Nothing like feeling like an a obligation, something to be ticked off a list. When someone you love can’t even be bothered to pick up a Christmas present and tells you to get your own chuck it in a bag and then be given it. I would rather not do it at all than that. Sounds petty but I feel like something that is in the way. Something that must be done. All I am is another errand to complete.
Standing outside the High Court yesterday, Keira Bell said that she hoped the judgment marked the end of gender clinics “playing God with our bodies [by] experimenting on the young and vulnerable with
Standing outside the High Court yesterday, Keira Bell said that she hoped the judgment marked the end of gender clinics “playing God with our bodies [by] experimenting on the young and vulnerable with untested, harmful drugs”.
With her deep masculine voice, facial hair and the loss of her breasts to a double mastectomy, Bell bears on her own body the scars of irreversible treatments she began at Tavistock’s GIDS (gender identity development service) clinic at the age of 16. This quiet, reserved young woman, now 23, took on the NHS and publicly funded activist groups such as Stonewall and Mermaids — which successfully lobbied for medical interventions in ever younger children — and won.
In particular, the court’s judgment on puberty-blocking drugs will reverberate around the world. Judges ruled that a 13-year-old was “highly unlikely” to have the competence to understand their effect on future fertility and sexual function, that they were “doubtful” that a 14 or 15-year-old could knowingly consent, and that these drugs were so “experimental” and “truly life-changing” that it was “appropriate” for doctors to seek a court order before prescribing them to a 16 or 17-year-old. In response, GIDS announced a moratorium on prescribing blockers and NHS England has declared that under-16s will not receive them without a court order.
Bell’s story echoes those of thousands of teenage girls who now make up 75 per cent of referrals to GIDS and gender clinics worldwide. As a little girl growing up in Letchworth, she was a classic tomboy who loved football, superheroes and TV wrestling. She hated dresses, preferring clothes from the boys’ range, and her friends were mainly male. “No one tried to change me and I didn’t feel any discomfort in my body,” she says. “Lots of adult women would say, ‘Oh, I was like that at your age.’”
Yet Bell’s home life was turbulent. Her “quite distant and very religious” Christian father left when she was four, leaving Bell and her sister with their mother, an alcoholic. “We didn’t speak about her problem, but we were both embarrassed and didn’t bring friends home.”
Then Bell started high school and “there was that parting of the ways you get at puberty”. Her male friends no longer wanted to know her, while she felt a growing pressure to be “feminine and girly and to fancy boys”. Feeling stuck in the middle, judged for her “butch” appearance and struggling with the realisation that she was attracted to girls, she grew socially awkward and isolated. By 14, increasingly anxious and depressed, she stopped going to school.
“I just stayed at home, locked in my room, playing video games,” she says. “And on the internet I read lesbian bloggers, but felt something else was wrong with me because I was so uncomfortable with my body and puberty and becoming a woman.” On YouTube she discovered US trans activists. “I thought, ‘That’s me. I need to do this, to medically transition to make myself better and live my life as I’m supposed to.’”
Bell asked friends to call her Quincy and use male pronouns, while secretly buying a breast binder to flatten her chest. Then at 16, when home life with her mother deteriorated, she begged to move in with her father and his new partner, who, seeing she was troubled, suggested she see a GP. She was referred to GIDS.
“I had a one-hour appointment and it was very general, surface-level stuff. ‘What is your preferred name? Do you want to transition?’ And a lot of stereotype talk about whether I played with boys’ toys, preferred boys’ clothes. There was no discussion about my sexuality.”
After three further equally superficial sessions, Bell was referred to the endocrinology department, which prescribed a year on puberty-blocking drugs. “It was briefly mentioned this might damage my fertility. They said I could freeze my eggs, but that isn’t available on the NHS and I couldn’t afford to go private. It seemed like a box-ticking exercise. Besides, I was a teenager; I couldn’t imagine wanting a baby.” She was told that blockers were fully reversible and would give her time to decide whether she wanted to proceed to male hormones.
That blockers are a harmless “pause button” is highly contentious. The NHS recently changed its advice from stating they are “fully reversible” to saying that “little is known about the long-term side-effects” on a teenager’s body or brain.
These GnRH agonists release a form of the human hormone gonadotropin to stop testicles and ovaries from producing sex hormones. The most commonly used, Triptorelin, is licensed to treat advanced prostate cancer and endometriosis, “chemically castrate” male sex offenders and halt rare precocious puberty in children.
