#isupportjkr

[joannerowlingfans]

JK Rowling is Right—Sex Is Real and It Is Not a "Spectrum" - Quillette

JK Rowling recently drew fire on social media for tweeting the statements to the effect that “biological sex is real.” The tweets began when she mocked an opinion piece that used the term “people who menstruate” in place of “women” to account for the fact that transgender men also menstruate, and prefer not to be described as women. If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth. — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020 The backlash on Twitter has been swift and cacophonous, and headlines have followed. GLAAD, an LGBT advocacy group, issued a response on Twitter, calling Rowling’s tweets “inaccurate and cruel.” One commenter wrote “I know you know this because you have been told over and over and over again, but transgender men can menstruate. Non-binary people menstruate. I, a 37-year old woman …

Another article supporting Ms. Rowling. 

[joannerowlingfans]

Another section from JKR’s essay:

”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. It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or – just as threatening – unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class. The hundreds of emails I’ve received in the last few days prove this erosion concerns many others just as much.  It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves.

But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive. Moreover, the ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning. I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.”

[joannerowlingfans]

A section from JK Rowling’s essay:

“As I didn’t have a realistic possibility of becoming a man back in the 1980s, it had to be books and music that got me through both my mental health issues and the sexualised scrutiny and judgement that sets so many girls to war against their bodies in their teens. Fortunately for me, I found my own sense of otherness, and my ambivalence about being a woman, reflected in the work of female writers and musicians who reassured me that, in spite of everything a sexist world tries to throw at the female-bodied, it’s fine not to feel pink, frilly and compliant inside your own head; it’s OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are.

I want to be very clear here: I know transition will be a solution for some gender dysphoric people, although I’m also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria. 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, I happen to know a self-described transsexual woman who’s older than I am and wonderful. Although she’s open about her past as a gay man, I’ve always found it hard to think of her as anything other than a woman, and I believe (and certainly hope) she’s completely happy to have transitioned. Being older, though, she went through a long and rigorous process of evaluation, psychotherapy and staged transformation. 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. 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. Many people aren’t aware of this.”

[joannerowlingfans]

J.K. Rowling’s Book Sales Lagging Despite Industry Boom in June

Unlike much of the rest of the media industry, the world of publishing enjoyed a rise in sales as summer reading season kicked into gear in June. But one of the most successful authors of fiction i…

J.K. Rowling’s book sales are not “lagging” - they’re still being bought after twenty-three years since the first one was published. How many authors can claim that a book series they began publishing in 1997 with the final novel being published a decade later (2007) is still being bought and enjoyed by countless readers? Ms. Rowling is incredible. 

[joannerowlingfans]

Harry Potter and the Reverse Voltaire

A funny thing happened on Twitter the other day. Scrolling through my feed, a post caught my eye from a fellow philosopher, whom I like…

[joannerowlingfans]

A great article written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. “Let me be clear: by tweeting her thoughts and ideas, J.K. Rowling is not “targeting” or in any way harming anyone. She is simply fighting against the erosion of women’s rights. She is warning of the real-life consequences when women’s rights are subordinated to transgender rights. She is urging all of us to think carefully about what is being done on the basis of a warped ideology of “intersectionality,” which conjures up a strange, inverted hierarchy of victimhood and grievance.”

[joannerowlingfans]

JK Rowling’s treatment is a grim sign of how Twitter mobs have poisoned our cultural life

Arts institutions everywhere are set against freedom of speech. A little-known controversy at a London gallery shows where the rot began

[joannerowlingfans]

An Apology to JK Rowling - Areo

JK Rowling recently published an eminently reasonable, heartfelt treatise, outlining why it is important to preserve the category of woman. There’s only one thing wrong with it: it assumes a ration…

An Apology to JK Rowling.