“Heated Rivalry” author Rachel Reid on J. K. Rowling - “the bar is pretty high in how evil you have to be,” “ I’m extremely the opposite of everything she believes”

[YankSplaining]

Well, this is disappointing.

”[Reid] has a keen desire not to disappoint her fans, especially when they’re sending her photos of freshly inked tattoos of her words on their skin. ‘I know of another author that a lot of people got tattoos of but then wanted them gone. Like, J. K. Rowling,’ she says. ‘The bar is pretty high for how evil you have to be, but I don’t want to let a single person down.’ I ask if she’s a TERF. ‘No, I’m extremely the opposite of everything she believes,’ she replies.”

Well, too late, she let me down. “Extremely the opposite of everything she believes,” huh? I guess Rachel Reid thinks teenage girls should be forced to undress after PE in front of naked male classmates who gawp as their dicks get hard. Or that female inmates should be locked in cells with male inmates serving time for serial rape.

I don’t expect Reid to agree with Rowling on trans issues. It’s the monstering of Rowling that I take issue with - the “evil,” and the framing of Rowling as so extreme that Reid feels the need to be extremely the opposite of everything she believes.

Edit: title should read “on how evil you have to be”

Your identity is based on you saying what sex you are and then acting as if that belief is material rather than purely subjective.

Your identity seems to be purely based on that very subjective reality you have claimed through your subjective interpretation of experiences. The material reality of your experiences is that they are of a male person, never a female person.

Thanks Heggetty.

People sometimes don't realise that women had to fight for what they've got. It wasn't just handed to them.

Just to add: little wonder we're so fiercely protective of our spaces

They are preventing men from using women's single sex services, and from what you have said, under UK law, you are a man. If you enter a woman's single sex space it ceases to be a single sex space.

I think, for the avoidance of doubt, the limitation to women only in women only toilets is justified by being necessaary to maintain women's safety, privacy and propriety. Those are the de-facto legitimate aims, the proportionate means are to exclude men and provide them alternative bathroom facilities.

All three go out of the window as soon as any man - such as yourself - steps foot across the threshold to use that toilet.

That's the legal position in the UK.

My material reality is shaped by the people I share space with and opportunities provided to me/us. I've over 40 years to repeatedly absorb that objective interpretation of my experience does not exist within opportunities or allowances of a male person.

And yet, we have have two significant court judgements that have confirmed that any male people entering a female single sex provision make that provision mixed sex.

Like GLP, you can declare that there is an alternative interpretation that is lawful, but I dare say you will be very disappointed. As Bridget Phillipson says, there is no need to wait for the guidance the law is clear.

And safety, privacy and dignity for female people is indeed the very basis of safeguarding. If you understood safeguarding and consent, you would know this.

And yet, you are a male person and your experiences are not that of a female person. Your denial doesn’t change the material reality of those facts.

Trans people have been using the facilities they use for decades. These are, for the most part, publicly shared spaces. I believe enforcement of sex realist goals for safety, privacy and propriety will be uncivil and far more dangerous for people.

You are correct. Your words here have no affect on my material reality.

I don’t disagree that there is considerable interest in isolating and even removing trans people from life (In reference to reducing the number of trans people, Helen Joyce proclaimed “…two reasons – one of them is that every one of those people is a person who’s been damaged. But the second one is every one of those people is basically, you know, a huge problem to a sane world").

Removing trans people from the world will not address any of the endemic male violence against women in the world.

Many trans people won’t survive the sex realist project due to cruelty, despair and/or violence.

The world has moved forward these past few hundreds of years towards inclusion and diversity rather than insularism and biologic determinism. The UK will see trans people living as fully embodied people once again some day.

Bizarre to you. Of course.

Women's facilities and needs have always been political. Women's bodies and existence have always been political.
There is no "suddenly" for women.
Trans identifying men seem to think they're the first group of people to have their lives put under the political spotlight. They are not. Women have been dealing with this forever.

I apologise for not paying attention to the sentries stationed at the doorway.

Care to clarify?

You've quoted Helen Joyce out of context.

There is political, yes. Conceptually I experience misogynistic forces in the world and understand feminist politics behind liberation, embodiment and personhood amongst layers of other power dynamics and group-focused enculturisation.

My presence in (and to my understanding, other trans persons presence in) toilets and other single sex spaces was not elevated to the level of international culture war status until recently. My response referred to the placement of military troops at the doors of public spaces to mediate entry. Presumably they would be good at their jobs and prevent all perceived enemy incursion.

Do you think military troops are needed?

Can trans people not be trusted to use the facilities of their born sex?
To obey the law, like other citizens are capable of doing?

My presence in (and to my understanding, other trans persons presence in) toilets and other single sex spaces was not elevated to the level of international culture war status until recently.

Women have never wanted you there. You just never bothered to ask.

Truthfully, after the last couple of years, I believe sex realists expect there to be some level of criminal enforcement requirement in the future.

You've never, ever been in a female single sex place. As soon as you cross the threshold, the atmosphere will change, and you'll never even know it.

Women don't need to ask permission to be in women's space.

Sentries like this?

I gather from your posts that you are a transwoman. So you are right, most of us do not understand your experience, as most of us are women. The biological kind, born female.

But by the same token you do not understand our experience. Because you were not born female.

Male born people aren't women.
The end.

This sounds very metaphysical.

Make no mistake. Men will be forcibly removed from women only spaces.

We saw it recently with two men being escorted out by a female bouncer. Whilst threatening the women in the toilet with violence, of course.

I can't remember if they have been arrested or not, for their threats.

Men who refuse to leave women's spaces will have the police called on them, of course.