However, they have been increasingly used “off-label” to treat child gender dysphoria, and in 2010, under activist pressure, GIDS reduced the age of prescription from 15 to 10 years old. A very young child who proceeds from blockers to cross sex hormones — as almost 100 per cent do — will be infertile because sperm or eggs have had no chance to develop.
For Bell, puberty blockers threw her into instant menopause. “I couldn’t sleep or think. I had hot flushes, night sweats, brain fog, concentration issues. My bones ached and I felt less strong.” Moreover, while in this supposed thinking period before she committed to her full transition, she received no psychological counselling from GIDS, just brief catch-up sessions. “There was no discussion of my future, whether I was on the right path.” Nor were her underlying problems — anxiety, depression, social isolation and troubled home life — ever examined.
After 12 months, GIDS prescribed testosterone and Bell had her first injection at her GP’s surgery. Her voice deepened, facial hair began to grow and she “passed” as male at sixth-form college where no one knew her history. By now she was living alone in a youth hostel in Cambridgeshire, ever more isolated. “I still felt out of place, but I had something to latch on to. It felt like my life was progressing. Transition gave me a focus, took my mind off a lot of other things.”
At 20, sick of the discomfort of still binding her breasts, which she hated even more on her now masculine body, she underwent a double mastectomy on the NHS. “I wasn’t really briefed on how serious and extreme this was,” she says. “I found all my advice on how to heal more quickly online. You were given treatment, then they just left you to cope.” Taking testosterone caused painful vaginal atrophy, where the vaginal walls thin and dry out. “Doctors didn’t know what to do about it. We are guinea pigs.”
Once her “top surgery” was complete, and she decided not to proceed with a more complex, risky operation, which creates a non-functional penis from a sleeve of skin stripped from the forearm, Bell felt a sense of anticlimax. “I started to nit-pick about my appearance. I looked at my small hands and feet, my jawline, my short stature. I started asking what makes me a man. And I could never come up with an answer. I will always be a woman whatever changes in my body. I was invested in a fantasy.” Moreover, her other problems had not, as she had hoped, gone away.
Finally, “sick of being a medical experiment”, she stopped taking testosterone. While her periods returned and she found herself able to cry again, her deep voice and facial hair are irreversible. Now happily living with a female partner, she is coming to terms with her double mastectomy and “trying to accept my body for what it is”. However, she grew increasingly angry and troubled that online blogs spoke of transition only in glowing terms, promoting it to children, based, she says, “on lies and sex stereotypes”.
In particular, she felt that “butch” young lesbians like her were under intense online pressure to become trans men. “Gender is polarised: you have to look a certain way. You feel you have to fit in with expectations, even if that means using experimental drugs and surgery.”
Indeed, Bell is part of a 3,000 per cent spike in girls being referred to GIDS in the past decade, a phenomenon noted in every other western nation from Australia to Finland. So far, attempts to explain this have been denounced by the LGBT groups as bigotry. When Dr Lisa Littman of Brown University analysed “rapid onset gender dysphoria” among teenage girls, often clusters of friends, often same-sex attracted, with high exposure to online trans forums, her paper was removed from her college website. James Caspian, a psychotherapist, was told by Bath Spa University that he could not research a rise in trans people detransitioning because it was “not politically correct”.
Yesterday, High Court judges criticised GIDS for their own lack of research data, in particular failing to publish a 2011 study into the outcome of children who took blockers. (Early data so far released from that project “noted that there was no overall improvements in mood or psychological wellbeing” among recipients.) Judges also queried why the sharp rise in natal girls and children on the autistic spectrum has not been analysed, saying it was “surprising that such data was not collated … given the young age of the patient group, the experimental nature of the treatment and the profound impact that it has”.
Bell believes the LGBT community should stop trying to shut down academic inquiry and “accept that the trans experience is not a monolith”, that the reasons an adult male wishes to transition may not be the same as a legion of troubled 13-year-old girls with other psychological issues.
She launched her legal case because she felt she had made a “brash decision as a teenager, as a lot of teenagers do” and “couldn’t sit by while so many others made the same mistake”. Since it began she has since been contacted by many other young women with similar stories. She does not see restrictions on prescribing puberty-blocking drugs as an end in itself, but the beginning of a move towards proper, in-depth psychological counselling for gender-questioning young people.
“They need proper mental health support. I just wish someone had analysed my situation and the problems I had without changing my body. My body was fine.”
