According to the Telegraph (fifth?) columnist Allison Pearson, the BBC show Strictly Come Dancing is being ‘woke’. Here’s what she says:
It must take some degree of hate to come up with something like that. Pearson doesn’t seem to realise that actually there are a fair few LGBT folk in our country. But she doesn’t seem to think that they should be allowed to compete with a partner of the same sex on a dancing show. Does she think, then, that same-sex couples should not be heard nor seen? Get back in the closet because Allison doesn’t like it.
Then, there’s her issue with dwarfism and Ellie Simmonds, a national sporting hero, who does incredible work with young people and sport. As with a gay person, someone with dwarfism can’t be entertaining. It’s purely about inclusion. No, it isn’t. When I watch the show, I do not judge people on the basis of their sexuality, just whether they can dance. I would not like to see someone like Simmonds not have the chance to compete on the show because she has dwarfism. That would be exclusion. My guess is that the producers choose potential competitors on what they might bring to the programme.
And let’s go back to what woke means. Here’s the best definition I have read:
‘Woke nowadays refers to being aware or well informed in a political or cultural sense, especially regarding issues surrounding marginalised communities – it describes someone who has “woken up” to issues of social injustice.’
Even if the BBC producers had chosen people specifically on the grounds of being ‘woke’, something by the way I do not believe is true, then is that necessarily a bad thing? Being woke is plainly a very good thing to be. I’m woke and proud.
The Pearsons of this world, have weaponised ‘wokery’ in order to attack people. They are always of the hard, if not far, right. Whether it is to play to a bitter, angry and bigoted readership, I don’t know, but the point is they punch down and aim to hurt. They attack the very idea of equality of opportunity, perhaps because of their own securities or because they feel threatened. Why, instead of blaming inclusion, do they not publicly and openly admit they prefer to exclude everyone they don’t consider to be ‘normal’?
One of the secrets of the success of Strictly is that every woman and every man can compete. Jonny Peacock competed with a prosthetic leg. Rose Ayling-Ellis won the thing despite being deaf. Ann Widdecombe competed despite being a thoroughly unpleasant right wing old woman. A bit like Pearson, really. In Pearson’s world, the show would comprise of just fit young things, with immaculate bodies.
Luckily, Pearson is perfect in every way, although she doesn’t look much like the photo used in the Telegraph. Perhaps, her employer is too woke to tell her?
