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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

BBC apologise after gamer accuses Harry Potter author JK Rowling of transphobia

100 replies

IwantToRetire · 04/02/2023 01:11

The BBC apologised after it allowed a pundit on radio to accuse JK Rowling of transphobia and did not challenge her on her claims.

Evan Davis hosted a segment on Radio 4's PM show on Thursday where he asked two gaming journalists about the upcoming release of Hogwarts Legacy which is due out next week.

But one of the pundits went on a rant about how the Harry Potter author was transphobic and had built up a campaign against trans people.

www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/bbc-apologise-after-gamer-accuses-29128153

I know there are multiple threads about ED & PM but thought it would be nice to make sure this apology has its on entry on FWR as I am sure it has played a role in this!

OP posts:
MassiveWordSalad · 04/02/2023 10:56

Well, that's something. Evan Davies constantly has his bias hanging out, and it's nice to see him acknowledge it for once.

Birdsweepsin · 04/02/2023 11:01

Evan Davies constantly has his bias hanging out

Is that what it's called these days?

I can't keep up with all these new words, have to look them up on the urban dictionary....

TheWitchesAreBackInTown · 04/02/2023 11:01

stealtheatingtunnocks · 04/02/2023 01:20

I bet that was prompted by a legal letter

Yup. That was my first thought.

RichardBarrister · 04/02/2023 11:01

Ereshkigalangcleg · 04/02/2023 09:02

There’s also an issue with a transphobic staircase, in the game…. The staircase turns into a slide when a boy tries to go up it, to get into the girls loo.

Hahaha seriously?! Grin

I want those installed throughout the nation. Let’s start a campaign.

lookslikeabombhitit · 04/02/2023 11:04

I'm so glad that they've had to issue an apology. Listening to the sodding interview the other day gave me the absolute rage. Just this blind acceptance that of course JKR is transphobic and no journalistic interjection whatsoever. Sick to death of this pandering.

ReunitedThorns · 04/02/2023 11:11

Oh dear, that TheGamer website seems like the games section of Stonewall or Pink News. Avoid.

Mollyollydolly · 04/02/2023 11:50

Glad I complained. Are they going to issue an on-air apology. A quote at the end of a newspaper article isn't really enough. He needs to apologise on-air.

MassiveWordSalad · 04/02/2023 11:53

Birdsweepsin · 04/02/2023 11:01

Evan Davies constantly has his bias hanging out

Is that what it's called these days?

I can't keep up with all these new words, have to look them up on the urban dictionary....

I'd go so far as to say he's got Big Bias Energy.

Brefugee · 04/02/2023 12:20

He's gay. Presumably if anyone tries to hold him to account (if we play by the TRA rules) for anything ever it's homophobia?

Lilavanblue · 04/02/2023 12:36

2Rebecca · 04/02/2023 08:26

I hadn't heard of this game until the TRAs started publicising it. They should have just stayed quiet and organised to push a different game they did like rather than giving more publicity to this game which sounds great. I don't play many games but will now get this one. Glad the BBC issued an apology. The sales of this game will show what a minority opinion the TRA view is

Same here. I hadn’t heard of it, but am now considering getting it for our kids.

Merrymouse · 04/02/2023 12:45

I don’t think he has suggested that, and it’s very obvious that the people who have taken the brunt of the abuse for standing up for women’s rights are also gay.

I think that as with many, his life is just been easier if he doesn’t engage his brain on this issue.

However this interview really was brainless to an extent that discredits him and the PM show.

ScrollingLeaves · 04/02/2023 16:43

This petition is to update the Equality Act to make clear the characteristic “sex” is biological.

The meaning of the word has become too muddied over the years to have any weight in upholding women and girls’ rights to sex-based spaces. Lady Haldane’s recent judgement confirms there is a problem.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/623243

LizzieSiddal · 04/02/2023 18:32

Like others I’m looking forward to an official apology statement by Davis, on his show. needs to either start being unbiased or leave the show.

BigFrau · 04/02/2023 18:38

GCAcademic · 04/02/2023 10:41

I can’t think of another BBC presenter who is allowed to indulge their bias in this way. People used to go on about Laura Kunnesberg, but ED is on another level altogether.

100% this. Why is he the golden child?

MissMarplesbag · 04/02/2023 19:16

BigFrau · 04/02/2023 18:38

100% this. Why is he the golden child?

Because he is male and that's what this all boils down to. Male privilege & misogyny at its finest & they just don't like it now they've been caught out.

thirdfiddle · 04/02/2023 19:27

Just here to lol about the transphobic staircase. Probably necessary in a boarding school with so little supervision to ensure lots of little witches and wizards aren't popping out before the students of indeterminate gender finish their OWLs.
How do they know it's transphobic though? Perhaps it is detecting magical gender essence not sex? Unless the game is a lot more explicit than I realised...

IwantToRetire · 04/02/2023 20:25

I agree with the comments about ED.

Hard as it might be to believe but I have heard him be much more overt that him not correcting the allegations against JKR.

And it isn't just what he says, but why did he have this story. It is in fact old. It was a bit in the news a couple of months ago and there was a thread on FWR.

This seems like blatant promoting of one individual, who may or may not be a friend, to talk about their web site. ie ED abusing his position to promote a friend, or someone whose politics he shares.

Worse still, someone said the interview was repeated on the Today programme.

I suppose he is the Owen Jones of the BBC.

The way he conducts the programme is infantile. How did he get the job. Or maybe he was passed as being the best for the job as he was interviewed the LGBTQI+ panel that the BBC runs all it content past.

And yes totally agree with the poster who referred to Jenni Murray. Her treatment was disgraceful and blatant sexism and hypocracy.

