Disappointed at Andrew Garfield remarks about JKR

[2021x]

In recent press for the Magic Faraway Tree, Andrew Garfield was trying to make the point that people who worked on HP projects should be respected for their art. He refused to use JKR name, and called her "she should remain nameless".

This for some reason has hit me a bit harder than I thought it would, and I am confused as to why. His PR is very rainbow-adjacent i.e. does Drag-race. He has always has picked "sensitive-man roles" that appeal to men rather than women. So even if he isn't actully gay-gay, he obviously much prefers the company of men- even when they are dressed as women. So there really is no reason for me to think that he actually cares about women and their safety and dignity at all.

Maybe because we are the same-ish age and similar cultural backgrounds that I thought he would have seen through all the misogynist bullshit. I think its fine to say you disagree with JKR but to demonise her to the same level as Voldemort... seems a bit.. culty?

I shared a loo with a transwoman. He followed me in. I came out to find him masturbating against the sink.

I find it deeply troubling that some think that it was OK to allow Khelif into a boxing ring to batter a female opponent. The woman could have suffered an horrendous injury in those boxing matches. If any of us saw that on the street, we would be horrified. And take the appropriate action. But, instead we are supposed to show sympathy for the man who has got into the ring, knowing he was male. What about his opponent? What does that tell her?

Grim... sorry you had to experience that.

I mean this is a lot about your personal feelings. I suggest listening to people with other experiences, and looking at data.

Thank you. It is irritating to be lectured on the subject of how I ought to feel about sharing loos with transwomen when I have had this experience.

I've never liked his long neck. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

He needs to wind his neck in!

Telling, isn't it.

But also another helpful illustration.

Yes, I agree. I saw a clip of Chris Packham being interviewed by Andrew Gold. Andrew Gold asked him about the trans issue in relation to BBC's output. Chris Packham was clearly uncomfortable about being asked this question and said he doesn't have experience of it, but then he went off on a monologue about being kind. And I thought, "great,.another bloody man who has no idea what women are being asked to give up, who thinks this could all be solved if we were a bit kinder. Fuck off".

I'm glad that your experiences have not made it difficult for you to use mixed sex spaces. Do you have empathy for women whose trauma has made this extremely difficult for them, women like Michelle Thompson?

https://x.com/i/status/1968370305325506914

Ugh, and it seems such perverts (or poor vulnerable sweetiepies) are now being lauded. Now women have to deal with creepy males doing these things everywhere. There is no refuge anywhere in public spaces, or services. Maybe that is by design of these men and their cheerleaders. Or at least without any concern whatsoever for women and girls.

I was just thinking about a miscarriage I had at work. I can’t even imagine having to deal with creepy men in the toilet as I discovered I was bleeding. Now of course they’d be able to put those camera’s under the partitions and doors.

And, there are women advocating for them to be in a position of such proximity from which they can carry out their fetishes.

Yes, it is nasty to decide that half of humanity has no right to name itself, define itself, tell its own stories of oppression and success, and have spaces and rights that exclude the other half to mitigate the risks, abuse and marginalisation that other half from time to time have imposed on them, simply to accomdate some people's sexist and disordered projections about what sort of mind belongs to "men" or "women".

Exactly. I do not as a female person understand why some people's sexist and often sexualised ideas about feeling "like a woman", looking "like a woman" or acting "like a woman" have somehow become the actual measure of being a woman.

It is so fucking sexist and reductive of the incredible diversity of the female half of the species, and so fucking dismissive of the real reasons women have ended up in a position where from time to time we still need spaces, language, groups and opportunities that are female-only

All of these "very intelligent" and "highly articulate" people are always so pro-trans... It's such a shock each and every time.

Also, for those saying that if males were mistaken for females in places where there is little medical provision, then they are female really. Despite knowing they are males whose sexual organs don’t appear normal at birth. A flawed man is a woman apparently. Woman little more than a miscellaneous category of flawed human beings.

That is like saying that people with epilepsy who were thought to be possessed by demons, were still really possessed by demons despite medical advancement showing they suffer from a medical condition - abnormal electrical activity in their brain.

