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]

Women need to be less reasonable.

They need to start writing to their MP's.

My mp ignores all communication on anything to do with women's rights and safety. Can you guess their sex? Can you? Can you?

@ThumbWitchesAbroad

Indeed! Took him a while to recognise and accept he needed to see his doctor. Once he was back to normal, he apologies and we took the piss. A lot. But that's what friends are for!

@BigGee
I thought they were obliged to respond to every communication. Are you sending it to the House of Commons? If they don't reply just keep sending follow up letters referring back to the original communication, and cc'ing in more and more people each time. It's very effective.

And always sound calm and reasonable - I've never had mine not reply and I've lived in both Labour and Tory strongholds and have had male and female MP's. If he keeps not replying, write to the Party leader and complain!

I do believe in the British approach to letter writing. Pester power. Every mother knows how effective it can be.

@BigGee

I've got one. Babysitting at 17 years old for a couple with two daughters. They come home at 11pm and husband insists on walking me home (10 mins, in a village) so I'll "get home safe". Husband proceeds to sexually assault me on way home.

Oh my god!

@BeeGee

(I had a similar experience with the "gentle giant" partner of a friend insisting on walking me home from the pub, but I was much older, so nowhere near on the level you're describing.)

@BigGee

How many of our experiences will it take, do you think, to drown out one "but I feeeeeel like a woman!" from a man? 20? 200? 2000? 200000? How many female deaths balance out a male death? How many female rapes equal a male rape?

i feel like nobody gives a shit. We're just women - the old fashioned cunty kind.

@BigGee - you're not the only one. I'm worn out from it too - not just the trying to explain our position of being pro-women, not anti-trans per se (although I'm definitely anti-TRA rhetoric) but also from the anxiety induced by the Twitter responses that JKR received for her tweets.

The violence, the hatred, the viciousness - it's appalling. And those bland idiots who came to fame through her writing haven't even tried to tell the thugs that they're wrong - with the mild exception of Evanna Lynch, and that was pretty half-hearted. It's awful to think that any one of us would receive the same treatment if we stood up to be counted as well - it's awful that this male pattern violence is used to silence us.

And Chocolate - talking out your arse there - these days the GRA allows transwomen to be recorded as women in their violent and sexual assaults, skewing the stats. Karen White is only one of the men who self-IDd as a woman to get a transfer to the female estate, where he (yeah, HE) then assaulted 4 more women. He's not the only one.

The percentage of transwomen who assault women is roughly the same as the percentage of men who assault women.

I've just looked up the much-vaunted rates of violence experienced by transwomen - guess what, it's the same as the rates of violence experienced by women. It's shockingly high when it relates to transwomen, apparently - but not so shocking when it's biological women, it seems. 1 in 2 women (trans or not) experience violence. up to 66% of women (trans or not) experience sexual harassment.
So WHY is it so much worse when it's transwomen? [hint: it's not]

@BigGee - she's female, of course!

Thank you @ThumbWitchesAbroad, great posts as usual. Could you post links?

I’ve written to my MP on the GRA issue in the past and had an extremely vague non commits unsatisfying response.
What can we do, I feel like there is a silent majority of us who are horrified that our biology, our lived physiology and what that means to us in terms of how we live our lives, is being literally erased from society before our eyes, and we’re helpless... or are we???

I've got one. I was seven. Babysitter cancelled on my Mum at the last minute so she took me with her to an anniversary party of a family friend. I slept in the spare room. Someone came in during the night and assaulted me. He was a person with a penis. Not sure how he identified.

[quote ThumbWitchesAbroad]@BigGee - she's female, of course![/quote]
That obvious, is it?

I'll revise my letter strategy based on the info given. So far I've been sending emails. I bet they've never reached him, have they? I'm sure most MPs have a nice, woke intern "screening" their mail for them. I'm so so so bloody tired of being female. Fuck this. I'm male from now on. Poor hubby's going to get the fright of his life when he comes home tonight and realises he's gay.

@BarbieandKenBruce

I've got one. I was seven. Babysitter cancelled on my Mum at the last minute so she took me with her to an anniversary party of a family friend. I slept in the spare room. Someone came in during the night and assaulted me. He was a person with a penis. Not sure how he identified.

Probably as a nice kind man who loved kiddies...

That's awful.

Bloody hell, Barbie, that's horrendous.

I don't know about you, but I never reported any of the things that happened to me. But Humberside police visit someone for committing the crime of Wrongthink.

Poor hubby's going to get the fright of his life when he comes home tonight and realises he's gay

I’d like to see Radcliffe, redmayne and the rest pit their money where their mouths are and publicly date a transwoman. Just like all the lesbians who are being called out for refusing to date TW.

Willing to bet that even though twaw, they won’t be hopping on any ladydicks...

