I have read the JK Rowling blog post. I hope someone does the analysis that @LitAnscombe calls for. Many of you have already detailed how much the post protects the bigotry of those she championed. I'll add what were the most glaring points in my reading.
I'll focus on the times when Rowling professes sympathy for trans folk. Because those are moments of very sharp contradictions.
Rowling says she & other gender critical feminists don't hate trans women. In fact, they're sympathetic to trans youth & women. Or, to some of them.
Rowling says she & other gender critical feminists don't hate trans women. In fact, they're sympathetic to trans youth & women. Or, to some of them.
Very few people admit to hating trans folk.
Nevertheless.
Trans folk seem to get killed and have their lives and livelihoods threatened in hugely disproportionate numbers by people who don't always say they hate them.
Back to Rowling in particular, though.
Nevertheless.
Trans folk seem to get killed and have their lives and livelihoods threatened in hugely disproportionate numbers by people who don't always say they hate them.
Back to Rowling in particular, though.
Here, more particularly, we get to see what this non-hate looks like.
Rowling wants trans women to be safe.
Rowling wants cis women to be safe.
Rowling thinks both groups' safety cannot be had at the same time. She's dead wrong in that, of course.
Rowling wants trans women to be safe.
Rowling wants cis women to be safe.
Rowling thinks both groups' safety cannot be had at the same time. She's dead wrong in that, of course.
You can already see how her premise of "can't be that both trans and cis women are safe at the same time" is pretty bigoted.
It means trans women are physically threatening to cis women.
Everything else she says about protecting cis women aligns with that twisted idea.
It means trans women are physically threatening to cis women.
Everything else she says about protecting cis women aligns with that twisted idea.
If cishetero men are threatening to others (and some maybe even many are; disproportionate to other groups they are), where did that professed concern for trans women go, JK?
Did I miss the sound of "POOF" with which your concern evaporated the moment after you professed it?
Did I miss the sound of "POOF" with which your concern evaporated the moment after you professed it?
If the way to protect cis women from threatening cishetero men is to maintain segregated bath/change rooms, and to banish trans women from those marked for women, then where's your concern for the trans women in the men's room when the door flies open and cis men strut in?
In that case--a case that endangers trans women more clearly and empirically than the case of a trans woman using the woman's washroom--the men strutting in don't need to get a gender recognition certificate. It's their washroom. In they walk. No bureaucratic hurdles necessary.
More particularly about that aside of "and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones," let's look at how this actually works. Rowling is very concerned about the proposed changes in Scotland. Let's oblige.
Voilà!
Be honest.
Does it sound like "all a man needs to 'become a woman' is to say he's one"?
Is living in your new gender for 3 months before applying equivalent to just saying it?
Is it "just saying it" if 3 months later you need to confirm it to the Registrar General?
Be honest.
Does it sound like "all a man needs to 'become a woman' is to say he's one"?
Is living in your new gender for 3 months before applying equivalent to just saying it?
Is it "just saying it" if 3 months later you need to confirm it to the Registrar General?
It is "just saying it" if you have to confirm to the Registrar General--however that's done--that you intend to live permanently in your new gender?
Does that sound like a lightweight process to you if you are reminded that it is a criminal offence to make false statements?
Does that sound like a lightweight process to you if you are reminded that it is a criminal offence to make false statements?
Besides.
Indeed.
Please, may I also send you to this well-sourced critique.
@threadreaderapp unroll
I'm grateful to all who bring in history of homophobic discourse and keep showing us how current day transphobia rehashes that discourse.
This is really good. From Forbes, also referencing Andrew James Carter's thread from above.
forbes.com/sites/dawnstac…
forbes.com/sites/dawnstac…
