A response to JK Rowling

[Hjft]

J.K. Rowling, like so many others, has recently been accused of transphobia and targeted for expressing some of her opinions on sex and gender. This is a very nuanced issue which many people struggle with, including members of the trans community. Assuming bigotry and shutting down debate is not the way to address these issues. Instead we should engage in reasoned debate in order to better understand the subtitles and find a way to live together with mutual respect.

On 10 June 2020 JK Rowling wrote about her reasons for speaking out on sex and gender Issues ( www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/ ) . It is a welcome calm voice in what she calls a toxic environment and I commend her bravery for standing up to the bullies. The essay explains eloquently what she believes and why she holds the opinions she does. She opens up about some very personal issues, and I hope all her detractors will read it before shouting her down.

An essay, however well written, carries a bias, and a reasonable author will recognise that bias and be willing to consider that they could be wrong. And so should the reader of an essay. By writing this essay, JK Rowling has exposed some very valid points which the other side of the debate wish to brush aside. However, she has also indicated a bias which I hope to address.

She conflates sex and gender, and she conflates the law and medicine. Firstly she worries that trans activism is ‘pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender’. This legal definition is for the protection of the civil rights of trans people and has no bearing on biology. Trans people still receive healthcare appropriate to their individual biological truths. Every trans person is acutely aware of their biological sex because it is incongruous with their gender. Remember when Harry Potter uses Polyjuice potion to take on the form of Goyle in ‘Chamber of secrets”. He does not stop being Harry. Now imagine if Harry had got stuck, and had to live his life with everyone believing he was Goyle. It would be intolerable for him and would likely lead to mental illness or worse. This is what it’s like for trans people, and why the law is in place to protect their right to be their authentic selves. Being Harry is ‘not a costume’.

This conflation is further illustrated when she expresses alarm that ‘A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law’. Again, this demonstrates a conflation of law and medicine. If a trans person can find relief from their gender dysphoria by permanently expressing themselves in an authentic manner then why should we expect them to accept medical intervention in order to get legal protection. Imagine you have a migraine. If sitting in a dark room with a glass of water provides you with sufficient relief, then you shouldn’t be expected to take strong pain killers or accept brain surgery. The ‘man’ she describes is not masquerading as a woman - she is living her authentic identity as a woman. The law protects her rights to do so. She is not a predator, and it should not be assumed that she is. Without these rights, her transgender status would be revealed every time she tries to hire a car, or open a bank account, and it is her safety that is in danger. A man masquerading as a woman is not able to legally get a Gender Recognition Certificate - because they are a man.

[redacted*] I hope JK Rowling’s essay will mark a turning point in the tone of these discussions, and people can start to properly address them.

• [edited by MNHQ to remove inflammatory content - we're allowing the challenges to this section of the OP to remain]

debate

Noting that the only other person to agree with you that sex doesn't matter in everyday interactions is also male would be a good place to start, OP. Also read the Break It Down For Me thread.

The thing that interests me in all this is that transwomen believe that they pass.

I expect they do, to themselves, in a mirror or a snapchat filter.

No transperson has ever passed to me in real life. None. Ever. Because I am female, my ancestors survived because they could spot sex and keep away from the big, hairy fuckers who were coming at the cave and intent on doing them harm.

Women are hard wired to spot sex, even if you try to disguise it with high heels and lipstick. We see you.

And, look, I see you through your words. Your inability to LISTEN, your insistence that you are right, that your needs matter more than mine.

I see your sex through your writing.

I see you.

Has the OP mentioned transmen yet and the concerns JKR raised about whats happening to girls who are identifying as transmen?

Without going back to check the last few pages I'm going to guess the focus has been on transwomen?

Ah hjft, you are a transwoman. That makes some of the things you said clear. It is also unbelievable you don't know what a tw or tra is.

Maybe read the thread break it down and try to see it from womens point of view. Don't take it personally, it is just like childrens safeguarding. Everyone is checked when working with children to keep out the people with evil intent. The same for single sex spaces: all men/males are kept out to keep out the males with bad intent.

