Rowling may call herself a feminist. She may claim to support LGB (but not T) rights. Her women's shelter may even do some real good for the cis women who use it.
But she is a tool of the patriarchy, just as surely as any white Christian evangelical hate preacher.
That's the right take, Rowling is making it about sex over gender, that's the reality, she probably knows it consciously and is obfuscating it, lying, she's a fiction whiz after all, deception is second nature to people like her ...
Once again, we see wealthy individuals or misguided organizations using their money and influence to attack medical organizations and marginalized transgender communities. They ignore established medical science and, too often, substitute ideology or religious beliefs for evidence.
Organizations that rely on credible medical research to support transgender communities are not the problem. They are providing care based on science and the well-being of their patients.
Those funding these attacks should take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves a simple question: Are we truly helping people, or are we causing unnecessary harm? History has repeatedly shown the consequences of allowing prejudice and misinformation to outweigh science and compassion.
Throughout the years, I have continued to hear rumblings of JKR’s active opposition to the LGBTQ+ community, especially the transgender population. Reflecting, I believe she is revealing a part of her underbelly, her dark side which actively focuses on inflicted harm to other human beings. Through her most notable literary work, she created the character of Voldemort, which now appears to highlight the true nature of this individual. More than one thing can be true at the same time. Rowling gave the world a brilliant and delightful depiction of hope, magic, mystery, survival, transformation for millions making profits that changed her life. Now, those privileged profits are funding campaigns to directly and deliberately inflict harm on others. Perhaps we all outlive our usefulness. Not exactly the legacy many would want to leave….
She's currently on record asking people to sexually harass us like pervy death eaters. She's in the epstein files so she's clearly happy to appall around with the oppressor class and any claim of wanting to protect anyone from sexual violence is as hollow as the rest of her heart. For some time now there has been no pretense that she isn't a fascist; Voldemort to a T.
I hear a lot of people say this, but I don't agree. I think she's too lawful-evil compared to Voldie's chaotic-evil. She'd never start openly blowing shit up and shooting babies like Voldemort. On the other hand, passing pro-student-torture policies in schools (uh, spoilers for book 5 I guess?), is much more up her alley.
There's an interview in Pink News, in which she reveals she is probably trans, but didn't see transitioning in the 1980's as a realistic possibility. (Therefore she has to muck it up for the rest of transkind.)
That answers a question I didn't ask you the other day, about whether we had any more evidence for her transness than just the things people usually point to (heavy jewellery, photo of her smoking a cigar, masculine pseudonym for non-HP writing, etc). TYVM!
Where are all the civil rights groups and left leaning groups speaking out on this travesty and on behalf of we beleaguered Trans folk?
I hear fucking crickets.
Democrats don't have our backs in the US, and NOBODY has our backs in the UK. The UK is now basically Texas but with better landscaping and tea and crumpets instead of Big Red and Moon Pies.
We are being eradicated not because the anti-Trans Right is the new majority or the moral center of gravity.
No.
We will have been eradicated because the left and the fence sitters and bothsidesists LET IT HAPPEN, through inertia, lack of compassion, or sheer crepulence. Genocide by laziness? Won't be the first time.
I wonder if they'll even bother remembering us after we're gone. Will anyone come by on any November 20th and drop a white rose on the unmarked ground of our mass graves?
I fucking doubt it.
BUT KNOW THIS: when we're gone, we'll only be gone a bit.
We are an integral component of the human experience, genome, epigenetics, and culture. They can kill us but in a generation, there will be a Trans population once again. In two generations, we will have rebuilt community. In three generations, we will have begun the fight for freedom once again.
So... they can kill us. They probably will. They'll erase our communities and voices. For now. They will murder and exile us.
But my friends, the one thing they cannot actually DO, is get rid of us for good.
They'll have to kill everyone to kill US.
We Trans and queer folk were almost 99% born to and raised by cis het folks.
We were raised in THEIR schools, THEIR churches, THEIR institutions, yet here we ARE. No one intended for us or wanted us to BE, yet here we ARE. We came into ourselves and built power in a world not made by us nor for us, yet here we ARE.
