Just when you think you couldn’t love JK Rowling more...

[Deltoids1]

She posts this.

Given that Baroness Nicholson is a co-founder of Lumos and has been shining a very bright light on this topic recently, I don't think JK Rowling would have been given the choice to keep quiet.

It’s interesting to contrast the reaction here to the social media around BLM. The BLM posts are very much (rightly) about listening to black people’s experiences and white people not centring themselves in the discussion. Why is the same not said for women’s rights? (That’s a rhetorical question!)

twitter.com/DrJessTaylor/status/1269900301944963072

This is the Dr Jessica Taylor thread - it is very good.

It’s interesting to contrast the reaction here to the social media around BLM. The BLM posts are very much (rightly) about listening to black people’s experiences and white people not centring themselves in the discussion. Why is the same not said for women’s rights? (That’s a rhetorical question!)

Because they think that women should all be falling over ourselves to stand up for trans rights, as the most oppressed "women" in Twitter land. They're most disappointed that we choose to centre our own experiences of being female over those of male people. How selfish!

I must say though the silence from the writing community, the writing community on Twitter, is over-whelming.

This. I have hundreds of UK writer friends, but only two of them have "come out" as GC. A few pro-trans writers have raged about JK's vileness, but they don't count -- they're American.
Then again, I also have not come out as GC, so maybe it's a good sign?

Lamahaha yes, I've noticed that. I think writing and the arts are very precarious career areas, with a huge amount dependent on goodwill, contacts and networking. There is a lot of fear. I know people who can't post what they really think for fear of never getting commissioned or hired again. And that's cowardly I know, but also understandable. People in the arts in Ireland are pro-TRA to the point of totalitarianism, it's depressing.

Pink News "with the number of people following JKR on Twitter falling by the minute..."
Link to real time follower count, it's going up and down,but by tiny amounts. I don't think it's the Shazam! they were aiming for...

pachyderm: I'm in two Irish writing communities and not a word has been spoken on the subject. Strange, innit.
Same in every single UK writers' group I'm a member of. We debate everything under the sun (lately, prejudice against black writers) but on trans and JKR? Nada.

Robert Webb has liked a post by Ed Henighan in which he points out someone’s “slamdunk” of JKR is actually just emphasising her point.

It’s interesting that people are seeing lots of discussion on Facebook about it. There’s not been a whisper of it on mine!

@DickKerrLadies

They asked her to educate herself, so she did. And now they're pissed off that she didn't educate herself in the approved way.

YY to twitter being the 2 minute hate.

"Educate yourself.... no, not like that!"

But then, looking at it from my own perspective, it's also a fear of losing the few real friends in the community you do have. They are like your colleagues, but you only see them maybe once or twice a year at some party or gathering or function or the other; for me, it's about five women writers whose friendship I value and I have no idea what they feel about all this and don't want to know in case they are pro-TRA.
It's really a sorry state of affairs and I don't want to break it.

OTOH there's one Irish-based female artist who is a good friend of mine (and I have very few friends in Ireland, having only moved here two years ago!) and she is absolutely horrified! She brought it up herself at our last meeting and we had a good long chinwag about it!!

Unfortunately she has now moved to Dublin and what with Covid I haven't seen her in ages.

The tweet is on Insta now too with Joshua wolrich sharing the tweets and criticising jk. This is actually appalling because he promotes himself as a very woke nhs Dr. We should all message him and ask him why he thinks it's acceptable for women to be called humans who menstruates and terfs, and if he still believes in medical science. He is the very definition of white privilege and it's disturbing that an nhs professional is so uneducated about this issue and willing to throw jk under the bus to appear woke and informed.

Also why is no one on suicidal media talking about the centering of trans people in the blm movement?

@GingerAndTheBiscuits

It’s interesting that people are seeing lots of discussion on Facebook about it. There’s not been a whisper of it on mine!

You need to join gender critical closed FB groups. There are several. There it's the main topic and people really let loose. My normal FB friends don't discuss it at all, with a few exceptions, all TRA-friendly.

I'm calmed by how many ROIers there are here. What are your SM feeds like? I can't help wonder how I got lumped with such different people to me throughout life.

Another in ROI. My SM is mixed.

Irish Twitter is woke central for the most part: not many JKR attacks from people I follow but lots of pro-trans subtweeting, and also lots of silence on the matter. I don't do FB. Other sites are quite mixed but I'm seeing many people coming to the issue for the first time and being peaked as they think JKR's tweets are reasonable and the backlash is crazy. It's interesting to see comments on the Journal turning critical - it used to be quite woke, very much the TRA line, but seems to have shifted.

I keep seeing comments like “talk to some trans people and see how they feel” but is anyone asking transmen if they are happy to be called “menstruators” or “cervix havers” or anything like that. Because if woman is triggering surely referring to transmen by their female biology is triggering too, rather than inclusive.

No one wants to call transwomen “sperm producers” or “testicle havers”- I imagine that would be seen as howwibly twansphobic -yet trans people with female biology are ok to reduce to their biological functions/organs?

If there had been a push for greater acceptance for trans people as trans (eg TWATW or TMATM) much of this could have been avoided. Menstrual products could be marketed to women, girls and transmen/boys and non binary females (or a term more acceptable). Sure it’s a mouthful but it’s better than this shit show.

"Educate yourself.... no, not like that!"

Exactly!

We're also just supposed to accept the approved education and not question it in any way.

We see it here on the rare occasions we do get an answer to a question - any attempts to get clarifications or say that we have a different experience are met with abuse and/or us being told we're not allowed to have any answers any more so ner ner ner because we didn't just accept what we were told. No discussion - just acceptance without exception.

Holy fucking shit that 'open letter' from Bloody Good Period - I had to start reading it through my hands! It is hilarious, horrifying and just plain cringe.

The fact of the matter is that yes, when we as a society were woefully uneducated, there used to be a word for people who menstruate, and that word was “women”. What we know now, due to extensive work and amplification from the trans activist community is that it is not just women who menstruate, but trans men, GNC and non binary people.

God yes imagine the time when we were so woefully uneducated that we went about our lives using that disgusting word word 'woman' to describe people who have periods, when the whole time we could have been using the much more inclusive and progressive 'bleeders' instead.

And the patronising list of women who don't menstruate, completely misunderstanding what JK was saying in the first place! Like she doesn't know those things, like they are fucking enlightening her with that list or something.

I agree that these people are raging that JK Rowling has gone away to 'educate herself' and has come back with a conclusion that differs from their own. Pathetic.

I'm feckin pissed off that they're muscling in on BLM and making this a trans issue!
Black TRANS lives matter-ughhh

Derry girls writer very much against JK. My opinion of her has plummeted accordingly.

that it is not just women who menstruate, but trans men, GNC and non binary people.

At this point they really need to explain what they mean by 'women'.

People who wear high heals? People who clean toilets?

I did tweet in response to a Roisin Ingle tweet last year, pointing to her as a mother of daughters and how she'd feel say re overnights.. she didn't reply but she didn't object. We'll see maybe.

I accidentally liked that bloody good period letter on twatter while scrolling 😂 swift unlike, what a bunch of imbeciles.

I wonder if Jonathan Ross and his daughter have or will discuss this, they seem to have completely opposing views on JKR.

I thought JKR’s tweets were measured and factual. Interesting to see the shitstorm it has unleashed on Twitter, though not surprising. This hitting the mainstream media can only help to open up the debate, so thank you to JKR. I hope she isn’t getting threats etc directly off Twitter and has the ability to step back from it to get a respite.