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New book coming out! "The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht"

157 replies

howonearthdidwegethere · 16/05/2024 09:33

Co-edited by Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Susan Dalgety.

Comes out in a fortnight:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Who-Wouldnt-Wheesht/dp/1408720701/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Evn51TzBTQrJe9b9GbEHyEFxl2MMln5spNZq8KWlzZA.Z6MAj1OSoGOZ1ctUF1Qr819FGWFktyVV0qkMp_0q3pc&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+women+who+wouldn%27t+wheesht&qid=1715848364&sr=8-1

"On the 25th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, this book captures an important moment in contemporary history: how a grassroots women's movement, harking back to the suffragettes and second wave feminists of the 1970s and 1980s, took on the political establishment - and changed the course of history.

Through a collection of over thirty essays and photographs, some of the women involved tell the story of the five-year campaign to protect women's sex-based rights. Author J.K. Rowling explains why she used her global reach to stand up for women. Leading SNP MP Joanna Cherry writes of how she risked her political career for her beliefs. Survivors of male violence who MSPs refused to meet are given the voice they were denied at Holyrood. Ash Regan MSP recounts what it was like to become the first government minister to resign on a question of principle since the SNP came to power in 2007. Former prison governor Rhona Hotchkiss charts how changes in prison policy in Scotland led to the controversy over Isla Bryson.

It is the story of women who risked their job, reputation, even the bonds of family and friendship, to make their voices heard, and ended up - unexpectedly - contributing to the downfall of Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland's first woman first minister."

Features essays from JKR and others.

https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/jk-rowling-writes-essay-on-standing-up-for-women-for-new-book-on-campaign-to-protect-rights-4629745

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Who-Wouldnt-Wheesht/dp/1408720701/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Evn51TzBTQrJe9b9GbEHyEFxl2MMln5spNZq8KWlzZA.Z6MAj1OSoGOZ1ctUF1Qr819FGWFktyVV0qkMp_0q3pc&dib_tag=se&keywords=the%20women%20who%20wouldn%27t%20wheesht&qid=1715848364&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-womens-rights-5076249-new-book-coming-out-the-women-who-wouldnt-wheesht

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24
Waitwhat23 · 01/06/2024 05:11

Christinapple · 01/06/2024 02:15

I can see her family aren't TERFs and "begged her" (according to what I read) not to post dominantly about it on social media and therefore make transphobia her new personality.

Show quote history

It's clear that 'according to what I read' is a tweet on X/Twitter and you haven't read either the excerpt of her essay published in the Times prior to the publication of the book or the actual book itself.

I suspect you have also missed /are resolutely ignoring her reply to the odious 'Pissed off Lawyer' on Twitter also

Again, any thoughts on any of the other essays? Any comments on how the HEAL group were treated? On the text Ash Regan received regarding the three line whip? Any comments on Magi's poem? Or comments on members of the SNP finance committee resigning because they were denied access to the accounts by the NEC?

New book coming out! "The Women Who Wouldn't Wheesht"
Christinapple · 01/06/2024 02:15

Waitwhat23 · 31/05/2024 15:47

Again, have you any comments on the actual book which is what this thread is about? At all?

Show quote history

I can see her family aren't TERFs and "begged her" (according to what I read) not to post dominantly about it on social media and therefore make transphobia her new personality.

Igmum · 31/05/2024 21:24

Ooo I love a bit of crime fiction!

I'm currently away and saw the Amazon delivery man trying to deliver it on the Ring doorbell. I hope he managed to find a neighbour to take it in, can't wait to get cracking on it.

HelenaTranscart · 31/05/2024 19:22

Igmum · 17/05/2024 10:41

Brilliant! Hopefully publishers will realise that there's a massive contrast in sales between us book-buying Terfy ones and the disastrous sales most trans books have had and will follow the money. I'm going to pre-order too, let's keep it on the top sellers' list.

Huge kudos to the brave authors and publishers. This will be top of my reading list.

And if you want a bit of Terfy fiction, Drew Augustine has just published the Twenty Murders on Amazon which is a GC mystery crime thriller.