Thank you for this. I know there are other parents out there who support their children with their whole hearts and are fighting for their right to exist as they are: transgendered and beautiful with so much heart and soul to offer the world. Stay strong every one!!
If it weren't for a handful of very rich people, like Rowling and Elon Musk, who seem to be obsessed with trans people, our existence would look very different in many places. This is not a grassroots, organic backlash, but a moral panic fostered by the most powerful people in our society to distract the majority while they loot the world.
Spot on. We have seen any number of organic moral panics over the years, and they usually flare up, spread, and burn out in no more than a couple of years. The damage they can do and have done is real (consider the day care panic) l, but at least the panic is temporary and in retrospect they often look silly (comic books; rock'n'roll; going back further, dime novels).
This one is different. As you note, it is not organic, it was deliberately created and is being artificially maintained for selfish political purposes and it's targets (bathrooms, women's sports, "OMG! Save the Children!") consciously chosen.
It occurs to me we might be wise to press that point.
Thank you, S. Baum, for another excellent bit of reporting.
Do we know the source of Rowling's anti-trans sentiment? I suspect that it was something very personal. Regardless, now it seems as if she is simply on a crusade. A rich person on a crusade can be a very dangerous thing. And, if that crusade is centered around hate, it is also a very sad thing.
They love being anti-trans, LIVE for being anti-trans, so where's the lie? Why are they so offended to be called exactly what they are for the work they do? Does Beria's Place allow trans women? Did For Women Scotland not bring a case to have the UK specifically write trans women out of the legal protections? If they're so proud and so sure of their "cause," what's the objection?
I had to go back to the article and check whether she actually named her women's shelter after Stalin's secret police chief... She didn't, it's actually called Beira's place.
It's like a Pinky & the Brain skit, "What are we going to do today, Brain?.. The same thing we do every day, Pinky, try to [ruin the lives of a vulnerable group of people and work against the groups that are trying to help them]."
Imagine having that much money, having all of the capacity in the world to do good (because your stockpile of cash), but instead of fixing problems (poverty, disease, housing, etc.), you choose a group of people that aren't affecting your existence and decide to try to make them miserable or dead.
Good people don't do this sort of thing. Rowling is not a good person, yet her wiki says she's a 'philanthropist'. Nonsense. It's just sad.
TERF is not a slur, but it is an incorrect term. There is not a single thing radical about the reactionary, narrow-minded, self-interested, "I got mine so screw you" bullshit they peddle.
In fact, not only are they not radicals, they are not even feminist. Feminism once celebrated opening opportunities for self-expression for everyone, not just women, because they recognized how the male-female binary we had built into our social structures and rules were oppressive to everyone. They were liberators.
Now, these non-radical, non-feminists have become oppressors, eager to impose that same old binary - provided that they get to decide where and how the lines are drawn.
This. Strong and massive objection to these women who center their lives around persecuting a small and oppressed demographic calling themselves “feminists.” It’s revolting. Feminists do not run around attacking those with even less power granted to them by the patriarchy than cis women. Feminists of all genders are concerned with the power hierarchy of patriarchy and championing those who have the boot of patriarchy on their necks. And there is nothing “radical” about a political agenda that essentially mirrors that of our current administration’s and every right wing ideology on the planet.
Ahh, the billionaire TERF bully. Need I say more. Using her plagiarized writing $$$ to get her way and to demonize if not actively working to genocide an oppressed minority.
Indeed, the UK has just about the worst libel laws on the planet. I wonder if this report could be republished via Amnesty US and provide some degree of protection?
Rowling may call herself a feminist. She may claim to support LGB (but not T) rights. Her women's shelter may even do some real good for the cis women who use it.
But she is a tool of the patriarchy, just as surely as any white Christian evangelical hate preacher.
That's the right take, Rowling is making it about sex over gender, that's the reality, she probably knows it consciously and is obfuscating it, lying, she's a fiction whiz after all, deception is second nature to people like her ...
Rich people buy their own reality
Not literally, but kinda . . . yeah.
Once again, we see wealthy individuals or misguided organizations using their money and influence to attack medical organizations and marginalized transgender communities. They ignore established medical science and, too often, substitute ideology or religious beliefs for evidence.
