BBC Names Female Panda the 2011 'December Woman' Raising Anger

BBC's peculiar choice of including Sweetie Panda female ,brought by Edinburgh Zoo from China, in a list of successful women that have been under the spotlight in 2011 has raised a lot of controversy.

Even though the Chinese panda couple have increased the popularity of the zoo and have attracted the attention of a wide public, this is not relevant enough to justify the selection of the Tian Tian female as one of the 12 most influent women of 2011.

The list of famous faces was published on Wednesday by the BBC magazine. Since then, several people have expressed their anger on Twitter, shocked that an animal can be considered as popular as Pippa Middleton, Adele or Charlene Wittstock, worldwide famous after marrying Prince Albert of Monaco.

The giant panda appears to be the BBC's “December woman,” the disturbing result of the choices made by BBC editors, the Guardian informs.

Even though it could count as a great way of celebrating wildlife and endangered species, it is definitely an uninspired method of illustrating the contribution of women seen as role models.

“Whilst we all love a good panda story, in a year when Christine Lagarde became head of the IMF, or Helle Thorning-Schmidt became prime minister of Denmark or even the sad death of Amy Winehouse, its frustrating the BBC couldn't think of 12 human female faces who have made the news this year,” notes Labour MP Stella Creasy for the Guardian.

In an effort to justify their selection criteria and support their candidates, even the most controversial one, the Tian Tian female panda, BBC officials have indicated that this is not the first time when an animal or a cartoon character is brought under the spotlight.

Peppa the Pig and Benson the Carp have also been considered non-human candidates, important enough to rank in the list of famous people.

“Including Sweetie as one for the annual headline-makers was a light-hearted addition to the list, and this isn't the first time it has featured a non-human. In 2009, Benson the Carp, a much-caught giant fish, was August's entry on the male list and last year Peppa the Pig was on the female list for April [2010],”explained  BBC representatives.

Their odd choice is not the only feature triggering controversy. What’s bothering most of the people is that BBC magazine has failed to include a woman in their Sports personality of the year, suggesting that a series of achievements in sports have been simply disregarded by editors.