New Guardian article on JKR

[GoodyWoolf]

Not sure if this has already been posted already, I couldn’t see it.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/20/making-a-demon-of-jk-rowling-is-a-wretched-sport-born-of-misogyny-and-resentment?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Is the Observer less one-sided on this topic, I wonder?

It's spot on.

Really excellent article, and thank you for sharing it.

Not open for comments, I see. Not that many articles are these days in the Graun.

@Vermeil

Not open for comments, I see. Not that many articles are these days in the Graun.

Yep. I used to be a regular on CIF but haven't posted in ages simply because comments are never open on anything 'controversial'. The trend started about 5 years ago and now they've basically reduced comments to 'safe' subjects. And on the rare occasions they do open comments on 'controversial' topics, the mods watch them so closely that the comment feed looks like a Swiss cheese within hours. Who can be bothered with that?

Is the Observer less one-sided on this topic, I wonder?

I think its more that the Guardian has a contingent of long standing columnists (Catherine Bennet, Hadley Freeman, Suzanne Moore) who are occasionally allowed to express their opinions for the sake of balance.

However, proper journalistic investigation into this subject is verboten.

You can however comment on the Guardian's twitter feed - this article is getting plenty of heat there - but some are defending JKR. Just read one reply saying the Guardian is more transphobic than the Mail and the Times, which requires some mental gymnastics!

twitter.com/guardian/status/1307586620418396160

@merrymouse

Is the Observer less one-sided on this topic, I wonder?

I think its more that the Guardian has a contingent of long standing columnists (Catherine Bennet, Hadley Freeman, Suzanne Moore) who are occasionally allowed to express their opinions for the sake of balance.

However, proper journalistic investigation into this subject is verboten.

Yep agree with this.

There's also a very obvious dig at OJ in Bennett's article today.

Something about 'nice' men acting like absolute dicks to appear to be on the 'right side of history'

It's not open for comments but they have put it on Facebook and it's really heartening to see the shift in people's perception.

There are far more gender critical comments than we would have seen this time last year.

Just read one reply saying the Guardian is more transphobic than the Mail and the Times, which requires some mental gymnastics!

They definitely are way more transphobic, if we are talking about transsexuals, many of whom have consistently campaigned alongside women to defend women's rights. They lump them in with transvestites and nonbinaries and make them seem laughable, when in fact they are a marginalised minority within a minority.

www.facebook.com/theguardian/posts/10159542092371323?comment_id=626144591604926&notif_id=1600623594783519&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

This is great. CB is fab.

Well, wow. That is a good article, and I can hear the absolute fury powering it. Well done, Catherine Bennett.

I'm now feeling somewhat jaded reading the facbook link and thinking in my day, it were the Daily Mail comments that made you inhale sharply, these days, it's the Guardian's. Loooong lists of progressive, liberal feminists lining up to say that JKR deserves death threats because of something she said. What have we come to.

Yeah they are screaming on twitter and Facebook about this, saying it’s not misogyny whilst saying it’s all her fault. No one is addressing the death and rape threats.
Hypocrites.

Guardian were part of the original pile on.
Why are they shifting opinion now...
I feel the same as you QueenofKnives.
Individual journalist allowed to speak sometimes isn’t enough.
The Guardian has allowed a scandal to grow and blossom.

Great article!

Guardian were part of the original pile on.

Yes, a big part of it. And not just with JK. But for a long, long time. Ten years or so ago they got a load of TRAs moderating CiF and they literally just banned women from speaking. They would put up these propaganda articles, and then women would comment and they would delete all the women's comments and leave only the supportive comments up, and they'd send horrible emails threatening you that they were going to ban you, then they basically banned all the women.

I appreciate that CB was not part of that but I can't bring myself to celebrate the Guardian as I think they have been integral to steering the discussion to the place it's in now. I know maybe it's childish of me but I just can't. I find it the most despicable organisation and I think they should fucking apologise for what they've done. They systematically silenced women and then mocked us for having no voice.

Catherine Bennett has been consistently good on this issue. And I think yes, some columnists are allow more leeway to write on this issue than others, but it's also true that the Observer is marginally less awful than the Guardian. They have different editorial teams making different decisions.

@queenofknives

They can just fuck off as far as I'm concerned. Until they cop to their own part in the misogynist abuse handed out to women on this topic for the last ten years or more, they can just fuck off. I was banned from CiF ten years ago for questioning their trans propaganda - and it has only got worse ever since, with women not even allowed to speak. I don't want to hear someone talking about JK's 'anti trans' comments, even if they're condemning the abuse she got - the guardian needs to grow a conscience and admit that she said nothing wrong. I suppose I should be glad they published this article, which suggests at least they are realising they need to do some backtracking. Maybe childish of me, but I feel quite bitter towards them and their columnists.

Yes this.

Just read one reply saying the Guardian is more transphobic than the Mail and the Times

That's made my fucking day, that has.

Yeah, this was in the Obs not the Guardian. I don’t think CB writes for the Guardian.
The Obs has largely avoided the issue since the Julie Burchill column in 2013.

The ‘journalists’ will be weeping into their chai lattes...

Speaking of Julie - she’s gone all out on her twitter biog/handle (whatever you call it).