OP posts:
ChristinaXYZ · 04/02/2023 22:47

MargaritaPie · 04/02/2023 02:13

"her false, unsubstantiated allegations against JK Rowling"

JK Rowling seems to ask about once a month for "receipts" of her transphobia. Every time people reply to her which she seems to conveniently ignore.

twitter.com/AnotherBrisket/status/1598248023062183937

Just to deal with the first one @MargaritaPie - I cannot believe that you can think that's credible.

For example - as a woman I am a very low risk for becoming a sex offender but I am also of the class 'adult'. If I want to volunteer to hear children read at a school I need to be criminal records checked. Because some adults abuse children. Adults are a class and a tiny minority abuse kids. JKR is no more "Insinuating that trans women are by default a threat:" than expecting adults to be checked by schools is insinuating that adults are by 'default' a threat. They are not on whole but we know that the dangerous need excluding - hence the law. It is daft to argue otherwise. The example is as you must see, daft.

The other examples are similarly daft.

You do know that to banging in a quote without explanation is somewhere around a grade D (in old money) for GCSE Eng Lit - to actually pass with a C you need to make an opening statement that bears some resemblance to the evidence you are giving and then extend your point by picking out the words, phrases, rhetorical techniques, etc that further prove your point. Develope an argument based in evidence.

What the poster on twitter is doing is making random whining statements and then without reference to the random 'evidence' quoting JKR without comment sensible or otherwise. In fact if there if you don't really make a link between statement and evidence you'd be struggling to get a D - I was being kind to you.

so no evidence, zip, nothing, zilch...

And if you're about to say you got an A* in Eng Lit then use your close reading skills properly instead of chanting your catchecism. Seriously, consider yourself embarrassed in front of your classmates and slink off back to your seat and do your homework again.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 05/02/2023 11:25

MargaritaPie · 04/02/2023 01:46

"Stacey Henley, Editor-in-Chief of the Gamer website, said that she would not be reviewing the game due to the alleged actions of Ms Rowling.

She said: "We are not covering the game at all is because Harry Potter and the world it exhibits is just entirely connected to JK Rowling but she has a platform that sue uses to push transphobia, uses it to build up what I would call a campaign agains trans people, especially in Britain.

"So for me, it's not a case of you shouldn't enjoy the game, but supporting the game continues to give JK Rowling a platform which she can use to hurt people."
She later urges a boycott of the game as she says "I think moving forward you're not being asked to give up all those childhood memories. What you're being asked to do is think of the impact of continuing to support future endeavours.""

But I thought we were to let women speak and not be silenced? Or do you only mean women who agree with JK Rowling?

Just reading this quote above has me shaking my head. Supporting the game gives JKR a platform? Do these people live in the real world at all?

JKR's position is unassailable, which is of course why she is perceived as such a threat. She could stop writing tomorrow and remain one of the wealthiest women in the world just on the strength of her royalties to date, never mind in the future. Fortunately, though, she is still working and producing top notch work. For the foreseeable future, anything she writes will be published and in most cases then adapted for TV or film, because her name and reputation guarantee huge sales.

Gender ideologues have tried and failed to get her agent to drop her, her publishers to drop her, Warner Bros to take her name off anything related to Harry Potter. None of it is any good. JKR makes everyone involved with her work a lot of money and in spite of what the ideologues want to believe nobody's image is tarnished by having a connection to JKR.

The general public continue to love her work and aren't convinced she's done anything hateful. Some at least will therefore listen to anything she has to say. She won't necessarily convince them, but she will be heard.

We also know she pays all her taxes, and she's done incredible work as a philanthropist, donating money left, right and centre, to unimpeachable good causes. Here's the most recent example, which she herself kept quiet about. What a woman.

www.sundaypost.com/fp/harry-potter-author-jk-rowling-helped-afghan-lawyers-flee-the-taliban/

ScrollingLeaves · 05/02/2023 12:20

And re: what MargaritaPie said about Stacey Henley

But I thought we were to let women speak and not be silenced

Stacey Henley was not silenced.

They were brought on to P M and their view that the game should be boycotted due to its links to J K Rowling was broadcast to thousands of listeners.
They could not have been made louder.

Their views were politely listened to by Evan Davis who remained silent except for eventually saying, J K Rowling does not think her views are transphobic.

It was too much for him to say that there is no evidence that J K Rowling is transphobic, or even just that most people do not agree that she is transphobic. The issue was Evan Davis’s bias.

knittingaddict · 05/02/2023 15:15

At the risk of a derail can I ask which version is best for the game? My grandsons have a PlayStation 4 and a Nintendo switch. I will get the game for them but I'm not a player myself.

Happylittlechicken · 05/02/2023 15:26

@knittingaddict id recommend the switch version. Sony are rumoured to be winding down the PS4 so if there’s any patches etc, they may not be supported…. (gamer DD opinion, I am clueless lol)

ReunitedThorns · 05/02/2023 17:49

So we have another link to yet another so-called trans woman on Twitter who hides behind a cartoon image, who struggles to find any evidence of transphobia, and then claims that that is transphobic in itself.

knittingaddict · 05/02/2023 19:27

Happylittlechicken · 05/02/2023 15:26

@knittingaddict id recommend the switch version. Sony are rumoured to be winding down the PS4 so if there’s any patches etc, they may not be supported…. (gamer DD opinion, I am clueless lol)

Thank you. I'll look out for it's release. I asked my grandsons and they are definitely keen to have the game.

knittingaddict · 05/02/2023 19:36

Grandsons are a little young for it maybe. They are only 8 and 9, so may have to wait a while to register my approval for JKR.

I read a review of the game and they do indeed assume that JKR is a transphobe and that buying this game is problematic. Even more determined to buy it now.

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