www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-55350905
"JK Rowling is almost certainly the greatest writer of English children's fiction of her generation, and a remarkable humanitarian. It turns out she writes exhilaratingly powerful prose too.
In a blog about the transgender debate, she offended many people. Offence is the price of free speech. Those offended felt she was questioning their identity and even attacking their human rights, which they argue is a form of discrimination or hate speech.
I take absolutely no view whatsoever on the issues that she raises.
I do take an issue on abuse and trolling, and Rowling has achieved the inglorious honour of topping many a league table for those. The deluge of hatred that she faced before writing this blog made it brave, and it was nothing compared to what came after. Talking about bravery, so too, by the way, was Suzanne Moore's engrossing, long, personal essay for Unherd on why she left the Guardian.
We should all applaud bravery in writers - even those with whom we disagree. And Rowling's essay contained moments of both real beauty and piercing honesty, as when she revealed that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
What the judges - that is, the voices in my head - most admired about the writing was the plain English. It is an interesting fact about rhetoric that if you want people to understand something, plain, mono-syllabic words are usually your best bet: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country".
Or think of the final line from Enoch Powell's most notorious speech: "All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal."
I'm not endorsing the argument; but the rhetorical power of that line comes from the fact that there are 16 words, the first 15 of which have one syllable, and the last of which has three.
Compare it with this line in Rowling's essay: "So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe."
The rhetorical power from those two sentences derives partly from the plainness of the English. Only "women" (twice) and "natal" contain more than one syllable.
If you're ever editing copy that seems verbose, go through it and think about cutting syllables while conveying the same meaning. Plain English has power. JK Rowling gets that.
In his essay for Rolling Stone, Wade Davis captures what he believes is the end of American pre-eminence"
Feminism: Sex and gender discussions
JKR's essay wins Russell prize
TheChampagneGalop · 21/12/2020 15:21
I don't think quoting Enoch Powell is going to help our case.
I was a bit 
when I saw that quote. But I think he's been quite clever there including quotes from both Powell and Kennedy. Is he really comparing JKR to either of them? If so, which one? Or is it just about the power of the rhetoric whatever the message?
And if you want an example of real hate speech, read the whole 'Rivers of blood' speech. Why aren't they cancelling Amol Rajan as a racist for quoting from it?
@donquixotedelamancha
It's not for the mob. It's for his bosses. He didn't denounce her views, he declined to state an opinion on them- very different.
He can't endorse her views but he publicly held up her article as great writing and described her as brave. He said the same about Suzanne Moore immediately afterwards.
It's absolutely clear what he thinks but by doing it in a long established 'award', making it about the writing and emphasising his neutrality he makes it hard to punish him.
I think he's judged this very carefully.
Fair points.
I was thinking that perhaps one reason men don't get the same rape/death threats is often that they are most often questioning the threats themselves, as much as the arguments.
It's quite hard to respond to 'death threats are unacceptable discourse' with 'die you scum' unless you want to look like a right twonk. Some sections of Twitter have made twonkery a lifetime's pursuit, of course, but most of them see the problem and at least attempt a more conciliatory response.
Agree entirely that all the Twitter uproar is great sunlight.
@nauticant
Her blog certainly seems to have sent posters to FWR - the Twitter twonkery (
Arabella) helps to amplify her message, which as you point out seems perfectly reasonable in comparison to the hysteria. So many men with such little self-awareness in Amol's mentions.
I remember reading a thread on a different site completely unconnected with anything to do with feminism where the topic of gender critical was brought up and most of the people there who were now questioning TRA rhetoric were turned by the reaction to JKR's essay
A lot of people I now 'turned' at this point too. Orignially they listened to all the 'wah dont read it, its evil and awful and bigoted nonsense, do not sully your eyeballs!' stuff and just assumed it was indeed awful if so many were so upset about it. Over time, they got curious (seemingly main reason for this is women they KNOW have spent their lives supporting LGBT people were saying..she said nothing wronr and such, which didn't make sense to them, that such women would suddenly be defending a bigot). They then read it. And were very 
as they could not see even a slight bit of 'hate' even though its full of the stuff apparently. Said her views matched theirs almost perfectly. Those who spoke publically abut their confusion, I nudged a little to explore the topic further as it had probably all changed a LOT from what they thin it is (ie. transsexual people, not female penises and such) and as usual, 'educating themselves' resulted in them seeing the issues and now being very against the MRA types. Own goals all round. These people would probably have stayed heads in the sand a little longer, if they were not so disgusted by an essay they had not read, because TRAs were whipping up storms everywhere about it.
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