The awful trend on Twitter

[imhereforthesanity]

Hi, I don't post often, but I've seen the awful twitter trend today in regard to J K Rowling, I just feel so scared and defeated about women's rights, why are more people not up in arms and defending us? I also fear for her and women's safety, as some of these TRA's seem really unhinged.

The funniest tweet I saw was ‘Jedward discover fire’.

They don’t really do anything though so they? Don’t act, sing, tell jokes... just ‘not very bright twins’ .

Of course the joke would be if they were both PhDs and weren’t actually related...

Oh, yeah, and as part of her recovery she is binge watching Harry Potter today. And dh and I are looking forward to reading the new Strike book. Which I preordered.
Love JKR. And I'm too old to be a fan of anyone.

@Kit19

Amazon have had to suspend reviews on the book after a pile on of negative reviews and the guardian in their usual cuntish way have said that no one should judge a book on a single review but she’s a horrible transphobe so its her own fault really

The Guardian is despicable. Imagine their horror when they realised that they had published a warm, sympathetic review of the book that failed even to mention the terrible transphobia! (Perhaps because there wasn't any?)

So obviously the first reaction to the Twitter frenzy is not to commission an article about how terrible it is to be issuing death threats to a well-loved author for something she didn't even write but to publish something that attempts to have its cake and eat it. Alison Flood has read the book and acknowledges that the character isn't trans and there is just a a couple of passing references to him wearing his landlady's coat and a wig.

But no! There's a risk that Flood might look as if she's sticking up for Rowling. So then she backtracks by saying:

"Perhaps some will still consider this depiction transphobic, given Rowling’s rightly widely criticised views on trans people. It is, at best, an utterly tone-deaf decision to include an evil man who cross-dresses after months of pain among trans people and their allies."

Quite right. Wouldn't want to give any more pain to the people issuing death threats.

But then again, if the trans activists are right, that means the Guardian's rival, the Telegraph, must have got it right and we can't have that. So Flood concludes with:

"But there is also reason to be wary of any moral outrage stoked by the Telegraph, a paper that generally doesn’t shy away from publishing jeering at the 'woke crowd', or claims that children are “put at risk by transgender books”, or attacks on 'the trans lobby'. And we should also be wary of how one review has been reproduced without question by countless newspapers and websites, by journalists who have shown no indication of having read the book themselves."

What a pathetic, cowardly, craven piece of journalism. Heaven forbid she write a piece - such as James Kirkup wrote for the Times - pointing out the misogyny of the death threats to Rowling.

I don't know how Alison Flood lives with herself.

Haven't read the whole thread. Have been aghast at the idiocy and sheer nastiness directed towards JKR on Twitter when I've looked in odd moments over the last couple of days.

Heartened to see today though that the US ACLU posted something which was quite obviously meant to accuse JKR of creating a climate where there was an epidemic of murderous violence directed against transgender people, and in response almost all of the replies I could see were saying 'Violence from men, not women' and 'What about violence against women, isn't that a civil liberties issue nowadays?' and putting their stats in context. It's possible I'm not seeing all the supportive responses because I appear to be on dozens of blocklists, but even so, it was good to see.

I was actually disappointed with Jedward. A few weeks ago, they confronted Rachel Riley for a tweet dismissing their career saying that they were anti bullying ambassadors. They should be consistent in their opposition to bullying and hate tweets.

The Guardian article is really bad.

In summary "The judgement is that comments on Troubled Blood were not based in fact; but on balance Rowling does deserve the scold's bridle for briefly referring to a banned subject.

Comrades are reminded that The Telegraph is a banned publication and separate action will be taken on this matter".

