John Boyne's new book 'My brother's name is Jessica'.

So people wanting to literally live in a fictional world are disallowing people who write fiction to write fiction that they haven't 'lived', thereby changing the definition of 'fiction' to 'fact' whilst simultaneously redefining what most people think of as 'fact' into fiction.

Excellent work chaps.

I know I don't read YA fiction but is it true that sibling perspectives on transitioning have been done to death, as one of John Boyne's detractors said?

I don't read YA fiction either, but that seems extremely unlikely. I don't supposed they mentioned any actual novels which did this, did they?

And nobody is going to buy/read such books except TRAs.

Do TRAs actually read books? On that twitter screenshot I posted yesterday, the third point from the TRA, regarding not having read Boyne's book was:

3) Reading the novel is not mentally feasible for everyone.

I'm not sure if that's saying that they're incapable of reading a novel, or if all the 'literal violence' in it would upset them too much.

But generally speaking, they don't seem to read anything apart from twitter posts agreeing with them.

We have discussed this in a FB author group and though one woman went out of her way to explain why "cis" is not derogatory, almost everyone else defended their right to centre all kinds of characters in fiction, including serial killers, prostitutes, etc, without having to actually have lived that life!

The book community seem to be rallying round him. I think this is going to be the thing that nudges a lot of people off the fence. Book people are very tribal too and, though lots of them are woke, books trump identity politics for the vast majority, because their identity is very much as book lovers and readers. They also really value the connection that twitter gives them with authors and are furious that he's been hounded off. The TRAs are very much being perceived as the bullies here, rather than a poor, marginalised, oppressed minority.

I think this will actually work in JB's favour in the end. It's giving him the kind of PR in publication week that money can't buy.

And the vicious reality of this ideology spreads into another area of everyday life, and more well-meaning, 'live and let live' would-be allies have their eyes opened. It's out in the open now. Ordinary people are witnessing it, and waking up.

I watched that too (thanks for heads up, Floral). He came over well - particularly on an author's right to put over different points of view, not just his or her own experience and in making the point that it was about the sibling, not Jessica. Incidentally, I know I don't read YA fiction but is it true that sibling perspectives on transitioning have been done to death, as one of John Boyne's detractors said? Not true of adult fiction.

Just saw him on BBC Breakfast. I felt bloody sorry for him, he sounded completely fed up.
I’m so glad he wasn’t made to apologise to anyone he may have “offended”, because as it’s the BBC you never know.

He did manage to get in that he’s only been British’s on Twitter and Twitter doesn’t represent any community.

Boyne is on BBC Breakfast after 9 talking about this.

Talk about overplaying your hand.

This is literally hilarious. Also, Martina and Sharron didn't delete their accounts and they got much worse for much longer (but we are used to being verbally and social medially abused so it is water off our backs ladies), but a man just cannot take it for one day.

And nobody is going to buy/read such books except TRAs. So publishers won't be interested. So they will have to self-publish (any crap can be self-published). Then they can just stay in their crappy-book literary ghetto and leave the rest of us alone.

What the TRAs appear to be forgetting is that they make up far too small a percentage of the population to be the only demographic for this book.

*This is what one of the TRAs says:

1. John is not trans therefore this isn't his story to write.
2. When it comes to transitioning, the trans person themselves should be centered. Not their siblings. This perspective has been done countless times already.*

So having attempted to re-define biology and language they're now re-defining literature? FFS.

”If you need to borrow some big girl pants, you know where to find me.”

Careful Maria. If he starts wearing girl pants, who knows where it’ll end?

That is one fantastic blog post. I hope JB gets to read it.

Was just going to tweet a link to that, Staffori. Snap! I thought it was really good. I also read the link to Maria McLachlan peak trans story - thought that was worth a read too.

Maria MacLachlan's just blogged about him deleting his Twitter account www.peaktrans.org/what-trans-community/

I am impacted and hurt by people who say a man who claims to be a woman is a woman. Actually I'm not, but if I say I am, are my hurty feelz worth more than anyone else's opinion?

Incidentally, has anyone read Julian is a Mermaid? It’s great. A little boy encouraged to feel free to smash gender expectations and be himself. It’s getting a fair bit of attention.

nauticant Yup definitely some newly peaked people there. Good to see words like "dogma" and "ideology" being used more often. If anything's going to break the "stunning and brave" narrative, it's challenges to free speech.

Men might not give a shit about women. They may not care about trans men in their spaces. But they'll damn well start caring when their right to say whatever they please gets encroached on. Fight entitlement with entitlement.

Such insidious language from those
posters - it’s everywhere. We don’t have vaginas attached like some afterthought, they’re an intrinsic and immutable part of our bodies, they dictate almost everything about us and they way we are and have been treated. It’s very subtle the way that TRAs try to reduce the worth of the vagina to fuck holes.

Just wanted to say welcome to all our new posters and lurkers.

It was Cancer Research rebranding women as ‘cervix havers’ that made me realise enough was enough. Some feminists have been trying to sound the alarm for decades already.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter exactly what brought you here, or when you arrived at this point. I’m still please you made it alive!

And for those who don't know James Charles, he's not quite the 'poor kid' - he has over 3 and a 1/2 million followers. A recent signing-event in a UK shopping centre was overwhelmed. He's followed by a lot of impressionable children.

He's the social media equivalent of an author like John Boyne, though more present in many teenagers' social media and life.

Those of you with tweens and teenagers - many of your children may follow James. it's key how he responds here, and how his followers react.

Another response on twitter:
i totally agree he’s talking more about genital preference but he outright implied trans men aren’t real men and really should’ve just edited that part out of the video and still honestly should

James is currently being twitter-policed as to how he defines his sexuality. Many teenagers are watching. This is more important than it may look at first glance!

Having a browse through this:

twitter.com/search?q=john%20boyne

there seems to be a number of threads. Shock from moderate people that there's a surprising amount of aggression out there waiting for minor transgressions to attack. TRAs and their "If these cis people ^^ don't say what we want they should STFU. Or they'll be sorry.". And the right kind of progressives shaking their heads saying "well, he did ask for it".

Looks useful from the gender critical point of view. Many people are looking at this and not liking what they're seeing. Especially when they're seeing other people who think what's happening is just fine.