Statement from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Many apologies to you MareofBeasttown. I thought I was on a different thread
Which is pretty funny seeing I advised you to read the whole thread first but I guess the laugh's on me!

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread, but as a person involved in publishing, I find the demand that authors have perfect politics quite ridiculous. Most of the ones I see who are on the politically correct side of everything and always say the right thing are terrible writers. Personally I don't care all that much what an author thinks of Brexit; I care how they write.

No one should ever be denigrated for their intelligence level

Are you familiar with Sally Hines.

https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/comment/76454?utmsource=twitter&utmmmedium=social&utmcampaign=shareddlink

Julie Bindel has written about CNA and the other witches who don't burn.

So, here’s my advice to those attacking Chimamanda, Martina, JK and the legions of other women whose names you don’t know. Until you can present your feminist CV that shows you have actually got up off your backside and done some work to fight for women’s liberation, keep quiet. Your opinion will only matter when you can show the good you have done. Right now, all you do is cause distress and humiliation to those you should be looking up to, not down at.

No one should ever be denigrated for their intelligence level, but actively choosing to suspend your critical thinking ability to go along with the prevailing narrative is pretty indefensible.

Yes - I think it's a kind of wilful stupidity. A refusal to face the facts or look at the evidence for fear that you might find yourself on the wrong side, and that would be really uncomfortable.

The past four or five years of involvement in gender-critical feminism has led me to one obvious conclusion: lots of people are very stupid. Even people you previously thought were clever are often stupid. People you imagined were capable of critical thought follow the crowd, just as much as the sort of people who voted Trump or who think Bill Gates has put a chip in the Covid vaccine. The only difference is the crowd being followed: what's fashionable amongst the supposedly educated middle-class is different from what's fashionable amongst the uneducated and unskilled.

I agree with this, but I'd add that it's not your classic old-skool stupidity, but a sort of new version which is based on laziness rather than lack of intelligence. It's like they've sort of outsourced their thinking to a few blue tick twitter voices and social media commentators and they don't see the need to unpick things for themselves because the verdict on x, y, z matter is already in. The gavel has come down. Transwomen are women. T**fs are evil. Those are the facts, hadn't you heard?

It's stupidity of a more pernicious sort. No one should ever be denigrated for their intelligence level, but actively choosing to suspend your critical thinking ability to go along with the prevailing narrative is pretty indefensible.

It can be helpful to ask someone who is passionate that the experience of TW is identical to female people, whether the experience of female people is identical to TW.

You tend to get shocked outrage that you would dismiss or appropriate the unique experience that only someone who is a TW could possibly understand or speak about. At which point you can point out the extreme differing standards they hold and how very sex based and prejudiced against female people they are.

I posted this (slightly rewritten) on another thread but fits here as well I think...

I think many liberal/progressive people hear this "poor trans people suffering in the wrong body, living a lie" narrative, and superficially it seems very close to other oppressed groups who fight against the social role/stereotype imposed on them by society so they instinctively feel it's something they as good people should support.

Tag-teaming LGB has created such strong associations with "the right side of history" that they don't consider it worthy of challenge. The assumption is that the arguments in favour of LBG acceptance and rights were fair so the arguments for whatever TRAs are demanding must be as well. They aren't looking at the details.

So it never occurs to them to ask "hang on, how does this idea that a man can born in a woman's body and vice versa fit with the general acceptance that saying men and women are born with different types of personality is regressive sexism? Where exactly is this mannyness or womanyness coming from?" Or "has anyone actually proved that trans women's social role and behaviour is close enough to female people's to justify lumping them together legally, statistically and socially?"

Why do even highly intelligent people choose to rail against JKR's piece without having read it? I've lost count of how many people have told me how wicked JK is and then admitted they haven't read her sane and balanced and loving piece about trans people.

The past four or five years of involvement in gender-critical feminism has led me to one obvious conclusion: lots of people are very stupid. Even people you previously thought were clever are often stupid. People you imagined were capable of critical thought follow the crowd, just as much as the sort of people who voted Trump or who think Bill Gates has put a chip in the Covid vaccine. The only difference is the crowd being followed: what's fashionable amongst the supposedly educated middle-class is different from what's fashionable amongst the uneducated and unskilled.

On the plus side, I now have a much greater affection and admiration for the people who have shown themselves to be sane, intelligent and courageous - the JK Rowlings and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies of the world.

Wow - I'm trying not to comment on Caitlin Moran neutral take on this story, but CNA's essay has made the Daily Mail:

Columnist for The Times, Caitlin Moran, said: 'So glad everyone's talking about this - an absolute powerhouse of a piece by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about the furious conditions of debate on social media, and how terrified people are of getting things wrong.'

Former Guardian journalist Suzanne Moore wrote: 'She takes no prisoners. She doesn't even need to. She is just asking YOU to think. Yes think.'

Namibian lawyer Monica Geingos said: 'I hope Chimamanda ignores whatever backlash will be unleashed in the next few days. I hope this was as cathartic for her to write as it was for some of us to read.'

And Scottish historian Niall Ferguson added: 'A remarkable commentary by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the perils of teaching the current generation of students, which appears to apply from Nigeria to California.'

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9696317/Chimamanda-Ngozi-Adichie-launches-blistering-attack-woke-social-media-amid-row-novelist.html

CNA spoken word is enthralling as written

More on CNA:

Adichie: I fully support the rights of trans people and all marginalized people. That I have always been fiercely supportive of difference, in general.
Emezi: I trust that there are other people who will pick up machetes

The thing I struggle to understand is how anyone can read the actual words said by the different people in this particular conflict and think its the person who called for people to pick up machetes who is somehow being wronged instead of the woman who has repeatedly and politely said she supports the rights of all diverse people.
The world has gone nuts.

old.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/o1ddq9/i_hope_i_can_be_accepted_here/

Behold, a whole thread full of transwomen - on Reddit of all places! - acknowledging that transwomen have different experiences than female women.

Not read the thread.

What a powerful essay! Puts you off ever being in the public eye!

Yes, if I voiced these views in public I would be cancelled or called a TERF, as happened to Maya Forstater. Am so tired of women having to be inclusive and make space for everyone.

I am sure that there are transpeople who do support Adichie. It is just that their voices are possibly drowned by all the machete wielders and rape threateners.

(Though even then I've had it not work before)

You need two dashes each side of the word

(Not at all related but why does the ‘strike through’ feature not work for me or many others. Am I doing something wrong?)

Also I think a lot of women are very scared to go down that path in the slightest in case it means they are a t*rf / feminist, and thereby not nice, kind and inclusive.