Male Author removed from book due to transphobic comments

[leghairdontcare]

twitter.com/OldRoberts953/status/1135835274745978881?s=19

This person writes books for doctor who and the 'fandom' has put pressure on BBC to remove him from a book of short stories due to his transphobic tweets.

What really interests me is the huge amount of support he has received rather than the usual twitter stream of misogynistic GIFs that women get.

IIRC, Unicorn and the Wasp was the one with the ‘ginger beer’ joke.

Fandom went woke about the time Virgin were publishing The New Adventures of Doctor Who.

There were about 250 novels in that range and The Missing Adventures.

Guess how many of the wokey woke writers were women?

One: Kate Orman.

Every other author was a man.

Yes, The Unicorn and The Wasp had much merriment around the homosexual relationship of two characters. And also an extremely touching moment where Donna laments (spoilers) that one of them has died and his boyfriend cant even mourn him, calling it like something out of the dark ages.

Much, much respect to Gareth for some proper, sensitive human commentary on the LGB issue that had fuck all to do with pearl clutching language 'offences' and everything to do with the way homophobia actually affected gay and lesbian people in times past and round the world still.

It is total madness that we can only watch, listen or read someone that we agree with 100%

I agree 100%

On a plus side I suppose all those skinheads who spray painted the Q word on gay people’s houses back in the 70s were actually ok, so we should forgive them 🤷‍♀️

I hope they all get so self righteous on behalf of the community the next time a bunch of misogynistic gay men get up on stage at Pride and talk about 'fish' and 'saggy old tits'.

Poet up in Scotland here just had his book removed from publication by publisher. Stuart Paterson had made various comments in support of GC views on twitter. Tapsalteerie Press (v small independent) then decided to pull his forthcoming collaborative book as they didn't agree with his views. A really worrying precedent.

Article/blog/post on it here from another small Scots poetry mag: www.facebook.com/notes/the-poets-republic-in-print-online-on-stage-and-off-message/magic-doors-and-culture-wars/2231305003580142/

I really don't like that other authors in the same volume threatened to pull out if he was included (for what seems to be about two tweets 2 years ago?). I wonder how these people don't ever have a moment of doubt in their own sense of right and wrong. Or a niggling fear that one day something they believe / think / say will become the new forbidden thought, and everyone will turn on them.

That Twitter thread......

" Dr Who should be a safe show / brand"

Oh fuck off. Who the hell ARE these people.

Interesting bullshit tweet by Whittle here.

Erm, did I imagine the last few years. I really hope it was a dream and I wake up and everyone knows what biological sex is again. And shows some respect towards biological females.

Oh and mable did you actually read his explanation?
Glad he's not apologising. Twitter mobs are the worst

“Dr Who should be a safe show” said Mary Whitehouse at the end of one episode of The Deadly Assassin.

I remember The Talons of Weng Chiang.

The villain was a war criminal from the future living off the life force of Victorian prostitutes; his servant smoked opium to kill the pain after having his legs gnawed off by a giant rat.

‘Safe’ family viewing it wasn’t.

Or a niggling fear that one day something they believe / think / say will become the new forbidden thought, and everyone will turn on them.

Or don't they remember that the new orthodoxies at one time would have been completely shut down as being offensive?

There is a remarkable sense of this moment in time being the one where we know what is right.

Oh, and Leela never needed a safe space. Anyone gave her any shit and she’d paralyse them with a Janis thorn or stab them up through their rib cage and into the heart.

With all the wailing on that thread, I was reminded of a journalist I read about who had nothing to be afraid of, so his mind created threats in the form of various cancers (which he did not have). His body was creating a fight or flight situation for him. Then 911 happened.

I do hope that it doesn’t take war to shake these people up so they can realise their fears are imagined.

Dr who fandom is indeed woke in the typical sense in that many of them pissed their underpants when dr who became a woman.

One of the other anthology writers has broken cover to say that she issued a 'it's him or me' ultimatum to BBC books.

twitter.com/mssusieday/status/1135972522426601472

I wonder if any of the other writers did?

cashing in their 'righteous' chips I see.

Interesting that BBC Books is owned by Penguin Random House, who gave just stood behind John Boyne’s recent ‘transphobic’ YA novel.

Presumably they’ve decided it’s too hot to handle & Gareth Roberts’ tweets were on the poor taste side of things so easier to bin him, particularly just as a contributor not the author. They will have been taking a beating on the John Biyne thing and keen not to inflame anything further.

Feel very sorry for Gareth Roberts.

God that woman is insufferable. It becomes very easy to see how ordinary people under facist regimes started offering up their family, friends and neighbours to be put on a 'list'.

All done in the name of righteousness of course.

*fascist

Broke my rule and visited Twitter to read it. Notable how eagerly she replies to the praise of someone with an anime furry avatar. The payoff for her obedience will feel very gratifying. But it's never pleasant witnessing a woman making obeisance to her masters.

I wonder if any of the other writers did?
I expect so. A Who writer called Paul something is currently on twitter exhibiting his morals by telling everyone that some opinions can kill people.

Or don't they remember that the new orthodoxies at one time would have been completely shut down as being offensive?
There is a remarkable sense of this moment in time being the one where we know what is right.

That's exactly right. By limiting what people are allowed to say and think, they hope that today's morals will be frozen in time and will never move again. In fact there is bound to be a new orthodoxy at some point on what is allowed to be said. Will they change their view to match the new orthodoxy then?

There are so many parallels with 1984 its like a tired old cliché now - but the re-writing of the past so that the presently approved way of understanding the world is all that counts, and all that ever existed, is weird.

Bold fail!

Susan Day sounds a bit twee. I personally wonder who needs a sci-fi story that is a safe bloody space?