So this is a tangent, but the interviews for promo of the movie were a bit cringy, the actors were explaining why EB hadn't been cancelled. But not very successfully. "Things change over time" etc

AG is of course able to disagree with her - maybe he thinks that men don't pose a threat to females in single spaces, maybe he thinks it is fine to sack someone to say that sex is reality and can't be changed, but say that. Don't be weasily about it and repeat boring talking points

I don't really blame him for not going into detail on his stance when he was doing a radio spot to plug a film. I expect he realized he'd put his foot in it and tried to get off the subject as quickly as possible with his pithy remark.

He'd have been better off saying nothing at all. To give him credit, he only brought Harry Potter up in the context of saying people shouldn't boycott it because they don't agree with JKR's views.

But we're at the point where actors can't mention one of the biggest media franchises of the last 30 years without feeling like they have to weigh in on this debate, only for any little aside they make to be regurgitated into a thousand headlines.

Just seen the Enid blyton film he was in. His acting was bad, character cringe and let the rest of the film and cast down imo. No idea why he is popular. Then I read the quote about JKR and don’t think he is fit to shine her shoes - what a wa**er

Thing is, not all trans women are physically imposing in any way. Many very much are not. You will have shared a public toilet with a trans woman and not known. What is your solution then to ensuring only cis women use them?

But this is true of plenty of men, not just (some) trans women. And plenty of those nice and unimposing men would also prefer to use women's spaces if they could for their own safety and comfort.

So why are the men who consider themselves to be "trans women" the only men who get the "ladies spaces" pass for safety and comfort? Because they "look like women"? Because they "act like women"? Because they "think like women"?

How is this not just fucking old fashioned sexism about how women (female people) look, act and think?

And the "solution" is to tell these men to stop being so fucking entitled and get out of women's spaces.

If your first reaction to that is "yeah right, that's hardly going to stop them!" please think about what you are really saying about how these men see women.

"She who must not be named". He's removing the name of a woman. Who is the author of the whole series of books, and the creator of the character/world that lead to the movies.

It's abhorrent isn't it.

They don't see women at all.

Oh they do. They see us as resources, as scenery and as helpmeets.

Our role in their heads is keep on womanning in the old way so they have something to identify into, even though their very claim to be "women" undermines the basis on which womanning "in the old way" is anything to do with being a "woman" at all.

Once you see it you can't unsee it. The whole edifice is nothing more than sexism wrapped in a progressive facade.

This interview with him and Claire (who I normally like) is teethgrindingly twee. And the normal zeal of cancellation/divorcing of a creator from their creation/calling them nasty names has been handwaved away by a lovely made up scenario that dear old Enid would have been persuaded by her present day descendants of the error of her ways. Despite there being no such evidence of this (even on a fantasy level) being the case.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/andrew-garfield-claire-foy-magic-faraway-tree-interview-b2942626.html?test_group=lighteradlayout

Far better for him to follow the usual crowd and slag off JKR than actually address the various controversies with Enid. But then, he's got a movie to promote, doesn't he?

I appreciate @Lemonthyme is thinking through some of the issues and hold out hope that further discussion is possible. They acknowledge the risks to incarcerated women by allowing men identifying as women be housed in women prison estates.

Using the example of Isla Bryson, they correctly describe the risk to vulnerable women (who are literally trapped) if men who pretend to be trans are housed with female prisoners. She/they also acknowledges that some men who genuinely believe that they are or ought to be women will retain their penis and, in doing so, this results in a wider safety issue and a square that cannot be circled. She even acknowledge the unfairness of risking the rights of larger groups in meeting the demands of a minority.

So, applying those same thought processes, perhaps @Lemonthyme can see some similar issues with toilets.

Are there not wider safety issues in allowing any man who says he is a woman into that single sex (yes, no place is safe) space? That some men might, and do, claim to be trans to either make women feel uncomfortable or, worst case scenario, to more easily assault them? And if so, then this minority’s demands should not be met when doing so risks the rights of larger groups of women? You might feel okay despite your sexual assaults - and I’m sorry you’ve experienced male violence - in sharing a toilet with a man wearing a dress and makeup who truly believes that they’re a woman, but can you see that other women who’ve been sexually assaulted or fear being sexually assaulted might not? Should their rights be violated to accommodate a minority of men who say they’re women? Especially when there is a third option available.

If we cannot tell or predict who is ‘genuine’ and who has an intent to harm, then all men who say (or pretend to say) they’re women must stay out of all female single sex spaces.

I think he's trying to raise his profile. After all he's the third most popular Spiderman (that's discounting the cartoons and comics) and the second most popular Garfield.