I notice you haven’t actually told me the things she said. I really am just curious about your personal feelings about the political feelings JKR has expressed about the trans community.
For example, do you agree with her assertion that there is a growing pandemic of young girls mistakenly driven to hate their own womanhood or sexuality that drives them to be ‘convinced’ they are boys, or her assertion that the perceived danger of allowing trans women in women’s spaces could pose to cis women is more important than the perceived danger trans women face by not having access to those spaces, or her suggesting that “the allure of escaping womanhood would be so huge at a young age that 30 years ago, she would probably transition.”
Or her assertion that radical feminists aren’t actually trans exclusive because they include trans men in their feminism, because they are women. (An assertion many trans men have often spoken again, both because they aren’t women but also because they often feel very much ostracized, attacked by, prayed upon, or condescended to by trans exclusionary radical feminists. Maybe she has thoughts on all the anecdotes from trans men about the radical feminists that have been very predatory towards them? I suppose she would weigh them having vaginas more heavily when considering their victim status.
She’s also posed “concerns” about "the increasing numbers" of trans people who are detransitioning, ("because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility"), but I don’t see much of her critically analyzing the overwhelming numbers of people that either don’t detransition or even consider the numbers of people who didn’t want to detransition but still did anyway because being trans is really hard it turns out, and a lot of those families of the detransitioner just take it as a victory and call it a day.
I also think it miiiiight be worth considering... how rational is she really being if right now her drive is to write a whole novel about a man that kills women while pretending to be a woman?
It sounds like she really wants to make it seem like “the benefit of preventing even one man from pretending to be a woman and being able victimizing a woman as a result is worth more than any perceived benefit towards trans women that accepting them will give them.”
Of course, she’s not SAYING this, just really strongly implying it over and over again, while calling for empathy of the “abuse she’s suffered that led to her beliefs”.
Personally I can see how being a young massive Harry Potter fan confused about your gender and reading her say all these things about how the movement that’s given you intense feelings of belonging that literally allows you to function day to day, as being dangerous and harmful to all women worldwide, would make someone feel pretty bad about themselves.
Of course you’re right that none of this calls for screeching about Harry Potter topics being banned, or JKR is a murderer or anything like that.
Essentially what I’m saying is, you are asking for understanding of why JK and other radical feminists feel so strongly. Ok. Why do they? Why do the trans people?
I'm happy to take this into a The Case Against J.K.Rowling Thread instead of the
thread, but as I understand it, the accusations are based on:
- Liking tweets from people on twitter "watchlists" - which is an automatic fucking nothingburger
- Directly quoting a section of an article about detransitioners while linking to it
- A snarky comment about not just using the word women in an article about menstruation, which could be a professional writer talking about clarity of language, or could be potshots at trans women and also post-menopausal women and women with specific other assorted medical conditions, because it was that important to take pot shots she'd sell out her own feminist principles to do so?
- This essay, which has a lot to unpack given its an essay and I will if you really care what I think after reading it; I probably posted some brief thoughts when it came out and the backlash began, because like I said I in no way considered it the smoking gun the people who have been gunning for her did
- Her latest novel apparently has a transvestite serial killer. I haven't read it. Have the people complaining about it? At least one reviewer who has says that the twitter storm about it is agenda driven bullshit with a dose of bitch eating crackers.
there's some other stuff like a wholly fake tweet that circulated that she compared its rapid distribution and acceptance to principles of totalitarianism, that apparently her nom de plume is shared with some gay conversion nut as proof she hates gays too, accidentally pasting an article snippet into a tweet aimed at kids then immediately deleting it, and suing a newspaper for calling her a hateful terf for libel that she is not (and won), which to be honest is not even worth discussion as its so fucking flimsy and obvious twitter bickering shit.
Like, if I missed anything stronger, let me know.
Just to pick up on a couple of your points specifically though:
She’s also posed “concerns” about "the increasing numbers" of trans people who are detransitioning, ("because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility"), but I don’t see much of her critically analyzing the overwhelming numbers of people that either don’t detransition or even consider the numbers of people who didn’t want to detransition but still did anyway because being trans is really hard it turns out, and a lot of those families of the detransitioner just take it as a victory and call it a day.
I have no idea what the numbers are. JKR didn't provide them, nor did any of her debunkers. If she wanted to make a strong case she should have.
Having said that, the
numbers of people that
don't detransition doesn't fucking matter. You are talking about the most marginalised group
inside of an already marginalised group, and they
absolutely fucking deserve to have their voice heard and stories told, even if does happen to be super fucking inconvenient for one particular ideology that they exist at all, and even if their existence can be used by a different ideology to take cheap pot shots.
None of that fucking matters. Like, at all.
1 vulnerable teenager pushed into something they were not ready for, did not want, and that then had to be reversed is
one too fucking many, and to then be condemned, attacked and ostracised by the group who should really understand best is... well, adding insult to injury is an understatement.
To cite a relevant example from the UK news, a girl that this happened to and had to go to court over what was somewhere between negligence and medical malpractice had the BBC condemned as "transphobic" because it covered the story but did not also have a happily transitioned representative show up and say "Well,
I was fine" for "balance"; fucking
what?
If someone had an accidental hysterectomy because of a single over-zealous surgeon who wanted to perform an unnecessary surgery and did not follow well established procedures of patient care because he thought he knew best, you don't fucking wheel out someone who had a hysterectomy elsewhere going "I fucking love not having my ovaries now" for "balance" - that's not the fucking story, there's no need for "counterpoint".
Essentially what I’m saying is, you are asking for understanding of why JK and other radical feminists feel so strongly. Ok. Why do they?
I mean, the unstated implication here is that she is lock step in ideological agreement with someone like
Germaine Greer when I don't think she is.
Why certain radical feminists - who I am not convinced is a label that applies here - hold those views is the same reason you get Black activists saying its not 'their job' to carry water for other minorities; they had an agenda that they fought for, and to some extent there can be a feeling that after doing that hard work someone else is coasting in at the last minute to jump into that space they fought for.
Also note I'm not saying that's
right; I'm saying that if that's the position they're coming from it's
understandable.[/list]
