Thread by @wundergeek

All right. Because I was already yelling about TERF bullshit, let's do a master debunk of the steaming pile of garbage that is JKR's "defense" of her transphobia.

I'm going to go through her 3600 word blog post line-by-line if need be to show how her rhetoric is transphobic.

So. Uh. Big CW for virulent transphobia.

Trans folks, please be prepared if you read further, okay? Maybe don't.

Whoo boy, we're off to a great start with the very first sentence.

"...it’s time to explain myself on an issue surrounded by toxicity. I write this without any desire to add to that toxicity"

Because it isn't at all toxic to deny the personhood of trans people. 🙄 🙄

"last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets"

It wasn't that a judge 'deemed' the tweets transphobic. It's that the tweets were objectively transphobic, and met the criteria for hate speech

Forstater's tweets argued that allowing trans women into women's spaces was like forcing Jewish people to eat pork.

The judge ruled that her views were not "worthy of respect in a democratic society"

bbc.com/news/uk-508589…

JKR goes on to describe how she's been researching "gender identity and transgender matters" for the past two years because she was writing a crime series, but also because of personal interest

which.

Any time a cis woman says she's interested in trans issues because of crime, that's a red flag. Because TERFs LOVE to conflate trans women and crime, because they're all criminal deviants!

Anyway. One time she liked a tweet instead of screenshotting it, and...

ever since then, "accusations and threats from trans activists have been bubbling in my Twitter timeline"

THE SCARY TRANS PEOPLE CAME FOR HER Y'ALL, BECAUSE SHE ACCIDENTALLY LIKED A TWEET.

Except. This wasn't a "one time" issue.

She used that excuse back in 2018, and a trans writer was able to debunk it by demonstrating that actually, she's liked transphobic things on Twitter more than just the one time:

them.us/story/is-jk-ro…

"Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Burns on Twitter."

Trivializing liking transphobic tweets as a 'like crime' not only dismisses the real concerns of trans people as hysteria, but also is a total fucking strawman.

"Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian"

Uh actually, she was a self-professed transphobe. Like, called herself a transphobe, talked about the "transing of children" and said shit like "everyone knows trans women are men"

TEXTBOOK.

indy100.com/article/jk-row…

"Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex"

The 'importance of biological sex' is a TERF dogwhistle meant to obscure the fact that they don't believe that trans women are women and that they only believe in two binary genders

medium.com/@Luisa29/under…

"...and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises"

Another TERF dogwhistle. TERFs are obsessed with trans women with penises, and like to talk about how disgusting women with penises are and OBVS no one should have to date one

It takes only a modicum of critical thought to realize that this type of argument is centered in the assumption that OBVIOUSLY trans women are disgusting, which is itself transphobic.

"dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased."

Now. I'll pause here to say that absolutely feminists do get abused online for having feminist views. HOWEVER.

There's a difference between 'abuse' and 'people calling a notable pop culture figure, creator, and multi-millionaire with huge cultural cachet transphobic because of her support for people and ideas that are transphobic'.

Most TERFs will say that TERF is a slur, but...

TERF is not a slur - it's a definition based on their own self-proclaimed ideology and the fact that their activism is solely focused on removing trans people from acceptable notions of society.

reddit.com/r/Feminism/com…

(Sidebar: calling them TERFs is conceding ground by labeling them 'feminists', which is why many trans people prefer terms like FART: Feminist-Appropriating-Reactionary Transphobe:

urbandictionary.com/define.php?ter…)

"I mention all this only to explain that I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then."

UGH. I could do an entire different tweetstorm JUST about white women crying about cancel culture

Suffice to say, JKR is worth $1 billion and is doing JUST FINE for herself, despite all the nasty transes calling her mean names that accurately describe her rhetoric.

Anyway. She ups the ante in the next sentence by going full Bring Me My Fainting Couch

"I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally **killing trans people with my hate**"

Transphobia is hate speech.

Hate speech kills.

Promoting transphobic hate speech does actually literally kill trans people: theconversation.com/transgender-ha…

She then goes on to describe in glowing terms the "avalanche" of "positive, grateful and supportive" messages she got for supporting Forstater, some of which came from 'experts' who were "concerned" about "the dangers to young people" and the "erosion of women's rights"

Again, all of this is a central tent-pole of TERF-thinking - that trans women are not women, and "forcing" "single-gender" women's spaces to include trans women is harmful to the rights of women.