Me too. If twaw, date and shag a tw. Then, and only then, will I believe any of them.

Chocolate

Please tell me how I can advise my daughter, 11, which are the TM who may do her harm in female spaces and which ones won't? A way to tell the difference, a checklist perhaps? That way when she's going swimming, and in a few years the gym and clothes shopping by her self she can stay safe?

That would be super helpful to know.

To all of you who have been assaulted and hurt by men**

When I was 12 my mums best friends husband assaulted me. He told me "it was because I looked like her" (his wife). I'd been babysitting for my brothers and their kids, at their house. He came home early a bit drunk. When it happened my younger brothers and his kids were asleep in the next room.

"So WHY is it so much worse when it's transwomen?"

Because they didn't grow up to expect it.

@Crystaltree

"So WHY is it so much worse when it's transwomen?"

Because they didn't grow up to expect it.

Because they didn't grow up accepting it was just normal either.

But mostly, I’m worried about what will happen when she continues to fund woman-centred and feminist causes.

You're seriously holding up this article (you've linked to it several times) and saying This Is A Good Thing?

That it's worrying that woman-centred causes are funded and supported?

Excellent evidence (I'll add it to the half continent of evidence already in existence) that this movement is about the suppression, defunding and punishment of female people. Who shouldn't have their causes recognised, who should be repeatedly told to shut up, sit down, move back and prioritise their betters.

This is male supremacism. This is what you're supporting. It's homophobic, with racist aspects, disablist and classist. If you feel good about that, that's your problem.

I'm arguing for female people's needs to be equally planned for and recognised too . Solutions that equally meet everyones needs. Such as the compulsory provision of third spaces and options. And I believe that to meet everyone's needs is going to have to include people born male having the inclusiveness and kindness to realise that people born female are something different to them, with different needs, and those needs can only be met by female only provision in some cases, and that it is wrong to deprive people of any service in order to get your preferred choice of service.

You believe in silencing and excluding female people and their issues and depriving them of services, recognition in law, safety, privacy, dignity and provision so that people born male can be made happy by this triumph of conquest and absolute freedom to feel validated in their identity in every situation. You believe that to give one group what they want, another group must suffer, and more over that it is their moral duty and birthright to suffer. Nicely. And shut up about it. And accept that equality and justice and being heard is not for female humans.

One of these positions is moral. The other... well, it's in good company. General Custer for one. Slave traders for another. It's just a case of swapping around who in your particular opinion are the good guys who get privileged and who are the subordinate, lesser class who should be made to give and to serve their betters. We're currently throwing statues in harbours of people who thought this way instead of realising that equality means everybody. Solutions that work for all.

actually I don't really believe that stats are always reliable. I really don't.

So, like most people making this claim, you have no proof, know perfectly well that the statistics don't support what you're saying, but are convinced that women rape in numbers similar to men just because, what, you can see into their evil souls? And every single expert who's ever noticed the pattern of male sexual predation all over the world is wrong, and you know they are, because you just have a feeling that it's not fair not to say women are equally prone to sexually predation because that would be sexist?

That's, well, not the world's most convincing argument. But hey, your gut feeling trumps both reason and evidence, I guess.

Aside - as someone who's been involved in this debate for a long time it's fascinating to see a new group of women come to the same realizations I did entirely as the result of the often made demand that we "listen to transwomen". We did, and we have, and this thread is an example of what happens when women do. We're just not drawing the conclusions that some would like us to.

but are convinced that women rape in numbers similar to men just because, what, you can see into their evil souls?

But surely we should take these claims more seriously! Just think of the number of unconvicted female rapists there must be! It's a silent scandal!

(sarcasm emoji...)

On the article Chocolate linked, not sure why a male human fretting that a powerful woman might continue supporting charities for other women and that would be terrible and how dare she was meant to convince anyone that we, too, should stop supporting other women.

Rowling supports those organizations because she knows first hand why they exist and how much they're needed. There are a few very wealthy transwomen who've thrown a considerable amount of money at supporting TRA initiatives. Why is it different and unacceptable when women put other women first?

(We know why it's different. Women are meant to be the support humans, and this one has clearly stepped out of the support human box, therefore she must be shoved back in before the other women start getting ideas.)

@ShebaShimmyShake - this is where I found the numbers on a rapid Google:
www.ovc.gov/pubs/forge/sexual_numbers.html for assaults on transgender people
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/21/587671849/a-new-survey-finds-eighty-percent-of-women-have-experienced-sexual-harassment this one for inappropriate sexual touching (aka assault) on women.
There will be other, better links, I'm sure - but it's a start.
Notice I didn't use the 81% figure for the latter link, because a lot of that was verbal assault - which, while still disgusting, and often triggering, isn't apparently included in the trans figures.