JK new post on her reasons for writing about gender

[BlackKite]

www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/

Enjoy

I just went to that R4 piece.

Yet again, I'm listening to two men talking about what a woman has said.

I had a very depressing start to the day, seeing a tweet from Alison Moyet supporting JKR's explaining her reasons - and the resulting pile on.

Just person after person 'a rich white woman using her platform to spread harm to a poor vulnerable minority who have such a tough life' plus repeating the lie they appear to believe 'there is no threat to sex based rights'.

No engagement with what has actually been said. No ability to think for a minute that there are issues for females here (and rapid, angry and derisive dismissal.) Just fury that she's dared to speak at all.

Mostly from extremely privileged women who have no real concept of what they are sentencing other female people to, no compassion whatsoever for females and female issues (spot the misogyny so much in fashion right now) and programmed 'the most vulnerable group in the world' responses, which does nothing to unpack the actual issues with self ID at all.

It's like the poster last night getting angry that someone pointed out Karen White, which blew apart their poor vulnerable never do any harm to women cosy image.

It has become taboo to even talk about the reality of this movement, because mentioning people like White makes the whole group look bad. Being good now means hiding all the ugly stuff and pretending there are no baseball bats in barbed wire and threats to kill.

Yet if you line up the names of the main and most well known movers and shakers in the political lobby, the ones in the papers demonstrating the issues with following the policy of self ID, taking things into court, advising government, giving training....? Having the most practical impact?

The history and behaviour associated does not suggest a fragile, gentle, vulnerable group who are desperate to present no harm to females or their rights. Quite the contrary.

www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/10/jk-rowling-transgender-gender-recognition-act-certificate-anti-trans-harry-potter-transphobia/

I hope the link works.
Pink news trying to have a go at Rowling for being 'factually incorrect' in saying that we are heading towards men being able to legally identify as women if that's what they say they are and then at the end recognising that Stonewall are campaigning for exactly that - to simplify the process by which you obtain a gender recognition certificate so you will no longer require a medical diagnosis.
I know that some of the more extreme trans activists arnt known for being able to put together a logic argument but surely even they cant be so blinkered that they can't see how ridiculous that article is?

It doesn't matter how ridiculous it is. We're in the post-truth era so you can say whatever you like and if you repeat it often enough and get people to believe it, it becomes the truth.

This is orchestrated and deliberate.

The history and behaviour associated does not suggest a fragile, gentle, vulnerable group who are desperate to present no harm to females or their rights. Quite the contrary.

When are the MSM going to start reporting on who has been responding negatively to what JK Rowling has said and what they are saying to her?

When are the people who think they are 'kind', and who have said they disagree with her, going to start condemning this abuse?

The author of the Pink News article, linked by FlyMCA above, is written by someone called Patrick Kelleher:

www.pinknews.co.uk/author/patrick/

Fuck me, Patrick has a right bee in Patrick’s bonnet about JK, Patrick has published EIGHT articles about JK in TWO days.

Patrick, mate,, your misogyny is showing.

Debbie Hayton has written this for The Spectator
www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-dare-the-body-shop-tell-jk-rowling-what-to-think

Pink News are in financial trouble. Next time I do a shop I'm going to by some bubbly put it on ice and bide my time until that misogynistic, MRA mouthpiece is no more.

I happen to have a bottle my dad got me, Ova, might have to join you!

This is a good twitter thread.

twitter.com/Inveritas20/status/1270877277258166272

When I read JK's piece, I thought, "No decent person can fail to feel some empathy after reading this," & well, I still think that, I just think there is a horrifying dearth of decent people on the (so-called) Left.

I used to think that most well-meaning Leftists just didn't get what was going on, how blatantly pornsick men with no dysphoria about their penises are claiming "trans" identity & womanhood via a blatantly misogynistic theory of brainsex - but I can no longer think this.

I used to think that if well-meaning Leftists were exposed to all the "choke on my lady dick and die, you nazi cunt" comments we get in response to the most obvious, fact-based comments, they would be horrified by them. Nope. They're taking the side of the misogynists.

I used to think that if well-meaning Leftists were exposed to the reality of why & how children are being transitioned -to drug & cut the gay away- they would be horrified. Nope. They're horrified by gender non-conformity. They actually think it REQUIRES lies & medicalization.

I don't see any way around the knowledge that it is now a mainstream Leftist position that because I am 1) against sexism & 2) want a word a word for female people, I am a horrible bigot who deserves unemployment & excommunication at best & violent punishment at worst.