The tide is turning 😊

FrancescaContini · 31/05/2024 19:14

A local Waterstones has a pile of them on the table as you enter, pretty prominent position.

Elaan · 31/05/2024 19:11

Got mine in Waterstones, not obviously on display, but I wasn't the first person to ask for it as the assistant knew exactly where it was🤣

morningtoncrescent62 · 31/05/2024 19:08

I picked my copy up from my local independent bookshop on the way home this afternoon. I ordered it from them to make sure they had to at least get one! I spotted three other copies on the 'New non-fiction' shelf, one with the cover facing outwards in full view, the other two sideways with the spine showing. I should have taken a photo but I didn't think of it. I started reading Section 2, on the "early skirmishes", on the bus on the way home. It's the period I know least about so I was curious to find out about what happened in the years before I got involved. I'm finding it both upsetting and infuriating to read about how those women were bullied and harassed. It's not like I didn't know that, but reading about what happened to some of the women we don't get to hear about because they're not in the public eye, in direct first-person accounts, is incredibly powerful.

lcakethereforeIam · 31/05/2024 18:14

Having screwed up my Amazon pre-order, I've just popped into my local independent bookshop on the off chance they had a copy, they didn't. I noticed two books that I might in a non-genderwoo parallel universe have picked up. One a book by Louise Minchin (forget the title) and another History of women in 100 objects (forget the author). But I didn't because I was unfamiliar with both titles and I don't want to buy books where twaw. It goes without saying that while tw may have interesting and important stories if the books are about women, well that's what I want to read about. As tw have popped up in books about the evolution of females, menstruation and even wombs, ffs!, I don't think AIBU to be cautious.

AccidentallyWesAnderson · 31/05/2024 16:13

AuntMunca · 31/05/2024 10:09

Glad to see that this book is displayed at the front of one of the ground floor tables at Blackwells in Edinburgh - with £3 off too!

Ooh I hope there's still some left, I can pop in there.

Changingmynameyetagain · 31/05/2024 16:06

Just picked my copy up from our local Waterstones, was served by a blue haired trans woman who barely looked at me after I put the book on the counter.
It was pretty hidden on the shelf too.
Just making myself a cup of tea and I’m going to get stuck in.

Waitwhat23 · 31/05/2024 15:47

Christinapple · 31/05/2024 15:21

-JK Rowling offers a million dollars if people provide proof of transphobia.
-JK Rowling herself is the one who approves or rejects submissions.

Shouldn't it be a neutral 3rd party who looks at submissions?

"she support an Anti-Trans Charity that pretends to be Lesbian and Gay Charity, one that received objections from dozens of actual LGBT charities when it applied for charity status."

Fixed for you.

Can't be a very good "gay charity" if wearing a hat and shirt with the name of it will get you kicked out of gay bars or pride events.

Show quote history

Again, have you any comments on the actual book which is what this thread is about? At all?

DontStopMe · 31/05/2024 15:31

I got mine from the trolley of books waiting to be put on the shelf: not hidden but not obvious either.

morningtoncrescent62 · 31/05/2024 15:30

Clocking off NOW and heading into town to pick up my copy. Woo-hoo!

JuneFTW · 31/05/2024 15:27

Also bought a copy from Waterstones. Couldn't see it on display but had ordered to collect. Thanks for recommending it here!

Christinapple · 31/05/2024 15:21

Boiledbeetle · 31/05/2024 10:25

Do you think JK Rowling has an account on kiwifarms?I

Kiwi farms account? who knows. Maybe ask her when you contact her to claim your prize

Is she still asking monthly for proof of her transphobia and is there still a "million dollar" prize for showing proof?

she does have a website that will have contact details of where you can email your list to claim your million pounds.

Show quote history

-JK Rowling offers a million dollars if people provide proof of transphobia.
-JK Rowling herself is the one who approves or rejects submissions.

Shouldn't it be a neutral 3rd party who looks at submissions?

"she support an Anti-Trans Charity that pretends to be Lesbian and Gay Charity, one that received objections from dozens of actual LGBT charities when it applied for charity status."

Fixed for you.

Can't be a very good "gay charity" if wearing a hat and shirt with the name of it will get you kicked out of gay bars or pride events.

