San Fran bookstore stops selling Harry Potter due to JKR's 'anti-trans views' with women's fund being the 'last straw'

I don't know how many people might have thought I was a man, if they did they probably wouldn't have said anything. My point was just that to me now she's encouraging people to take photos and post on SM and I think that's wrong. I personally think she's referring to trans women or women who could be perceived as such and I think that some people will take it that way and act on it because she has a lot of influence. I'm not going to keep repeating myself, im just giving my two cents.

I've never read any HP books or seen a film. Maybe it's people like me suddenly wanting to know what all the fuss is about. Hasn't hit me yet but who knows.

I never knew that.

Possibly off-topic, but it always makes me laugh when people say "Hasn't she got anything better to do than post on Twitter?" The woman's phenomenally prolific. As well as the seven Harry Potter books, she's published seven Cormoran Strike books (the eighth is due out in September), plus The Casual Vacancy, plus things like The Ickabog and various other bits and pieces. She's also collaborated on the film productions and the West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and is currently collaborating on the tv series. That's on top of the charitable work she does with Beira's Place and Lumos - and she STILL finds time off to swan off to the Bahamas in her yacht.

Compare that to Donna Tartt, who's squeezed out three books in 30 years.

Yes she does have a lot of followers but hers aren't the unhinged ones. I really don't think JKR follows are going to be stalking the public loo's in the hopes of taking a photo of a man in one he shouldn't be just so they can impress JKR. I think it's possible you're reading too much into her reply. Besides which if men use the men's and not the women's there won't be any problems of them having their photo's taken.

but you might answer the question? how many times have people mistaken you for a man in a women's toilet?

It's not people who might be trans its men. The trans bit is irrelevant, it's men who need to stay out of womens single sex spaces

well we know of at least one transwoman who went into women's toilets at Disney and filmed himself, and now one of the women who was in the background is said to be suing him. So swings and roundabouts, isn't it.

If i approached a bit unit of a bloke to tell him to use the men's, i'd definitely be filming.

Having said that - i don't tend to film/photograph strangers and put them on the internet. If i upload a photo, and people are clearly identifiable (say, in a shop) then i pixelate them. If it's a crowd round the Eiffel tower? not so much.

I don't really know how else you can read it other than she's suggesting people take and post photos. Well I just wanted to put that point across as I think it's dangerous and I hope it doesn't happen

I don’t think she’s encouraging people to take photos at all.
But we do have the likes of TRA’s Lily Tino and Sophie Molly taking photos in the women’s loos

i once said, in person "my view is dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security." and they totally agreed having just banged on for 10 minutes of real red-faced anger about how awful JKR is.

Then i showed them where i got the quote from. And now they're not speaking to me...

I'm sorry but I really do think that she is encouraging people to do it. People will feel they are now entitled to take and post photos of anyone they perceive as being trans. She has a lot of followers and the more unhinged of them will think she's sanctioned this. It's getting very extreme in my view.

She not encouraging anyone to do that, she's replying to someone who wanted to know how it was going to be policed. She's saying it doesn't need to be policed because decent men won't invade women's toilets.

She's making the point that any man who's found in a women's toilet, isn't a decent man and could easily be shamed and named.

I don't like that either, MoodyAndBlue.
Apart from that, everything I know about JKR's beliefs and actions are AOK.

Image under review

Here

I'll go and find it on twitter

Do you have a screen shot of that, I don't want to respond until I know what I'm responding to.

I am currently living in the US and would like to respond. This is a very complex issue over here for a number of reasons. We are a much larger country with multiple levels of legal systems that sometimes contradict each other. It is very hard, and slow, to make permanent legal changes here. We are also extremely divided politically, with both sides having a very strong bias against the other. We’ve got problems. The progressive media hardly ever publishes anything that would be considered gender critical, and right-wing media is not taken seriously by most people on the left (with good reason most of the time). I don’t know if and when things are going to improve, but following what’s been happening in the UK gives me hope.

@Fimofriend Oh you are in for a treat. They are long but if you enjoy different threads woven together expertly then I think you'll enjoy them.

Lots of people complained they are not Harry Potter but that's kind of the point!

I love The Casual Vacancy as well. It's another that takes a bit of getting into but is worth it.

She is a very good observer of people.

The point is she's now encouraging people to actively look for people who might be trans. I doubt that thought would have previously entered people's heads. So yes there's now every possibility that I or other women will now be accosted in this way. It's all very well for her to pronounce these things from her castle, she doesn't live in the real world so they don't affect her. It's totally irresponsible.

How many times in your life to date have you been mistaken for a man in the women's loos?

But there will surely be mistakes made. If someone took a photo of me thinking I might be trans because I don't fit what they imagine a woman looks like I would snatch their phone from them and report them for harassment as I'm sure many people would! She's just inciting trouble, it's horrible.Is it even legal to take photos of people in that way and post them on social media without permission? She's lost the plot, she doesn't live in the real world.

I suppose the people behind the bookshop think they're sticking to their principles, but then the same thing could be said about Matthew Hopkins.
I'm just constantly struck by the utter stupidity of someone smugly objecting to a legal fund for women who have been discriminated against and somehow thinking that makes them morally superior.
The phrase 'dumb as a bag of rocks' comes to mind.

I think that if women are made to feel unsafe by men deliberately intruding into places where women are undressed and vulnerable, then the fault lies with the men and not the women recording them doing it.