I don't even see any way around the knowledge that it is now a mainstream Leftist position that "sexism" now means knowing the difference between female and male, & the only way to fight sexism is to pretend we don't know how babies are made. (!!!)

& I am beyond horrified. I am terrified. Because if a beloved children's author who gives millions to charity causes can be thrown so completely under the bus for stating facts in a clear, empathetic way, ordinary women stand no chance against this mob.

And I am not voting for anyone who does not have the decency to stand up to this idiocy & vitriol. I'll never vote for Trump, but I also cannot vote for anyone who thinks I deserve non-personhood - FOR WANTING A WORD FOR FEMALE PEOPLE.

This is madness.

Excellent tweet from Jodie Ginsberg
twitter.com/jodieginsberg/status/1270778199895617539?s=19

Something has really interested me today.

JK tweeted what she did and several of my woke friends posted on social media that she is transphobic - lots of comments along the lines of how this cis, white, privileged person needs to talk to oppressed people and learn. Boak. No, I don't have a very high opinion of them any more.

JK writes her blog post and.....crickets. I checked all the various accounts and no one has commented. It's obviously actually not that socially acceptable for people to criticise something bearing in mind it includes an account of the impact of abuse and maybe, just maybe, they can see some of the points she's trying to make.

The abuse she has received has appalled me and I thought I was beyond being shocked by this debate now. But I think what she has written has made a difference. It was so enormously courageous of her and I am so grateful. Even if it has just made certain people stop and think, it has been worth it.

I would also like us to take a very big step back as a society and ask what the hell has gone so wrong. I know the aggression is coming from a minority of mostly young people and there are huge numbers of that age group who are wonderful, decent human beings (they're the majority by far, in fact). But this is 2020. We have had the 'me too' movement. We have had many passionate public discussions about consent and sexual abuse and freedom of speech over the last 15 years. This generation of young activists claims to care about minority rights. They spout 'be kind' here there and everywhere. They talk about things being triggering on the basis we need to be more thoughtful of those with mental health problems. And yet someone says something they strongly disagree with and instead of arguing back in a civilised manner and making really strong counter points based on science or a knowledge of ethics or law, they sit there hurling death and rape threats, threatening suicide and god knows what else. They are a disgrace. I think that's the thing I'm most disturbed by right now. Really, what has gone so badly wrong? How do we change the situation? Certainly it can't carry on like this - these people who claim to be so vulnerable and yet are acting like aggressors and terrifying people left right and centre (including me, by the way).

The basic problem underlying here is the collapse of journalism and the rise of social media and clickbait.

We live in a society where having an opinion is more important than understanding the issue you have an opinion about.

The great irony about the trans debate is the generation divide. The young criticised and rallied against the old daily mail reading bigots for the referendum because they didn't look at facts. Yet fall foul of the exact same thing with the trans debate because its easier and lazier to just believe people you like who make 280 character tweets than get off your arse and make the effort to look behide that.

Whilst twitter and the Daily have done much to destroy journalism, they do both still have their merit and do ironically allow the creation and spread of quality journalism too. But you have to have a filter to spot it and identify it. For a generation who profess and pride themselves on being 'more educated and better educated' than previous ones it's shocking.

It's depressing in the extreme how emotion and feelings have taken over from logic and reasoning. And yes education.

The JKRowling story highlights it better than most. If you have read her post you can instantly see the headlines and individuals written without haven't read it.

It's the same phenomenon as 'Outraged from Tunbridge Wells'.

The ability to think and to hold an opinion without the approval of others is sadly missing. It's all about comformity within your social circle and fitting in.

The irony of it all keeps hitting you in the face like a sledgehammer.

The truth is lost in an unwillingness to be self critical about your own views and to challenge yourself to constantly question what's been said and a need to be validated by others approval.

It's a pattern repeated through time and a lesson we seem doomed to repeat forever.

I’ve been lurking here for a long time but breaking my silent observer status for this.

I could have written JKR’s post myself. Every. Single. Word.

