Janice Turner Interview with Rosie Kay

[Igneococcus]

Rosie resigned from her own dance company after accusations of transphobia:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/3935bc4a-5858-11ec-a3f7-65d2d47c7fea?shareToken=b7d8e07dfee7cb3f54df6487999e9a82

I've not heard of Rosie but that's a terrible story, she must feel so betrayed. Good write up by Janice.

Oh brave new world…

I've never heard of Rosie either, dance isn't really something I pay much attention to, but this is a shocking story. I'm glad it's on the frontpage of Tol.

That feels like two worlds running smack into each other. A total generational shift that has left a chasm of understanding.

Obviously I'm on one side of that generational chasm and it's quite terrifying to see. To me it looks like denial and resentment. And misogyny.

@Livelifeinthebuslane

I've not heard of Rosie but that's a terrible story, she must feel so betrayed. Good write up by Janice.

I agree 100%

Amazing isn't it. We can see history in the making. Women forced out their own creations, Harry Potter fans separating out JK from HP.

This is how women have never had their names on anything down the centuries. The reasons may have been different but the effect is the same. It's so easy to do even today when women have rights!

This is so frustrating, choreography is such a male dominated area, and male choreographers have used their role to sexually assault dancers(of both sexes) for decades.

Well done to Rosie for not going quietly, and shame on the dancers and trustees for creating this situation.

Anyone know of a way of sending a card?

@SweetGrapes

Amazing isn't it. We can see history in the making. Women forced out their own creations, Harry Potter fans separating out JK from HP.

This is how women have never had their names on anything down the centuries. The reasons may have been different but the effect is the same. It's so easy to do even today when women have rights!

This. It's identical to the historical appropriation of women's success. Erase them, pretend it's not theirs.

I so hope Rosie takes this forward legally. We need these awful cancellations officially outlawed.

If she has a garden, I will dig my arse off.

Enough of this shit.

That’s chilling. She gave them an amazing opportunity, training, a platform to perform, invited them to her own HOUSE for a social gathering, treated them like grown ups and equals in conversation and they’ve just shit all over her. For what? Their performance got cancelled and now they’re all out of a job.

The moral high ground they’re standing on is actually a pyre of women’s careers.

Only women seem to be hounded out of their careers, it’s almost like this whole movement is based on misogyny.

Interesting comparisons in Times articles today. There is the story of the golfer, cleared of sexual assault because they could not control their actions. Contrast this with the story of the choreographer, who has been forced to leave their job after being accused of sexual harassment for using the words penis and vagina. Hmm, do you think you can guess which of these people is male and which is female?

Just read this over breakfast and headed over to see if it had been posted. I too will dig for this one! DessertStorm's post has got me fired up 💪

@OperationDessertStorm

That’s chilling. She gave them an amazing opportunity, training, a platform to perform, invited them to her own HOUSE for a social gathering, treated them like grown ups and equals in conversation and they’ve just shit all over her. For what? Their performance got cancelled and now they’re all out of a job.

The moral high ground they’re standing on is actually a pyre of women’s careers.

She has a HOUSE? That means she’s a privileged oppressor and the little toe rags bullying her are merely punching up.

I found this really shocking but I wonder if there is some light?

Thankfully, her canny father ensured that she retains all intellectual property rights. So the Rosie Kay Dance Company is left a shell. and the show was cancelled so those virtue warriors are out of a job. A bit of critical thinking would have helped them see the potential flaws in their strategy

That's a shocking story. I can't believe they actually claimed the words "penis" and "vagina" are sexual harassment in and of themselves. So when we are addressed as "bodies with vaginas" we can bring a case for mass sexual harassment? When presumably the "non binary" person would agitate for such "inclusive" language. Make it make sense!

What happened to Ms Kay is a travesty of justice.

“My lawyer advised me, ‘You are not going to win. They will find you guilty of transphobia, smear you — and that’s the end of your career.’ But I was just talking about women’s material reality and I am not going to go quietly. I am determined to put my head above the parapet.”

I wonder why the lawyer was so pessimistic that the Forstater ruling would be of no help. Because it was HR rather than an employment tribunal or similar?

several male dancers shouted that she was a bigot and a terf.

Of course it was led by the people with no skin in the game.

Why does this always read as same old (internalised) misogyny and just different clothes and justifications?

Spacey, so many #MeToo men are all back in public roles - many of them are denying now that they ever had a problematic pattern of behaviour.

Women are the boy in the crowd trying to alert the rest of the populace and they're being disappeared from public sight and invisibilised as the makers of their own creativity and works. No resentment of 'bad mothers' there at all, definitely not.

Yes I think she should seek other legal opinions, as it sounds like she is doing.

This is a big part of the reason I have absolutely no truck with "non binary". The idea that saying biological sex exists is triggering. It's even more of a threat to women's rights than bog standard transgenderism is, IMO.

@Ereshkigalangcleg

This is a big part of the reason I have absolutely no truck with "non binary". The idea that saying biological sex exists is triggering. It's even more of a threat to women's rights than bog standard transgenderism is, IMO.

Exactly.

It's going to be a schism as they are implacably opposed to eachother's essentialism, philosophical status, and existence. Presumably both will require adherence to such polarised immersive fictions that it's not possible to satisfy them in any mixed gathering (NB and trans being the mix).

Everybody else and everyday discourse/communication will be collateral damage in the fallout from this.

Shocking piece- Penis and vagina sexual harassment? A male with his p out in a changing room?
Awful story- and I can't believe the lawyer's advice! Maybe the lawyer wasn't confident and afraid? I hope Rosie finds a great lawyer. A win would shine more light on this shit show

Really not impressed with that lawyer. I hope she gets better legal advice soon!

This is madness. I’ve worked for two choreographers who are peers of Rosie Kay, one M, one F and this will be potentially terrifying for women, esp those over 40 I would guess, in the sector. Strikes me that the board have panicked about the impact on their own livelihoods (esp if any of them are in HE, which often arts board members are) and thrown Rosie under the bus. The arts are largely in the grip of this at the moment - I work in a different artform now, have declined to add my pronouns to my email etc but not before going through my personal twitter to stop following anyone who would arouse suspicion (I have a separate anonymous account for that now). If PM really wonders why more women don’t stand up against this - this is why, they risk losing so much.