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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

JK Rowling laying it out clearly

155 replies

CrossPurposes · 06/04/2024 15:39

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1776616861888655835

"I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others."
Etc

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1776616861888655835

OP posts:
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13
Kucinghitam · 09/04/2024 07:01

I must thank Mishy for another exquisite example of #OperationLetThemSpeak Grin

SmugglersHaunt · 08/04/2024 18:22

I just wish she didn’t start it with ‘I believe…’ - it’s not a question of belief, it’s a fact. Other than that, chef’s kiss

NitroNine · 08/04/2024 18:18

@SidewaysOtter I bring only the important contributions to the discourse 😉

Honestly, I was looking at people making a collective [un]holy show of themselves on TwiX trying to argue what JKR said didn’t make sense & I had to stop because I was at risk of cringing myself inside-out. That; & the sheer offensiveness of people trying to claim that under Rowling’s definition TWAW because their being born male constitutes a “rare difference of sexual development”. Claiming to have DSDs (or rather claiming to be “intersex”) when that is not the case is nothing new; but flat-out claiming that being trans = a DSD? Utterly grotesque appropriation. Of course, this^ is not a group of people who see an issue with appropriating the identities of others &/or colonising those spaces set aside for the groups they decide to identify into.

My intellectual functioning is massively - & distressingly, as I am aware of it -impaired by one of my epilepsy medications. I also have communication issues due to broken!brain & other malfunctions. Despite, or perhaps because, of this, I cannot fathom the scores of buckeejits who continue to insist that Rowling’s argument is incoherent/lacks clarity/fails in some other way[s]. Usually this involves “if I twist what Rowling said…” & quite frequently it demands everyone suspend their disbelief & participates in the fantasy that “sex is a construct” & it is impossible to discern whether an individual is male or female.

An astonishing number of TRAs are out there chatting up shite about how women are a distinct class due to the oppression they experience & “exclusion from the patriarchy” (🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️) but Rowling just won’t use their totally sensible definition because she’d have to admit TWAW due to all the misogyny they suffer. TW literally cannot suffer misogyny. And the denial that the oppression of women as a sex class is just that is pure MRA stuff.

None of the arguments they present stand up to scrutiny; but they persist in bellowing on & on. It’s so very very male, too: the mansplaining, the speaking over women, the presumption of the right to make decisions for & about women.

“I’m a woman because I identify as one” is clearly a nonsense but is repeatedly held out as the superior definition. One that makes perfect sense. To whom I yearn to know, because it is blindingly obvious that there are many people who are women despite lacking this magical “identity”; & many people who remain just that for all their identifying as assorted animals, supernatural beings & fictional characters.

^ TwiX TRAs, not all trans people, obviously

Astariel · 08/04/2024 18:10

MishyJDI · 08/04/2024 15:36

Clearly huh? Um. No. It's a complete logic bomb! I thought she was a writer....

Katie nails her here:

This is ridiculous. The group of humans who - barring intervention to prevent it or some bodily malfunctioning - are equipped to produce large gametes is not as confusing as that disingenuous nonsense makes out.

It doesn’t matter if you actually ovulate. Or if you have some sort of disorder. Your body is either female or male.

this is like insisting that some people having coeliac disease means that the statement ‘wheat is a food humans eat’ untrue.

Davidchecksall · 08/04/2024 17:09

Going back to the Acts of Parliament if I may:
Are the judiciary happy with this Half and Half situation where 'they' record Incidents that can be used at a future date,
Has the definition of recordable under these circumstances been made clear?
Is it the case that we might not know if we are deemed to have infringed this standard.

OnandOnforHoursandHours · 08/04/2024 16:24

I do cringe very much for those who father children and still see themselves as female. How do they even start to think that way? How do they know what any words mean, if 'female' can mean 'makes sperm'?

DialSquare · 08/04/2024 16:00

I'm not sure who to cringe for more.
Monty for coming up with that ridiculous cartoon or Mishy for posting it. At least twice. And thinking that Monty had nailed it!

VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia · 08/04/2024 15:57

MishyJDI · 08/04/2024 15:36

Clearly huh? Um. No. It's a complete logic bomb! I thought she was a writer....

Katie nails her here:

You don't understand embryonic development.

If someone's body can produce sperm, they are male. This is immutable. If someone's body can release ova, they are female. This is immutable.

A tiny proportion of people can do neither because of a disorder of sexual development. In this instance, doctors look at how the person's reproductive tract developed to determine what went wrong. If the person has a developed Wolffian duct, they are male. If the person has a developed Mullerian duct, they are female. XX/XY chimerism can lead to a bit of both. In these cases, which are so rare that individual case histories are written up in The Lancet, a maximum of one type of gonad will function and that will determine the person's sex.

Someone born with at least one working testis is male. No amount of word salad and misrepresentation via the medium of cartoons will ever change that.

CrossPurposes · 08/04/2024 15:47

MishyJDI · 08/04/2024 15:36

Clearly huh? Um. No. It's a complete logic bomb! I thought she was a writer....

Katie nails her here:

Read the original.

"a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes"

Read Katie's (who?) take.

"a woman is a human being who produces large gametes"

Not the same thing at all.

OP posts:
MishyJDI · 08/04/2024 15:36

CrossPurposes · 06/04/2024 15:39

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1776616861888655835

"I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others."
Etc

Clearly huh? Um. No. It's a complete logic bomb! I thought she was a writer....

Katie nails her here:

JK Rowling laying it out clearly
nepeta · 08/04/2024 07:17

She has expressed everything I believe in such clear language!

Now I wish that she or someone else would tackle a few additional issues:

'Inclusiveness' is an utterly sexist goal when it is only applied to the female sex spaces, language, and rights and not to both the female and male sexes. This erasure of only the female sex is openly sexist, yet we are to pretend that the bias doesn't exist. Or at least I never see it addressed by the gender identity ideologists.

Nobody appears to have a definition of 'inclusiveness' which would allow us to measure how well it has been achieved by various organisations. This often means that an organisation can claim it's inclusive without being representative so that women, say, can be severely underrepresented compared to our population size which is very large, as long as a few individuals from all possible demographic groups are included.

Statistical representation would be a more useful concept here: If some demographic group is 5% of the British adult population, then in most cases 5% of the employees of a governmental organisation should be expected to come from that demographic group. Not 1%, not 30%.

The biggest problem with the DEI concept is ultimately that it isn't properly defined at all and its three parts may wage war against each other.

Real equity may, in fact, require exclusive categories (Paralympics, say), not inclusiveness, and in some other cases (often about women) focusing on 'inclusiveness' alone is just a way of opening all doors wide for anyone who wishes to enter, even those for whom the purpose of the group (the reason it exists) doesn't apply. In the case of sports, for example, including male athletes in female categories will not increase equity for the vast majority of other participants.

LoobiJee · 08/04/2024 07:13

Theeyeballsinthesky · 06/04/2024 16:56

And on she goes being fabulous

Lol at the “I’m interested in a serious discussion given that there seems to be hyperbole on both sides” tweet she was responding to. You can just imagine that fella thoughtfully stroking his chin and being ever so “above the fray” and intellectual. All very Sadness Of The Sceptical Man (quoting the marvellous Victoria Smith).

JayAlfredPrufrock · 08/04/2024 04:41

She’s the gift that keeps on giving.

<I ❤️ Beetroot>

Lion400 · 08/04/2024 04:05

Sad little Mantrums

JK Rowling laying it out clearly
JK Rowling laying it out clearly
Lion400 · 08/04/2024 04:02

DrBlackbird · 07/04/2024 17:17

This man is so getting off on having successfully thrust himself into the lime light twittersphere by manscolding JKR on her so-called hateful tweets that he’s going to keep doing it. Time for her to ignore him.

