Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie interview with Zoe Williams

But if it's a lie told by a Righteous Person, apparently it doesn't count. Or something.

*I struggle with the arrogance of interviewing someone of CNA's stature and feeling you have to report what you said and your opinions as much as what she said.

Yes, this stood out for me. No-one gives a toss what you think Zoe. The interview isn’t with you*

Well said pps and I said similar on the Helena Bonham Carter thread yesterday. The art of feature writing, especially in the Graun, is pitiful as a result of this arrogant belief.

Rosamund Unwin's piece on HBC was clear, based in fact and let the subject speak for herself. A lesser writer would have shoehorned in their own thoughts on JKR or Johnny Depp but it was refreshing to see the reader be left to their own conclusion.

I think all you’re illustrating is the impossibility of ‘living as a woman’ as a concept.

Maybe Williams does just think that totally superficial looks are all that matters.

Well, to be fair, they were talking about appearence at the time. But her assumption that a tall handsome bearded smiling young man couldn't have been "living as a woman" is prejudiced. And it depends on a very narrow understanding of what "living as a woman" means - I guess that in her head it means "trying in every possible way to pass as a woman" but that's not what it means to all trans people, not by a long shot.

Very much thought on reading the article!

Zoe Williams wrote in an article earlier this year she had never come across women only exercise sessions in her local area.

In 2013/14 she wrote an article about woman only gyms. So, a liar.

Such classes definitely exist in South East London!

“Someone’s useful idiot” sums up Zoe Williams.

"Useful" is a stretch.

I just looked up Williams wiki. She identifies as Welsh apparently, despite having lived her whole life in London. And she wrote an utterly bizarre article about breaking social distancing rules in a Wetherspoons and getting kicked out.

She really epitomises everything that the guardian is derided for.

ZW needs to learn that not everything is about her. My god, the arrogance.

Having read the round-up of Hadley Freeman's interviews in the Graun last weekend, I think Williams feels there's room for a new writer that makes themselves as present in the interviews as the interviewee. Freeman does this so well, what a treat her retrospective was. Williams, not so much.

Also, looking different doesn’t necessarily mean you are changed in substance.

He’d still be a biological man. He’d still have been raised as a man.

Maybe Williams does just think that totally superficial looks are all that matters.

Yes, this stood out for me. No-one gives a toss what you think Zoe. The interview isn’t with you

We break briefly so I can look at a photo of her brother, who is smiling, tall, bearded and handsome. .... I suggest that he would look different if he were living as a woman.

That is a prejudiced and ignorant statement by Zoe Williams. He might look different but a trans woman doesn't suddenly stop looking male by "livig as a woman". Most people who have been through male puberty still look male for years after coming out as trans. And most wont ever look unequivocally like women either. Even after medication and surgery and electrolysis and makeup and whatever else, indicators like height, build, extremities, gait... they don't all change and some can't be changed at all.

The entire lecture is about respecting and allowing different voices and opinions.
That's what the Adichies of the world are asking for and the Williamses are just "I'm not having that"
Sums up the TRA side doesn't it?

Exactly @TheGreatATuin - I'm so bloody sick of it. People who self-identify as Righteous, shamelessly waving the Inclusive Free Speech High Ideals flag yet simultaneously telling lies about anybody who doesn't parrot the One Bundle Of Good Beliefs and deliberately silencing them.

I think Emma Barnett's interview with Chimamanda was much better, but then I don't rate Williams:

www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-11-11/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-on-j-k-rowling-cancel-culture-and-beyonce

New to this site, so possibly this interview has already been posted. I suspect CNA is exasperated with the continuing questioning of her position on Transwomen. Barnett doesn't push it, and is respectful. Not so ZW.

I think it’s fascinating how the same people who bang on about ‘privilege’ seem unable to recognise their own.

Interesting, isn't it? I don't hold it against Zoe that she went to a private school - it was her parents' choice, not hers - but she doesn't seem to acknowledge either the advantages it's given her or the way in which it's restricted her life experience. Part of being a journalist is, or ought to be, about listening to other people whose background is very different from your own and trying to understand their perspective. She just doesn't do that. She's very full of her own self-importance.

I think it’s fascinating how the same people who bang on about ‘privilege’ seem unable to recognise their own. Instead, we get an elite white British woman insisting that her experience is what matters.to the extent that she should talk over the black African woman she’s interviewing. And describe her like a naughty child.

maybe zoe could have a think about that and actually listen to the woman she’s interviewing.

This is an excellent article, thanks for linking to it.

ZW is clinging on to the bitter end, isn’t she? She’s starting to look a little foolish especially with her comment on “living like a woman”. Zoe, what does this mean?

I love what CNA says about young people living in “a cauldron”, and her comment about books needing a trigger warning. My favourite though is her “No thank you”. I don’t know if CNA is deliberately echoing the female Olympian’s comment, and I don’t know if Zoe is aware of this succinct rejection of TW competing in women’s categories, but it is spot on.

I’m adding a couple of her books to my Christmas list.

Oh. I just read it. How embarrassing for Zoe.

I think someone pointed out at the time that Zoe had even written an article about women-only exercise classes, so go figure.

I increasingly think Zoe isn't bright. She could have taken the opportunity of this interview to learn from someone who is vastly more intelligent and vastly better-informed than she is. She chose not to.

What a shame the Guardian couldn't have sent Hadley Freeman to do this interview instead. Oh no wait, Hadley recently left the Guardian because she got sick and tired of this kind of tiresome shit

Absolutely, this really stuck out when reading the interview. The Guardian has far too many mediocre columnists with overinflated egos, but it comes over all the more clearly and poorly when they encounter people with actual talent.

What strikes me about some of the people I speak with about this, and it seems to be similar with zoe Williams, is that they really think they have a choice at all.

I don't have a problem with it, they say, but are they thinking of Karen White when they say that? Or Katie delatovsky?

And do they appreciate that by making such a blanket statement, they are taking away their ability to protest and have a choice when (if?) a very obvious problem occurs. And they are taking away ALL WOMEN'S ability to chose. Prisoners, rape victims, my mum getting a bra fitted in M&S, we all need a process to protect us and to be able to say no at any time for any reason if we wish.

Thanks a billion, zoe

Zoe Williams wrote in an article earlier this year she had never come across women only exercise sessions in her local area. I lived in the same SE London area as Williams for six years and regularly attended women only swimming sessions and women only kickboxing classes, both at local authority run leisure centres.

She is either a liar or an idiot. Or perhaps both.