JK Rowling, transwomen and the Labour Party

[HeyRoly]

JK Rowling liked this tweet. I think she might be one of us. Will be interesting to see if this kicks off...

[LaContessaDiPlump]

Ooh. Have thought she might be for a while. Fingers crossed!

[CadyHeron]

Excellent if so, hope so!

[Terftastic]

JK has certainly been called a TERF before. I've always had high hopes for her - she seems far too intelligent to fall for this crap.

[WichBitchHarpyTerfThatsMe]

Excellent news, hopefully young female Harry Potter fans might be taking note of her views on this.

[MyBrilliantDisguise]

I reckon she's on here.

[SonicVersusGynaephobia]

She so knows, and she's too clever to fall for this shit.

Didn't she have a book with a "trans able" character?

[Hulo]

I love this term brocialist I'm seeing around

[Writersblock2]

Come on, Jo! Bloody hell we could do with a well-known woman standing up about this.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

She had to 'identify' as GN when she wrote Harry Potter. "JK" indeed...

[Weezol]

Hulo Bromentum is run by and for Brocialists.

[CadyHeron]

She had to 'identify' as GN when she wrote Harry Potter. "JK" indeed...

Ooh, good point! Yes, as a huge Harry Potter fan I've read about how she put JK instead so she would be taken more seriously as a writer if it was just initials.
Joanne Rowling? Meh, not so much. Don't get the boys wanting to pick you up and read,apparently.
JK Rowling though? Everyone wants to read as they automatically don't think you're a girl and "girly." and not worth reading as it's a "girly" book.
This all back in the 90s. She knows her stuff

[grovebeach]

Just a shame she stood by the casting of Johnny Depp even after it transpired he's a woman beater!

[CadyHeron]

grovebeach nobody's perfect, if she did, nobody's going to agree on everything.
On this issue though, does it mean that you shouldn't listen and ally just because she said something in the past you disagree with?

[grovebeach]

Cady I don't think that at all and I'm glad someone of her profile and influence is putting her head above the parapet. I just think it's a worthy thing to point out.

[NeverTalksToStrangers]

I watched this the other day on a dvd of the Deathly Hallows and immediately thought of this topic.

[CadyHeron]

Cady I don't think that at all and I'm glad someone of her profile and influence is putting her head above the parapet. I just think it's a worthy thing to point out.

Fair enough then
As an aside I'm finding it cool to think that I could be arguing with big names behind all this, JKRowling if you're reading I hope I haven't dismissed you as in the past

[thebewilderness]

Two of her Galbraith books have had trans characters. The Silkworm has a trans identified male and Career of Evil had a transabled character.
The protagonist in the novels, Strike, is an amputee.

[Terftastic]

I've watched that interview with JK before - and found it incredibly moving. Not just about her want for powerful female characters, but her testament to motherhood.

The two mothers at the beginning and end of the story - his mother protecting him, and then Malfoy's mother saving him at the end, to save her own son. Just great. Great writing. I love JK.

"You can't just put a dress on a man and make him female" - damn right.

[DryHeave]

Hagrid’s a woman and has been for 20 years...

[C8H10N4O2]

I could have made that tweet - I also remember a Labour party which was less that friendly to women and mocked and undermined campaigns like Claire Short's on page three.

I was openly told that the LP was a working men's club. This wasn't universal - there were other voices - but there was a strong stream of sexism and its still there, just as much as in the Tories.

[MrPan]

Hagrid's only living as a woman.

[BarrackerBarmer]

oof

Just watched that interview where Julie Walters described Molly's visceral defence of her daughter as "coming from her womb" and it made me break down in tears.

These fundamental truths about women, and about mothers, written so perfectly by Rowling. And then this stupid and overwhelming struggle we're currently stuck in, of truth being subsumed under an avalanche of stereotypes about the feelings of men who think they are female.

I've been hoping for years that JK is one of us.
I think she is.

I hope she doesn't in fact 'out' herself if she is.
I think she could be far more helpful behind the scenes, by discreetly reaching out to one of the organisations publicly fighting for women's rights.

We are outgunned by the Pritzkers and the Rothblatts et al, and although we have facts and truth, science and fairness, we live in a post truth world where the key organisation of women's rights is now taking place in secret enclaves of women trying to push back the tide, not lose their jobs doing it, and feed their children tea at the same time.

Joanna, if you're reading, please reach out somehow to someone. We really need you.

[SirVixofVixHall]

Yes. Barracker "the fundamental truths about women, about mothers". Every single person alive came out of a woman's womb. The complete lack of respect for women and their bodies inherent in identity politics makes me despair. We should be looking outwards, at this world which is still so dreadful for girls and women, in so many ways, and which we are destroying ecologically. Not inward in some endless search for "identity". I've managed perfectly well not identifying as anything. I am female, a woman, a mother.

[Kyanite]

JKR will do anything to stop people voting Labour while it is a Socialist Party.

[Childrenofthestones]

About 15 years ago I was at a local council committee meeting open to the public, but the only members of the public were half a dozen of us union members from our branch.
A liberal Democrat counsellor stood up and had her say, took less than a minute, and as she sat down a labour councillor, a big man in his 60's and a bit of a bruiser sat opposite me muttered, but loud enough for everybody in the room to hear. " Sit down you stupid fucking bitch"
I and my colleagues sat looking open mouthed at one another.
If one of us had done this in work it would have been a disciplinary and possibly we would be sat in front of this same committee with them deciding whether or not to give us the sack.
I leant forward and said to the Counselor that had invited us to come along, who was sat two seats away "Did you not hear that?"
His response was " Oh that's just Peter."
Shit like this makes you realise why the Tories are on their second female leader and despite having wall to wall feminists in the party Labour has never had one.