Louise O'Neill

[ThousandsAreSailing]

How disappointing.
I hadn't heard of her but just caught her on R5 talking about her new novel which interested me. Described herself as a feminist and talked about domestic abuse
A quick search found her very much TWAW. How disappointing, can she not hear herself

She is very 'woke,' I'm afraid. I've never read her books (the latest one does sound interesting), but find her newspaper columns to be quite navel-gazing.

She laid out her views on this issue recently with 'So, tell me. What are your concerns about allowing trans women to be called women?', following a few weeks later with 'I've always been honest with you in these pages, for better or for worse'. "Approved" opinions only, no original thinking.

It's a pity that she hasn't done a bit more critical thinking.
Her columns include references to her eating disorder, having read CCP "Invisible Women", period pain etc.

Not many trans women have to deal with those issues; and bite me if you find that triggering.

The Stonewall School Report in 2017 found that 45% of trans young people had attempted suicide, trans teens are more likely to experience homelessness and poverty, and the Human Rights Campaign estimates that trans women are 4.6 times more likely to be murdered than cis women, and the majority of those victims are black.

Oh dear.

A debunked "study" that asked young people with mental health problems to anonymously complete a survey and be entered in a prize draw, had no checks to see that anyone was who they said they were, telling the truth, or completing it more than once using a different email address in order to win the prize... and which then based this 'statistic' on 27 kids, from more than 2000 overall entrants (Stonewall citing the second figure, and ignoring the first).

And on the murder stat - that's absolute bullshit. Transwomen in the global north have roughly half the average murder rate. They're one of the safest demographics there is. Almost all those killed are sex workers in South America, where female sex workers are also killed in even more statistically horrendous numbers, but nobody gives a shit about them, do they?

Why do people keep parroting this? It takes five minutes on Google to establish that it's just not true. Apart from anything else, how is it supportive to tell trans people that they're massively more likely to kill themselves or be murdered than anyone else, when that's just not true?!

Very disappointing.
Her book Asking For It was very insightful.

But that's being woke in Ireland for you, certain lines you just cant cross

Very disappointed to hear this. I love her books. Don't read her column but have heard her in interviews but she never discussed this. Such a shame

If I remember rightly she was very critical of JKR.

I was astonished when I read her response to JKR's letter as to how someone clearly so intelligent and articulate could so wilfully miss all the points JK was making.

She is an over rated writer and totally self obsessed.

“That while white, straight, cis-gender people have stayed quiet because they’re afraid of getting it wrong, afraid of being embarrassed or criticised publicly, black people have been dying. Trans people have been dying.”

Stayed quiet? They haven’t shut up! White saviour complexes abound.

How dare she compare black lives to trans lives?!

You know there is a thing in feminism, Name the Problem. It's the first step to solving the problem.
Analyses. Debate, identifying steps forward that can be taken. Progress, even if boring old slight incremental progress. It matters in the material world.

The likes of O'Neill would do well to remember that, besides making side eyes at people and hand wringing and making zero effort at arriving at any kind of insight.

Make a point, why dont you.

@7Days

Very disappointing. Her book Asking For It was very insightful.

But that's being woke in Ireland for you, certain lines you just cant cross

Yes this 100% - there is not one woman I Ireland under 30 who has studied in Trinity College, or UCD, who is not on the trans bandwagon.

I read Asking For It this summer, and it struck me as bleak and hopeless. The narrator is intentionally unsympathetic, I get that - but she’s also unrealistically weak. It presents a view of rape - no one will ever love you or understand you, afterwards, you belong to your rapist(s) forever and forfeit your own life - which is simply not true, and not inevitable. I’d tell any rape survivor and anyone who genuinely wants to support a rape survivor to run like hell from this book.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

She knows what she wants to do about the rape, but does the opposite because she thinks that’s what others would prefer. She’s literally praying that someone will talk her out of the decision, but never feels that what SHE wants is paramount, or even important. Worse, there’s no real voice of support or justice for her at all - (some) friends and family are supportive out of loyalty or concern, but no one advocates for her or puts a priority on what will help her heal and move on.

For a survivor reading this in the aftermath of a rape - I’d go as far as to say it’s pernicious. I can’t say that internalised misogyny is at play here, but I wouldn’t be surprised.