Funny that it’s the guardian reporting on this considering how transphobic they are.
all mainstream newspapers and tv news etc in the UK is transphobic. They may be subtle or more open about it depending on their apparent political leanings, but the UK’s guardian has said some pretty transphobic things in the past and we don’t have much hope they’ll stop doing so, especially now.
I think they’re trying to smear Pedro. They refer to his tweet as an attack and bring up his trans sister twice, implying that he only cares because his family is affected. The language they use to talk about JKR is, by contrast, much more sympathetic.
I read JK Rowling’s first (only?) essay on why she feels the way she does regarding transgender issues. It’s thoughtful, and partially based on personal trauma. While I still didn’t agree with her, I respected the fact that she actually researched and considered the issue, instead of just blindly lashing out at something that made her feel uncomfortable.
I don’t feel that way anymore. It was fine when she was simply explaining her feelings, but now she’s actively spewing hatred and cheering when people have their rights taken away. I lost any kind of respect or empathy for her years ago.
I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime would think of Nazi Germany. … I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the Wizarding world. So you have to the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is a great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves on nothing else, they can pride themselves on perceived purity. … The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books
JK Rowling, 2009
Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill
JK Rowling 2019
It took 10 years to turn her.
The original essay she wrote was still very transphobic. Even if it seemed she had researched, she hadn’t. The ‘research’ she was doing was following a genuinely insane bigot with a brain tumor who called for genocide of trans women, and a entitled upper middle class woman who really wanted to be able to deadname and misgender trans people at her contract job.
In that very first essay, she stated that trans women are a danger to cis women. She started from a position of hatred. All she has done is become more vulgar and less subtle. She is a threat to the existence of transgender people, and she has been since the very first day. The transgender community was pointing out how far gone she was on day one.
Here’s an article that talks about what she said and why it was wrong in depth. The truth of the matter is that the response to that essay should have been a loud and resounding condemnation, but it wasn’t.
I have been sexually assaulted before, too. I’ve never used what happened to me as justification to attack the rights of vulnerable minorities. The studies show overwhelmingly that the majority of women will be sexually abused in one way or another multiple times throughout their lives. And yet not every cis woman feels hate towards trans people. Many cis women support trans women. The majority of my friends are cis women, both queer and not. All of them support my rights. The majority of them have also been assaulted before by men. It’s entirely irrelevant to the discussion, trans women are not men. The only possible justification there is that AMAB people are biologically rapists? Like there’s something innate to the Y chromosome that makes you a rapist? Which is an absolutely wild way to view the world and the problem of sexual violence against women. Totally ignorant of why men get away with sexual assault so often. It’s not genetics. It’s entirely our society and culture that allows that to happen.
Why is she against asexual people, though? I don’t think she makes sense and that trying to make sense of her is a mistake.
Yeah I just skimmed the essay, and it’s pretty bad. There’s a lot of false claims, a lot of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, and a lot of thinly veiled transphobic phrases and remarks.
It just comes across as very dishonest to me. Although maybe she actually thinks she is being fair, thoughtful and caring, who knows.
Thank you for pointing out what I didn’t pick up on. I was just beginning to educate myself on transgender issues at the time, so there are probably a lot of problems with the essay that I simply missed. I haven’t reread it since that first time, and I don’t want to.
It may have taken me a bit longer, but at least we’ve come to the same conclusion: Rowling is full of shit.
and partially based on personal trauma
Yeah, I suspected that, due to her pigheadedness. Doubling down is a trauma response. And it makes me angry, because it’s continuing the cycle of abuse. Turning on an entire group of people because you have never adequately addressed your trauma is wrong.
Like, my earliest introduction to a male guardian included him emotionally, financially, and then physically abusing me. I wasn’t even an adult, I was a minor. But I understand it’s not okay to demonize all men because of that. You take people on a case by case basis.
I also understand quite clearly that men don’t NEED to put on a skirt to gain access to women to abuse. In fact, being trans punts you right to the bottom of the social pole, and puts you in danger. Identifying as trans to gain access to women is socially stupid and NOT NEEDED to gain access to victims. It’s already very easy for an abuser to abuse without taking the social hit of being trans. How do we know this? ::gestures at 100s of years of history where abusers abused without changing social status to do it::
Also, on the JKR front…the fact that I can get over my trauma–which honestly is much worse than hers and started younger if we’re playing Oppression Olympics–while living in poverty while she rolls in money is like…what the fuck. WHY. Why is she rolling in the mud and the mold and the hate and spite? WHY?
I could do SO MUCH to improve myself and my health if I had her resources…and she just takes what she has and rolls in mud and hurts others…I mean, why don’t more people act like Dolly Parton when they get rich? We need more Dolly Partons and less J. K. Rowlings.
Yeah, I guess I’m grumpy on the internet again.
I mean, why don’t more people act like Dolly Parton when they get rich?
I often wonder this same thing. I wouldn’t want nineteen cars and a ginormous house. I know that nothing I could buy would be as emotionally fulfilling as helping others.
The poor chap seems confused. She won, not lost.
Pedro is turning out to be the next Keanu Reeves.