Apologies if this has been answered but seeing this book is now a bestseller I’m wondering if her previous Galbraith books went to no.1 as quickly? Or is this down to the twitter hate? It’s certainly the first book of hers I’ve ordered so quickly since HP.

acknowledges that the character isn't trans and there is just a a couple of passing references to him wearing his landlady's coat and a wig

How long before the TRAs go full-on-Leviticus on us, and ask for men wearing women's clothes to be made illegal so that this sort of confusion can't occur . (I have seen an article by a TRA arguing that women who don't perform femininity are letting the side down by making it harder for transwomen to clearly signal their femininity - it was in the Independent a few years back. IIRC the take home message was "Women: dress like proper women so we have something to copy that clearly signals our inner womanliness. But women: do make sure you dress in a dowdy, woman at M&S sort of way, so we have a dull background against which we can shine.")

I am choosing to find the Guardian article funny - the way they contort themselves trying to attack both the Telegraph and JK and end up tripping over their own feet.
I think laughing will cause them more discomfort than anger.

@Jellyeggs

Apologies if this has been answered but seeing this book is now a bestseller I’m wondering if her previous Galbraith books went to no.1 as quickly? Or is this down to the twitter hate? It’s certainly the first book of hers I’ve ordered so quickly since HP.

I ordered it. If it wasn't for this fuss I would have waited for the paperback because I've still got two of the previous Strike books to finish yet. Seeing as it was only £10 I thought why not. Hardbacks are often £20-25 on first release so that will have made a difference.

It is, at best, an utterly tone-deaf decision to include an evil man who cross-dresses after months of pain among trans people and their allies.

Alison Flood works in the media - she must know like she knows water is wet that this book will have been written and submitted well upwards of a year ago. JFK did not include this character since she wrote her pro-woman essay earlier in the summer.

(And that is without touching on the universe of wrong that is her implication that JKR must censor her opinions and her storytelling so as not to cause pain to 'trans people and their allies'. Who we know would be happiest if no woman ever did anything that didn't directly service their agenda.)

I am wedded to JKR now. Whatever she publishes, I will buy. Probably in multiple copies.

I'm planning lots of Ickabog. Donating a copy to school, too. Maybe even to each classroom 🙂

@JamieLeeCurtains

THE HISTORY OF SPONGE

I'M HAVING IT

😀

Thanks littl

Just went on Amazon to do a book review because they are only allowing verified purchases to do it.

I'm planning lots of Ickabog

Deffo

In summary "The judgement is that comments on Troubled Blood were not based in fact; but on balance Rowling does deserve the scold's bridle for briefly referring to a banned subject.

Comrades are reminded that The Telegraph is a banned publication and separate action will be taken on this matter".

I actually read your first paragraph and thought that it was a direct copy and paste from the Guardian. So low has the Guardian sunk that I just thought 'sounds like what they'd publish'. It wasn't until the second paragraph that I realised you were paraphrasing. The reference to the scolds bridle didn't even sound implausible from the Guardian.

I'm another who would now buy anything she wrote, and who also usually waits for the paperback or for Kindle copy to come down in price. But I pre-ordered this back in July and am now spending my day off cosied up with it.

Im also at the number of people who don’t understand how long it takes to write, edit, re edit, proof, design & launch a book. A lot of people on twitter seem to think she wrote & published Troubled Blood in 3 months

after months of pain among trans people and their allies.

Never forget the allies!

A lot of people on twitter seem to think she wrote & published Troubled Blood in 3 months

More worrying that the Guardian books section appears to believe this!

More worrying that the Guardian books section appears to believe this!

They don’t believe it at all. They are choosing to not correct this bit of misinformation.

@Jellyeggs

Apologies if this has been answered but seeing this book is now a bestseller I’m wondering if her previous Galbraith books went to no.1 as quickly? Or is this down to the twitter hate? It’s certainly the first book of hers I’ve ordered so quickly since HP.

It's advertising no publicity department could have paid for. I did read the first of her Galbraith books many years ago, just to check it out (I'd never read Harry Potter; not my thing) and now I'm determined to go back to the beginning and read them all. The TRAs have been her biggest gift!

Very sharp comment on Janice Turner's twitter feed (not Janice herself, one of the commenters):

"My god. We are this close from the aggressive regressive reactionary fashionable left declaring a Fatwa on a genuinely liberal woman for writing a book they haven’t seen."

No better than the taliban this lot.