Rachel Rooney criticised by Philip Pulman

[HecatesCatsInXmasHats]

Rachel Rooney who wrote a delightful book about children feeling comfortable with their bodies has been described as 'hateful' by author Philip Pullman in response to a tweet by Clara Vulliamy. Rooney has written about this on Twitter. I'm so upset for her:

twitter.com/rooneyrachel/status/1335610842222653441?s=21

twitter.com/philippullman/status/1335523666847813632?s=21

@NotTerfNorCis

Re the blocking, I can see Vulliamy say this (from another account):

There's a muffled roar at my door but the block is holding out (thank you @Terfblocker)

The rest of their rant is too dull to quote.

ooh. am I blocked by Terfblocker, then? gosh.

@TeenyTinyDustinHoffman

iirc, Philip Pullman was one of those who signed a letter of support for JK Rowling and free speech earlier this year. I'm pretty sure that "no one has the right to never be offended" is a quote of his. So condemning the book, which he doesn't seem to have read, as hateful seems a bit odd. It wouldn't excuse him, of course, but I do wonder if he's received online abuse for his prior views and this is a response to that?

Was it not him who then backtracked, saying he didn't really know what he was signing? Playing the "confused old duffer" card again.

Pullman never signed.

The day it was published, he objected to not having been asked to sign it and said he would have signed. Someone popped up and said, it's okay, you can add your name now.

Philip then said, ooh, steady on, I don't know what it says, don't put my name down until I've read it!

And then he told someone else to fuck off.

I just don't understand Pullman's position on this at all.

His books make it clear that preventing children from going through full puberty (by cutting their daemons away) was a terrible thing, that it was abusive and damaged them permanently.

And I agree, preventing children from going through puberty is unspeakably awful.

So... Who in the UK today wants to prevent children from going through puberty? It's a real mystery to me why he can't make that connection

@NewlyGranny

The TT stickers that outraged CV with their cruelty included messages such as:

It's OK for girls to play with trucks, boys with dolls;
No child is born in the 'wrong body';
Children have a right to privacy from the opposite sex;
Kids shouldn't be taught at school that they can choose whether to be a boy or a girl;
Medical sex change treatment for children is an experiment;
70% of children referred to UK gender clinic last year were girls.

She posted about this in 2018. DfE guidance has changed since then, and the recent Keira Bell & Mrs A judicial review decision mops up a couple of the others.

Even Mermaids now say it's not about what children play with or wear. It might be time for some hasty reading and updating for some of the would-be-woke!

Which of those statements could anyone in all conscience say are hateful?

There seems to be a total confusion about what trans activists are defending right now.

This is a really rather nice thread expounding a gender critical position - except that the author thinks he's a trans ally.

twitter.com/RemakingManhood/status/1334153802207916034

This is the paradox - if trans people are so free of the gender binary and all why do they feel the need to change their bodies to conform to society's expectations of gendered behaviour? Where is the freedom in that?

Plenty of people are asking that very question in the replies - and getting no response beyond the blocking mechanism.

@PotholeParadies

Pullman never signed.

The day it was published, he objected to not having been asked to sign it and said he would have signed. Someone popped up and said, it's okay, you can add your name now.

Philip then said, ooh, steady on, I don't know what it says, don't put my name down until I've read it!

And then he told someone else to fuck off.

Oh ok! God, he's a massive pranny.

'Pranny'- that's a blast from the past. Perfect description 😁

To quote Shania Twain, the exchange didn't impress me much! All should think for themselves, but I know what conclusion I drew.

Note here that various writers did go on to sign a second edition of the letter. Not Pullman, AFAIK.

@Helmetbymidnight

When nearly everyone has a 'trans child' in their family (if not their own child, another relative such as a nephew, niece or cousin) it makes it so much harder to argue against the ideology because so many more people are personally involved with such children.

It does, I find it very hard to speak out because a couple of women I like very much have transchildren and have fully bought into the ideology and i don't want to hurt them. :(

This - I have to be relly careful. I love these people and they are doing what they have been told is in the best interests of their child. One of them had a very hard time of it when her daughter transitioned, she did a lot of private grieving, whilst having to put on a public "we're delighted" "happy he can be himself" face.

@thinkingaboutLangCleg

Phillip Pullman, who wrote a trilogy about ideologically rigid, obsessive adults cutting away essential parts of children before they'd had the chance to reach adulthood and settle into themselves.

Wow, well observed, littlbrowndog! What a hypocrite.

That was @glosswitch on Twitter. Extremely astute point.

I've just been browsing through CV's Twitter feed. Full of mutual back-slapping. What she was aiming to do in her original pile-on was to get school librarians not to buy the book and to prevent Rachel from being invited into schools, which I think can be a significant source of income for a children's author. She and her chums are congratulating each other on being successful on both points - I don't know with how much truth, but mud sticks, and to do that to a fellow author is just vile.

As for her own stake in this, she's in her late 50s and her children are adults now. I don't think she herself has had to face the issue of whether to put a child on PBs. I would say it's more been a case of supporting a young adult child who's transitioned.

Philip Pullman pretending to sit on the fence or whatever he's trying to do is so phoney.

He read 'The Art of Being Normal' by lisa Williamson and called it “A life-changing and life-saving book.” a few years ago...

