Margaret Atwood

@EmbarrassingHadrosaurus - that's just one example. If you go on her Twitter thread, you will see numerous other appeasements, including her promoting Shon Faye's book.
She is not standing for women.

I don't think I can feel so lenient. She's active online. No matter where she lives or what her age is, she has no excuse whatsoever for buying into uncritical "terfs vs trans" stuff.

She joined the mob against JK Rowling which says it all: Jo's letter could not have been more reasonable or spelled out the issues any simpler.

I can't imagine what it is like in a country that doesn't report on trans issues. We have the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, and the Times, all alerting people to the problems. You can't fail to be aware of the negative implications. So much so that quite a few btl comments are along the lines of stop shoving this down our throats.

But yes, I agree that the abuse of an 80-year-old woman for asking questions is absolutely disgusting.

The only possible upside is if it gives her pause for thought. But even then, she's going to get absolutely targeted.

The Canadian authorities should be waking up to the maliciousness and violence behind this.

I think she needs to get off twitter, reach out to feminists and listen.

Please don’t eat me! Please don’t eat me!

She's a lost cause, sorry.

Ah yes, she may be using a blocker.

Good point too about the other writers. She won't be getting any support from them. If anything, the opposite. They'll be part of the pile on (as she was for JKR).

It's because TRAs are abusing and gaslighting her. And she has isolated herself from the women who want to support her. It is just horrible to see.

Do you think she's using a blocker so literally can't see the supportive comments?

But, the other issue is that it's difficult to support someone with whom you have no overlap (e.g., culture, faith, an occupation or activity). Atwood is isolated from fellow successful writers like JKR with whom she has that activity in common.

I'm starting to find this quite upsetting. Atwood cringing and groveling for scraps from TRAs, desperate to please and appease them. She's an 80 year old women, one of the world's most successful writers, and if anyone has earned the right to her voice, it's she. So why is she acting like a dog that's being kicked?

I know why. It's because TRAs are abusing and gaslighting her. And she has isolated herself from the women who want to support her. It is just horrible to see.

It strikes me that she's still only operating / reading within an echo chamber.

Atwood has an opportunity to be a cooler within her own community. She's already done it to some extent.

She's probably not in a place where she would accept more than tokens of support on offer from those whom she disdains. But, it would still serve her well to read Joyce and consider what it is that she would reject.

She's recommending Shon Faye's book but not Joyce's... hmm

She's deviated from the orthodoxy now, there will be no redemption. She'll realise soon enough that even what she deems as a moderate middle ground is under attack.

I wonder what will happen when she realises that most of the people she's been told are terfs are in fact the middle ground.

I think we're still a long way off that. She's still desperately trying to distance herself from the ones she's been told are evil

I wonder what it would take for MA to want to phone JKR?

Sorry ^ talking about Laura Bates there.

I'd say she just tried not to kick the hornets nest.
Probably just tried to duck it in order to get her central message out

I don't think she's thinking clearly at all. She tweeted,

So I got attacked for a while from "the other side" for Tweeting pro-trans rights... maybe the two sides should consider their common opponents: those who hate all kinds of women?

That's such a diabolical mischaracterisation of GC voices, as shrieking "TERFs" who were "attacking" her for being "pto-trans rights."

She's using every rhetorical trick in the book to paint herself as reasonable, appease the unappeasable, and still demonise the women who have been fearless enough all along to point out the emperor's lack of clothes.

I find it hard to believe this is the same observant snd sharp-minded woman who wrote The Robber Bride and Alias Grace. Although, come to think of it, she has always adored a female villain...

Laura Bates has a huge blind spot on this. I can't believe she can't see the misogyny, she just can't bring herself to acknowledge it.

Absolutely, trancepants