292 votes so far and 93% do not agree with the OP, myself included.
I wonder if that means we are all "transphobic"?
It was Rachel McKinnon who opened my eyes to all this in October 2018, followed swiftly by the abuse which Martina Navratilova received for standing up for women.
I have witnessed the disgusting abuse which J K Rowling has faced online, vile comments, simply because J K stated biological truths.

A man masquerading as a woman is not able to legally get a Gender Recognition Certificate - because they are a man

Except that's exactly what is happening.

?

OP, you're newly trans, as you've stated, and have accepted that this means you're male. So why, why, why are you on here telling women what it's like to be a woman and that biological sex has nothing to do with how we live our lives? FFS. Talk about being fucking deaf. Add blind to it to. You have my support as a transwoman and I will campaign as much as everyone for third spaces for you, for your life to be safe and free from persecution. Return the fucking favour, why don't you?

How interesting that you gave away your natal sex - and total lack of insight into and experience of what it is to live as a woman - with one throwaway line. So quickly, within just a few paragraphs of posting: In normal life, whether someone is biologically male or female is irrelevant for most interactions.

What's so terrible about being a 'feminine' man OP? About being male while not conforming to silly society-specific stereotypes about masculinity?

Because I am female, my ancestors survived because they could spot sex and keep away from the big, hairy fuckers who were coming at the cave and intent on doing them harm.

There is a widespread refusal to deal with this fact among men. In transwomen it's complicated by the belief that they can identify out of the "women are scared of" group into the "fellow woman, no need to fear" group. This is simply not possible, and refusal to accept that it's not possible is only going to cause misery both to the transwoman themselves and to women and girls as a group.

I strongly suspect that some of the non trans men cheerleading TRAs are doing so because they know very well how scared women are of unknown males in our spaces and they like the idea of making us even more scared, and of making sure that there's no place where we will ever be able to feel safe from that fear again. There's a level of malice there that's hard to miss.

I'd still like to know what you plan to do with all the female people who will be excluded from female spaces and therefore from any spaces by this policy, OP?

Stuff them in a dark cupboard somewhere? Pop them back to the limitations and oppression that people born female spent centuries fighting their way out of?

I'm guessing 'subtitles' meant slogans or similar.

TRAs don't want to discuss beyond the slogans - that's why "NoDebate" is literally one of the slogans!

Is exclusion ok, so long as it only happens to people born female?

Hmm your dissection of JK's essay reveals both your ignorance of the issues and your own biases. She conflated NOTHING, her words were chosen very carefully, if you understood the concerns women are trying to raise you would not have made that mistake. I thought it was impressive for it's compassion, clarity and for it accurate and comprehensive summary of women's alarm about the erosion of their rights.

So quickly, within just a few paragraphs of posting: In normal life, whether someone is biologically male or female is irrelevant for most interactions

Yeah - irrelevant for whom?

Is that what you'd say. Does that make me your enemy?

It makes you a man, who was socialised, raised, conditioned as a man, into masculinity, into patriarchal privilege which you don't even recognise - even now, when you're admitting that you are troubled by masculinity (but then fish don't realise they're swimming in water, I suppose).

Everything you write shows you don't understand what it is to be born, raised, socialised, conditioned as a woman in patriarchy.

You might do well to sit back and listen - you might learn something from women, instead of coming in here and telling us who and what we are.

Your kind of privilege makes me feel sick. Maybe you are my enemy - you show no empathy for women, that's for sure.

OP, it does not make you an enemy. But it explains why I was not understanding your writing or your motives. And you played us a bit, right? You know what a TW and a TRA is but you pretended faux innocence.

This would have gone much better if you were honest.

Without these rights, her transgender status would be revealed every time she tries to hire a car, or open a bank account

I think there will be more to give away "her" transgender status than her drivers licence saying Mr.

Only a man could imagine that sex is irrelevant in most interactions.

Women as a sex are judged all the time, by men but also by other women. We see it on here all the time - the WOHM vs SAHM vs WAHM - each picking holes in the other. Body shaming - men rarely suffer from public body shaming, it's nearly always women. Women who speak up too much are judged for being bolshy, bossy, nags, shrews, harridans - women who don't speak up enough are judged for being doormats, mice, wet.

