A British Reality Star Expertly Shut Down Anti-Trans Rhetoric In A Flawless Display Of Allyship Live On TV
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It is undeniable that in recent years, there has been a war on trans rights across the globe, with high-profile figures like J.K. Rowling and Dave Chappelle stoking the flames across social media.
In addition to a troubling increase in misinformation surrounding the trans community, certain demographics have also taken issue with the concept of “wokeness,” making wild claims that their liberty is under threat due to so-called “woke culture.”
For example, just this month, Dwayne Johnson sparked backlash when he ranted: “Cancel culture, woke culture, this culture, that culture, division, et cetera, that really bugs me.”
While Succession star Brian Cox told Piers Morgan last year: “The whole woke culture is truly awful.”
“I don’t know where it comes from. Who are the arbiters of this shaming? And it’s very hard to pin them down, and, it turns out, it’s usually a bunch of millennials. And who gave them the halos?” he added at the time.
But a British reality star has now gone viral for the way that she coolly educated critics on the actual definition of “wokeness” in a flawless display of allyship on live TV.
Ashley James has won high praise for her recent appearance on UK daytime show This Morning, where she hit back at claims that health professionals are preventing new moms from using the word “breastfeeding.”
Ashley, who first found fame on the E4 series Made in Chelsea, was on the show to discuss the daily news alongside former politician turned TV personality Gyles Brandreth. They were asked about British politician Penny Mordaunt's call for an end to "woke" language in official documents.
Penny, the House of Commons leader, stated that governing bodies should avoid “gender-neutral language” in place of more “traditional” words like mother and father.
Reacting to the story, Gyles claimed: “I heard of a nurse at a respected London hospital who has been told that she must tell mothers to use the phrase ‘chestfeeding’ when talking to a mother about breastfeeding."
But Ashley was having none of it, interrupting: “My eyes could not roll further into the back of my head if they tried because, firstly, that’s not true. That’s tabloids trying to whip up a frenzy.”
As Gyles attempted to double down, Ashley continued: “I'm still breastfeeding and I gave birth in the last year. The guidance says if you're dealing with a trans person, use the term ‘chestfeeding’ — it's more inclusive. No one's trying to ban the word ‘breastfeeding,’ and I think this is what our government are currently doing — they’re stoking culture wars.”
“The term ‘woke’ actually does mean ‘being alert to social justice,’ and that can only be a good thing,” she went on. “Being woke is only a good thing, and I feel like this term has been weaponized — just like the term ‘snowflake.’”
“Actually, it's the people who fear wokeness that seem to be the snowflakes because they're getting offended by words,” Ashley pointed out. “And all it is doing is trying to attempt for society to care about and consider people's feelings, and to attempt for society to be more equal.”
“A good example of that is using the word ‘parent’ instead of ‘mom and dad,’ right? It’s pretty harmless,” she added. “But what it means is that for my friend who's a single mom because she adopted on her own, for my friend who is a two-dad family, or my friends who are two-mom families, it's just not assuming that there's always a mom and a dad and that's all it is."
“‘Parents’ doesn't take away from the role of a mother,” Ashley said. “I so support the term ‘mother,’ I'm a breastfeeding mum; nobody has ever told me ‘chestfeeding.’ I’ve got trans friends, and none of them are offended.”
ALLY-SHIP IN ACTION. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽@ashleyljames pic.twitter.com/thzyS00W93
— bally singh (@putasinghonit) April 10, 2024
ITV / Via Twitter: @putasinghonit
The star then concluded: “Sometimes I think the government and the media like to whip up this frenzy to make people think things are going too far, but wokeness is not the reason that we don't have affordable housing, wokeness is not the reason public services are crumbling. It’s just a nothing story.”
And an impressed viewer shared a clip of this moment to X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday, simply writing in the caption: “ALLY-SHIP IN ACTION,” adding in a separate tweet: “Aside from the incredible words — standing up for your own beliefs & championing others, whilst on a platform with an audience known to have anti-woke views is so refreshing. Its not just an Instagram tile statement or performative flag in a bio. Its taking risks & doing the work.”
It didn’t take long for the video to go viral. In fact, in just two days, the tweet has been seen more than 11 million times and received over 20,000 retweets as people praised what Ashley said.
Journalist David Mack retweeted the video and added: “new queen just dropped. watch how the others go from rolling their eyes at the subject matter to silently feeling mortified,” while somebody else wrote: “oh this is brilliant. so simple, so succinct. shows how instantly this culture war bullshit crumbles when you apply a crumb of common sense, reason & basic perspective.”
“I’ve seen so many transphobic conversations recently, that this is such a breath of fresh air on mainstream tv. An eloquent response about ‘wokeness’ that is actually thought through,” another response read. One more X user wrote: “the way they were all rolling their eyes and she had them looking shameful and embarassed [sic] by the end.”
Responding to the onslaught of praise on Thursday, Ashley wrote: “Oh wow I’ve just seen my mentions and this has blown up. thanks everyone. It’s such a huge privilege to get to talk about these topics on @thismorning.”
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