I read that book since it was on the recommended list at DC's school. I have never read such stereotypical crap. Honestly, the boy 'knows' he's a girl because he's obsessed with America's Top Model and likes his mum's clothes. the girl 'knows' she's a boy because she doesn't like talking much and has a quick temper.

My youngest loves My Body is Me as well and she wanted to take it in to be read to the class by her teacher. :)

I wrote Rachel a message of support and to tell her DD enjoyed it and she sent a lovely reply.

DD now also owns The Problem with Problems and my older DC got some of Rachel's poetry books.

To try and paint her book as hateful in any way is bizarre. 😒

I’m on CV’s block list too, despite no interaction with her. Not that I’m missing much.

Thanks for the link, I’ve bought 2 copies.

Jessica Alhberg, daughter of the wonderful Alan and Janet, did the illustrations. She’s from children’s book Royalty, as is CV as Shirley Hughes’s daughter.

I notice CV isn’t targeting her. Just the special needs teacher with no power or influence.

Rachel Rooney said earlier this year she’d given up being a children’s author and going into schools because of this.

thanks for summarising the issue on this thread. I couldn't see it, because I too am blocked by CV, despite the fact that I have never, ever tweeted. Not one tweet.

I have an account to follow around a hundred people who are interesting to me, just two of whom are gender critical. Heck, I even follow CV's mum. Am genuinely shocked at the extreme level of blocking.

Same Turn. I barely like or comment, just use it to keep up with news mostly. Must be to do with who I'm following.

Pullman is just getting creepier by the day.

I am also blocked again despite never having had any interaction with her and not being very active on Twitter.

Rachel Rooney has suggested that CV might block anyone who follows Women’s Place UK. They have over 40, 000 followers now so quite a lot of people to block...

She obviously feels very strongly that women should keep quiet and know our place and not ask for safe spaces or to be involved in any decision which impacts us if it is true that she automatically blocks WPUK followers.

Oh yes I did say it was from Twitter on my first post just couldn’t remember who it was as was a cut and paste.

Another year orv2 on here my training ground then i will be writing stuff like that 😎😎

PP is coming across like a stereotyped sitcom grandad who doesn't have a clue what's going on and agreeing with lots of contradictory things. He has the intelligence to look into this and find out about it properly - and perhaps find out how much trans ideology and the concept of being born in the wrong body resembles the extremist religious thinking he's rightly opposed to.

As for CV I'm sorry for her and agree with PPs that she's stuck in this now - it's personal for her and she cannot allow herself any doubts or debate when it's her child and she has chosen to affirm. Many people are like this - when GC people reasonably ask for evidence and rational explanations, they go on the attack because they cannot afford to debate it within themselves.

I'm more sorry for Rachel Rooney of course. She's in the right and has not stooped to attacking people. She's suffering hugely for standing up to be counted. CV's situation doesn't justify her behaviour but of course bullying is fine if it's only terfs eh Philip

I'm never going to contribute a penny to PP's royalties again. He's the Jolyon Maugham of literature.

A High Court judge has just ruled that puberty blockers are an experimental treatment, to which children are unable to consent because they have lifelong extremely negative side effects, which children can't comprehend. After reading thousands of pages of testimony and submission.

Not very complicated to grasp. It's all documented and evidenced.

As is the court approved intervention of Transgender Trend, the head of which was shortlisted for the John Maddox prize.

A prize, which, incidentally, rewards an individual who has promoted sound science and evidence on a matter of public interest’ with an emphasis ‘on those who have faced difficulty or hostility in doing so’

It doesn't get to be more of a slamdunk.

Criticising an author for associating with transgender trend, is an empty and obvious tactic. And it's a testament to the women here, who choose to view that partly with sadness, rather than outrage, due to compassion with a parent.

Nonetheless, the right side of history, it's not.

CV's adult child is of an age where they should be getting on with life. Surely she should have moved on by now if affirmation is all it's cracked up to be?

She may have been happy trailblazing experimental treatment, but time has passed and there should be evidence by now. Parents and children of today need to be offered a more evidence based approach.

I can see PP is trying to defend a family friend who is in pain, but the global noticeboard of Twitter really is not the place.

I missed this interview at the time, just saw it posted on Twitter.
Turns out PP knows what he is talking about, and here at least he agrees with Transgender Trend:

amp.theguardian.com/global/2019/sep/29/philip-pullman-i-am-a-citizen-and-a-writer?__twitter_impression=true

“I got into terrible trouble a year or two ago because I said, in all innocence, ‘Look what is this quarrel between feminists and trans people? What’s the argument about?’”

He claims, rather mischievously, that he still doesn’t understand the debate about whether gender can be overthrown biologically or socially, but I suggest it’s a relevant topic to his books, in which almost all children are born with a daemon of the opposite sex, who represents the other part of them, perhaps their soul. The daemon changes animal until puberty, when it takes a fixed form and the child finds out who they really are. It does make me think about the question of trans children and blocking puberty. He turns very thoughtful about this.

“If I had a child, boy or girl, who felt passionately from an early age, manifestly that they were in the wrong body, I hope I would be understanding and as kind as possible,” he says. “What I don’t think I’d do is hasten them away to an endocrinologist. I know that if you want to transition, it is physically more plausible, or persuasive, if you do it before puberty, but is a child before puberty capable of… I mean the answer is, we don’t know, do we? We don’t know. The only thing we can do is to be as kind as possible.”