What an amazing person to look up to. As someone who almost went down this path, I stand by her bravery, especially as she stands out against this and keeps other children from making the same mistakes
Work has kept me so busy this week that I've basically collapsed at the end of the day. From my brief stint on Tumblr tonight, I have seen Macron likened to Nazis re. some new policies vis-à-vis Muslims and Islam? What's going on? Do you mind briefing me? I can't stand the idea of reading a Tumblr post in *that* tone and would rather hear it from someone whose take I trust. I will get round to reading the news eventually, perhaps at Christmas... Hope you have a stellar week! I miss your blog!
A hoax happened! Relayed by American journalists and now the rumor took huge proportions, endangering the lives of French people abroad 🙃
The government wants to control homeschooling better, and extend the student ID system that we already have to all children including homeschooled children. It turned into “Macron wants to give a number to every muslim child because he’s a literal nazi” on a Washington Post’s journalist Twitter account, notably. Who, after being told and proven repeatedly that she was lying, made a half-assed apology saying basically “I was wrong but I could have been right because everyone knows Macron is a islamophobe”.
Woke American journalists’ intellectual honesty at its finest.
I’m so sorry you’re so overworked I hope it will calm down soon! And thank you for your kind words ❤️ I’m honored by your trust in me!
I just saw this, and I wonder who else feels completely jaded by it all? That sort of shit has been going on since over 5 years by now. When will Americans finally get it through their thick skulls that their constructs aren’t a blueprint for the world, that the way they do things isn’t necessarily better nor kinder by virtue of being American, and that they simply can’t constantly americansplain the entire world to everybody else.
Here, even those who have ended up understanding the actual proposal are still screaming like headless ducks, arguing that trying to insure all children are getting proper education is bad because it will “target this or that group,” and so much worse than letting a bunch of religious zealots teach them creationism, that science isn’t real and that apostats will go to hell completely unchecked. Personally I don’t know which one is necessarily better or worse, because I still haven’t thought that far into those proposals, but for heaven’s sake, stop acting like your way has no flaws at all and is the objectively better one, because that simply is not true in the slightest. And especially not when you’re out there, getting your dopamine rush by getting offended at something you clearly didn’t initially understand at all and, in many ways, still don’t understand, as you cannot seem to comprehend that not every society has to look up to your insanity regarding important principles such as secularism as if you had it all figured out when you so clearly don’t.
And beyond all of this, at this point, any one caught talking about laicité in French schools and how “it - supposedly - was put in place to disproportionately target Muslim children,” should be forbidden from ever uttering anything else on this subject ever again. Unless, of course, they can explain to me how a law dating back from 1882 (ergo almost ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY YEARS AGO) could in any way have been about Islam in France, when it was well before this religion became in any way significant in public life over here.
But anyway, we shouldn’t be surprised; the anglo-world reaction to the Samuel Paty case has been nothing short of disgusting. Some allies they are, I’m telling you…
The only thing I see here is jealousy from people who have been spectacularly failing at building an inclusive and peaceful society despite having been built on immigration.
Mass immigration started 50 years ago in continental France, and god forbid we don’t follow America’s segregationist social model! Of course France has a racism problem but America, look in a fucking mirror.
People who have literal fascists committing domestic terrorism they can’t even call by its name, because they’d rather have the KKK roaming the streets with machine guns than a) having anti racist laws b) banning guns are lecturing us, I mean it’s fucking hilarious. Those absolute morons are clutching their pearls at cartoons and obsession over their oppreshun® charts while protecting the freedom of spouting racist abuse of groups who *actually* committed murders!
At this point, conservatives are easier to deal with because at least they don’t have the arrogance to believe they can solve other people’s problems while having their house on fire. I’m so fucking tired of this idiots and their French puppets.
Do something about your own barbary before thinking you can give advice to anyone, for fuck’s sake.
I won’t argue with your main point at all, except to say that I was unaware of a lot of these details because American media is rather busy right now with what amounts to a Constitutional crisis. But I will point out that this bit … “ letting a bunch of religious zealots teach them creationism, that science isn’t real and that apostats will go to hell “ … basically explains exactly what’s going on, in tandem with Islamophobia and fake “woke” culture. Religious zealots do this exact thing here re: in-home vs. in-school learning, and while not all in-home education is based on religious zealotry, enough of it is that I would caution against assuming that all or even a majority of Americans think this way. As usual, the fake-woke crowd (I call them busybodies, myself) and the religious extremists get way more attention than they deserve.
