The Cambridge Student newspaper published pro-Rowling article, removes it after backlash

[itsor]

www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/j-k-rowling-and-the-woke-misogyny/

www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10158404255870225&id=37143485224&anchor_composer=false - not yet gone but says it's being removed, read it at the first link if you feel so inclined

@MiniMetronome

Beyond strange. He's calling out misogynistic abuse of a woman; he doesn't even say he agrees with her stance. So these "people who were offended" were offended by... what? The idea that it's not very nice to make death and rape threats?

She had it coming, apparently. And anyone defending her against such threats is, 'defending a known transphobe' (even though they have to fall back on bleats of 'dogwhistle' when asked to quote that transphobia, because of course there is none) and therefore morally bankrupt, too.

Do they not bother to try to teach them to think at Cambridge any more? Do they not understand that seeking to silence a woman - ANY woman - with rape threats - is always, always the most toxic form of misogyny possible, and that no matter who she is, and what you think of her, failing to call those making such threats out on them as unacceptable is to collude in their being acceptable?

We live in a time when pointing out that women are a sex class, in law and in fact, is seen as so exponentially worse than threatening to rape and kill her for saying it, that even condemning such threats is seen as unsayably wrong. Because the first threatens a male demand, and the second is simply disciplining any woman impertinent enough to do so.

And these brats think this is feminism.

Having just read a section in Troubled Blood where the harsh realities of misogynistic oppression bump up against arrogant student bullshit, and Rowling's writing pointing out that you can't erase those realities by simply pissing about with language, I am sure she is well aware of exactly where much of the crap said about her emanates from, tbh. I was wincing, tbh. It was a bit like reading an FWR thread with some young wokester students making the usual shite arguments. (Bloody brilliant as well, btw)

Really, Floral? Wow. It really sounds like she's been completely immersed in this topic for years. Her understanding couldn't be more thorough.

You and I are at about the same point in the book Floral!
I read that section and thought Wow, there's a message there!

I punched the air when I got to that bit.

It's so good, isn't it? I'm quite peeved I have to a day job, I'm so absorbed. The whole book has such strong, powerful themes about feminist ideas and realities.

brat such a beautifully descriptive word. entitled also a good word to pair with brat

Might have already been mentioned, but there's a Radio 4 programme on soon called "Should i still read harry potter?"
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000n47p

Having glanced at "journalist" Aja Romano's twitter feed - pronouns they/she - I feel that programme will not be good for my blood pressure. Any "journalist" who uses the word "prolly" (probably) constantly, is not worth listening to and shows the depths to which the BBC has sunk.

@CarrieCat
Not even 'Should I still read Harry Potter'... it's 'Can I still read Harry Potter?' didn't realise that person had been appointed [Non-Gendered Ruler] of the Universe...

Still, at least the description has the surprisingly fair and neutral 'after personally disagreeing with statements by their author JK Rowling regarding gender identity, they are considering closing the books for good'...elsewhere we'd just see 'after Rowling's transphobic comments' rather than it being a 'personal disagreement'

juding by the fact they describe themselves as an ex Harry Potter nerd, I expect to be a well researched and thorougky balanced piece...../s

muckrack.com/ajaromano

General observation ....

A site such as Porn Hub and the Uk Punting website allow users to view and discuss real, actual violence on women or misogynistic views. This is legal. It's not being attacked or vilified on twitter and other social media. Some knobbers even talk about how being able to "star" in porn is a great career choice for women.

Compare to ...

A person dares to question the impact trans ideology is having on women and girls worldwide and how it is removing the language we use to discuss ourselves and our loved in experience. Cue shrieks of transphobic, demands to cancel and face consequences.

What the fuck is going on?

