JK Rowling - Thread 2

[MoleSmokes]

Thread 1 started by @MsMcWibble here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3772685-JK-Rowling
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twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1207646162813100033

Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?
#IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill
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To start off thread 2 - everyone saying the time was right for this to hit the news stands right after the Election was right!

Maya Forstater's Employment Tribunal case is, by virtue of JK Rowling's support, more popular in The Spectator than Boris Johnson by Boris Johnson, The Tories and The Labour Party!

MOST POPULAR in The Spectator

1. In just a few words, JK Rowling has changed the transgender debate (James Kirkup)

1. Boris Johnson: Perhaps my campaign was ‘clunking’. But sometimes, clunking is what you need (Boris Johnson)
2. We’ve just had the best decade in human history. Seriously (Matt Ridley)
3. Keir Starmer looks and sounds middle class precisely because he’s working class (Isabel Hardman)
4. Let’s make David Lammy Labour’s next leader (Rod Liddle)
5. A new leader won’t stop the far left’s domination of Labour (Nick Cohen)

www.spectator.co.uk/

The biology denying on twitter continues.

twitter.com/rayyaghul/status/1207967805401968640?s=21

This new thing that means a tweet author can hide replies is a bit worrying.

umbel, yes I did that from the start, click on the bubble but all I get is a window to "Tweet your reply" I still don't see the replies of others. What am I doing wrong?

Not sure if this has been shared already, you have to scroll past the Trump stuff but really good article on Maya.

nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/2019/12/andrew-sullivan-what-we-know-about-trump-going-into-2020.html?utm_source=tw&__twitter_impression=true

#mypronounsarenotyourpunchline

#mypreciouspronouns

One person on twitter saying that JKR is responsible for the murder of trans people and mass shootings. YIKES

Didn't Janice Turner sue someone for a similar accusation levelled at her?

I very much hope JK does the same. You can't just go around telling people they are responsible for others deaths.

Lamahaha, you can type @jk_Rowling into the twitter search bar, and it will bring up every reply she has had. There are a lot of them! Most of the more recent ones are just long convoluted arguments between respondents. If you click on an individual response, and then scroll upwards, it will bring up the whole thread.

I saw JKR's tweet about 10 mins after she posted it - ALL the replies were positive, and THANK YOU type replies.

Then within about 20 mins, the TRAs got wind of it - and started posting vitriolic "oh so you've gone full on terf" stuff, and telling lies about Maya "harrassing trans colleagues at work"

The TRAs have, over the past few days, whipped themselves up into a frenzy of lies, accusations, biology denial, threats, that "STF Terf" meme pointing a gun... It is utterly insane.

Lamahaha - assuming you're on the web version rather than an app, click on the text of the tweet itself and it will open up over the page with all the replies below it.

Oh, and Lamahaha, if you just click on the body of JK's tweet, it should bring up the string of replies - but I'm on desktop, not a phone.

Oops, x-post with LittleOwl there.

Lamahaha if you’re on the app try clicking the tweet that’s being replied to, but be sure to avoid any highlighted bits or you’ll be sent to a link or another user.

Not sure whether to interpret that as "I have an imaginary friend and it's me" or "I wank a lot".

Much lolling in the stable at that.

I've wondered for a while about paralells between some of the current ideas about identity, and how people become so immersed in fandoms.

Yes Goose - I've observed the same thing. I left online fandoms (sci fi geek!) due to the toxic splits and fan wars that happened over plot and character development. The investment in fantasy and its belief systems overtook the norms and social conventions of real life. People were just toxic both to, and about, each other. The demand for purity of thought is cultic.

Cults. Humans have always made up weird fucking cults together, and tribes. It's our little cave-men instinct to find others like us and then to kick anyone out who doesn't belong.

When I was a kid I vaguely remember reading a book by someone suggesting that every ancient civilisation had ended after it hit peak "decadence" and had lots of infighting. He also suggested we were heading for that in modern society. It scared the heck out of tiny-autistic me, so my parents spent some time explaining how ridiculous the theory was, and how older people just dont like progressive thinking.