DontStopMe · 31/05/2024 15:15

I've just bought a copy from my local Waterstones. Looking forward to getting stuck in.

INeedAPensieve · 31/05/2024 15:07

Boiledbeetle · 31/05/2024 11:47

https://www.thenational.scot/politics/24356884.felt-demonised-party-just-wouldnt-wheesht/

The comments underneath that article are a bit depressing through...

Kucinghitam · 31/05/2024 14:57

Waitwhat23 · 31/05/2024 13:32

Putting aside the usual 'right wing, kiwi farms, anyone who disagrees with me is a bigot, yadda yadda yadda', JKR is one of more than 30 contributers to the book. Any comments on the other essays? Or the content of the book? Or the very clear timeline of how it all came about?

Anything?

Or it is just a foot stamping exercise?

Show quote history

I see it was textbook #OperationLetThemSpeak 🙌

WeMeetInFairIthilien · 31/05/2024 14:31

With JK Rowling and Joanna Cherry,
I stand, the more women the merry.
Their voices stood out,
And we say, with more clout,
These women won't wheesht, pass the sherry!

Pinkkisugarmouse · 31/05/2024 13:48

Hooray it’s arrived. Probably won’t get through all of it today but will certainly make some headway.

Waitwhat23 · 31/05/2024 13:32

Christinapple · 31/05/2024 09:55

Is she still asking monthly for proof of her transphobia and is there still a "million dollar" prize for showing proof?

I mean, she's well and truly down the transphobic rabbit hole now. It becomes more and more obvious and time goes on.

-"Guffawed so hard I almost pulled something", response to a gay man who said he received abusive pile-ons from the LGB-Alliance (despite the name, is actually an anti-trans org)

-Retweeted a tweet of a defaced pride flag with the caption "get this shit off the flag" (the "shit" referred to are stripes representing trans people, HIV victims and LGBT people of colour).

-Obsessed over a trans football manager. No she's not a sex offender or took part in a woman's race or anything like that. She just exists and manages a football team. Trans people don't have to be a celeb/public figure or actually commit an offence or do anything bad for her to mock or incite abuse about them on her twitter, they just need to exist. Any trans person Rowling tweets to her 14M followers receives abuse and pile-ons from her followers.

-She called the Harry Potter cast (the ones who disagree with her, so basically most who are younger than the boomer gen) "despicable", because how dare they have different opinions than she does. JK Rowling is allowed to have opinions, but noone else is allowed to unless they agree with her.

-Elon Musk, who is as gender critical as they come, politely pointed out she's too obsessed with trans people. At least Musk does other things but Rowling has made this her entire personality. To the boomer gen she's a beloved children's author but to the younger generations she's the old bigot who has a thing for trans people. That's how she will be remembered.

-More recently, posted a laughing emoji in response to one of those transphobic memes that are shared around on hate sites like kiwifarms. At this point it's just playground bullying and she's not even pretending to not be transphobic anymore. Do you think JK Rowling has an account on kiwifarms?

Just my 2 cents.

Putting aside the usual 'right wing, kiwi farms, anyone who disagrees with me is a bigot, yadda yadda yadda', JKR is one of more than 30 contributers to the book. Any comments on the other essays? Or the content of the book? Or the very clear timeline of how it all came about?

Anything?

Or it is just a foot stamping exercise?

lifeinthelastlane · 31/05/2024 13:29

I know this is missing the point but JK Rowling is not a boomer. She is gen x, if you wish to apply such labels. But I realise saying "boomer" is seen as a clever put down.

Waitwhat23 · 31/05/2024 13:28

Boiledbeetle · 31/05/2024 01:50

Can anyone who has a verified Amazon purchase go leave a review (I know one of you has I recognise a certain posters handiwork) the TRAs have brought the scores right down!

Both of the 1* reviews are by accounts who do not appear to have bought the book (or it would say verified purchase) so we can probably safely assume that they haven't actually read it and treat their views with the contempt they deserve.

Waitwhat23 · 31/05/2024 13:25

Rainbowshit · 31/05/2024 11:39

We should send a copy to every MSP that voted for the GRR bill.

Ooh, that's a good idea!

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