Lived experiences, even

I think the article is great. It gives me hope. I disagree with it though.
I don't think the JK Rowling backlash is a load of disenfranchised meanies looking for any cause and settling on first antisemitism and then misogyny. I think it is far more organised. It is reified postmodern social justice gender ideologues attempting to socially engineer a shift in power (in the case of the issue of gender via LGBTQ+ lobby groups and techniques such as those brazenly outlined in the Denton's Document) . This is happening at the heart of our structural and educational institutions, with the current undergraduates either complicit or helplessly outclassed intellectually and joining the belief bandwagon (citation: the most venerable Helen Pluckrose, Cynical Theories). The Social justice movement is a belief system masquerading as , er, well ..social justice. Like when religious people argue that most of the attrocities in the world have been commited in the cause of fascism, communism etc. I always just think, "They ARE religions!". Rigid belief is rigid belief. I think secularism is the antidote. The National Secular society looks like they are all over this in Scotland and I think they can do it without ever mentioning the word Trans. Secularism is at the heart of liberalism, in a truly liberal society, actual social justice is possible and anti-liberal movements like this have no traction. I don't think talking about misogyny and the patriachy is helpful in combatting gender ideology though, that is just a counter ideology and is partly responsible for the birth of genderism in the first place. That said, there has already been widespread institutional capture, the Radfems, lesbian community (and unfortunately the conservative right) have been flagging this for the last 10 years and I have been blind to it, but it took JKR and Jenni Murray to wake me up to Wokeness. I am awake now. I think the problem is bigger that the gender debate though.

Very interesting, @Al77. But are you really saying that any "ism" (secularism) could do anything but add to the problem?

Students no longer enjoy freedom of speech - (don't) read all about it!

@ P P Porky, The Silkworm, the second book in the Strike series, has a very sympatheric trans character, a 20-year old who is awaiting surgery and actually says at one point that they were Born In The Wrong Body. From 2014, maybe that was when JKR started to look into this as part of her extensive background research and got interested in following the "debate".

This may be an aside, but I am not sure - it may be relevant in a roundabout way - what the heck is it with these kinds of weird fandoms?

It's not just Harry Potter. When I was into RPGs and going to comic cons and such, it seemed really different. We liked to play the games, but we were playing a game.

Now, I get this weird sense that the people half believe in it all. They don't dress up, they get into "cosplay", and seem to almost imagine that they are inhabiting their true self in that role.

I almost feel like they are looking for a world they can make sense of. They don't really think there is any intrinsic meaning in the real world, so they inhabit these pretend worlds where there is all kinds of meaning, and good and evil, and a logic and connectedness. At least as much as the author's mind can create. And then they freak out when they meet the limits of that, or the author comes out from behind the veil.

Have the students at Clare College managed to have their porter, Kevin Price, sacked yet? Or are they still working on it?

He's the evil monster who resigned as a (popular and hardworking) Cambridge councillor because the local Labour Party wantd him to say "transwomen are women" and he wouldn't say something he didn't believe.

Well, I'm a cosplayer, but only because that's what the hobby is called. I'm not under any illusions that I'm doing anything other than indulging a niche interest...

@FloralBunting

Well, I'm a cosplayer, but only because that's what the hobby is called. I'm not under any illusions that I'm doing anything other than indulging a niche interest...

Yes, it is now, it wasn't always however.

In my mind the change in terms came around the same time as the change in attitude or focus, but maybe that's not really the case. When fans became fandoms, maybe, or enthusiasts became something else? It's not really the enthusiasm that has changed, but something else. It seems related to all of these very detailed, extended universes of various kinds, be they Star Wars or Marvel or Harry Potter.

Mind you, they area also much more popular now, where it was quite niche stuff at one time - my local comiccon is unrecognisable in many ways - and less homemade, more corporate.

But I am thinking in terms of these HP fans who seem so invested, even as adults, and it's similar in other fandoms. I know a heck of a lot of people my age that were into those hobbies as teens, and some still are, but it's not the same as these groups.

No, it's not always been called cosplay, but that's just an actual natural evolution of terms. The internet does play a big part, yes. And homemade cosplay is very big in this house, and some of it springs from my interest in historical re-enactment. But, tbh, the last comic con I went to was quite unpleasant for reasons that probably dovetail into what you're driving at. There is a joy in chatting to various artisans who appreciate a good home made costume for a bit of fun. Then there's the portly dudes in anime wigs for whom you get a definite sense there is something else afoot.

My sense is that historical re-enactors don't seem to fall into the same issues. They are a lot more like nerds were before it became popular to be one. Maybe because they stay grounded in the real?

Follow up article by another Cambridge student:

Cambridge is censoring any dissent on trans issues