I also caution against judging all Americans by what you read on Tumblr or Twitter. Both sites tend to be rife with extremely opinionated people with an unassailable belief in their own “superior” morality. As for that WaPo journalist, well, that’s what’s happened to our journalism over the last 20-30 years - objectivity and in-depth research have gone into the trash, newspapers are in a fight to the death for every dollar and they assign more importance to advertisers with deep pockets than they do to journalistic integrity.
What baffles me is that the US aren’t a small country in terms of political influence. If a French journalist spreads rumors it will be shut down pretty quick. This rumor endangered our diplomats and expatriates so much that embassies had to publish statements! I can’t understand for the life of me this total lack of awareness. When you have that kind of power you should be extremely cautious.
The American press has been very vocal in blaming our culture and our laws when about 300 people were killed in 5 years by islamists. It’s been a constant smear campaign, it’s exhausting and extremely disappointing.
Wow…just wow… It’s amazing how Americans fail to realize the impact of their cultural colonization throughout the rest of the Western world.
@razziecat is more affected by the anger that a large majority of French people feel towards them because of their unacceptable behavior than by the dangerous consequences of their mediocre journalists. It is forgotten that Alqaida and ISIS threaten France and order all jihadists to kill the French, wherever they are, by any means.
In such circumstances, true professionals refrain from being pathetic amateurs when it comes to journalism, in these circumstances, a so-called ally country refrains from judging the laïcité (secularism) and blaming the french when a teacher is beheaded in the middle of a street for a fkn cartoon. In these circumstances, one does not write things which obviously excite the Salafists/djihastes and puts every French in danger. In these circumstances, an ally and intelligent country should remember that they are the ones who created ISIS with its wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria by forcing all its allies to follow them overwise they would start French bashing like they did when France refused to follow them in their illegal war in Iraq. This person, like a lot of Americans I can read on social media, is more offended by her/his little touched ego than by the gravity of the situation.
Frankly, some days I even come to regret that our Lafayette helped this country gain its independence.
Désolée mais je ne peux pas lire ça sans réagir. Y'en a assez de prendre des gants avec des débiles profonds comme ça.
Never forget: the thing that got Americans to label the French “traitors” in 2003 and spread anti-French sentiment for years was refusing to join them in a senseless war in Iraq (which was OBVIOUSLY a ploy to steal oil). That’s the level of commitment they REQUIRED of their allies, not merely asked for. Anything less than “When I Say Jump You Say How High” was considered TREASON.
Yet now they can’t be bothered to publish fucking cartoons in solidarity?? CARTOONS. LINES DRAWN ON PAPER. And not only that, they’re out there hypocritically calling us racist and “Islamophobic”, for daring to address the fact that our teachers and journalists are getting shot and beheaded. Some of them have the absolute nerve to haughtily let us know it’s our fault because we went and fucked the Middle East (!!!!!!!!!!), and spread lies without an once of remorse about things they half read on their lunch break and think they’re competent enough to write a whole article about because, “hey, how complicated could it be really? Nobody’s gonna check anyways! It’s fucking Europeans, our vassals, we can just treat ‘em like shit, who cares?”
And despite all of this, we’re still expected to keep an open mind, remember “it’s just Twitter” and “#NotAllAmericans”??
Fuck no. Yes, all Americans. The whole world is tired of your collective bullshit, and not just “White Americans”, not “Texans” or “Rednecks”. Tired of your incompetent journalists, your economists, your intelligentsia, your racial discourses and cultural relativism, your witch hunts, your shitty ideologies, your presidential dramas, your social media, your boring tv shows and fascist tales of superheroism where billionaires and the military save the world (amen! now available in YOUR gender and colour!), your consumerism and advertisement, your weird perversity and sexual obsessions and self-punishment fetish, your “Protestant work ethic”, your guns, your prayers and your God, your sickening individualism and general sociopathy, your dollars, and your disgusting fast food. Take the lot and shove it up your fat ugly asses, regards.
I would love to read your list about bad takes in the Harry Potter fandom. If you want to share it of course
With pleasure! Each bad take would probably require its own debunking post, but to list them simply:
1 - The “J.K. Rowling is antisemite” discourse i was talking about in a previous post. Utter nonsense but beats up all other bad takes because it’s not just stupid but racist.
1.5 - Similarly, any of those claims of Jo being racist. There’s like an umbrella of them at this point: anti-Native Americans because of Centaurs, anti-Asian with Cho Chang, anti-gay for not making Dumbledore and Grindelwald make out in the great hall or having him love colourful socks… As i said, this would for sure require its own post.
2 - The “Albus Severus Potter” discourse. Again i made a post about this once, but basically i hate that people just… don’t get why Harry named his kid that.
