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submitted 2 days ago by neme@lemm.ee to c/lgbtq_plus
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[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 71 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] LadyAutumn 59 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

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.

[-] moonlight@fedia.io 20 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] Gwen 2 points 1 day ago

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.

[-] LadyAutumn 10 points 1 day ago

Her hatred for queer people is not limited to trans people. She's also said some anti-sex workers' rights and anti-abortion adjacent stuff lately. Her platform is Twitter. Her fanbase is growing increasingly to comprise white nationalists.

[-] cupcakezealot 1 points 1 day ago

because she only consumes far right twitter.

[-] IonAddis@lemmy.world 39 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] magnetosphere@fedia.io 17 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] tamman2000@lemm.ee 5 points 2 days ago

People who feel like this rarely end up super rich

[-] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days 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.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling

[-] apotheotic@beehaw.org 14 points 1 day ago

He's right, you know

[-] Sibshops@lemm.ee 115 points 2 days ago

Pedro is turning out to be the next Keanu Reeves.

[-] athairmor@lemmy.world 65 points 2 days ago

He’s a more confrontational Keanu Reeves. I don’t remember Keanu ever speaking out against assholes (I could be wrong?). Keanu seems to just quietly do nice shit.

[-] MummifiedClient5000@feddit.dk 19 points 2 days ago

But who is Keanu Reeves going to be then?

[-] Khanzarate@lemmy.world 37 points 2 days ago

The previous Pedro Pascal, I guess.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Giving pseudo scientists a platform.

[-] cupcakezealot 49 points 2 days ago

pedro: people perceive you as somewhat...

jk rowling: tempestuous?

pedro: "heinous bitch" is the term used most often. you might wanna work on that.

[-] OrteilGenou@lemmy.world 35 points 2 days ago
[-] massive_bereavement@fedia.io 21 points 2 days ago

Drink more water

[-] mrslt@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

There's a cream for that.

[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 days ago

Maybe I haven't been paying attention, is "heinous" back? Love it!

[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

It's not like he cracked open a decaying tome to excavate "nattering doxy". "Heinous" never left.

[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Well that's true but there was a time when it was overused, after which it was considered passé, but now I guess it's had enough rest to be usable again.

[-] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

If it wasn't, it sure is now.

[-] oftheair 23 points 2 days ago

Funny that it's the guardian reporting on this considering how transphobic they are.

[-] Glytch@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] oftheair 3 points 1 day ago

Ah, makes sense. Yeah, we got that feeling from the title alone as it seemed very matter a fact, not really standing up for him. Fuck the guardian.

[-] ToastedPlanet 17 points 2 days ago

It is the US version. 🤷‍♀️

[-] oftheair 8 points 2 days ago

Ah, right, yeah, historically interestingly they have been less transphobic. They even called the UK version out once.

[-] VeryInterestingTable@lemm.ee 11 points 2 days ago

Who knows, maybe in their mind it makes Pedro look bad?

[-] oftheair 3 points 2 days ago

Yeah, this was our thinking based on the headline alone.

[-] powermaker450@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

I missed something didn't I?

[-] oftheair 9 points 2 days ago

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.

[-] birdiebop@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago
[-] ianmacd@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

The poor chap seems confused. She won, not lost.

[-] apotheotic@beehaw.org 16 points 1 day ago

Womp womp no amount of success in any way can make her less of a heinous loser.

this post was submitted on 26 Apr 2025
623 points (100.0% liked)

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