JKR on more people accepting reality and rewriting history

[fromorbit]

The surge in Reverse Ferreting after the the US election has resulted in another great post from JKR written in response to the New York Times article saying "Transgender Activists Question the Movement’s Confrontational Approach".

J.K. Rowling

The rewriting of history begins.

Opponents of gender ideology haven't merely 'endured unsparing criticism'. I haven't simply been told I 'betrayed real feminism' or received a few book-burning videos. I've been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence. A trans woman posted my family's home address with a bomb-making guide. My eldest child was targeted by a prominent trans activist who attempted to doxx her and ended up doxxing the wrong young woman.

I could write a twenty thousand word essay on what the consequences have been to me and my family, and what we've endured is NOTHING compared to the harm done to others. By standing up to a movement that relies on threats of violence, ostracisation and guilt-by-association, all of us have been smeared and defamed, but many have lost their livelihoods. Some have been physically assaulted by trans activists. Female politicians have been forced to hire personal security on the advice of police. The news that one of the UK's leading endocrinologists, Dr Hillary Cass, was advised not to travel by public transport for her own safety should shame everyone who let this insanity run amok.

Lest we forget, gender apostates have been targeted for crimes such as doubting the evidential basis for transitioning children, for arguing for fair sport for women and girls, for wanting to retain single sex spaces and services, especially for the most vulnerable, and for thinking it barbaric to lock in female prisoners with convicted male sex offenders.

Now the political landscape has shifted, and some who've been riding high on their own supply are waking up with a hell of a hangover. They've started wondering whether calling left-wing feminists who wanted all-female rape centres 'Nazis' was such a smart strategy. Maybe parents arguing that boys ought not to be robbing their daughters of sporting opportunities might, sort of, have a point? Possibly letting any man who says 'I'm a woman' into the locker room with twelve-year-old girls could have a downside, after all?

Mealy-mouthed retconning of what has actually happened over the past ten years is predictable but will not stand. I don't doubt those who've turned a blind eye to the purges of non-believers, or even applauded and encouraged them, would rather minimise what the true cost of speaking out was, but 'yes, maybe trans activists went a little over the top at times' takes are frankly insulting. A full reckoning on the effects of gender ideology on individuals, society and politics is still a long way off, but I know this: the receipts will make very ugly reading when that time comes, and there are far too many of them to sweep politely under the carpet.
https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1863579675877884385

Plenty of people on Mumsnet towers are noticing a shift. We are entering a new stage of the gender wars. There will be an attempt to shift the blame onto women who pointed out biology is real.

Feeling a bit emotional reading this thread.
It's been a long long time coming but every day we have pushback.

There’s been a long time where a lot of people didn’t know much about this, wasn’t there a review where an awful lot of people thought ‘transwoman’ meant you were a biological woman to start with. The more coverage they get the more people will see this isn’t the case.

Personally I think the next big shift will be the court cases. There’s an awful lot of people who have been irrevocably damaged by hormones and many botched surgeries. Much of this movement has been supported by people who are making money from this, they need to feel it where it hurts the most.

Retcon is a totally normal, non academic term used very widely. I think your umbrage that is ultimately born of your own ignorance of popular culture is a bit OTT, to be honest.

I can remember back in the beginning, women wondering why TRAs were confining themselves to Twitter and virtually ignoring us.

There wasn't really any censorship because no one was reporting us.

And the reason for that was because they thought it was all nappies and prams and not a political thought in our pretty little heads.

Of course, once they got wind of FWR, that all changed. But the rank, hopelessly old-fashioned, wilfully blind sexism of assuming women really don't fucking matter was quite something to behold.

And then when they realised we might be, er, difficult, the relentless targeting began.

It became very clear, not just to them, but to me also that, as a resource, MN is absolutely second to none. It's quite remarkable. And it's not just that, women collectively are a stupendous support to one another.

It frightens the fuck out of some men.

But there's that happy serendipity, where transactivation and Mumsnet together are responsible for creating what I call late onset feminism.

It's highly contagious, and appears to be something of a permanent affliction

I had a similar situation happen to me recently (also as a side note I love how we both have JKR inspired usernames!).

I was out with a group of women who I met through my DCs nursery, mix of ages, I was the second oldest in my early 40s, then filtering down to youngest just under 30. Anyway the majority of the group left so there was just me and two others left; the two younger women were 30 and 31 I think. So the younger end of the age group.

By this time I was pretty drunk and I think it was one of the other women who brought up harry potter and I said oh I'm looking forward to the new series coming out it will go into far more detail than the films did and be more book centred and she declared that she wouldn't be giving JKR any more money despite loving harry potter. I said, oh why? And she said oh she's cruel and horrible to trans people. I asked for an example of that and she said oh she has done lots of things plus said she would get champagne sent to who could bomb Nicola sturgeon's house which was "awful". I asked if there was proof of that as I'd heard nothing about that and she then launched into a rant about her poor vulnerable trans friends.

