GC Rowling's Battlefield TERF, part 2: Fantastic Wheeshts and Where to Find Them

[Dex Sawash]

Leaky Cockspout

[pigamus]

i do actually think using roe v wade to dunk on rowling is a bit lazy

It's a bit of a hostage to fortune criticising her because she might be ill or something - or more likely laying low after being pranked

[Better Midlands]

Many on Mumsnet and terf twitter would seriously put JK Rowling down as one of the top three living feminists in the world.

[bgmnts]

Why did Rowling bother to write under the name Robert Galbraith if you can instantly identify the sex of a person by their writing?

[Better Midlands]

It's a bit of a hostage to fortune criticising her because she might be ill or something - or more likely laying low after being pranked

This is from the beginning of May when the overturn was first announced, as mentioned upthread she's quick enough to tweet about Lia Thomas

[BigotsShouldWheest]

Why did Rowling bother to write under the name Robert Galbraith if you can instantly identify the sex of a person by their writing?

Interesting story, she originally wrote under that name to prove that she would be admired as an author even if no one knew who she was... turns out, she wasn't. If memory serves me correctly, she only sold 1,500 copies of her first book before someone at her publishing house "accidentally" leaked that Galbraith was Rowling.

Even at the time, back in the 90s, I was suspicious of how Rowling was suddenly everywhere, and her subsequent political trajectory into bigotry and Establishment toadying confirmed to me one of the reasons; I think far, far too many in the media at the time saw her as a kindred spirit, and pushed her as the next big thing...

Now it's hard to argue taste, and people who love Potter aren't lying or wrong in the fact that they do. But objectively, her setting is utterly generic (Worst Witch In The World did the exact "odd ball at public school for magic" whilst she was writing Potter, and public school settings in literature goes back centuries) and frankly I find her a clumsy, artless writer even allowing for the target children's audience; again, taste is not objective, but you can hardly disagree that as the power of social media rises, we've had increasingly outright awful writers become collosal sensations... Dan Brown, then Twilight (Mormon porn) and 50 Shades Of Grey (Twilight BDSM fan fiction, characters renamed to avoid Twilight lawyers)... I see JK Rowling as the last time the weird hype machine around literature even bothered to pretend they weren't pushing outright trash.

But she's not managed to create even an appealing setting for decades now. I can't help but wonder if she's letting her TERF hatred seep into her wider work because at some level she knows she's out of generic tropes to pinch and schmoozing skill to make powerful allies, and she only has left the fellow bigots who want their prejudices feeding back to them... 

And with regards to it being unfair to criticise her for not fighting against the rise of Vanilla ISIS in the US... how exactly is she in a position to claim to understand what a woman is better than anyone else, when you can't raise even a single word for the making illegal of basic women's healthcare? To borrow from the "great" Rowling's prose style, "If only we had a word for the reality of reproduction; Myscayyage? Miscurry? Miscumpage?" 

No, Rowling was always a small minded, blue rinse curtain twitcher in training, who just like the New Labour she adores so much, got by on a certain level of cynical cultural appropriation of widely recognised tropes and symbols, but who is now struggling to get beyond her own symbol-mindedness to the point that she's driven into a frothing rage by the idea that a few transwomen might exist, whilst the entirety of women in the United States now have less rights than a corpse, and their entire bodies are expected to be sacrificed for something else.

Bollocks to Rowling, and all the nasty little "feminists" that think they can ally with the American Tea-liban because who cares what happens to hundreds of millions of women, as long as they can continue to beat up on tiny minorities who have not even done them any real harm.

[phantom_power]

Yeah. That's what I meant when I said I get the point of the tweet.

No it doesn't. I wasn't making a point about Roe vs Wade at all. I was, as I said, attacking the terrible logic underlying Prior's gotcha, nothing to do with the specifics of Roe.

I've never heard of Joss Prior, having nothing against her, but I just looked for tweets of hers specifically condemning the Taliban's take over of Afghanistan. Couldn't find any. Ditto women's rights abuses in Nigeria.  Does that mean she doesn't care about women's rights?

There is a difference between picking up on a woman not commenting on a specific feminist issue, and a woman not commenting on any feminist issues other than ones that relate to a pretty fringe concern. Roe Vs Wade is one of the big issues at the moment but you could pick any of the ones you mention as well. Basically anything that can't be linked to trans people doesn't get much of a mention

[Johnny Yesno]

There is a difference between picking up on a woman not commenting on a specific feminist issue, and a woman not commenting on any feminist issues other than ones that relate to a pretty fringe concern. Roe Vs Wade is one of the big issues at the moment but you could pick any of the ones you mention as well. Basically anything that can't be linked to trans people doesn't get much of a mention

Of course, the GC lot did mention the Taliban.

To say the Taliban know what a woman is.

So, you can't fault them on their internationalism, really. Prior's position is in tatters.

[Pimhole]

Incredible post, @BigotsShouldWheest. Really outstanding stuff. [that GIF of Meryl Streep applauding]

[Johnny Yesno]

Yes, that is a good post. Them going on about terrible logic should read it.

[Zetetic]

I think the thing that feels a bit weird about Roe vs. Wade stuff outside the US, is that outside the US it's clearly an issue to get worked up about without having to actually think very much about what you might seriously do about it, and in that respect vaguely resembles trans rights or "gender critical" stuff for people who have very little to do with trans people.

