BBC Top Female List Includes Panda

It wasn’t a dog, but the BBC has taken flak for naming a panda to its top 12 female faces of 2011. Tian Tian, a female Chinese panda also known as Sweetie, was added to the annual list this year. The panda, along with her companion Sunshine, is on loan to the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. The move has prompted a rash of scrutiny, even from British lawmakers who criticized the media conglomerate for leaving out accomplished women like IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The BBC defended its list on Twitter, saying Sweetie wasn’t “the first non-human on Faces of the year list.” In years past, both Peppa Pig and Benson the Carp made the lists.