I tend to swap back and forth on the trans debate. I recognise that trans-people are a marginalised minority and that horrific atrocities are committed against them which obviously should be stopped and spoken out against. I am all for protecting the trans-community but then that protection necessarily contravenes protections already enshrined in law for women, then we have a problem. It’s not about hate nor denying existence but I honestly can’t think of any other example of the needs of one protected group directly contravening the needs of another protected group and to get through this we need reasoned and intelligent debate, not threats and “cancelling”.
JKR’s writing brought a tear to my eye but almost immediately afterwards, I saw a tweet from a male TRA (someone I follow due to previous interest in their non-TRA views) telling transpeople not to read it as it would trigger them. And that is the heart of the problem: Men can and do decide to turn a blind eye to women’s experience of sexual assault and fear. Women do not have the privilege of ignoring it because we live it. We have all experienced sexual assault/harassment/prejudice to some degree. We are all JKR! How dare any man tell others to ignore these experiences! How dare any man warn others that our experiences are too distressing to be given public platform! Yes these experiences are distressing and triggering – they are real and, again, women don’t have to option or privilege to ignore them. This is the difference between someone who has grown up in a biological female body and someone who has transitions in later life. Yes, the latter will have had their own equally challenging situations and we should listen to these experiences and find ways of protecting and helping people in these situations but not by diminishing, negating and not listening to our own experiences as women.

As the pile on continued, I became more and more upset last night at the sheer wickedness and callousness of those who would see a woman, normally a very private woman, lay bare her emotions and her fears; revealing for the first time her own sexual abuse trauma, and respond by mocking her words, accusing her of “playing the victim”, disbelieving her or in the very worst scenarios, claiming she deserved it. Have we really come so far from #’MeToo? There is a lot of talk on twitter about the mental health of transpeople and how we need to avoid triggering them but nobody seems to be considering that many women also suffer from mental health issues, often directly caused by male-inflicted trauma.

I too have been sexually assaulted. I too have kept this information personal with only a handful of people in my life knowing about the sexual abuse I suffered as a child and the rape at age 16. Until relatively recently I flew the flag for trans-rights, hated “TERFs” and wanted equality for all. Then, as the debate raged, I started to get scared. I started reading about traumatised women having to share safe spaces, including rape centres and shelters, with biological males. I thought out how my own fear and trauma would take over if I were in a situation where a man had to perform an intimate medical procedure when a woman had previously been guaranteed and I realised that there can never be equality for all because the protections that trans people need (and I do mean need, rather than want) remove the protections that women need. There is no clear and obvious solution here yet but what is clear is that reasoned debate is needed and that women cannot, and should not, simply “budge up”.

Welcome, Ratina! Occasionally we have cake. Cake and absolute fury at what's being done to women's rights, and to children.

Standing ovation for RatinaMaze*

Happy de-lurking day, ratinamaze!

Gin we have gin and 🥂🍺🍻🍻🍻

The basic problem underlying here is the collapse of journalism and the rise of social media and clickbait

Yes! Mainstream media of any type at all is inherently distrusted, and instead young people search for sources of news or information which confirm their tribal identity.I fear we're going the way of American media ( or we already have) - where even mainstream news is tribalistic and unashamedly biased.

Are “Horrific atrocities “ committed against the “trans community” ? Because I have seen no evidence of this at all.
More women have been murdered by men since lockdown in the UK, than trans people in the past ten years.
In latin America transgender prostitutes are murdered, as are women who have been prostituted. Prostitution everywhere is dangerous, and in latin America particularly.

Today I spoke to my mother and grandmother about this, and now I know why I am such a strong woman, with fair and balanced views. The resounding "we agree" was clear to say.

From a woman born in 1943 who lived through women's struggles for equal pay, to a school teacher born in 1965.

Strong women raise strong women.

RatinaMaze, thank you for your contribution. I’m sure you will find there are loads of us who entered the debate on the opposite side but changed our minds.

I honestly can’t think of any other example of the needs of one protected group directly contravening the needs of another protected group

The one I often think of is religion and sexual orientation. It often plays on my mind because I’m religious and bisexual. When they clash a reasonable middle ground is usually found. So, for instance, a bakery cannot refuse to serve a customer because she is a lesbian. But the baker can refuse to produce a cake with a pro-gay rights message on.

We have not yet found the balance between women’s sex-based rights and trans rights. We cannot find the balance as long as a significant proportion of the pro-trans lobby refuse to even accept there is a clash.

Totally agree @oceanorchid

Have a listen to Stephanie from Transgender Trend on Radio Sussex this morning. The show is still live (till 2pm) but the topic is on from about 10:09am onwards.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_sussex

Covered right at the end of Jeremy Vine today, i would say slight support for jkr and the abuse that's come at her but not any understanding of the point shes making.