Because. You know. WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF THE POOR CHILDREN?

And also again, this thinking is predicated on the assumption that any reasonable person will share the TERF disgust for trans women, and that OBVIOUSLY any REASONABLE person shouldn't think any group should HAVE to include them.

Because "women with penises are gross, right?"

"Above all, they’re worried about a climate of fear that serves nobody – least of all trans youth – well."

Man, it takes some damn nerve to shield this much transphobic rhetoric in concern FOR THE TRANS CHILDREN, but apparently she went there.

(Hit the tweet limit, more coming)

Anyway, after supporting Forstater, she 'stepped away' from Twitter because it was "doing nothing good for [her] mental health", but only came back to share "a free children’s book during the pandemic" for the sake of the chilllldrennnnnn

THE CHILDRENNNNN

But of course THE NASTY TRANSES "swarmed back into" her timeline "police my speech, accuse me of hatred, call me misogynistic slurs and, above all – as every woman involved in this debate will know – TERF."

[sighs in non-binary]

So.

1. Complaining about policing her speech is just a new and not particularly innovative flavor of THE PC POLICE ARE COMING FOR ME.

2. She probably did get called misogynist slurs, and. Like. What can I say, Twitter sucks.

And.

3. Implying that "every woman involved in this debate" knows what it's like to be called a TERF is. Uh. A pretty major and disturbing assumption?

Like. I have lots of ciswoman friends who are feminists and get into feminist debates, and MOST OF THEM have never been called a TERF

The fact that she's assuming "every woman" knows what this is like is just another indicator of how extremely she has surrounded herself with transphobic people, viewpoints, and communities.

Anyway. She next defines TERF, and then pulls out ALL the strawmen...

examples of why calling people TERFs is bad

Like what about "the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying"

Because COMING OUT AS TRANS would OBVIOUSLY have been an EASY SHORTCUT to ending that HOMOPHOBIC BULLYING, right

Or what about the "hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms"

That lady isn't being a TERF! She's just...

Saying that women with penises are disgusting! Which. ...oh wait, yeah, actually. That's transphobic.

Anyway. JKR goes on to say "accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people, institutions and organisations I once admired"

Again, she's characterizing people who accurately label transphobes as TERFs as the REAL abusers.

Because calling trans women disgusting and advocating for their rights not to be recognized and promoting rhetoric which leads to transphobic violence isn't abuse.

The REAL abuse is accurately describing people based on their avowed ideology and activism.

She then continues, "Speaking as a biological woman"

Because OBVIOUSLY only BIOLOGICAL WOMEN can have LEGIT opinions about WOMEN'S ISSUES

"a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren’t a dimorphic species)"

GET IT? Because trans gender identity ISN'T REAL and CAN'T BE CHANGED

(Sidebar: a lot of the biological essentialism that TERF ideology is rooted in is just. Like. Scientifically incorrect all the way down? So it's sort of hysterical to see JKR insisting on SCIENCE as the basis for her claims, but.)

blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/stop-us…)

"So why am I doing this? Why speak up? Why not quietly do my research and keep my head down?"

Oh my god. Why didn't you do that, JKR? In the middle of a pandemic, massive ongoing protests about police brutality, and a wave of fascist violence, why didn't you keep your mouth shut

But, you know, she COULDN'T DO THAT because she's "worried" about "the new trans activism" and NEEDED TO SPEAK UP.

(JFC, I'm like not even halfway through this thing? OKay, I'm going to have to zoom out a bit from here)

So she's got FIVE REASONS she HAS TO SPEAK UP, Y'ALL.

1. She has a charitable trust focused on "alleviating social deprivation in Scotland, with a particular emphasis on women and children" and "the new trans activism" is eroding "the legal definition of sex"

Because OBVIOUSLY work to alleviate social deprivation for women and children would be COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE if the nasty transes FORCED EVERYONE to acknowledge that TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN.

HOW could JKR POSSIBLY do her charitable work if she has to include THE NASTY TRANSES

How?? HOWWWW???? It is a complete and total MYSTERY.

