Right, for me his “art” can’t be separated from the artist. I went through my teen years in the 80s reading his Xanth, Double Exposure, and Incarnations of Immortality series.
I didn’t pick up on the problems with the books then because my brain was still developing, along with my worldview, and it was the freaking 80s. Hard to notice the water when it’s all around you.
I tried to go back and reread the Xanth series. I couldn’t do it. His work is dead to me.
The other, currently not viewed as pseudoscientific, diagnosis is Oppositional Defiant Disorder.
It looks like it can be easily abused by authoritarians.
I do believe she loves the spotlight but i don’t think she’s creating controversy to achieve that, she genuinely doesn’t believe that trans and other gender related things related to it is even a thing. Where her ego comes in is that she really believes she’s right and that anyone that doesn’t identify with the gender they were born with is just cosplaying.
I read the first one about a decade ago on a whim, mostly because i had fond memories of playing a point and click Xanth PC game that i enjoyed but never finished. Reading it was a huge struggle, parts of the book were interesting but the main character was deeply unlikable and his characterization of the various prominent females in the story played into a kind of misogyny that was unbelievable (as you know).
I was curious about other titles before but the first one pretty much put me off to the author. He and his work is also dead to me.
I’m not a big Rowling fan, never cared for the Potter books and haven’t been following this twitter war in which she’s been embroiled on trans issues – but the amount of virtue signaling and group think that I am seeing her is depressing. I just read Rowling’s little essay and it seems dismissive to describe it as a screed. It seems a thought out expression of her views, albeit apparently controversial ones.
Clearly these views are really upsetting for some members and allies of the trans community, but I wish that the annotation did not stoop to comments like “Fuck you” and “Ha Ha Ha” and instead engaged in a more meaningful engagement of what she says.
This all reminds me of when the “Radical Feminist” Meghan Murphy (accused of being a Terf) was scheduled to give a talk in Toronto last year… There were protests against her being allowed to speak. The /toronto subreddit had to be uber-moderated because of the frighteningly violent vitriol that was being spewed. On the one hand it was clear that she was despised. On the other, she seemed more interested in the negative attention she was getting than developing particularly sophisticated arguments. There seemed to be zero interest in actually wrestling with what is a real feminist issue – where and how do trans people fit into feminism?
Academic feminism has long been a hotbed of divisive factionalism, so it surprises me not one whit that we should see it here. But I sure would like to see more nuanced and thoughtful discussion.
This tendency to reduce what should be a real discussion to name calling serves no one, least of all the trans community. I don’t see how calling Rowling’s essay a “bonkers anti-Trans rant” is useful or accurate.
You’re a member of said community?
As a trans woman and ex-Piers Anthony fan… sigh. I feel bad for younger trans friends who were inspired by her books. It’s just more grist for the mill really.
No, but would like to be an ally.
The other thing that really leaps out of Rowling’s rant, alongside the utter lack of empathy for trans people, is just how strangely regressive the rest of her views on gender are.
What comes across is that she doesn’t really have any belief in equality at all. Here, Maleness is uniquely pathological, a frightening, insidious contamination that cannot be tamed, so it must be avoided, and anyone who is touched by its influence- they are themselves inherently tainted and and must be shunned as a vessel of this “Other”.
Taken like that, it’s straight out of a Puritan view of sexuality- where male sexuality is frightening and must be controlled by society and tamed by women, who are nurturing, non-sexual and non-violent. Oh, and everyone is heterosexual, and nothing but the binary exists. at all.
That one is certainly open ended, and reads like every pre-teen to teenager ever.
Academic feminism has long been a hotbed of divisive factionalism, so it surprises me not one whit that we should see it here.
That is disingenuous. This is not “virtue signaling”. This is an argument about the validity of other human beings, and the trans exclusionary feminists that have built a large vicious hobby out targeting them. The issues with JK Rowling’s essays is that she is leaning on a much larger body of TERF work.
None of these people are developing a sophisticated argument, nor one based on facts from the latest in medical science or psychology.
Your argument is a tone argument to a very marginalized minority with a shockingly high incident of violence, including murder. JK Rowling’s essay has to be called out because it normalizes the very idea that transgender people as human beings are other, and invalid. She conflates transgender people with incel’s and pedophiles in her essay. When prominent people air out their bigotry, it increases violence against those minorities they are targeting. There are studies on this type of thing.
You want to see a more nuanced and thoughtful discussion but I see the damage this does. I see newly out transgender people in the trans subs on reddit and elsewhere get private DMs telling them to kill themselves all the time. It’s a known problem for all transgender online groups that you have to be careful or there are literally people that will hunt you down and brigade you. They tend to target transgender women, but as a transgender man, they keep trying to “rescue” us. They target the our most vulnerable and suicidal with their hate.
You can’t have a civil discussion with someone who fundamentally disagrees with you existing as a human being. It’s not possible, and to imply there are some sort of respectability requirement when dealing with bigots is insulting. It’s just another way to attempt to shut down minority groups by hand waving away their complaints because they did not embody the right tone.
So you’ve met some men, then
I do wish JKR would just shut the fuck up, and stop poking at issues that don’t fucking concern her.
Trans rights are human rights; period.
This too!!
Oh, no. I wish I hadn’t looked that up. The IT Crowd and Black Books are two of my favorite TV shows, ever. Well, that’s some funny stuff shot to hell.
Another aside on the Rowling thing: I just don’t understand why she cares so much. She’s burning a ton of good will with this petty ranting. And what seemed to set it off was the use of the term “people who menstruate” instead of what she thought they should say, which apparently is “women.” The thing is, there are millions upon millions of women that don’t menstruate. Even among people that meet Rowling’s definition of woman. So bizarre to get so wrapped up in that.
More to the point, there are plenty of people who menstruate who do not identify as women. JKR’s comments and actions make them invisible.
Some folks just can’t let others live their lives without stirring shit up. It’s a shame but there it is; pointless bigotry is everywhere.
Um… she is a TERF. She rejects the fact that transwomen are women.
Roger that. This isn’t rocket surgery here, folks.
Yeah, I can sympathize with wanting nice easy boxes to fit people in where the Man box is dangerous and the Women box is safe, and I can sympathize with people struggling with the fact that reality is not that simple… but trying to make it that simple is a whole 'nother thing.
Just like gay people spread the gay?
For some people it seems all they can think of as humane is their own very limited experience.
This can happen when one is unsure of their own identity and place in the world. Neither a helpful nor a healthy response, though, because it will usually get them the exact opposite of what they’re longing for.
