Entertainment

Model Vogue Williams calls Jenni Murray's sex change comments 'stupid'

Vogue investigates gender dysphoria in her new TV show.
Vogue investigates gender dysphoria in her new TV show. Vogue investigates gender dysphoria in her new TV show.

Vogue Williams has hit out at Woman’s Hour host Dame Jenni Murray after she suggested that men who have undergone sex change operations are not “real women”.

The broadcaster, 66, sparked controversy when she questioned whether someone who has enjoyed the privileges of growing up as a man could really be a woman.

But Vogue, 31, who investigates the increase in gender dysphoria and meets young people dealing with gender identity issues in her new TV series, branded the remarks “stupid”.

Vogue Williams
Vogue Williams
(Chris J Ratcliffe/PA)

“I think that’s a ridiculous, narrow-minded statement. I can’t understand when I hear things like that,” she told the Press Association.

“That’s exactly what is wrong with the world, people like her are what’s wrong with the world. (It creates) friction amongst people.

“It’s a really stupid thing to say and she should be more careful with her words to be honest.”

The Irish star said it was wrong to suggest that men who undergo sex changes had grown up with all the benefits of being a man.

Vogue Williams
Vogue Williams
(Yui Mok/PA)

“They haven’t lived the life of a man because they’ve never felt like a man,” the former contestant on The Jump said.

“The people who’ve transitioned have never felt like the gender that they were assigned at birth so they’ve never, ever felt like a man, so what she’s saying doesn’t make sense.”

The model follows the story of a trans man reaching the later stages of his transition in the first episode of her new series, Vogue Williams Investigates, starting on Wednesday.

She looks at issues faced by Millennials, including “the ultimate quest for the body beautiful” and the impact of online bullying in the series, which airs on new free-to-air TV channel Quest Red.

Vogue Williams
Vogue Williams
(Ian West/PA)

“I do a lot of work with the LGBT community and I realised the T part was quite left behind,” she said.

“The more I investigated this, the more I actually realised that the trans community is probably where the gay community was 20 years ago.

“People don’t understand it and people are quite volatile and rude to people from the trans community,” she said.

Vogue, who was previously married to Brian McFadden, investigates the “mindset of a generation obsessed with extreme notions of physical beauty” in the series.

Vogue Williams
Vogue Williams
(Channel 4)

She said she had been angered by the way she had been airbrushed following photoshoots.

“We aspire to something that isn’t a reality. I don’t look how I look on my photoshoots,” she said.

“Some photoshoots I’ve had to say ‘that’s just ridiculous, it doesn’t really look like me. It’s not what I look like’.

“When it’s gone so far I think ‘what’s the point of even booking me?’. They’re taking the mole off my face or something like that. I understand flyaway hair, you have to touch it up a bit, but it goes too far.

“Wanting to look like a Victoria’s Secret model, it’s not obtainable.”The model was forced to pull out of The Jump before the Channel 4 show had even started after injuring her knee while training.Vogue denied that she had signed a contract for next year’s show, but said that becoming the first contestant to leave the latest series had not put her off the prospect of a return.“Of course I was watching. I’ve been very jealous watching it. We still all talk to each other,” she said of the contestants.

Vogue Williams
Vogue Williams
(John Walton/PA)

“The show hasn’t been commissioned yet for next year but if it does get commissioned, I’d love to go back. I’d love to do it.“I had such great fun. People think I’m crazy for doing the show, but I think they’re crazy for thinking I’m crazy.“It hasn’t put me off at all.”:: Vogue Williams Investigates begins on Quest Red on Wednesday at 10pm.