Lionel Shriver: ‘Transgenderism is a social mania'

[WallaceinAnderland]

Couldn't see another thread on this but what a great interview. Refreshingly outspoken and blunt. I've ordered the book today (Mania).

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/lionel-shriver-transgenderism-is-a-social-mania/ar-BB1l1uQK?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=LCTS&cvid=77ac39ce8d824cc6b7f14928d3ca428a&ei=47

She's had her head above the parapet for at least three or four years now.

I disagree with some of this. If people in Korea want to show their solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, then they should. I'm sure plenty of Korean people know about racism, prejudice and discrimination. Equally, I supported Covid lockdowns and I support environmentalism.

Thanks for this OP.
Even though I might not agree with everything she says, I also really enjoy her refreshing bluntness.
I like the sound of her new book (Mania).
The premise reminds me of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron'.

She's not saying they shouldn't; she's offering an example of social contagion.

She's awful. She writes fantasy novels (i always thought 'Kevin' was the kind of nightmare you have in your first pregnancy, before you've ever had a baby or spent time with one) and her version of the world sounds largely fantasy or made up for publicity too, but there is also a vein of interesting stuff there. She's intelligent. It's quite a conflict.

For someone who's moved countries at least twice to complain about immigration is quite funny too. We have high legal immigration because we left the EU and wouldn't have an economy otherwise.

I am fairly certain that being transgender is heavily influenced by social contagion too, but then so is being a novelist. We are social animals.

I admire Lionel Shriver as a writer, though I disagree with most of her political views (edited to add) other than on gender and free speech.

Her book So Much For That is a devastating condemnation of healthcare - particularly cancer care - in the USA, despite an unexpected and rather unconvincing twist at the end.

I don’t like everything she says, but I like a lot of her work and I like that she has a sense of nuance, unlike most of the black and white, good and evil, progressive or far right, literal child-like thinking that goes on at the moment among so called educated adults.

• I agree, ZeldaFighter, *this looks like a classic case of right on one thing, tinfoil-hat-ish on others like lockdowns and Black Lives Matter.

The death of George Floyd was a global spectacle, we could see the breath leave the poor man's body and the cruel casualness of his killers on our screens. The protests that followed, whether in Korea or Killarney, were caused by observation, not contagion or social mania.

I admit that it sometimes rankled to see men taking the killing of a man an ocean away more seriously than the three women a week being killed just down the road from them, but sometimes there are big upsurges of huge and understandable anger about specific cases which eclipse other cases, and BLM was one of those I think.

Thanks OP. I've got an Audible credit to use up.

Thank you @MarieDeGournay - you expressed that way more eloquently than me and I agree completely.

I will say that, having spent time on this board, that although I disagree, I absolutely respect her right to express her opinions and also I will try to listen and not just do the "evil right-winger" thing..

Thanks OP I love Lionel Shriver and I love her unloveable characters. Ordered myself a copy.

Her books make me think. I enjoyed " should we stay or should we go" on what to do when you hit 80 with her characters living through various options starting with assisted suicide. Some of the options were poorly written, I don't think she spent much time in a nursing home but it was thought provoking. Her tennis obsession book was also good. I'm a GP and think lockdown went on for far longer than it needed to and the various levels of lockdown were silly and confusing. I worked through it as did most shop workers and found the healthy people keen to hide in their houses for as long as possible odd.