Organizations that rely on credible medical research to support transgender communities are not the problem. They are providing care based on science and the well-being of their patients.
Those funding these attacks should take a hard look in the mirror and ask themselves a simple question: Are we truly helping people, or are we causing unnecessary harm? History has repeatedly shown the consequences of allowing prejudice and misinformation to outweigh science and compassion.
Throughout the years, I have continued to hear rumblings of JKR’s active opposition to the LGBTQ+ community, especially the transgender population. Reflecting, I believe she is revealing a part of her underbelly, her dark side which actively focuses on inflicted harm to other human beings. Through her most notable literary work, she created the character of Voldemort, which now appears to highlight the true nature of this individual. More than one thing can be true at the same time. Rowling gave the world a brilliant and delightful depiction of hope, magic, mystery, survival, transformation for millions making profits that changed her life. Now, those privileged profits are funding campaigns to directly and deliberately inflict harm on others. Perhaps we all outlive our usefulness. Not exactly the legacy many would want to leave….
Voldemort was always a mirror of Rowling's own heart.
no exaggeration
She's currently on record asking people to sexually harass us like pervy death eaters. She's in the epstein files so she's clearly happy to appall around with the oppressor class and any claim of wanting to protect anyone from sexual violence is as hollow as the rest of her heart. For some time now there has been no pretense that she isn't a fascist; Voldemort to a T.
I hear a lot of people say this, but I don't agree. I think she's too lawful-evil compared to Voldie's chaotic-evil. She'd never start openly blowing shit up and shooting babies like Voldemort. On the other hand, passing pro-student-torture policies in schools (uh, spoilers for book 5 I guess?), is much more up her alley.
She follows in the proud tradition of Roald Dahl...good author, terrible person
Eeehhhh
There's an interview in Pink News, in which she reveals she is probably trans, but didn't see transitioning in the 1980's as a realistic possibility. (Therefore she has to muck it up for the rest of transkind.)
Omg link? Like what?
https://www.thepinknews.com/2020/06/10/jk-rowling-trans-terf-essay-transphobia-gender-identity-dysphoria-mental-health-harry-potter/
Sorry, I thought it was an interview. Instead it was something she wrote that Pink News reported on.
That answers a question I didn't ask you the other day, about whether we had any more evidence for her transness than just the things people usually point to (heavy jewellery, photo of her smoking a cigar, masculine pseudonym for non-HP writing, etc). TYVM!
Where are all the civil rights groups and left leaning groups speaking out on this travesty and on behalf of we beleaguered Trans folk?
I hear fucking crickets.
Democrats don't have our backs in the US, and NOBODY has our backs in the UK. The UK is now basically Texas but with better landscaping and tea and crumpets instead of Big Red and Moon Pies.
We are being eradicated not because the anti-Trans Right is the new majority or the moral center of gravity.
No.
We will have been eradicated because the left and the fence sitters and bothsidesists LET IT HAPPEN, through inertia, lack of compassion, or sheer crepulence. Genocide by laziness? Won't be the first time.
I wonder if they'll even bother remembering us after we're gone. Will anyone come by on any November 20th and drop a white rose on the unmarked ground of our mass graves?
I fucking doubt it.
BUT KNOW THIS: when we're gone, we'll only be gone a bit.
We are an integral component of the human experience, genome, epigenetics, and culture. They can kill us but in a generation, there will be a Trans population once again. In two generations, we will have rebuilt community. In three generations, we will have begun the fight for freedom once again.
So... they can kill us. They probably will. They'll erase our communities and voices. For now. They will murder and exile us.
But my friends, the one thing they cannot actually DO, is get rid of us for good.
They'll have to kill everyone to kill US.
We Trans and queer folk were almost 99% born to and raised by cis het folks.
We were raised in THEIR schools, THEIR churches, THEIR institutions, yet here we ARE. No one intended for us or wanted us to BE, yet here we ARE. We came into ourselves and built power in a world not made by us nor for us, yet here we ARE.
So take heart in these dark moments.
They can kill us.
But they can never, NEVER defeat us.
