Authors quit JK Rowling's literary agency

[donquixotedelamancha]

www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/22/authors-quit-jk-rowling-agency-over-transgender-rights

The ever entertaining TRA power couple Fox and Owl were apparently represented by the same agents as the wonderful Ms Rowling.

They, along with some bloke called Drew Davies, have severed ties because the agents refused to issue a public statement slagging off their biggest client.

Being bastions of professionalism they left by telling the guardian.

Fox and Owl’s publisher also publish professor Tony Atwood (he is possibly their best selling author) who has been very critical of the way girls with autism have been treated.

I wonder what they think of this?

@Chrysanthemum5

I see they have made a donation to Shakti women's charity which is great - who wants to tell them that the Shakti website repeatedly uses the term 'women' and they state any vacancies are only open to women using the exemption in the equality act

Yes, Maybe they’re going to try the charm offensive by raising funds, in order to prove how supportive they are of that particular women’s charity, but are hoping it will give them an ‘in’. I have a suspicion that they will start trying to persuade the charity that male bodied people are at a higher risk than women and need the charities support too. There will be some sort of motive behind their action.

I can't believe Fox and Owl are for real? They're so parodically ridiculous. Surely, surely in a couple of years time they will reveal themselves as a pair of immersive comedians and they will say to the woke crowd "ahhhhh ha! You've been had!"

Oh dear, they didn’t get their own way. Has this ever happened to either of them before?

Twitwho tweetwoo.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3509672-Trans-Teen-Survival-Guide-by-Fox-and-Owl?pg=1

If anyone wishes to read the first couple of chapters they are here.

www.jkp.com/jkpblog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Fisher-Chapters-1-2.pdf.

I'm sure they wholehearted believe what they say and I respect their right to hold those beliefs. In return Fox and Owl you need to respect my right to believe something different, which is that men and women are two distinct categories and there is no such thing as a gender identity or a trans child.

I take back what I said about the person who edited Fox and Owl's book deserving a drink. Just over one page in and I found this.

In most cases, people are actually fine with this assignment (which means they’re cisgender.

Now, you're probably wondering if I forgot to copy part of that and that's why the closing parenthesis is missing, but no, dear reader, I did not. That's exactly how it appears in the book. Where is the closing parenthesis? Who knows? Maybe it identifies as closed.

I bet when they 'reached out' to the agency they did much eye rolling, and probably sighed a lot too.

My two favourite things involving Fox and Owl are the video they did responding to a thread here about that godawful ITV Mermaids-backed trans propaganda piece (so much sighing I began to be concerned about cerebral hypoxia) and the brilliant Gavin and Stacey-esque trans rally they took part in, where Fox learned out of a bay window with a loudspeaker and got the assembled group to repeat 'Transwomen are women! Transmen are men! Nonbinary people are valid!' And everybody started with gusto and then trailed off, sounding confused and bored.

Perhaps they can try the same approach with prospective new agents.

@Vargas

The screaming hypocrisy of quitting a publisher because of JK Rowling, but not because of Tyson Fury is just bonkers.

I think I sense some publicity seeking and bandwagon jumping...

Fox is fine with that. I believe they called homosexuality 'deviant'.

I’m still laughing that they used ‘re-education’. It’s so utterly utterly brilliant and probably went right over their poor wee empty heads. It’s made my day. Possibly week.

Ah but when they say women does that include all kinds of women?

Sorry, my post was about the charity donation. I missed a page.

“ Expelliarmus!“

This thread is the gift that keeps on giving.

"We believe in freedom of speech for all; these clients have decided to leave because we did not meet their demands to be re-educated to their point of view"

Fabulous. In which dystopian alternate universe do employers ‘re-educate’ their staff in how to do ‘right think’?

I’m still laughing that they used ‘re-education’. It’s so utterly utterly brilliant and probably went right over their poor wee empty heads. It’s made my day. Possibly week.

It's about as typically self-aware as this stunt:

https://medium.com/@LaraAdamsMiller/speaking-truth-to-power-in-the-era-of-trans-rights-activism-16a557a7c1cf

@tobee

I can't believe Fox and Owl are for real? They're so parodically ridiculous. Surely, surely in a couple of years time they will reveal themselves as a pair of immersive comedians and they will say to the woke crowd "ahhhhh ha! You've been had!"

Maybe the joke is on us and they are both Titania McGrath.

I'm leaning towards the suspicion that sense of humor is the one thing that all TRAs have surgically removed.

*“It's a bit of an aside but on the same site as Owl, Fox and the other one's statement there is a little lecturing piece called

A Quick Read for White People Who Don’t Consider Themselves Racist

which includes this little gem

But in my lifetime I have carelessly used the termmy nigawhile speaking to a white friend, I have laughed at racist jokes, I have passed judgements about people who do not look like me without knowing enough about them and I refer to the corner stores in Barcelona asChinosorPakis, similarly to everyone I know in Spain.”

WTF!! Who are these women hating racists?

@HollowTalk Interesting. I just thought it would be as hard as securing an agent for a new writer. I've always dealt directly with publishers because afaik romance works a little less formally than other genres (although I know some romance authors have agents).

A spokeswoman [for the agents] said it would always champion diverse voices and believe in freedom of speech for all but it was not willing to have staff “re-educated” to meet the demands of a small group of clients.

I love this. How the use of just one word tells you everything.
I assume the spokeswoman is of the penis-free, non-beardy variety.

I am so glad to see this, and (weirdly) thankful for what has happened to JKR. It is going a long way towards shining a light on what is happening - a huge role back of women's and children's rights, pushed by a tiny minority. So much of this is going under the radar. I work with a lot of 20 to 30 somethings, and you can see that they really have no idea of the wider issues. They basically see transwomen as effeminate gay men, who are no threat, and we should save them from being beaten up in the Gents .

And along with backlashstarts, I have to say that I have NEVER uttered the words "Nig" or "Paki" ever..I wouldn't even think it..
Just how lacking in self-awareness are these people, to publicly admit to that!!

"The long answer is a bit more complicated. When we are born
(and even before we are born) we are assigned a certain gender
based on our sex. This means that when we’re born, medical
professionals take a look at our genitals (gross, we know!)"

Grow the fuck up!

Like everything Else, publishing goes through trends and I suspect those who can all these things will be starting to see the tide going out on this one...
This agency is a business just like any other, and they're looking after their biggest asset. They can also see that the fad for all things "queer" is starting to fade, so that writers like Fox & Owl will be selling even less books.

@FlamingoAndJohn

This means when we're born, medical professionals take a look at our genitals (gross, we know!), classify us as male or female and assign us the gender 'boy' or 'girl' according to what they see down below'

The ‘gross’ there says do much. The fact that they think a medical professional looking at a babies genitals is gross shows how immature and self centred they are.

They don't though!

They assign sex at birth, gender is something that comes later.

The genitals are the external sign of your sex.

Or am I confused?

It’s culs-de-sac you utter bigot

And it can identify as an Autobahn if it wants.

Watching grown ass adults get all "ew, icky" about discussion of genitals makes me so embarrassed for them.