Please tell me about JK Rowling

[Feathered]

There's a lot of very pro JK Rowling sentiment here.
My children - especially my son - is very anti . . . and says what she has done is horrendous.
Please can someone help and explain the reason for her being so defended on here?
Thanks!

"Appropriating the trans experience was misguided of her."

Every single man who identified as a woman is "appropriating" my experience - but we're all supposed to be fine with that!

She didn't appropriate the trans experience saph. That was the point she was making - that she WASN'T trans

@Aesopfable

I am surprised you have not come across her before. She is a hugely successful author who wrote a series of best-selling books about wizards and witches called “Harry Potter and the...”. These have in turn been made into blockbuster movies (though the acting of some of the main children characters could have been better). She has also written books under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. She is now very wealthy so not beholden to people who might try to manipulate her with threats that would make many less successful individuals succumb.

She has given many of her millions away to a number of good causes.

She, and her work, remains hugely popular.

I don't get how it's "appropriating the trans experience" to talk about one's own experiences of discomfort with one's sex and its ramifications.

We listen to trans-identified people talk, we say "yep, that was my experience too" - how is that appropriating when it's our own experiences of transness we're talking about?

@titchy

She didn't appropriate the trans experience saph. That was the point she was making - that she WASN'T trans

Yep

But sapphos has said this on a number of threads now

I thought it was bollocks then and is bollocks now

But in the same way you’re not going to change my opinion of it..sapphos won’t give it up either

i don't get how it's "appropriating the trans experience" to talk about one's own experiences of discomfort with one's sex and its ramifications

Its not...

Honestly, it's bad enough that there are misogynistic pricks threatening women with rape and death at every turn for trying to stop children being unnecessarily transed.

And those same children who are being actively taught in school that they might have a body that's wrong, because of the toy/clothes preferences, are, according to Sapphos, 'silly and misguided.'

So according to Sapphos, you're wrong to think you might be trans, despite being taught it, and women are wrong to try and stop it being taught.

Ds1 said a few years ago that he was glad he wasnt younger now because he would absolutely have believed he was a girl

He is neither silly nor misguided

Yep. If trans people and their supporters don’t want kids to mistakenly believe that they are trans, they need to stop this shit going into schools:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/don-t-tell-the-parents

www.genderbread.org/

Its just the unmitigated arrogance

Nauseating

[quote DuDuDuLangaLangaBingBong]Yep. If trans people and their supporters don’t want kids to mistakenly believe that they are trans, they need to stop this shit going into schools:

www.spectator.co.uk/article/don-t-tell-the-parents

www.genderbread.org/[/quote]
Yep. And they end up thinking they might be trans, they are misguided.

Never mind it being taught to them from the age of three.

They are appropriating the experience of all the other people who have been taught it.

Or possibly all the middle-aged men who have AGP.

Perhaps young women and children are appropriating the experience of those men?

It's just nonsense jibber jabber.

She didn't appropriate the trans experience saph. That was the point she was making - that she WASN'T trans

Exactly! And therefore suggesting that all the people claiming they are trans these days aren't really trans at all. Because she isn't.

No...she suggested no such thing.

She was speaking about her own feelings and experiences. Double standards if trans people find that offensive.

I was talking about it with a family friend and she like many of you agreed that had we been growing up now rather than 30 years ago she probably would have been a child sent on the path of transitioning.

Despite a very feminine name she was a tom boy through and through. In fact the first time I heard the term tomboy was in relation to her. As a little child I thought she was a boy, she rejected everything traditionally seen as feminine.

As an adult she is a lesbian woman with a family of her own. The teenage years seemed harder on her than they were for me but she is very happy and successful in every area of her life now, including her role as a mother. What if hormone therapy would have robbed her of that chance?

Sapphos - I initially read the transitioning as a young person part of JK’s essay in the same way as you and it did not sit well with me.

Unlike you I really appreciated JK putting here self in harm’s way, knowing the backlash she would get, to try and open up honest discussion about women’s rights and child safety.

There are very few people we agree with 100%, not agreeing with every word is ok.

However, re-reading the essay several times, JK does not say she would have transitioned but merely wonders whether she might have considered it an option. I do not know JK personally but that seems a reasonable and authentic thought.

@SapphosRock

She didn't appropriate the trans experience saph. That was the point she was making - that she WASN'T trans

Exactly! And therefore suggesting that all the people claiming they are trans these days aren't really trans at all. Because she isn't.

Oh I see. So because she thought she might have been trans, but isn't, therefore she saying that no one is trans?

I remember when I thought I might have measles, but I didn't. Because of course no one has measles.

You must have missed the bit where she talks about her friend, who is happily transitioned and she views her entirely as a woman.

It's really pointless to have a conversation with people who haven't read the thing they're arguing about.

She didn’t ‘appropriate the trans experience’.

However... she did appropriate the wizarding and witching experiences.

How come no-one’s up in arms about that... ? Serious question.

Accusing Rowling of appropriating is DARVO pure and simple.

The irony of talking about appropriation...

Utterly ridiculous.

I had a near death experience once.
I thought I was going to die.
But I didn’t.
Am I appropriating death? Maybe death is no longer valid....

I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition.

Okay, let's be honest we all know you probably wouldn't have tried to transition as this is something that only people with genuine and severe lifelong gender dysphoria do. But okay then.

The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge.

But you wouldn't have escaped womanhood, because sex is real and immutable. As you yourself pointed out.

I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager.

Sorry to hear it. That must have been really tough for you but I don't see why it's relevant.

If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred

That would have been an unusual and drastic response to your problems but fair enough if you felt that way.

It would have been nice of you to clarify that you're not suggesting that other young women are 'turning themselves into boys' to impress strangers on the internet and please their fathers, because that would be a very weird thing to do and is rather insulting to transgender people.

Okay, let's be honest we all know you probably wouldn't have tried to transition as this is something that only people with genuine and severe lifelong gender dysphoria do. But okay then

What does transition mean? Thanks

OP hasn’t been back. It couldn’t be....gasp!....someone with ulterior motives looking for handy quotes from that hotbed of transphobia, Mumsnet, could it?

How VERY dare you!

The OP is obviously very busy reading up on everything that happened, carefully researching all pertinent issues in order to craft her opinion, and discussing with her son why he thinks JKR’s comments are so horrendous.

It hadn’t occurred to her to do this before starting the thread, but she’s on it like a bonnet now

Okay, let's be honest we all know you probably wouldn't have tried to transition as this is something that only people with genuine and severe lifelong gender dysphoria do. But okay then.

So you are just dismissing people like keira bell and all the other girls who have detransitioned. Plus the 76 children in Brighton, and the 10 girls at St Paul's? And the eight out of the nine girls being discussed on this very board, who have detransitioned during lockdown.

Or are you saying that transitioning is only really transitioning if you have hormones and surgery? Is that it?