Val McDermid

[Cleopatracat]

Could anyone tell me is Val McDermid gender critical? I see she is speaking at the lesbian lives conference in Cork where the keynote speaker is a transwoman www.ucc.ie/en/lesbianlives2022/

It makes no difference whether she is or not, she certainly won't be allowed to express any controversial views. It's Ireland, after all

She'll have noted what happened to a good woman writer even more wealthy and influential than her I guess and will parrot only the permitted mantras.

Is she not quite good pals with Nicola Sturgeon and or some other Scot gov types? :(

@TurquoiseBaubles

It makes no difference whether she is or not, she certainly won't be allowed to express any controversial views. It's Ireland, after all

Do you mean Val McDermid the author?

Not sure r.e being gender critical, but she is a scottish nationalist, and being gender critical does not tend to go down well amongst the SNP and Scottish Green members, just ask Joanna Cherry.

I doubt it.

I can't stand Val McDermid. It's nothing to with whether or not she's "gender critical". She writes extremely violent books, is a crony of Sturgeon's and is one of the tedious group of professional Scotspersons.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/cronyism-claim-after-writer-val-25453275.amp

twitter.com/valmcdermid/status/1271393468909314048?s=20

She is apparently a friend of J K Rowling's but apart from the tweet above (which isn't actually supportive) I can't find anything from McDermid supporting JKR. There's plenty from 2016 of JKR coming out in support of McDermid.

I haven't read The Mermaids Singing- very interesting plot.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mermaids_Singing

@Galvantula

Is she not quite good pals with Nicola Sturgeon and or some other Scot gov types? :(

Google Sturgeon, McDermid and cronyism.

As far as I’m aware she’s full on TWAW (signed this twitter.com/valmcdermid/status/1311308245554933760?s=21)
like a depressingly large number of successful older lesbians in long term settled relationships (see also Nancy Kelly, baronesses barker & hunt) she seems completely unbothered by the impact of TWAW on younger lesbians.

Nope.

mobile.twitter.com/valmcdermid/status/1311308245554933760?lang=en-GB

@Goatsaregreat

She'll have noted what happened to a good woman writer even more wealthy and influential than her I guess and will parrot only the permitted mantras.

Oh come off it. McDermid's hardly short of a bob and has millions of devoted readers too.

I can't find anything where McDermid has even done a defence of JKR along the lines of "I don't agree with her but the trolling, etc" is wrong.

Synopsis of the plot of McDermid's The Mermaids Singing

JKR was condemned , entirely incorrectly, for the killer in her last book being trans. One might have hoped, given McDermid actually did have a trans murderer that McDermid might have spoken up for Rowling. I don't recall seeing her doing so.

In the fictional English city of Bradfield, men are being abducted and tortured to death using brutal medieval techniques. The bodies are then found in areas frequented by gay men and women. The police reluctantly recruit a criminal profiler, Dr. Tony Hill. He joins forces with Detective Inspector Carol Jordan, for whom he develops complicated romantic feelings. Dr. Tony Hill has problems of his own, including a mysterious woman named Angelica who frequently calls him for phone sex. As Tony becomes increasingly involved in the investigation, it becomes apparent that the killer is seeking Tony as the next victim. The killer is revealed to be the anonymous caller Angelica, a transgender woman who kills men that do not return her affections. When kidnapped, Tony figures out her weakness (her desire to be loved) and uses it to avoid being tortured and murdered

I seem to remember her on Question Time years ago saying something like if she were young today she had no doubt she would find herself being drawn to trans view of thing. As a young person she was stereotypical male in her appearance which later translated to being a lesbian. Her view seemed to be that it was risky and that some people are just more masculine than society expects and that is fine. So my impression was gender critical. But that was a few years ago. Maybe 5 years

Thanks everyone, it seems to me that she is unconsciously GC but won't go there because Upton Sinclair:' It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding'

She is a sensible modest person not like some who love to shout their mouth off no matter whom they offend and what damage they do.

If she was "a sensible modest person not like some who love to shout their mouth off no matter whom they offend and what damage they do" then surely she would have defended JK Rowling and decried the horrible vicious misgynistic attacks on her?

@Jewel1968

I seem to remember her on Question Time years ago saying something like if she were young today she had no doubt she would find herself being drawn to trans view of thing. As a young person she was stereotypical male in her appearance which later translated to being a lesbian. Her view seemed to be that it was risky and that some people are just more masculine than society expects and that is fine. So my impression was gender critical. But that was a few years ago. Maybe 5 years

Was it this…

mobile.twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/931302121558876161

@Viviennemary

She is a sensible modest person not like some who love to shout their mouth off no matter whom they offend and what damage they do.

Stop being mean about Owen Jones, he's just a child.

Thanks for the link, Signalbox. That’s interesting to watch. Since the signing of the above letter, I’d assumed she was full on TWAW, but maybe she has a more nuanced view.

@Cleopatracat

Thanks everyone, it seems to me that she is unconsciously GC but won't go there because Upton Sinclair:' It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding'

Really? McDermid must be an extremely wealthy woman by now. She's in the same category as JK Rowling and Jordan Peterson. They won't get cancelled by their publishers because they bring in too much money. McDermid wouldn't risk anything commercially by speaking up if she wanted to.

She hasn't- she hasn't , as far as I can find, spoken up for JKR on any level.

@Cleopatracat

If she was "a sensible modest person not like some who love to shout their mouth off no matter whom they offend and what damage they do" then surely she would have defended JK Rowling and decried the horrible vicious misgynistic attacks on her?

Which she hasn't. Despite JKR previously having defended her.

@Viviennemary

She is a sensible modest person not like some who love to shout their mouth off no matter whom they offend and what damage they do.

Can you square that with the plot line above- which was televised as the first (?) episode of Wire In The Blood.

Quite a popular show I believe, millions of viewers would have seen that piece of inclusivity.

Kimiko that series is free on Prime. I watched that episode recently and oh god

I started listening to audio book of The Mermaids Singing. I was so horrified by the descriptions of torture that I had to stop.

I wonder why she hasn't been cancelled with a plot like that.

@ThatsWhenTheCannibalismStarted

Kimiko that series is free on Prime. I watched that episode recently and oh god

I haven't read the book or seen the series.

The only McDermid I've read was a collection of recycled short stories blatantly and cynically marketed at the thrillers/ murders/ ghost stories for Christmas but where only 2 stories had any connection with Christmas. And her take on Northanger Abbey- which was dreadful.

@cleopatracat Upton Sinclair:' It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding'

Nail meet hammer