I've just finished Troubled Blood and there is NO transphobia

[AviceCaro]

I've just finished it - it's very long and very very good - and definitely no transphobia! One brief mention of someone who might be the murderer might have worn a woman's coat to confuse his victims - it's one page out of 900! It's so not relevant to the plot.

It's such a good read, and really disappointing that it's getting so much negative attention.

Men’s coats of course being blue with footballs on them

Isn't it which side the buttons are on that makes a coat for men or women? (Was a big thing with cardigans when I was a child)

Me too VoleClock .

I've also read the book in full.

As well as the totally unfounded comments that the book contains transphobia, what also pisses me off is the underlying lazy misogyny when the book is being described about a male serial killer.

The book is actually about the investigation of a woman who went missing 40 years ago.

Yet here we are again with everyone literally re-writing the page to centre the story about a man.

There are a number of suspects, one of which is a now incarcerated serial killer who lured one of his victims who survived by dressing in a woman's coat and wig.

There is no suggestion that this man was trans or even a cross dresser. There is no sub text - just the fact than that he used this as a device to make him appear non threatening.

If there is anything to be read into this it's actually how far violent and dangerous men will go to inflict their sadism on women.

The only other references in the book are:

1. when the fictional serial killers actions in dressing as a woman to catch his victims are (in a sentence) compared with a real life serial killer (again male, not trans, not a cross dresser: Jerry Brudos who had a shoe fetish) who did the same in respect to one of his victims.

1. A witness to the last movements of the missing woman who has not been traced is described by most other witness as a woman but one suggested that because of their build they might have been male. There's a reason for this but I don't want to post any spoilers.

I've just read through a rant on Twitter where someone's complaining because, in the book, a man dresses up in a burka to commit a crime. Is that part actually in there? The person on Twitter does not sound as though they've read it so am a bit sceptical.

@ANoTail

I've just read through a rant on Twitter where someone's complaining because, in the book, a man dresses up in a burka to commit a crime. Is that part actually in there? The person on Twitter does not sound as though they've read it so am a bit sceptical.

No it's not true.

I have the book on my kindle and just to ensure I'm 100% accurate I have searched the word "burka" against the full contents of the book and it's not found.

Search results below:

It's a bit of a bugger when modern technology can prove someone's talking shite with a 10 second search

@ANoTail

I've just read through a rant on Twitter where someone's complaining because, in the book, a man dresses up in a burka to commit a crime. Is that part actually in there? The person on Twitter does not sound as though they've read it so am a bit sceptical.

I think that might have been in The Silkworm, the second book in the series. There was a very brief storyline about a person disguised in a burkha.

There really was a trans character in The Silkworm. However, by the end I thought they were portrayed fairly sympathetically and certainly received no harder/easier treatment than the other characters in the novel.

Haven't got Troubled Blood yet. Need to read books 3 and 4 first.

Piers Morgan and Susanah someone did a very funny interview yesterday on their breakfast show with someone claiming the book was transphobic. It was linked to on another thread. Went something like this:

Activist: so obviously the book and JKR is massively transphobic because there is a baddie who dresses is woman's clothes. And so everyone must stop buying JKR's books.
Susanah: but surely if the character just dresses as a woman, that makes them a transvestite not trans, so why is it transphobic if it doesn't mention trans people at all?
Activist: because it just does.
Susanah & PM: ?!??!!!??
PM: so have you actually read the book then?
Activist: um, no.
PM: then how on earth can you say what it is or isn't?
Activist: because I'm right!
Other guests: try not to snigger at activist's missing logic but are not terribly successful.

Was absolutely bonkers.

India Willoughby said on a GMB interview a while back: some activists are systematically training the world to avoid anything even remotely or distantly possibly to do with trans, especially in media forms, because it so often unleashes this kind of unreasonable and extreme behaviour. Which in turn does trans people no good. Willoughby commented that they had lost work because of potential employers increasingly being avoidant of getting into a situation that may trigger this behaviour.

Ah, thank you @DeRigueurMortis @EdgeOfACoin

So not even a woman's wig then, just "a wig" and a woman's coat? I understand the arguement that trans people shouldn't be stigmatised but this isn't even a trans person or a transvestite. They're not exactly Buffalo Bill are they?

@DeRigueurMortis

It's a bit of a bugger when modern technology can prove someone's talking shite with a 10 second search

But it's an interesting tactic. Accuse JKR of a full house of 'phobia.' None of her critics can read a 900 word article. Let alone a 900 page book. They believe whatever they are told on Twitter. Facts or indeed external reality don't matter. When you are Permanently Outraged, you don't substantiate. You just regurgitate.

The other lesson from this is that authors are clearly expected to operate a rigid self editing to ensure that none of their fictional characters offend anyone inclined to create a Twitter Tsunami. Or does this policy only apply to JKR?

If you check the label, it says “Coat: Adult Human Female for the Use of.”

That’s a women’s coat.

I've just had a quick trawl through twitter to see if any of the loudmouth wokesters who were shouting 'burn the witch' 2 days ago have admitted they were a bit hasty, now it's emerged that the transphobia klaxon was a false alarm.

Crickets.

mobile.twitter.com/MunroeBergdorf/status/1306275552957997058

Some people won't let a fake news story go to waste.

@AbsintheFriends

I've just had a quick trawl through twitter to see if any of the loudmouth wokesters who were shouting 'burn the witch' 2 days ago have admitted they were a bit hasty, now it's emerged that the transphobia klaxon was a false alarm.

Crickets.

I have really enjoyed watching them all make tit ends of themselves though. So many oblivious people have witnessed the nastyness and registered it as what it is.

@ANoTail

I've just read through a rant on Twitter where someone's complaining because, in the book, a man dresses up in a burka to commit a crime. Is that part actually in there? The person on Twitter does not sound as though they've read it so am a bit sceptical.

They may be referring to the book the Silkworm. Not to give away spoilers however the accused killer allegedly ordered one and the witness said a person wearing one left the scene.

Jeez, what does that Munroe Bergdorf tweet even mean??

If transphobia is the future of @jk_rowling's legacy, it's not going to age well..

Whaaaaat?? Can anyone translate?

I have really enjoyed watching them all make tit ends of themselves though. So many oblivious people have witnessed the nastyness and registered it as what it is

YY.

The reaction is so off the scale batshit, people who would otherwise not give a toss, are suddenly very interested and totally bemused by what an earth she's meant to have done.

@AbsintheFriends another way of saying she’s on “the wrong side of history” maybe?

A womans coat is quite obviously a coat without any useful pockets