Commissioning editor Simon Dickson responds to viewer feedback regarding the narration of Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change, a revealing Bodyshock documentary about young children with gender dysphoria.
'Thank you to everyone that has contacted Channel 4 to share their views on Bodyshock: Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change. The film has aroused a great deal of comment, almost all of it favourable, but I am sincerely sorry to hear that some members of the transgender community were upset by our use of biologically-accurate pronouns in the narration of the programme.
'It's important to remember that the majority of our audience will have had little or no understanding of transgender issues. The decision to use the pronouns we did was based on our responsibility to make the programme comprehensible to a mainstream audience.
'As many viewers have pointed out, the parents featured in our programme always referred to their child by their "preferred" gender. We were happy that this made it absolutely clear that each family had accepted and were extremely supportive of their child's decision.
'I hope you'll agree that Age 8 and Wanting a Sex Change was a story worth telling, and a story worth telling to as many people as possible, even at the risk of causing some dissatisfaction amongst those who understand the subject well already.'