They are having tantrums (mantrums?) to get attention from JKR arent they. A Little gang of aggressive tantrumy men. Their seratonin levels spike when they see a message from her. Attention from mummy!

Astariel · 07/04/2024 22:19

I just watched this TikTok about some research called the Asch experiment, that illustrates why JKR taking a stance is so important (although I bet the creator thinks she’s arguing against that): https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGemsdoDG/

Basically it’s an experiment where they got people to lie about reality and the participants ended up going along with the lie - even where they knew it was a lie and didn’t believe it. They then followed it up with a minority of people challenging the lie and that made others far more confident to do the same.

TikTok - Make Your Day

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGemsdoDG/

SidewaysOtter · 07/04/2024 22:12

NitroNine · 07/04/2024 21:50

An otter, apparently - according to JKR, anyway, who would, one assumes, know 🤷‍♀️

And yes, she gave Hermione her patronus.

<preens>

VitoCorleoneOfMNMafia · 07/04/2024 22:06

Crankywiddershins · 07/04/2024 21:32

The Hate Monster!

You win the thread.

BlessedKali · 07/04/2024 22:01

Dumbledoreslemonsherbets · 07/04/2024 01:30

Oh I love this - it is SO TRUE.

Do we know what JKR's patronus is? Something magnificent, naturally.

A big massive female wolf. Huge, massive fur, beautiful and powerful and takes no shit. I'm thinking of 'Women who run with the wolves'

NitroNine · 07/04/2024 21:50

Dumbledoreslemonsherbets · 07/04/2024 01:30

Oh I love this - it is SO TRUE.

Do we know what JKR's patronus is? Something magnificent, naturally.

An otter, apparently - according to JKR, anyway, who would, one assumes, know 🤷‍♀️

And yes, she gave Hermione her patronus.

Crankywiddershins · 07/04/2024 21:32

Dumbledoreslemonsherbets · 07/04/2024 01:30

Oh I love this - it is SO TRUE.

Do we know what JKR's patronus is? Something magnificent, naturally.

The Hate Monster!

Crankywiddershins · 07/04/2024 20:06

@IcakethereforeIam And yes JKR is amazing. If she hadn't torpedoed that law on day 1 I hate to think what the situation would be now.
JKR fought the law, and SHE won!

Genetta · 07/04/2024 19:45

FannyCann · 07/04/2024 11:43

The lengths some men will go to (try) to shut up *that woman.

Speaking to her Bishop??? (Who apparently had no problem sharing confidential information regarding her Church attendance rather than telling said man this was not an appropriate conversation).

x.com/mollscroll/status/1776698089685782529?s=46

Ouch.

Garrett mentioned this some years ago but the earlier context was benign. It was a reference to the spiritual dimension of the Harry Potter books v the views of the fundamentalist Christians that banned them..
Garrett : In conversation with Rowan Williams

He also lectures on her work in the US and here at a Christian young people's festival,
Greenbelt : https://www.greenbelt.org.uk/talks/finding-the-sacred-in-harry-potter/

See also Greg Garrett (author)
One Fine Potion: The Literary Magic of Harry Potter

I'm not defending his tweet. In his conversation, with the Archbisho Garrett mentioned a chance discussion with 'her Bishop'. Describing her as a woman of faith supported his teaching and writing . This Tweet used the same chance discussion, but in a judgemental fashion. He doesn't appear to have engaged with her arguments. It shows him to be just as rigid in his beliefs as the fundamentalists who banned her books.

https://books.google.com/books/about/In_Conversation.html?id=--yADwAAQBAJ#v=onepage&q=conversations%20with%20rowan%20williams%20jk%20rowling&f=false

dapsnotplimsolls · 07/04/2024 18:11

Mochudubh · 07/04/2024 18:06

Is that the guy who self-IDs as a lawyer who thinks JKR should be taking his "advice"?

Yup.

Mochudubh · 07/04/2024 18:06

Is that the guy who self-IDs as a lawyer who thinks JKR should be taking his "advice"?

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