The latest in UK children's publishing and the racism of gender ideology

[notyourhandmaid]

For anyone not aware, children's publishing is pretty woke...

The current crisis is a 'known transphobe' being appointed to - essentially - write some blogs. Authors, agents and others in the field are earnestly sharing their vague denouncements - sample here.

twitter.com/Magic_Kitten/status/1369064586029240320
twitter.com/claravulliamy/status/1369181157795971072
twitter.com/alibelle/status/1368961402287894530
twitter.com/andtheHare/status/1369067423006097410
twitter.com/ldlapinski/status/1369209722407186432

This is the awful woman they refer to - an award-winning writer for young people, who also runs two charities, one looking at the trafficking of girls and women in the UK, and the other providing funds for refugee aid teams.
www.booktrust.org.uk/news-and-features/writer-in-residence/#!?q=&sortOption=MostRecent&pageNo=1

The accusations of 'transphobia' are based on a speech at a WPUK meeting in Sept 2019 womansplaceuk.org/2019/10/01/the-sheer-audacity-of-our-existence/

"As I look around in today’s world, I see more and more bewildered women and girls feeling confused, alienated and afraid.
Women like myself and my Sikh or Hindu or Jewish friends who need single-space places to safely unveil, wash up and reconfigure ourselves; or women who are breastfeeding and lactating and needing a space to let it all hang out; or women going through the menopause or chemotherapy who need safe spaces to just be looked after, or young girls on their first ever periods or sprouting breasts who need space for support and reassurance."

As with JKR's essay, there is no suggestion that people might actually read things for themselves and make up their own minds. The writer's been labelled as one of the bad ones. That's it.

These are mostly (though not exclusively) white, middle-class women criticising a woman of colour who writes about and works to support refugees, victims of domestic violence, victims of trafficking. But not overtly - perhaps because they know that it would look incredibly racist to do so (many of them have condemned JKR on more than one occasion). Perhaps because 'transphobia' is supposed to come from 'the far right' and be allied with 'white supremacy'. Perhaps because they know that with all the evidence to hand, no one in their right mind would think that someone like this is 'bad' rather than 'good'.

It reminds me of the abuse Hibo Wardere and other FGM campaigners get, for focusing on material reality rather than inner identities. And it reminds me of the ways in which 'black women' and 'trans women' are so often paired together as the groups that must be included in your definition of 'women', as though these are simply two different kinds of women when 'black women' is an obvious subset of 'women'. It just seems so unbelievably privileged and the kind of behaviour that gender ideologues/TRAs claim GC feminists engage in.

The level of DARVO-ing is too much sometimes!

Children need to learn manners, not martyrdom.
Love this!

'black women' and 'trans women' are so often paired together as the groups that must be included in your definition of 'women', as though these are simply two different kinds of women when 'black women' is an obvious subset of 'women'.

This was an absolute line in the sand for me. How DARE they imply that black women and transwomen are both similar kinds of "excluded" women who should be welcomed into feminism on the same footing by privileged "white feminists"? It's so mindbogglingly offensive to black women. And before i saw this ridiculous suggestion, it had never even occurred to me that feminism somehow wouldn't include all female people. Surely the whole point is that women the world over in every culture suffer from misogyny and share the same biological issues?

The lying and twisting is astonishing - and people refuse to see it.

Same names as usual there. But what really intrigues me is that this bunch of white women are explicitly discussing her, referring to her speech that explicitly explained how this ideology impacted on Muslim women like her. On Sikh women, on Hindu women, on Jewish women. Ethnic miniorities, or if you prefer, women of colour.

So they know. They absolutely know that their priority to include transwomen excludes women of colour.

There is a word for that.

Yes. And sometimes, as with the example of Hibo Wardere's work, a specific issue to do with the persecution of women on the basis of sex affects a particular culture. That culture may be African or Asian or otherwise non-white; in fact as the world's population is approx 30% white, of course there are going to be huge numbers of issues affecting black and Asian women, often being brought to the fore by black and Asian feminists.

How trans ideology deals with that is to vilify those feminists for not centring white males as "women" instead. Then has the audacity to accuse white women of leaving black women out of feminism, when they didn't!

Apropos of nothing at all, when we bought children's books for world book day last week, I didn't buy books by any of that lot.

I haven't tried to get them sacked from their jobs, as they've tried with Rachel Rooney and now Onjali Rauf, but I'll be damned if I knowingly financially support a pack of current bullies who write children's fiction.

I don't understand that left, modern people who were totally on board with breaking down gender stereotypes a few years ago, are now pushing the opposite agenda, and somehow can't even seem to see it?

I think they were never really on-board in the first place. It was the cool thing to say women could be builders and men could be dancers, but I bet they thought it was only really for a very small niche of people. Now they're told that women who want to be builders are not really women, and that probably sounds just about as sensible to their limited world view.

Similarly, they like to talk about BAME rights but only as long as BAME people fit into the correct token box they've been assigned. Onjali has had the audacity to state a boundary they don't like so now she's demonised and fuck intersectionality.

Emphasis on "current" is because I don't care if someone tells me x author in their 30-50s was well nasty in secondary school. People grow and change. It is what childhood is for.

But these are adults, hounding a Muslim woman right now for telling them their demands conflict with her faith. They are denouncing her for asking that public spaces accommodate her and other women like her.

