To ask about JK Rowling - can someone tell me what happened?

[christmaspigeon]

Just that really. I like her. I like how she gives so much for charity and how she put Trump in his place, but I know people's views on her have changed. Something to do with trans comments?? Can someone explain (in really simple language!) what happened? Thank you!

As far as I am aware people with chromosome disorders have repeatedly asked to be kept out of tra agenda/ideology.

Even if people with chromosomal disorders hadn't asked to be kept out of it, it's kind of irrelevant because the who,e point of transpeople is that there is nothing innately biological that can currently be detected or even postulated as a cause. And even that is irrelevant because then you would know why they are trans, not that they are actually the opposite sex

@Gardeniaofdelights - can you give examples of the 'series of transphobic comments' please? That was the first line of your first post and you've still not given an example.

I despise the pink brain pseudo science. Mike's turquoise and gold!

Mine's * autocorrect corrected my gender.

she linked her Twitter followers to a shop selling anti-transgender items, such as badges that say “Fk your pronouns” and “Notorious Transphobe”.

No, she bought a tshirt from that site which said nothing of the sort, and linked to that. Can you provenshe even knew those other things were on the site? Do you check every other item on a site before buying something online?

Re the Robert Galbraith thing:

twitter.com/rcolvile/status/1270794437967392771?s=20

"I can’t believe this has to be said, but here we go.

In 2013,
@jk_rowling
published her first book as Robert Galbraith.

In 2016, I published this on Robert Galbraith Heath, a US psychiatrist who (among much else) tried to invent a gay cure.

mosaicscience.com/story/gay-cure-experiments/

1/2"

"We called it one of the ‘great forgotten stories of neuroscience’ because everyone had forgotten it.
@jk_rowling
did not choose her pseudonym out of homophobia or insensitivity. She could not have known about this guy - who everyone called Robert Heath anyway, or just Bob. 2/2"

"Seriously though it is an insane story and you should definitely read it - one of the best pieces of journalism I ever did. But please, people, get some perspective."

"And yes the person who originally tweeted the connection did so light-heartedly. But some are genuinely taking it seriously which boggles the mind."

That last paragraph could apply to many of the mad accusations thrown at JK Rowling

There was something on tv this week about what a vile person Charles Dickens was. Only interested in young women, turfed his wife out of the family home etc. Certainly put a bit of a dampener on the 'man who invented Christmas '.

And didn't Roald Dahl's fam apologise for potentially anti semitic comments the other week, in order to protect his legacy apparently.

It's very tough to think about what was acceptable, what is not nowadays what should be 'erased' from history. Same with Lewis Carrol..l won't listen to Michael Jackson anymore.

It's very tough to think about what was acceptable,

As a woman, its very tough to think about what is acceptable these days. Especially in regards to a horrifically misogynistic world, where the problem is not only getting worse but actually celebrated as 'brave'.

I took English Literature A Level and degree. The whole premise of it was that people in the past had different views and they are worth debating. Questions like: How does Shakespeare portray gender and homosexually in (insert play here) were its bread and butter. In the current cancel culture climate would I get an a for writing 'A Midsummer night's dream' is *insert group phobic #nodebate.
Gosh it'd be dull to study nowadays.

@Quaagars

You could start with William Shakespeare or Charles Dickens

Now trying to think how Shakespeare or Dickens could be "cancelled"
and drawing a blank

Merchant of Venice- anti-semitism

Oliver Twist- anti-semitism

We're not talking implications here, either, but full, blatant in-your-face stereotyping. To this day, Jewish people get called Shylock after Shakepeare's character.

One of the things is described in graphic details was is a dr considering performing a pubiotomomy on a woman, an alternative to a c section which involves sawing through the pelvis during childbirth and was especially popular in Ireland.

A derail but I remember reading that it was popular because it meant that women could just keep having baby after baby. In contrast, after 3-4 C-sections women were advised to stop.

Horrific. Women reduced (again) to their reproductive capacity.

Yes- that's the reason. Absolutely horrific. 12 kids was the gold standard apparently.

And it just made me think how insulting it is to think of womanhood as something (a "mode") you can identify into rather than a biological class.

Instead of never mentioning her name again, it’d be so much better to at least at least try and understand the issues rather than automatically giving in to the people who shout the loudest.

She has come down firmly on the side of biological reality and common sense, and some people do not like it.
Those people include the manager of my local Oxfam shop which has banned all her books from the shelves, even though there is no evidence this is official Oxfam policy.

I understand her arguments.

There is more to being a woman than just identifying as one. It somewhat belittles what girls go through growing up. It's a bit like the Rachel Doezial (sp?) thing, when the black women said to her you can still hail a can and don't fear getting shot or arrested for nothing. The trans struggle is about being accepted as a woman rather than the misogyny and casual sexism women experience. Because they cannot know how that feels. I'm not sure anyone would want to experience that. I don't particularly care if someone does identify as a woman but..well, all of the above.

@Gardeniaofdelights

Funnily enough no one gave a flying fuck about any of that until she started speaking up in defence of women and children.

Maybe not in your circles. I’ve been reading about these issues for donkeys years, since long before the transphobia controversy.

So if her "isms" were so blatant and well known, why did she have such a large fanbase amongst those now so terribly triggered by her "transphobia"?

Are you saying that these fans were ok with racism, anti semitic and so on up to this point? 🤔

The trans struggle is about being accepted as a woman rather than the misogyny and casual sexism women experience.

But to accept someone born male can think or 'identify' as a women is accepting stereotypes about biological women are a truth. It is accepting misogynistic idealisms about women as reality. You cannot have one without the other. There is no such thing as 'gender stereotypes', gender is stereotyping. It is perpetuating the idea that being woman is not about your chromosomes or your biological function, that in fact it comes down to a list of personality factors mixed in with body dysphoria.

After saying she supports the LGBTQ community and basically making characters members of the community to sell her books, she turned out to be transphobic. It’s not new she’s been liking awful tweets for years.

Exactly. When I tore during childbirth and had to get stitched up again through my clitoris with only gas and air for pain relief....or when I had placenta previa and a life threatening haemorrhage.....these things happened to me because of my chromosomes. My biology. Not my "identity", whatever that means.

@MorganKitten what did she say that was transphobic?

Team #JKR here.

Oh, perhaps Morgan can provide examples of actual transphobia from jk

Yeah fair point @BrumBoo.

What about women who identify as men? It is still reinforcing gender stereotypes. But men don't have the same life experiences as us.

Speaking from my own experience a girl identifying as male may be doing it in response to gender stereotypes,

Be more ladylike, girls dint do that , no we don't want girls playing football ,..

Coupled with a good dose of wtf is happening to my body it's hideous I don't want this

Merchant of Venice- anti-semitism

I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?