I wish I wasn't as drunk but I managed to say, JKR is sticking up for women's rights, she has had a shit ton of death and rape threats. I also mentioned the charming Isla Bryson, the situation with ERCC and biological men in women's sports. The other women then said yes it's awful men in women's sport and in prisons, I don't agree with that or rape centres.

The first women said oh of course, I don't agree with that either but JKR is upsetting my trans friends. I reiterated that she is sticking up for women's rights and child safeguarding and I could see she didn't like that so I just changed the subject. The interesting thing is when pressed both of them agreed there was only two sexes, biology was important and both of them didn't want men in women's sport, prisons or rape, refuge centres. I did wonder if this was ever said to the first women's trans friends? I guess not! But anyway also I felt (inside my head, I didn't say it out loud), but the fact they were over 10 years younger than me and had trans friends proved it was a social contagion and they'd grown up conditioned to be kind. I just wonder how it will pan out eventually.

"said she would get champagne sent to who could bomb Nicola sturgeon's house"

It's laughable really, every accusation is a confession. What sort of a lying mug would invent such an easily debunked towering shit lie? And what sort of mug would actually believe something so unexpected from a kindly author of children's books?

I think people really need to check they facts.

We are so very vulnerable to the biases in our information sources.
This is such an important point, GryffindorsSword.

People who complain loudest about 'Mainstream media' are also likely to be the ones who least consult it.

There was a poll of voters in the recent election here in Ireland, asking where people got their political information from

Among 18-24-year-olds, 37% said social media and 20% said online news sites, compared to 17% who said television programmes.
This trend is repeated among 25-34 year olds, where 25% said social media and 19% said online news sites, compared to 20% who said TV programmes.
Clear generational divide seen over election information

The idea that people are making crucial political decisions on what they see on SM is scary, but it also explains a lot, including the fact that apparently otherwise sensible people believe things like women with PCOS being banned from the Olympics.. because they saw it on SM. QED.

I think the poll may also go some way to explaining why GC=older [allegedly], it's not so much that we are rights-hoarding dinosaurs who can't keep up with the times, it's that over-35s don't depend on SM so much, and therefore have a broader, and somewhat more authenticated range of inputs into our opinion-forming.

Alternatively, we could just read whatever JKR writes, and say 'I'll have what she's saying'

I’m thinking of making a printout of exactly what JK said and laminating it (handbag sized) just so I can whip it out when people say ‘ooh JK; such a meanie’
As a Christmas present to myself

@MarieDeGournay I think you're right about where we get our information, but GC-ness is also often late-onset because of simple life experience. It's easy for a teen/20-something/30-something with very young children to hold a TWAW opinion because every thing is just black and white, falling asleep next to anyone after a drunk house party/all babies are the same etc; it's only when you have to start considering the safeguarding of people you have caring responsibilities for, whether it's children or elderly parents, that you are forced to understand the realities of single-sex spaces and the physical differences between males and females in a safety and protection context.

I think the GC will blossom again in younger generations, though, because Trans Activism has fallen out of trendiness, and most young teens I know are now rolling their eyes at anyone still insisting on pronouns and new gender identities.

I actually laughed when she said it! She took offence but I was like, wtf are you talking about?! Where did you read that?! She told me a trans friend had told her. Ok then. Honestly this is a women in her 30s with two kids! It's mad

@andIsaid
"You just watch - all the trans spokespeople will suddenly be transmen.
There will not be a transwoman in sight."
That's an interesting observation / prediction.
Do you mean as a PR move trans rights organisations will put forward trans men?
Or trans women unwilling to engage in conversation that is not going their way?

It is. It'll be interesting to see if @andIsaid 's prediction comes to pass; it sounds very plausible to me.

Haha I can just see all the shy and retiring exhibitionist cross dressing attention moths retiring shyly, for the greater good. Any minute now, in your own time F Wallace.

I don't think JKR is perfect. She's human, like the rest of us, and that means imperfect. But she's pretty damn good, especially on women's rights. Very nearly all of the criticism of her is unfounded, and the remaining little bit is debatable and pretty insignificant compared with the truth she tells. Uncomfortable truth, for some, because it calls their assumptions into question.

@LilyBartsHatShop and @duc748

I think it will be strategy.

As in, look, we are harmless, this nice female to male wouldn't hurt a fly, which is true, by and large.

Another way of hiding the truth.

God, I love her. She is a calm, kind, clear-headed, brave and tenacious woman. She is a hero for continuing to be so honest and precise about the issues she has faced, the duplicity, the cruelty, the double standards, the glee, the violence thinly veiled as righteous campaigning.