J K Rowling

Oh god I've just looked at the thread. An academic says 'thank you this is important work' and the person who trawled through her follows says it was moderately traumatic (at least only moderately).

I'd like to hear a conversation between JK and Emma Watson on gender ID...

Luna is not beautiful in the books - only the films.

Bellatrix and Narcissa are beautiful but terrible - cold and cruel.

JK says she wrote her main characters as the "geeky kids" - which is lovely.

The enduring theme throughout is motherhood and motherly love. It starts with Harry's mum dying for him, and ends with Draco's mum lying to Voldemort that Harry was dead - so that she could get back to Draco at the castle. Then Molly killed Bellatrix who was fighting her daughter, and taunting her about her children.

I love the strength of her female characters.

This is very cheering. Hopefully she will speak out at some point, but this is a very good sign to be going on with.

Lumene i mean in the loosest sense. Hermione, mcgonigal and Mrs Weasley are honest and true and described quite specificity as not beautiful. They make sensible decisions based on fact and aren’t swayed. Luna, Parvati and Fleur are beautiful but are silly and distracted. Pansey (the slythrin girl), bellatrix and unbridge are bad and ugly.

Ok I have definitely over thought it and I’m a book snob but it bugs me.

Why do you think that Berns is anti-Semitic? Never seen her talk about anything like that.

It's good that a famous well-liked woman like Rowling follows gc feminists but if she actually tweeted about it, now that would be great.

Burns is really good on the trans issue, but she is reflexively anti-American and yes, possibly anti-Semitic, in that lefty way. Still, she says some important things that need to be said.

I follow Donald Trump! I suspect JR is GC though, most women who engage their brains on the issue are, and once the TRAs start attacking they then just confirm women in their views, as they no longer look like delicate flowers who will kill themselves if you use the "wrong" pronoun but nasty misogynists.

I don't follow Berns, but her anti-Soros tweet meant that I'll probably never will. Attacks on Soros are used by the hard right, especially in America, as a cover for anti-semitism, and anybody with a functioning brain should have already known that.

Anti-semitism is unacceptable (and one of the reasons i’m not currently a Labour Party member). But criticising someone you would criticise for something you would criticise anyone else for doing isn’t anti Semitic.

She definitely subscribed to maddona/whore for women in the books.

Really? Struggling to place any ‘whore’ characters in any of the Harry Potter books?!?!?

Actually, I've just done a quick scan (that makes me feel grubby) and she follows LOTS of GC people.

This makes me happy 😁

And she follows Glosswitch, one of the most talented, easy-to-read writers on this subject.

And a few others. All good stuff, she's keeping her mind open.

Hmm, I await the next statemnt by her PR person stating it was a mistake, like the last time (think it happened twice, from memory?)

Either way, more and more women daring to have opinions again is heartening

What we need her to do is retweet some of Magdalen's videos.
She has millions of followers.
Even if only a tiny percentage of them saw that one of the transwomen with a beard claiming to be a lesbian it would be amazing

I don't follow Berns, but her anti-Soros tweet meant that I'll probably never will.

Your loss GrumpyGran8!

I'm well aware of how anti-semites on both the right and the left, use criticism of Soros as a dog whistle. We should all be aware of that and exercise caution accordingly.

That's not a good reason for placing Soros and OSF above criticism. That would be extremely dangerous. Nobody and no organisation should be above criticism.

I don't know what kind of pro-trans groups his Open Society Foundation has funded ...

Here you go, it's a long read but very good:

medium.com/@sue.donym1984/inauthentic-selves-the-modern-lgbtq-movement-is-run-by-philanthropic-astroturf-and-based-on-junk-d08eb6aa1a4b

She doesn’t live in Edinburgh any more

There is an idiot on twitter going through her tweets and flagging who she follows

Ffs get a life that person and go live your life instead of wanking about on twitter caring who someone you don’t even know follows

Jeez get a life and perhaps a job. Do something enjoyable and enjoy your life
Play a sport read a book. Do something that gives you joy and pleasure not wanking about on Twitter ffs

There is a tedious moralising tag group I see on some FB groups I'm in. I shall now rework it slightly for people like that twitter stalker:

"Transphobia activism is boring, why are you so boring"

I don't see that it will make a huge difference but I think there is something to be said for numbers of people who are thought to be reasonable and kind being public with their view.

She is insulated in the sense that she really doesn't need to sell more books. I don't really like the HP books but they are certainly extremely popular.

People don't have to agree with an account to follow it - (I follow Julia Hartley-Brewer and 90% of what she says will wind me up. Yes I am a masochist...)

But I'd be astonished in JKR wasn't at least a bit gender critical because she's always been quite carefully thoughtful with regard to issues and not just swayed by the mob or what's fashionable.

But whatever her opinion, that's her business and pile-ons just make those piling on look ridiculous.

Frankly, with all her money and power, she could stick her neck out a bit more.

Where are the rich, powerful women willing to take one for the team? I'm sure she'd be able to change a few minds since she's wildly popular with the blue haired tumblr crowd.

What I can’t understand is why people want to call attention to who she follows knowing full well it’ll call down a whole heap of abuse on her head. What’s the motivation?

I think that people who think being openly GC won't affect her must live in a city bigger than Edinburgh, with more anonymity, or a small village with only a few people transitioning.

In Edinburgh there are enough TRAs for a movement, they have influence and power. There are also quite a lot of them in the quidditch teams, from what I've seen. You'd not want to be guessing any pronouns at a quidditch tournament.

The person who went for Julie Bindel wasn't a lone wolf, look at accounts of Edinburgh pride. JKR would be more aggressively targeted as they would actually feel betrayed by her, having first been fans. Edinburgh is small enough that people, not even fans, know her area, school choices etc.

She is extremely vulnerable in her real life, not her book sale life or her Twitter life, but her real life and family life. We need to remember that. She had to move house in the last couple of years to reduce security fears, this kind of celebrity is something we can't really understand.

Also, subtlety, getting people to think about the idea of being transabled, especially from the perspective of an amputee who was being fetishised, is a lot more than most people have done.