Smells like religious persecution to me.

And she hasn't told them specifically. She spoke about it in the context of an adult political gathering. She's been watched and put on a list of 'bad women'. It's incredibly creepy.

Thanks for the quote, DadJoke.
Clear and accurate thinking and writing.

She sounds like someone worth supporting

Special prize must go to [I won't write his name but you can find it by looking at those tweets] who keeps on retweeting the snide remarks, writing snide remarks of his own...and then deleting them and leaving gaps in the thread. FGS if you want to be a sneaky witchfinder, have the courage of your convictions!

As these people are targeting the Book Trust for employing Onjali, I suggest you all check the BT on twitter and who they're following. Someone with the initials EJ. Take screenshots.

It's funny what gets the witchfinding treatment and what doesn't, eh?

Those tweets are so snide
There’s a witch about you should all be careful you aren’t seen with her

Onjali Writes fantastic books & understands biology- what’s not to love!

I hate the "oh!!! I had no idea, thanks for the heads up!" type posts and the "oh we're all so hurt and wounded today because someone disagrees with the dogma " ones.

I wish just one of them who's taking part in this reframing of science and debate as "bigotry" would just give a straightforward, rational explanation of why they think sex doesn't matter, a man can be a woman and women who dare to disagree must be banished/destroyed. I wish they would have a look at what it is they're saying when you look beyond the happy/fluffy/acceptance mantra.

@ErrolTheDragon

Thanks for the quote, DadJoke. Clear and accurate thinking and writing.

She sounds like someone worth supporting

Exactly. I’m wondering what Dadjoke, thinks of this speech - as they are often on the opposing side of discussions on here - what insight might be Dj be able to offer?

Or maybe they (Dj) thinks it is ok?

I noticed on twitter a children's author who had clearly been taken to task yesterday for congratulating Onjali - account is now deleted. These people are utter bullies - they have zero empathy at different viewpoints and have no understanding of nuance.

I follow quite a few children's authors on Twitter and the amount of performative pronouns is so depressing.

Yes you can be bullied off Twitter by the lovely fluffy champions of "acceptance" for who you dare to like, follow or speak to.

I don't understand that left, modern people who were totally on board with breaking down gender stereotypes a few years ago, are now pushing the opposite agenda, and somehow can't even seem to see it?

Money talks, eh? Ever since Lisa Williamson's The Art of Being Normal stormed all the prizes in 2015-16 it has become absolutely THE trend in children's publishing. (Williamson worked at GIDS, the inspiration for the book in the first place.) If you can make money out of it, publishing is all about celebrating it, apparently.

It is infuriating that there is this witch-hunt now because OR has written an extremely influential book too, much like Williamson's, about refugees. Her other books are about bullying (oh, the irony today!) and child survivors of domestic violence in foster care. Her books are really 100% compassionate and full of empathy for those in strange/difficult/misunderstood situations. To call her a bigot and a transphobe is really so reductive a position, I can't understand it at all.

Or I can, but the only way I can understand it is that apparently writing for a young audience seems to mean that identifying with cliques and acting like you're still a black-and-white thinker, if you're not with me you're against me, is somehow still part of your grown-up way of going about things.

So disappointing.

I fully understand why children's writers may hesitate before supporting Onjali.

Writing is a precarious way to earn a living. I understand that.

But so many of them have remained silent throughout the whole JK Rowling shit - and then Gillian Phelps and Rachel Rooney and now Onjali.

It's no coincidence these writers are female.

Can the silent ones not join the dots??? I know most children's writers do NOT go along with the regressive idea that men can become women, and that sex does not matter because gender identity is far more important and your gender identity is the REAL you and anyone who says it isn't is a bigot.

But they stay silent in the hope that they won't be targeted next.

If they all start to support JKR (and all the others) together, they will find a strength.

They could start by liking a tweet. They could continue by finding others who feel the same way.

I wish they would.

What amazing charities, thanks for the links OP. Will be supporting Onjali in future.

We as an audience can help with that. The publishing industry, particularly children's lit, is not supported by writers buying each others' books. Buy Onjali's books, buy Rachel's books, buy Gillian's. If you can't afford to this month, check your local library's online catalogue and order them for click and collect. If a book/author has been repeatedly borrowed, then librarians take that into account in their future purchasing decisions.

JK will be fine if she never sells another book again, and she knew it, so she spoke up. We should stand up for the rest.

During the time that I’ve been reading this thread, the regional TV news has covered the rape of a fourteen year old girl on a country road in broad daylight. WE NEED OUR SAFE SPACES. We are vulnerable by virtue of our sex, not our gender. What the hell is wrong with people like Robin Stevens? She writes books about a girls’ boarding school, for God’s sake.

God...this is so depressing. Most children's authors do not make much money and many are silent out of fear. It's so racist to come for the Black woman. Witch hunts indeed!!!

Apologies- I called her Black but she calls herself Asian. My bad.

I'm going to go buy her book about the boy at the back of the class.

Are there any YA books about detransitioning? Robin Stevens tweets "Kids don’t forget. What you say to them, or about them, is burnt into their souls for life.". So where are the YA books holding hands with those ROGD girls who may now want to step back, but fear the social and online community backlash? Maybe in years to come, that failure is what some will remember.