2. As an "ex-teacher and the founder of a children’s charity", she has an interest in "both education and safeguarding" THE CHILDRENNNNN and has "deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both"

So I can't believe I've gotten this far without mentioning that TERFs also believe that trans women are all sexually violent deviants and pedophiles? But yeah, that's definitely a thing they think, and definitely what she's alluding to here.

Don't worry, it'll definitely come up again.

3. As a "much-banned author" she's "interested in freedom of speech"

Look. 'Freedom of speech' is the thing that ALL promoters of hate and hate speech hide behind. The Nazis, the far right, the white supremacists, and the TERFs.

Any time someone gets called out for hate speech and they say they are passionate about 'freedom of speech', that is because they need to defend their hatred in terms that sound reasonable.

But the defense of hate as free speech is just Real Fucking Bad

nytimes.com/2019/10/04/opi…

4. JKR is "concerned" about "the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition"

Because next thing you know, we'll be drowning in filthy transes, AMIRITE?

She also says she's concerned about people detransitioning, which

Again, huge TERF dog whistle. I have shit to do with my day, so I'll just drop this and say that cis "concern" over "detransition" is AAA+ TERF bullshit.

nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-ou…

She follows this with a bunch of garbage about how increasing numbers of AFAB people are wanting to transition, which is ALARMING because THE TRANSES ARE STEALING WOMEN YOU GUYS

THE NASTY TRANSES ARE LITERALLY ERASING WOMEN

"Parents online were describing a very unusual pattern of transgender-identification where multiple friends and even entire friend groups became transgender-identified at the same time."

Because transness is literally a DISEASE or a CULT, which is the ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION

She goes on to talk about "Instagram and YouTube as contributing factors to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria"

Which. Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is a hugely poisonous lie used to discredit trans people and anyone referencing that in any serious way is a TERF theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Ugh. JKR goes on to complain about people ACCURATELY LABELING TERFs as TERFs again

Like, how dare people promoting hate ideology that increases violence against trans people face actual consequences for their actions, THE HORROR

"The argument of many current trans activists is that if you don’t let a gender dysphoric teenager transition, they will kill themselves"

uh yeah JKR, that's just fucking science

suicideinfo.ca/resource/trans…

There's so much fucking science out that there that trans youth disproportionately commit suicide because of a lack of family and social support that I'm not even going to find that for you, that's remedial shit, moving on

"the more I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition"

I just.

All I can think of is the founder of gay conversion later coming out as gay?

IDK PROBABLY NOT RELEVANT RIGHT

washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/…

Oh wait no, it's more dog whistles: "The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager. If I’d found community and sympathy online... I ... could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father ...said he’d have preferred"

Which is just more trivializing trans people and their experiences by dismissing the difficulty of gender transition.

It's SO EASY ANYONE CAN DO IT at ANY TIME, because it's not like transition is REAL, right?

It also lets her further delegitimize the idea of gender transition as "not real" by purporting that the only reason lots of AFAB people are transitioning is because it's "easier" than dealing with sexism, which is a particularly virulent transphobic idea

That trans men are "traitors" for "escaping" sexism and "choosing" patriarchy.

And honestly, as a trans non-binary person who is trending more masc these days, I can tell you that that's NOT HOW THAT FUCKING WORKS.

Anyway. There's more fucking navel-gazing about feeling like a "mental hermaphrodite" and ugh I just fucking can't so let's move on to the part where she spouts bullshit numbers again

"60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria"

These are studies that TERFs love to fucking cite, except that the studies themselves are fundamentally flawed. Many of these cases were about families not supporting gender-noncompliant behavior in gay sons, NOT about actual trans youth

kqed.org/futureofyou/44…

"Again and again I’ve been told to ‘just meet some trans people.’ I have: in addition to a few younger people, who were all adorable"

You see, guys? JKR isn't a TERF, because she has a trans friend! Just like having a black friend means you can't be racist!

"The current explosion of trans activism is urging a removal of almost all the robust systems through which candidates for sex reassignment were once required to pass."

Again, more delegitimizing transition by claiming that it's easy and anyone can do it.

The fact is that transition-related care was ALREADY hard to access before COVID, and is all but impossible now.

I had to cancel a consult for transition care because of COVID, and I don't know when I'll be able to re-schedule it. AND I'M IN CANADA.

huffingtonpost.ca/entry/covid19-…

She continues: "many people aren't aware" that "A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law."

