JK Rowling: what makes her such a fighter? In the Times

[Igneococcus]

I can't see this shared yet but I'm in between meetings and don't have time to look properly:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/5b0cba5c-a19b-11ed-be83-0b182bac2124?shareToken=7567d2f07aefc8cb4dd254dd8eb02805

I'm not quite sure what I make of that 'going back to teenage' suggestion? It's not childish to pre -pro women's right and to point out the hypocrisy of Sturgeons veto of the trans rapist.

What does strike me with the responses to the Hogwarts Legacy game is how it mirrors the story in the 'Ink Black Heart'. She certainly drew on her own experiences in writing that.

i'm guessing the thing that makes her such a fighter is unadulterated fury.

The unusual aspect of Rowling’s championing of the “gender critical” movement is that it comes at a cost: her reputation widely trashed among the Generation Zers I speak to; a feeling of betrayal from many of her gay and trans fans, who believe — I summarise millions of tweets here — that her rhetoric is too harsh and inflammatory, and adds to the stigma of the already stigmatised trans women. This is not to mention Rowling receiving “so many death threats I could paper my house with them”. In December 2019, when Rowling first tweeted on the trans issue and the story became red-hot global news, we can safely assume many in her team, and the wider film and publishing industry she supports, wished she would refrain from doing so in future.

i'm not sure why they would, given that every time she speaks out and gets backlash, her sales go up, apparently.

Such an odd piece. It doesn't seem to be sure whether it's for her or against her. I think, on balance, it's for her, but the writer doesn't spell out the issues. I agree with Datun about the "unadulterated fury". Some people seem to get this issue and some people just don't.

An interesting read. The feeling I got from it is that the author of that article really wants to support JKR. However, somewhat ironically, she was either not brave enough, or not allowed, to do so.

Author doesn't want to cancelled by "the Generation Zers [she speaks] to"?

In case she wants to get more pearls of wisdom from them?

Not sure how old the author is and how many children she has (and particularly if they are girls) but I think JKR is going through a phase very much related to her age (not teenage years).
On these boards they are lots of women who have lots of expertise on life and child rearing. Once your children are a bit older, you have more time for reflection and see how you can help others and prevent the more horrible bits of being a woman, for all women and children.

For instance, my first ‘exposed penis’ was a man, dressed in a baby doll style nightie and make-up, masturbating by the ladies toilet. He was doing this to me and every other girl dressed in school uniform walking home through the park. I was about 12 or 13. We all avoided going through the park. But I only realised how much this registered when my daughter was that age and I was telling her to be careful through the park.

Teenage me ran away, didn’t say anything and avoided the situation. Middle aged me would be telling him off and reporting him. I think JKR is very much a woman of her age.

For instance, my first ‘exposed penis’ was a man, dressed in a baby doll style nightie and make-up, masturbating by the ladies toilet.

Ah, bless. Another true trans hero just being their authentic selves 🙄

My feelings along the same line as @Tinysoxxx , but more that here is a writer who hasn't yet been forged through the experience of menopause.
Aspects of this article were interesting but there was something off about it, imho.

No idea if they considered themselves trans or not. I certainly didn’t think he was trying to be a woman. He had a big mens overcoat on to open, but would have had to take the gaudy make up off before he would pass unnoticed as male in the street. It was autogynaephilia.

AGP cosily sheltered under the trans umbrella now!

Yes, she seem to be looking for some kind of reason, other than life, to make a feminist fucking hopping mad.

Someone who can see all the humanitarian things that JK does, and therefore must be a decent person, but can't quite work out why she's so fuming over this issue.

Maybe it's a dot joining exercise, that she hasn't yet done.

I think it’s the cod psychology that was off about it. The article puts me in mind of an A level English literary crit essay, trying to find an “angle” no one else has come up with.

Also, frankly, it’s ageist. Rumbelow’s underlying unconscious belief is that if you’re female and late 50s, then having energy, motivation, a sense of humour and a DGAF attitude is beyond weird and needs some cod psychology to explain it.

If you read The Ink Black Heart, you can see she has learned the language of young people spending too much time on line. She understands them better than they do themselves. Most women in their 40s/50s have not immersed themselves in this sub culture, we wouldn't be able to bring people down in the language they thought was theirs.

This doesn't make her teenage, this makes her very well educated on the topic and really good with words.

Helen Rumbelow is an Oxford and Stanford educated woman likely to be approaching 50, according to her dates — so not that much younger than JKR.

I thought it was ageist, but perhaps not. Clearly Rumbelow hasn't felt the white hot outrage that most here have, which is why her article was a bit 'meh' and she didn't seem to have a full grasp of the situation. Why she doesn't understand that the world is full of older women furious at seeing our hard-won rights undermined says quite a lot about her.

She’ll regard herself as a lot younger than JKR though, Patti, if she’s ten years younger.