JK Rowling, transwomen and the Labour Party

[HeyRoly]

JK Rowling liked this tweet. I think she might be one of us. Will be interesting to see if this kicks off...

I suppose at least with that ludicrous statement, it so utterly idiotic no one could believe it is true. The multi-millionaire author who sat in a cafe writing billion-selling books beloved by most of the world (not me...hate Harry Potter) is obviously NOT going to have a mishap with her elbow and like a controversial tweet by accident!! That much is obvious!

So the statement to me reads as though she DID deliberately like the tweet but the absolutely evil TRAs are making her come out with this bullshit. That's how it reads to me!!

Love Jo. Knew she wasn't a TERF. Her books are all about standing up against oppressors and fighting for the rights of minorities I'm glad this has been cleared up.

Oh come on @Ihatemyclients. Do you honestly believe for even one second she liked that tweet by accident? What about the gender critical tweet she liked back in October?

Yeah, she's a big huge advocate for trans' rights isn't she? See it all the time in her twitter feed (apart from the terf statuses she likes). She really rushed to apologise herself, didn't she?

I think her reply was dismissive and sarcastic.

I find it really difficult to blame women for retreating when faced by god knows how many thousands of death threats, etc.

No you're right. I wish she had stuck up for the original tweeter though. It's awful that she got thrown to the lions by Shon Faye etc.

Isn't transmisogny misogny as expressed by trans people?

That's how I think of the word.

There is a transgender identified male character in Silkworm who tries to stab the protagonist and screams bloody murder because he fights them off. It is classic DARVO.
In Career of Evil there are a number of BIID peripheral characters who choose to believe the protagonist, who lost part of his leg in an IED attack, cut it off himself or shot himself so it could be amputated. One of them uses a wheel chair to pose as disabled and argues that wanting to be disabled is a disability and should be surgically cured by severing the spine.
I am confident Jo Rowling did sufficient research to have these tweeters number. I hope she fires her publicist.

I'm afraid I read the entire thread, but just wanted to comment that there was a fb thread about this and, even though the person who posted it was outraged at the men in dresses comment, nearly everyone else said she was only speaking the truth.

We must depend on ourselves. There's no one else.

This

If a billionaire hugely successful influential women is silenced by the TRAs then the only thing we can count on is our numbers. We are half of the population. And if just 2 women going topless create more media interest than we have ever had, there is hope. This is nonsence and we can do it if we are clever and organised!

My take is that if JKR is gender critical and if she really wanted to apologise she would have done it herself on twitter.

Again I don't blame people for taking cover at all.

I don't for a second believe it was accidental or a middle-aged, senior moment - but she's getting crap from everyone now - from both sides. This is getting seriously ridiculous. The whole situation is out of hand.

That's several well known names on Twitter - just recently - that have said something (apparently) "transphobic" - and then been crucified for it, and then capitulated (to a certain extent). People are being policed and bullied.

I have long admired JK - she's a heroine of mine. I don't believe she's with the TRAs - I think her PR firm are doing damage limitation - nobody deserves the pile-on she's had.

Looking forward to Lethal White coming out.

There is now a Care2 petition (sorry I haven't been able to link)

'JK Rowling must apologize(American site?) for supporting Anti-Trans Troll'
The petition currently has approx 1000 signatories most of whom are Americans.
The petition concludes
'Please join Care2 in calling on MS Rowling to apologize for her support of an anti - trans troll & ask her to make a donation to an organization working to promote trans rights'

I am so very tired of this and as a box popped up offering site feedback,I was happy to oblige at length and I hope other MN'tters will join me

The thing I don't understand tho is JK is rich and hugely successful why does she need validation from any group now at this point of her career, she can tell any group to fuck off, why is she acting so contrite??

There is no limit to what abusive men are willing to do to harm women.

What a shitty turn of the thread.

Who gives a shit if she's rich and doesn't need the fans, she also doesn't need the death threats. It's not all about job security, as most of you well know.

a lot of "terfs" are sahms. I'm not worried about a job I'm worried about alienating all my acquaintances. I saw someone on another thread say she's afraid to bring it up with her own sister. Most of us post anonymously on Fb and Twitter. If you were one of the most internationally famous people in the world that just means you get more shit.

On and yetanothertranswoman, if you're the poster I think you are we're all sick of you taking over threads as you have done for years. Your username is the equivalent of posters like "amansview" it's asking for us to treat you as special. women are allowed to know what a woman is. Putting a dress on doesn't make a woman and it is not a slur to say it

I did wonder how she would 'like' that comment as it didnt seem a 'sensible' comment to like

But now the actual tweet has been explained by an earlier poster i can absolutely see why

But yes shocking 'apology' , i would sack the company concerned and she may well do once this has calmed down and the contract is up for renewal

Hard to see how she can come back from that apology

There are people on here who also recognise that 'men in dresses' is a phrase that is very likely to cause upset. I am sure that JK Rowling is more than aware of that and the reaction it would get.

Yes, thst phrase would draw negative attention (understatement) - but I like how the first most important part of the tweet was totally ignored and probably was what Rowling was showing support for - that 18 yr old treated like that - we’ve all been there and 30 years later i remember the dick that used to humiliate 19 yr old me at work.

Fucked up priorities some of these folk have policing folks thoughts, experiences, trauma. They would pile on a rape or child abuse victim for the grave crime of misgendering their rapist/abuser - as that is a bigger crime in their eyes and must be punished.

I work in the same field as JKR (sadly not at the same level) and I can understand what a shit position she's in. Yes, she's astonishingly successful, yes she's mind-bogglingly rich, but she's still writing and will be for many years to come.

If she sticks her head above the parapet now, you can bet that two minutes after her next book is released there'll be a hundred one star reviews on Amazon from people who haven't even read it. Film premieres will be hijacked by TRA protests. And as she's sitting at her keyboard she'll have all those rabid voices in her head, making her second guess what she's writing, wondering if it can be misinterpreted, if it's going to be inflammatory. Given the utter cowardice of the BBC and other media it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to imagine production companies shelving plans to adapt future work if she's deemed toxic. As the HW scandal has shown the media are quick to distance themselves when a stink blows up.

So yes, her success makes her powerful but it also makes her more exposed and means she has more at stake.

Then don't LIKE the tweet in the first place.

No-one is judging those that stay silent.
We've all been there, before we chose to start speaking up, and taking the negative consequences for ourselves.
But if you first demonstrate solidarity and then cowardly RETRACT it whilst shoving someone else to the wolves, you're not worthy of respect.

By all means safeguard yourself whilst the woman and the cause you just highlighted and then sabotaged in the same day are left copping the flack.

But my sympathy evaporates as you execute your u turn.

The women who JKR patently does agree with are far more vulnerable than she is, and she just made life more difficult for them.

"Do it to Julia"

How many high profile folks are going to do this kind of thing? Seriously, u turns are so much worse than staying away in the first place.

And the morality running through her books, one of the reasons she is so loved, is that she espouses the principle of standing up for what is right and fair, not what is popular.

Rank hypocrisy.

clumsy middle aged momemt

Ffs

We just do it to ourselves don’t we.

clumsy middle aged moment Christ on a bike.

women know your limits!

I still say the point of the tweet was to say that the BROCIALISTS are the ones who look at trans people and think that's a man in a dress and their sexism means this is why they support them. They see men, not women.

I think the most interesting thing about all this is the lengths the TRAs (and the brocialists, obvs) are going to in order to deflect from this.

Neither the OP nor Jo Rowling were doing the "Bros before Hos" routine but the 1st rule of misogyny is that women are responsible for what men do so here they are taking the heat for the Brocialists.