It's constant. Then there is the job and pay discrimination - some jobs are deemed to be more "suitable" for men, regardless of the experience level of the female applicants. There is still a sex-based pay gap (which, by the way, having TWAW as an accepted fact will start to skew).

And then there is the whole fucking derisory "Be nice" campaign. Because women are brought up to "Be nice". Now it's being used to make us shut up and move over - stop making waves, let the nice man play in his dresses and encroach on your sex-based rights because he wants to.
Fuck OFF.

The amount of foul, abusive, disgusting language that was thrown at JKR for her remarks (which are in no way transphobic, by the way, except in the TRA definition, which could be written as "disagrees with what we say") is ATROCIOUS. Male violence will out - TRAs are all about male violence.
Sure, there are violent women but not nearly as many women will instantly resort to violent sex-based threats - because nearly all women are usually on the fucking receiving end of sex-based threats.
Women don't threaten to rape and burn people.
They don't threaten to make people suck their dicks (lady or otherwise).
They don't offer to rape people with barbed-wire covered baseball bats.
That's what MEN do - and if they think that, in ANY way, contributes to their "femininity" then it just proves that their "performance femininity" is just a show. It's not a deep-held belief that they actually are female.

Now I KNOW that not all trans are TRAs, far from it. There are many transpeople who do just want to live their lives free from harm, and free from harming anyone else - and I stand with them. But I will not stand with TRAs who are abusive, violent, bullying thugs.

Everyone should be protected from male violence - women, transwomen, transmen and other men too!

But allowing men with functional rape equipment into vulnerable women's sex-segregated spaces is not the answer. Let them have their own space. Or let all facilities have separate cubicles with no common areas, so that NO ONE has to share with anyone. TRAs don't want this because they need to "performance female" - there were even tweets from some transwomen during lockdown that they'd lost all sense of who they were because they weren't getting external validation of their performed womanhood. WTF? What happened to their innate belief that they were a woman? Where did that go?

I read it as subtleties, fwiw.

Also read the "sex makes no difference in most interactions" bit to my husband and he snorted and rolled his eyes, thus lending weight to my theory that "identifying" as a woman actually makes it harder for men to identify with us.

@doublehalo

JK Rowling has said nothing against transwomen- in fact she has openly supported them.

People need to learn to read.

Yep

@merrymouse
Do you really believe you are treated the same as a man?
I only ask because I'm in my forties and still get unwanted attention from men when I'm minding my own business, it was much worse in my twenties.
Also men get paid more than we do and are more likely to go to prison for violent and sexual crimes we are also smaller.
I'm 5'3 and not many men are my height whereas plenty of women my age are.

In normal life, whether someone is biologically male or female is irrelevant for most interactions

In 'normal' life, being female is relevant all the time. To judge safety, to judge when it's sensible / risky to go somewhere or speak to someone, to deal with misogynist colleagues, to put up with cat calling, to be assumed as less knowledgable about cars, sport and other things that don't require a vagina to know about, to be told to 'be nice' or asked if you're on your period if you're angry about something...

And THAT is why erasing what it means to be a woman makes so many of us angry.

You've just told us our biological sex is irrelevant almost all of the time.

It was relevant when I was raped, when I got paid less than male coworkers for the same job, when it was assumed I was my own assistant in meetings because people weren't expecting a young woman to run a business.

How dare you?

I'm disgusted. Absolutely disgusted. What a waste of my energy.

I am not a man. I am not a woman. So I must be a TW!

No, it makes you a fellow human being.

We have value because we are human, not because of our sex.

Your behaviour is authentic because it is your behaviour. Sex is irrelevant.

If you want to wear make-up, that is authentic behaviour for you. It might not feel authentic for me. None of this has anything to do with sex.

However, if you enforce gender expectations on women by insisting that the word 'woman' implies somebody who conforms to gender expectations, you take away our rights.

If you make it impossible to talk about sex we cannot talk about the rights and services that we need regardless of our sense of identity.