Non-binary singer Mila Jam says a ‘revolution’ is happening in the face of a ‘pushback’ against pronouns
Non-binary singer Mila Jam – having released their own version of disco classic It’s Raining Men called It’s Raining Them – says in the face of a “pushback” against pronouns a “revolution” is happening.
In London to promote their new music, the trans artist said: “There’s an evolution of vocabulary happening.”
“There’s just this pushback that keeps putting us in this box of not important not being discussed or seen, but there’s a revolution happening.”
The singer says changing the lyrics of a disco classic was about making a gay anthem more inclusive.
“The song is an anthem for the gay community, but there are more than just gay people in the queer LGBTQ+ community. So it’s for non-binary folk, trans folk, gender non-conforming folk, for they/them folk, it’s for the spectrum.”
From Demi Lovato confirming they were non-binary earlier this year through to Vice-President Kamala Harris showing solidarity with the trans community by introducing herself as she/her, society might be more accepting of gender diversity nowadays but the use of the pronoun “they” still causes divisions.
Demi Lovato confirmed they were non-binary earlier this year
Naomi Cunningham, an employment barrister and co-founder of Campaign Group Sex Matters, sees the use of pronouns as a belief system, not a fact, with real-world implications.
“I am not transphobic. Nobody I know is transphobic, but I do believe that biological sex is real.”
She believes employers who enforce the use of pronouns in the workplace might have a legal case to answer to.
“If you have a colleague who says ‘I don’t believe that anyone can literally change sex and I’m not comfortable using pronouns that seem to me to be wrong’, if employers seek to insist that employees… introduce themselves with their pronouns or put them on their signatures or wear them on a badge or whatever, then there will be religion or belief discrimination claims arising out of that workplace, for sure.”
Learning to use the singular “they” might not be easy but it’s certainly not a new phenomenon.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, there are examples of it being used in that way dating back to 1375.
Dr Laura Paterson, a lecturer in Applied Linguistics at Open University, says it’s important to remember that “language changes”.
“The pronouns we use now don’t look the same as they did 500 years ago and I think that gender is obviously a social issue.”
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“People might feel like they’re on the back foot if they don’t understand contemporary debates but that’s why we have these debates. It’s so that we can spread knowledge and people can learn more about what gender means in the 21st century,” Dr Paterson continued.
Mila Jam’s remake was launched on streaming site Deezer, with 100% of their revenue from the song going to charity Gendered Intelligence.
Davina McCall has said her short-term memory is “a bit remiss” as she recovers from brain tumour surgery.
Speaking from her bed, the visibly emotional TV presenter posted a short video updating her Instagram followers on her condition, saying it had been a “mad” time.
She expressed an “enormous heartfelt thank you” to people who had messaged her after she revealed this month she had a benign brain tumour, a colloid cyst, which she described as “very rare”.
Looking bright, but with a visibly bruised left eye, McCall said: “My short-term memory is a bit remiss.
“But that is something I can work on, so I’m really happy about that. I’m writing everything down, to keep myself feeling safe.”
She added: “It’s been mad, and it’s just really nice to be back home, I’m on the other side.”
In a message posted with the video, she reiterated her thanks for all the support she has received, adding: “Had a great night’s sleep in my own bed. Have a couple of sleeps during the day which keeps my brain clear… Slowly, slowly…”
When she first shared her diagnosis, she said chances of having it were “three in a million” and that she had discovered it several months previously after a company offered her a health scan in return for giving a menopause talk.
The 57-year-old star said support from her fans had “meant the world”.
She said she was being “brilliantly looked after” by her partner, hairdresser Michael Douglas, and her stepmother, Gabby, who she calls mum.
Becoming tearful, the presenter said: “I’d quickly like to say big up the stepmums. I don’t really say thank you to Gabby enough. She’s been an amazing rock my whole life.”
McCall was estranged from her birth mother, Florence McCall, who died in 2008.
McCall with 2002 Big Brother winner Kate Lawler. Pic: Rex Features
With a catch in her voice, McCall went on: “I’ve got a massive dose of vitamin G – I’m just really grateful. I’ve always been really lucky in my life, but I feel unbelievably grateful right now. So, thanks for everything, all of you.
“I’m on the mend, I’m resting and sleeping loads and I feel really good. I’m just very lucky.”
Stars including presenter Alison Hammond, singer Craig David and radio host Zoe Ball quickly shared their delight at the positive update.
McCall rose to fame presenting on MTV in the mid-1990s, and later on Channel 4’s Streetmate, before becoming a household name as the host of Big Brother from 2000 to 2010.
McCall with her MBE, alongside her partner Michael Douglas and her daughter Holly Robertson. Pic: PA
She’s gone on to present programmes across the networks, the most recent being ITV dating show My Mum, Your Dad.
Last year, McCall was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting.
Married twice, McCall has three children, two daughters and a son, with her second husband, presenter Matthew Robertson.
She has lived with Douglas since 2022, and they present a weekly lifestyle podcast together, Making The Cut.
Barbara Taylor Bradford, the bestselling novelist who wrote A Woman Of Substance, has died at the age of 91.
The Leeds-born author, who sold more than 90 million books, died peacefully at her home on Sunday after a short illness and was “surrounded by loved ones to the very end”, a spokeswoman said.
Taylor Bradford, who was often labelled “the grand dame of blockbusters”, hit the big time when A Woman Of Substance was published in 1979, making her an overnight success.
The story sold millions of copies and traced the journey of Emma Harte from life as a servant in rural Yorkshire to heading a business empire.
The rags to riches story was followed by many other successful books with the author’s works being published in more than 40 languages across 90 countries.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
The author on her 21st birthday. Pic: Bradford Enterprises/PA
Charlie Redmayne, chief executive of publisher HarperCollins, said the author was a “natural storyteller”, adding: “Barbara Taylor Bradford was a truly exceptional writer whose first book, the international bestseller A Woman Of Substance, changed the lives of so many who read it – and still does to this day.”
Taylor Bradford, who was made an OBE in 2007 for services to literature, wrote a total of 40 novels during her career – her most recent was The Wonder Of It All, published last year.
Pic: Caroll Taveras/Bradford Enterprises/PA
Taylor Bradford with her husband Robert in 1993. Pic: PA
Born in May 1933 as the only child of Winston and Freda Taylor, she worked as a typist for the Yorkshire Evening Post before becoming a reporter and then the paper’s first woman’s editor.
At the age of 20, she moved to London and worked in Fleet Street for Woman’s Own and the London Evening News.
She met her husband, American film producer Robert Bradford, in 1961 and they married in London on Christmas Eve in 1963 before moving to New York the following year.
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The couple were married for 55 years until he died from a stroke in 2019.
Following a private funeral in New York, the author will be buried alongside her late husband at the city’s Westchester Hills Cemetery.
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