(Tweet limit again)

Again, leaning on the TERF insistence that trans women aren't women, they're "men in dresses", and the assumed disgust that "obviously" any right-thinking person should agree that men in dresses insisting they're women are disgusting, deluded, and dangerous.

From here we divert into a section about the rise of misogyny, incel violence, and a president who brags about grabbing women by the pussy and... actually I agree with this section?

...even a broken clock is right twice a day?

Anyway. Dinner time! I'll finish in a bit!

BACK AT IT!

So remember how I said I agree with JKR? I take it back, because all that shit about the rise in misogynist violence? Yeah, she equates it to "the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating"

And. Like. Okay.

1. Equating incel violence with people calling you on your TERF rhetoric is some grade A TERF bullshit, but also

2. The reason people talk about punching TERFs is because the TERFs are frequently in bed with literal nazis

pinknews.co.uk/2020/04/03/lgb…

LGB Alliance (get it? No T?) is a UK-based hate group that is supported by both homophobes AND Neo-Nazis, and coincidentally, JKR has retweeted one of their founders!

pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/07/jk-…

Except here is JKR, getting offended because people talked about punching people supporting a group supported by literal fucking Nazis.

PRIORITIES

"I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don’t have common experiences, and I find them, too, deeply misogynistic and regressive"

is the rhetorical equivalent of "I'm rubber and you're glue"

She starts off another paragraph full of strawman arguments with "but, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume."

Again. Dog whistle.

She's attempting to sound reasonable by echoing slogans around cultural appropriation - 'culture is not a costume'

But that analogy relies on the premise that trans gender identity isn't real, and that any trans woman who transitions and wants their gender identity recognized is "appropriating" the identity of "woman"

"Moreover, the ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning."

As a menstruator who is EMPHATICALLY NOT A WOMAN, I must again request that you yeet yourself into the goddamn sun

She continues "for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating"

Because again, anything that makes trans people feel welcome and included is a threat to the real actual women, because

TERFs believe that all trans women are sexual deviants and violent pedophiles.

WHICH FINALLY BRINGS US TO NUMBER FIVE HOLY SHIT WE DID IT

Remember how I said she was definitely going to bring up that "all trans women are dangerous predators"? Buckle up, because

#5 "I’ve been in the public eye now for over twenty years and have never talked publicly about being a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor."

k, the next few paragraphs are about her experiences as a survivor of domestic violence and I'm not going to mock those, because even shitty people deserve basic fucking human decency.

HOWEVER. From there we move on to a bunch of mealy mouthed bullshit about how she "wants trans women to be safe"

BUT

(you knew there was going to be a but)

"I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe"

IT'S OKAY EVERYBODY BECAUSE she believes "the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others"

Sidebar: referring to trans people as trans-identified is a subtle way of calling them crazy, by implying that their gender identity is all in their head 🙃 🙃

B U T "When you throw open the doors of bathrooms ... to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come in."

Okay. So.

1. The bathroom argument is inherently transphobic and poisonous. I've already cited sources, so.

2. The second half is just straight up transmedicalism:

sjwiki.org/wiki/Truscum

Transmedicalists (often referred to on social media as truscum) insist that the only VALID trans people are trans people who have "fully" transitioned - including hormones, counseling, and bottom and top surgeries.

Ignoring the fact that that level of care is largely not accessible to huge numbers of trans people, it also advances the poisonous idea that the goal of any transition should be "passing", and that any trans person who doesn't "pass" as their "chosen" gender isn't really trans

The veiled reference to transmedicalism is just another way to invalidate the gender identity of trans women and paint them as dangerous crazy deviants.

But wait! It gets better! JKR is going to tell us why she feels so strongly about speaking out!

"On Saturday morning, I read that the Scottish government is proceeding with its controversial gender recognition plans, which will in effect mean that all a man needs to ‘become a woman’ is to say he’s one."

Recognizing the human rights of trans people is not controverial

Human rights are trans rights, and trans rights are human rights.

And the idea that men would pretend to be trans in order to do violence to women ignores the fact that they can already be violent ~whenever they want~.

Honestly, with all of the false flag SJW operations like the BLM blackout squares, 'drop the T', and other such shit, WHERE is the flood of men claiming to be women so they can get into womens' bathrooms and changing rooms?

