GC Agent Fired

I'll be looking for a new job soon and I think I have no choice but to delete my twitter account, as I tweet under my own name and I regularly retweet/like/comment on gender critical posts.

I'm slightly ashamed of my cowardice but have to face the reality that it might endanger any chance of future employment.

It sucks.

You are cancelled on the merest suspicion of being gc and no one will have anything to do with you. You will lose friends and be subject to any number of horrible campaigns and slander against you

Exactly the same as McCarthyism. People just disappeared. No one knew why or where they'd gone. You become a non-person.

It's 75 years since George Orwell's Animal Farm was published. He had to hawk it round a number of publishers as his usual publisher - the left wing Gollancz - wouldn't take it even though bit under a decade earlier they'd take Homage to Catalonia which at the time got very few sales.

Orwell was going against the views current at the time about the Soviet Union - our allies in the war so we shouldn't criticise.

This is a very good piece about Orwell, the abuse of language and the punishments for those who refuse to obey: www.uncancelled.co.uk/tie-world/gender/thought-crime-did-not-end-with-orwell/

And of course McCarthyism came shortly after Animal Farm was published...

You are cancelled on the merest suspicion of being gc and no one will have anything to do with you. You will lose friends and be subject to any number of horrible campaigns and slander against you

I absolutely agree with this, but it's not even what I fear most. What I fear is the silent sidelining. The conversations in marketing meetings and closed acquisitions discussions where my next book is up for consideration, and looks pass across the table... 'not a name we want to be associated with' 'I'm not very comfortable with working with this author' 'I find her social media presence a bit problematic' 'I think we'll pass...'

There's always another manuscript from a more obedient writer. The real reasons would never even be given, but doors would silently close. This is my livelihood and I can't afford to lose it.

I've yet to encounter TRAs dominating the discourse on hiking, gardening, donkey rescue, bushcraft, or sailing

Not TRA led as far as I know but the Radio 4 Books programme recently did a special on queer nature writing. Obviously we have to write about ornithology through the lens of queerness now. It may be that they are pushing at an open door because of the literary wokerati at R4 but yes even birdwatching is queer now.

Glad to see that she has lots of support on Twitter. Including quite a few trans people...

I just don't see why men get to hide but women have to be martyrs.

I know :( With women it's a full scale witch hunt, men get off lightly with the public backlash. Almost like people do recognise biological differences after all.

I get that misogyny never went away, but I'd never have believed that I'd see it being so publicly celebrated. Under the guise of progression too, ffs.

Publishing's a snakepit.

I thought writers would be among the foremost at defending free speech

Yes, sort of. But they're also those most at risk of losing their livelihoods, which is usually precarious at best.

Although any writer with even mildly GC views is keeping quiet if they want any kind of career.

Exactly this. The atmosphere is completely toxic. You are cancelled on the merest suspicion of being gc and no one will have anything to do with you. You will lose friends and be subject to any number of horrible campaigns and slander against you. You might as well forget trying to get published. And a lot of writers are very, very good at positioning themselves as the most woke and using this to sell books and even win awards. They will stamp down anyone who seems to be coming up. It is vicious. I'm honestly amazed anyone in publishing is willing to speak out at all.

Anything to do with imagination, pretending, putting yourself into a different role, becoming another thing...well that's the natural home of TRAs.

True, but I thought writers would be among the foremost at defending free speech. Maybe naive of me.

Although any writer with even mildly GC views is keeping quiet if they want any kind of career. Only someone with the stature of JKR can afford to speak out.

Why should she lock her account? They'd just use that as ammunition against her, and most likely put words in to her mouth.

Better to leave it out there for everyone to judge for themselves.

I did wonder why she was posting under her own name. Not that she should have to be anonymous, but it seems a bit naive not to expect she would be connected to her work account. I mean, good for her for speaking out under her own name, but I'm kind of surprised that she hadn't planned for exactly this eventuality.

This sums it up really. I feel sorry for genuine trans people who must be watching what is going on in horror!

Not sure why she didn't Damian Barr it and lock the accounts.

Presumably because she feels she has nothing to be ashamed of?

There is nothing abusive or threatening in those tweets - there are no references to laughing at 'trannies' killing themselves or anything a la Mr Barr?

I opened that tweet expecting really bad stuff!

I've yet to encounter TRAs dominating the discourse on hiking, gardening, donkey rescue, bushcraft, or sailing.

Give it time. There's no online community they couldn't infiltrate and destroy. Look what they did to knitting.

It's telling that they assume Sasha's belief in biological reality means she must be prejudiced against transwomen, that she would automatically reject a submission by a transwoman no matter how good it was. It's like assuming an atheist agent would never accept a Christian writer.

Publishing seems really screwed up at the moment. I've lurked on a few writers' forums; they are drenched in TRA ideology and intolerant of any opinion that diverges from it. It's awful for individual writers and agents, but I also worry about the impact it has on literature. Surely such a narrowing of acceptable views will impoverish the arts.

Imagine someone writes a YA novel about a detransitioner, for example. No matter how well written or appealing, no agent or publisher would touch it.

sent before completion. JKR made a huge difference

Given that lots of people can't speak out and companies, there will come a tipping point and it will only take one. Perhaps things will just have to get a lot dafter first

Agnes and Cactus hi from another publishing industry person. It's pretty bleak. I'm freelance so hopefully the worst that can happen if I like a GC tweet is that a woke editor doesn't give me work again. I can deal with that. So many editors I know are GC but afraid to be out. One or two who work for explicitly feminist publishing houses are more out than most. I've spoken to a few who are questioning TRA ideology and they're all scared to speak out.

oh feel free to pm- i wont say anything thats not already in the public domain(?!)

and yes to that logo. the irony.