I find it hard not to compare the amount of heat and noise given over to RvW in Britain with the amount of attention given to abortion access in Northern Ireland, or Poland - places that we're either supposedly part of a common polity with or that we can actually offer practical support to.

But, sure, JKR's lack of public noisy interest in RvW is telling, or confirmatory, the focus of her attention, I guess, given the amount of public noise in Britain about it otherwise.

[Kankurette]

Really? I thought there was a lot of outcry in the UK about NI.

[Zetetic]

About access to abortion? Given that it's something that at least four different governments in the UK could currently 90% solve within a week, two 100% and with some legitimacy, I think there's been very little sustained interest.

[Ferris]

Human beings are generally pretty myopic.

Imagine if the fire service was abolished tomorrow. Only a tiny minority of people actually need them at any given time (though once they do, it's urgent). A lot of people (most?) will go through life never needing the fire service.

Given that, would it be a high priority to reinstate? That's how I think abortion is viewed - people generally recognize it is a valuable service but it doesn't impact me right now so... eh.

(Maybe not a great example because society values firefighters in a way they don't for healthcare professionals and there aren't the same cultural/religious taboos around starting fires, but you get the point. Perhaps abortion clinics should rescue more cats out of trees for the PR.)

[Cold Meat Platter]

Human beings are generally pretty myopic.

Imagine if the fire service was abolished tomorrow. Only a tiny minority of people actually need them at any given time (though once they do, it's urgent). A lot of people (most?) will go through life never needing the fire service.

Given that, would it be a high priority to reinstate? That's how I think abortion is viewed - people generally recognize it is a valuable service but it doesn't impact me right now so... eh.

(Maybe not a great example because society values firefighters in a way they don't for healthcare professionals and there aren't the same cultural/religious taboos around starting fires, but you get the point. Perhaps abortion clinics should rescue more cats out of trees for the PR.)

The healthcare professionals could rebrand as 'foetusfighters' and wear colourful uniforms and helmets.

[Ferris]

Now we're getting somewhere.

[Poobum]

because society values firefighters

I know in some parts of the US the fire service is like insurance you take out. I read a story where they refused to help someone's house who was burning down because the person hadn't paid and only sprung into action when it spread to someone's property who had. Stupid on all levels.

[Ferris]

#freedom

[Zetetic]

I know in some parts of the US the fire service is like insurance you take out. I read a story where they refused to help someone's house who was burning down because the person hadn't paid and only sprung into action when it spread to someone's property who had. Stupid on all levels.

Supposedly this is what Britain was like in the 18th century (which I guess is close to the reference point for US Originalists) - fire insurance marks and all that.

[wrec]

I wonder if JK was asked to temporarily shut UP! Fuck OFF! by her handlers after the prank and / or because of the Potter anniversary.

She has said she's prochoice as recently as last month when challenged by Katy Montgomerie (who of course she QTed as Katy isn't a cis woman), but ignored Katy's questions about her anti-abortion allies. The general attitude amongst nominally leftist / centrist transphobes towards the far right seems to have shifted even since then, so I genuinely wonder if speaking out about abortion is now seen as poor tactics as it risks alienating their misogynist pals, beyond "this is what happens when you can't say what a women are".

On the other hand I expect her to mention it after a while, donating £1000 to an abortion charity and bathing in the adulation.

[DreadedScotsman]

On the other hand I expect her to mention it after a while, donating £1000 to an abortion charity and bathing in the adulation.

Yeah I said on twitter that she'll probably fart out some generic condemnation of RvW maybe insinuating it is part of the same attack on/erasure of women then follow it up promoting her charity with a promise to match donations up to x amount all the while ignoring people calling her out on those she has chosen to ally herself with.

[wrec]

Bang on

[Kankurette]

When will they get it into their thick heads that the people banning abortion are not the same people campaigning for trans rights? And that non-'woke' countries aren't exactly often great for cis women or LGB people either?

[somersetchris]

When will they get it into their thick heads that the people banning abortion are not the same people campaigning for trans rights? And that non-'woke' countries aren't exactly often great for cis women or LGB people either?

Also, the people / states in the US who will now gleefully ban abortion are the exact same ones who are already in the process of taking trans healthcare away and banning trans kids from school sports teams. Literally the same individuals who will want to prosecute people for even daring to travel to a state where abortion is legal, are the same ones who want to charge parents of trans children with child abuse.

And they don't see the connection?

[jobotic]

Well yes they do.

Nothing they say is in good faith

[Dr Rock]

Posie Parker said the trans menace is so serious it's worth sacrificing access to abortion(!) How many UK terfs agree? How many UK terfs hav even said fuck off to her statement? They can compartmentalize that it's not their country its happening in, and maybe it will be reversed, either way nothing must distract them from their anti-trans bigotry.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I wish they'd get some perspective, and understand that women lose nothing by accepting the ~1% of the population who identify as women despite not being "born women" into our ranks. I wish they'd understand that including trans men, non-binary folk and intersex people with functioning female reproductive systems in discussions about access to abortion and reproductive health care and cervical cancer screenings only strengthens the movement.

[Better Midlands]

[Dr Rock]

Mad Dog Rowling

[shiftwork2]

Lesbians (great people).