you chose a male.