Thank you for this. I know there are other parents out there who support their children with their whole hearts and are fighting for their right to exist as they are: transgendered and beautiful with so much heart and soul to offer the world. Stay strong every one!!
I am always befuddled by this obsession of hers. The people who she says abused her were cisgender men. Never a trans person.
If it weren't for a handful of very rich people, like Rowling and Elon Musk, who seem to be obsessed with trans people, our existence would look very different in many places. This is not a grassroots, organic backlash, but a moral panic fostered by the most powerful people in our society to distract the majority while they loot the world.
Spot on. We have seen any number of organic moral panics over the years, and they usually flare up, spread, and burn out in no more than a couple of years. The damage they can do and have done is real (consider the day care panic) l, but at least the panic is temporary and in retrospect they often look silly (comic books; rock'n'roll; going back further, dime novels).
This one is different. As you note, it is not organic, it was deliberately created and is being artificially maintained for selfish political purposes and it's targets (bathrooms, women's sports, "OMG! Save the Children!") consciously chosen.
It occurs to me we might be wise to press that point.
It's internalized self-loathing. She seems to be a trans man. There is a Pink News interview in which she discusses this gender issue.
Thank you, S. Baum, for another excellent bit of reporting.
Do we know the source of Rowling's anti-trans sentiment? I suspect that it was something very personal. Regardless, now it seems as if she is simply on a crusade. A rich person on a crusade can be a very dangerous thing. And, if that crusade is centered around hate, it is also a very sad thing.
They love being anti-trans, LIVE for being anti-trans, so where's the lie? Why are they so offended to be called exactly what they are for the work they do? Does Beria's Place allow trans women? Did For Women Scotland not bring a case to have the UK specifically write trans women out of the legal protections? If they're so proud and so sure of their "cause," what's the objection?
I had to go back to the article and check whether she actually named her women's shelter after Stalin's secret police chief... She didn't, it's actually called Beira's place.
Joanne, Joanne, Joanne, if you're in opposition against Amnesty, you're on the wrong side of history.
It's like a Pinky & the Brain skit, "What are we going to do today, Brain?.. The same thing we do every day, Pinky, try to [ruin the lives of a vulnerable group of people and work against the groups that are trying to help them]."
Imagine having that much money, having all of the capacity in the world to do good (because your stockpile of cash), but instead of fixing problems (poverty, disease, housing, etc.), you choose a group of people that aren't affecting your existence and decide to try to make them miserable or dead.
Good people don't do this sort of thing. Rowling is not a good person, yet her wiki says she's a 'philanthropist'. Nonsense. It's just sad.
She is a despicable person. I have never read any of her books nor would I EVER read one of them.
How the fuck does she not understand she is The Dursley’s to the tranworld’s Harry Potter? Fuck off Madam!
She is the thing who can't be named.
Wish she would just sod off...
TERF is not a slur, but it is an incorrect term. There is not a single thing radical about the reactionary, narrow-minded, self-interested, "I got mine so screw you" bullshit they peddle.
In fact, not only are they not radicals, they are not even feminist. Feminism once celebrated opening opportunities for self-expression for everyone, not just women, because they recognized how the male-female binary we had built into our social structures and rules were oppressive to everyone. They were liberators.
Now, these non-radical, non-feminists have become oppressors, eager to impose that same old binary - provided that they get to decide where and how the lines are drawn.
This. Strong and massive objection to these women who center their lives around persecuting a small and oppressed demographic calling themselves “feminists.” It’s revolting. Feminists do not run around attacking those with even less power granted to them by the patriarchy than cis women. Feminists of all genders are concerned with the power hierarchy of patriarchy and championing those who have the boot of patriarchy on their necks. And there is nothing “radical” about a political agenda that essentially mirrors that of our current administration’s and every right wing ideology on the planet.
Ahh, the billionaire TERF bully. Need I say more. Using her plagiarized writing $$$ to get her way and to demonize if not actively working to genocide an oppressed minority.
As an American, it's bonkers to me that you could sue over this report. Reading through, it seems very reasonable.
Indeed, the UK has just about the worst libel laws on the planet. I wonder if this report could be republished via Amnesty US and provide some degree of protection?