However, I think I can sort of see what he meant - it's like we always need something to fight about or pursue, and what do young privileged people fight about when all their basic needs like food and housing are met, and the generations before them have ostensibly tackled racism, sexism and homophobia etc.

Maybe that's bollocks though.

Thanks for the tips. Yes, I'm on desktop and will try that.

Has Caitlin Moran said anything? I really like her writing, but I’m now a bit suspicious of her motives.
How can you claim to be so invested in feminism and not even comment on the biggest bun fight and threat to women’s rights since the fight for suffrage?

Someone on the AIBU thread posted this, unfortunately it is now full so cannot comment

Jeansforme

I’m late to this’ll I’m not sure if it’s been mentioned but she got fired for sending 150 transphobic tweets. It wasn’t one incident

I'm assuming these tweets included things like "men can't become women" rather than threats and hatred against trans people? But a nice bit of misinformation to close the thread with!

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1208592115304812544.html?refreshed=yes

Read it aloud - oh, go on!

That Rayya Ghul thread is mad - basically reads to me she says if we ignore our biology we won't be discriminated against because of it. Has she read Invisible Women?!

I had a brief look at Twitter yesterday and there's a load of stuff on the lines of poor, vulnerable trans people (e..g "when you know that 40% of trans people attempt suicide, why would you decide to make their lives harder?" or "It's been a tough week for trans people - cis people, can you let me know when and why you became a trans ally?") and generally a bunch of self-pitying shit that makes no attempt to engage with the actual arguments or the one germane fact, which is that a woman has been sacked for believing in biological reality.

I know this won't be a popular opinion but i don't really blame high-profile figures for not stating an opinion on this, especially if it's important to you that be specific about what you do and don't believe.

We've seen how a totally innocuous tweet by jk and the whole Maya case have been whipped up on social media so most people won't be able to even identify what's actually been said and what hasn't. Everything gets distorted beyond belief to a ridiculous level. You would have no control over what people state you believe, even if you've set out a very detailed and logical witness statement, as Maya did. It didn't matter. People don't care what anyone actually believe but what everyone else says they do. I wouldn't want to be part of that on many subjects tbh.

Would be nice if they did, though!

(And yes, it frustrates me that there is froth on both sides: exaggeration, unpleasantness, distortion, lack of critical analysis, misunderstanding. Often due to very human factors like not having the time or ability to read primary sources etc). I just happen to think this is approx 95% on one side and 5% on the other....

That Rayya Ghul thread is mad - basically reads to me she says if we ignore our biology we won't be discriminated against because of it.

Yes, that's exactly what I thought?

She is saying that if we just ignore biology, just see everyone as 'people', allow anyone to be a woman etc, then the class of people with XY chromosomes and penises will just cease to oppress the class of people with XX chromosomes and vaginas? That's its women's fault that we are oppressed because we talk about our biology and if we just stopped going on about it we would be liberated?

Surely she can't really think that?!

Twitter is mad sometimes!

That is the direction that transactivism has taken - and thus wiping out the entire history of women's oppression due to their biological realty and reproductive role.

Which comes in really handy if you're someone who doesn;t want to admit that women have been oppressed by men throughout the ages, or that transwomen are a vulnerable minority, even more oppressed than women. In fact women are the oppressors of transwomen, if they don't centre them in feminism and chant TWAW, and allow them into women-only spaces.

In fact, let's just go gender neutral everything - after all, women aren't oppressed by their biology. Biology is irrelevant - so lets throw established safeguarding of women out the window - what could possibly go wrong?

I wonder if JK Rowling is thinking, re the Potter obsessives who are now turning on her, 'well, good. These people are a little too obsessed, it'll be good for them to go away and read something else.'

I wonder if JK Rowling is thinking, re the Potter obsessives who are now turning on her, 'well, good. These people are a little too obsessed, it'll be good for them to go away and read something else.'

She's more likely thinking "I've got presents to wrap and can't find the bastard sellotape." Because you know, she's a real person and it's almost Christmas.