Philip Pullman thinks it's all a bit silly

[Igneococcus]

"I just wanted to say, ‘Look, stop it. You’re all being silly.’ He says, from his lofty heights of cluelessness:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/335e06ce-1466-11eb-bca5-e85774a5f3b9?shareToken=3d2b297c40a1bcf4a765dd31286885a0

I just think he lacks courage, so prevaricates. You can be a great writer and a weak man.

I guess it just feels like offensively complacent male privilege when men, especially ones with influence and who consider themselves ethical or thoughtful people, put themselves ‘above the fray’ like this.

Claiming ‘not to understand’, is a total cop out, because none of this is difficult to grasp if he wanted to. For most people who give it two seconds thought and who don’t hate women.. wel then of course women should be allowed to campaign for our own rights and needs.. and of course women should be allowed to keep single sex spaces... and of course it’s wrong to experiment on kids for political reasons, because we should give everyone evidenced healthcare.. and of course same-sex (or opposite sex) attraction is a thing and nobody should be urged to ‘get past’ their own sexual orientation to include anyone in their dating pool who ‘identifies as’ a biological sex class than their own.
And of course safeguarding remains essential. Who would argue against any of these things?

And especially disappointing that Pullman as a very successful writer, stands back like this. He’s seen a fellow writer, fall prey to multiple rape and death threats, which are never a normal response to anything said by anyone else.. so he should be calling out the only side making these threats and speaking out at much as he can about this. She’s not the only one of course, other writers too have had abuse around this issue.

Maya Forstater wrote a great blog, talking about why Index on Censorship should avoid the ‘both sides’ approach to trying to understanding this area. Maybe Pullman might find it helpful. medium.com/@MForstater/index-on-censorship-please-keep-standing-up-strongly-for-freedom-of-speech-on-sex-and-gender-ec01687cef37

medium.com/@MForstater/index-on-censorship-please-keep-standing-up-strongly-for-freedom-of-speech-on-sex-and-gender-ec01687cef37

@AsTreesWalking

Agree completely, Goosefoot, I still can't understand how Pullman gets away with it in Dark Materials - when I first read them, up to about half way through the second vol I was expecting the actual, Christian church to appear and explain that the Magisterium had forgotten about Christ! Straw man indeed.I The whole thing with Susan is, I feel, very relevant to a lot of The discussion here - she falls into the trap of stereotypical young womanhood, and prefers to 'perform' that rather than being her own self. Sound familiar? She's not punished and cast out, but left to grow into herself again. This is a theme that Lewis returned to in That Hideous Strength with Mark, whose moment of truth comes when he has finally to choose between his own true self and the constructed self that he has used since school so as to belong to the 'cool' set. Again, sound familiar? What I love about Lewis is his ability to skewer our tendency to nonsense; he understood human beings, largely because he was honest about his own self. And I agree with t he 'lucid prose ' DanceLike Lewis can say more, more clearly, in fewer words, than almost any other writer.

Yes, he does rather set up his Magisterium with all of the worst characteristics of ideology but without any of the redeeming features you find in almost any long-lived institution.

What I found particularly frustrating though was the way he presented the idea of innocence vs experience, which is a major theme and where he says he is trying to give the opposite of the Christian view, where (he claims)experience is seen as evil and a failure. That might be an excusable statement from someone that's spent no time looking into it, but hardy from someone who thinks it's an important enough idea to write a series of novels refuting it.

I guess it just feels like offensively complacent male privilege when men, especially ones with influence and who consider themselves ethical or thoughtful people, put themselves ‘above the fray’ like this.

It really demonstrates, more than anything, how engrained misogyny is. A typical left-wing white man wouldn't dare to dismiss black people's concerns about racism as "silly" or pretend that threats of violence by white people against black people didn't matter. Ditto homophobia. But they still think it's fine to patronise women and pretend that threats of rape and torture against women are nothing to worry about.

Let's remember, too, that Pullman knows JK Rowling: I don't know if they're friends, but they're the two most successful children's authors alive and their paths will have crossed many times. It's absolutely unforgivable that he doesn't have the basic decency or courage to stand up for her.

But they still think it's fine to patronise women and pretend that threats of rape and torture against women are nothing to worry about.

Well, it probably is true that Pullman won't be subjected to those. He has no skin in the game. I agree with RoyalCorgi on the astonishing ubiquity of misogyny or at least of general contempt towards women. It was a revelation to me how clear it is in social media when it comes to this issue: The basic premise is that women should give in. Not yielding whatever rights are demanded means that one is a monster.