"I spent much of Saturday in a very dark place inside my head, as memories of a serious sexual assault I suffered in my twenties recurred on a loop."

So here's the thing. Trauma is real. But trauma is never a license to abuse people, and TERF rhetoric is abuse.

Your trauma, no matter how bad, is never an excuse to abuse someone.

If you find the inclusion of trans women and the protection of trans rights triggering, that is a YOU problem, not an US problem.

Anyway. She continues with a bunch of whining about how people called her mean names on Twitter, ending a paragraph with a complaint about someone calling her Voldemort, which.

(tweet limit)

Anyway, I'd say she's too petty and banal to be Voldemort. I'd say she's more of an Umbridge.

But either way, she loves hanging out with Nazis and defending the abuse of marginalized people, so yeah. I'd say that checks out.

"It would be so much easier to tweet the approved hashtags – because of course trans rights are human rights and of course trans lives matter – scoop up the woke cookies and bask in a virtue-signalling afterglow."

Which. I'm sorry, I must have something in my ear.

Because surely I didn't just hear her try to claim that affirming trans rights is the majority stance

...in a society that disproportionately murders trans people

...and abuses them

...and denies them housing

...and employment

transequality.org/issues/non-dis…

"There’s joy, relief and safety in conformity."

Because, again, being trans is A CULT and accepting the humanity of trans people is a sign either of CULT MENTALITY or MENTAL INSTABILITY

"Huge numbers of women are justifiably terrified by the trans activists"

Here's JKR again, equating calling a TERF a TERF with real actual abuse, because calling abusers on their shit is the REAL abuse!

"I refuse to bow down to a movement that I believe is doing demonstrable harm in seeking to erode ‘woman’ as a political and biological class and offering cover to predators like few before it"

Rowling is saying categorically and without apology that she believes...

In the core TERF ideology that:
1. There are only two binary genders
2. Only assigned gender is real and
3. Trans people are violent sexual deviants
4. Affirming trans rights requires harming women

And in order
1. The heterosexist gender binary is a construct of white supremacy, because many, many, MANY non-white cultures have vibrant non-binary / third gender traditions

2. No it fucking isn't.
3. No they're fucking not
4. No it fucking doesn't

She continues to claim that "women who wish to retain single-sex spaces" are "in the vast majority, and exclude only those privileged or lucky enough never to have come up against male violence or sexual assault"

So. Like.

She's saying that women who support trans people OBVIOUSLY could never do so if they'd ever been the victim of violent sexual assault by men. And again, she's painting her extremist position as the majority, which is held by most reasonable people

"The one thing that gives me hope is that the women who can protest and organise, are doing so, and they have some truly decent men and trans people alongside them"

Because the only place that trans women have in the fight for womens' rights is as allies, not as equals.

Because JKR and TERFs believe that trans women and men are equally culpable in female oppression and do not deserve protection in women's spaces.

Sidebar: Can we just acknowledge how the insistence on womens'-only spaces is non-binary-phobic and shitty?

Like, if everyone makes single-gender spaces then, cool, I guess us non-binaries will just idk drift off into space I guess that's fine

"None of the gender critical women I’ve talked to hates trans people; on the contrary."

Not wanting the rights of trans people to be protected and continually talking about how disgusting, deviant, and violent they are isn't the same as HATING them! OBVS.

Anyway. There's more in that vein but I'm fucking tired, so, skipping to this -

"The last thing I want to say is this. I haven’t written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one."

I mean, with the level of whining about people calling you names, you could have fooled me

"All I’m asking ...is for similar empathy ... to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse."

She just wants to be able to call trans women violent delusional predators in peace everyone! What could possibly be so wrong about fixating on women with penises and wanting people to agree that they're disgusting and don't deserve human rights?

Anyway, that's it. We made it. We're done. You've got a giant reading list, and I've got a flareup of my tendonitis for rage-typing this tweetstorm for too long.

Tl;dr - please don't buy official HP merch or HP books, and if you're playing official HP games, maybe uninstall them

If this kind of masochistic Twitter tirade is your jam, then maybe consider supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/gmmas?fan_land…

Or buy one of my games:

https://twitter.com/wundergeek/status/1133091525808799747