3 - The “Houses” discourse, also known as “J.K. Rowling didn’t make any good Slytherin character, she’s so mean! I am a Slytherin and i’m a good person! Also ambition is not bad!” I blame Warner Bros and merchandising for nobody being able to recognise that Slytherin stands for the aristocracy and the houses in general are more akin to social classes and more than a fun personality test.
(3.5 - See also: “Harry Potter is a conservative franchise that preserves the status quo!” No, it’s not. Harry Potter is a teaching manual on the world’s injustices, addressed to children. It doesn’t “preserve” the status quo nor does it “upset” it: it analyses its inner workings. Cursed Child aside, this is why the books stop once Harry has reached adulthood.)
4. The “Hermione and house elves” discourse. Related to point 1.5, but specific in that people also attack HERMIONE for being somewhat clumsy in her activism attempt. Hermione is 15 when she first starts the S.A.L.E., and her approach to fighting for house elves is obviously flawed. It’s supposed to be funny, and also a good lesson for young people, that you can’t just “preach injustices away” and people you want to help might reject it even if you’re right. No, Jo doesn’t think slaves enjoy being slaves.
5. The “black Hermione discourse”. “But she’s said to be white in the books!!” It doesn’t matter. Hermione’s skin colour is barely mentioned in the books, she’s the least often described member of the trio (physically). What matters is that she’s not blonde with blue eyes and straight hair like the typical 90s role models for little girls. Sure she wasn’t written as black, but her ethnicity isn’t very important to her character.
6. The “Harry was half Indian” discourse. He isn’t, @bounding-heart has a good post about this i think.
Those are the main ones but then there are also a lot - too many to count tbh - about so called plot holes, or ships (anti Ron and Hermione discourse, anti Ginny discourse… yikes), etc.
Adding one of my own - the “Harry should have been a teacher/Harry should be teaching DADA instead of being an Auror” when it’s very clearly shown throughout the books why being an Auror is a very appropriate career for him.
@stelamaris Right! This one has only been recently gaining steam, but boy is it annoying. "Harry becomes a cop! ACAB!” Aiden, this is fiction, he hunts down dark wizards, not dark skin. 🙄 When i think of “read another book” it’s these people i think of. There is in fact such thing as “over analysing” and you reach that stage when you begin to complain about child lit from the 2000s not being a perfect match for neoliberal thinking in 2020.
A lot of the more liberal, ‘cute’ Muslims will always be on my ass about ‘you left the religion now stay away from it. Why do you keep talking about it?’ so I’m here to end this pointless discourse.
Because I’m not allowed to leave it.
I live in Egypt, a muslim-majority country with laws that allow my family to kill me with no repercussions if I disobey them, try to run away from them, bring ‘shame’ or ‘dishonour’ upon them (through such horrendous acts as having a boyfriend, or even just male friends), or if I ruin the family reputation. There’s a million and one ways for them to get away with my abuse, with marrying me off, with controlling my every move, with killing me in cold blood. If I speak out in my real life about leaving Islam, I’ll be killed by a brain washed stranger before my parents even get to hear about it.
Islam is not a religion of peace, and anyone who speaks basic arabic can tell you that the word Islam does not come from the word salam, meaning peace or greetings. They come from the same root word, yes, but that does not mean in arabic what it does in english. Islam comes from the word istislam, meaning to surrender. To surrender yourself completely to Allah, mind and soul. To obey without question, to believe without thought. That is what Islam teaches Arab children. These are the literal words of our prophet. Your mortal mind is too weak, too small, to understand Allah’s will in His creation. Do not trust your mind. Trust my words blindly.
I’ve been forced to wear the hijab since I was 10 years old. I was too young to understand then, too young to say no, but when I was a teenager I tried to argue that I would wear it when I’m older, when I can understand, when I feel ready. All of this got shot down angrily, even with me crying my eyes out for days, begging for some freedom to breathe. I am still forced to wear it to this day.
I’ve been forced to pray the 5 daily prayers since I was 4 years old. My parents would grab me and put me in a long tarha and make me do the movements next to my mother (never, of course, standing next to my father or brothers. Even in families, the wife and daughters stand behind the sons and father), before I was even old enough to understand the words being said. My father followed prophet Muhammed’s words “Order your children to pray by 7, beat them for it by 10″. A child refusing to pray would mean a punishment worse than death. I’m still forced to pray, to this day.
I’ve been forced and dragged and beaten and screamed at and punished since I was 5 to memorise the Qura’an. It’s made up of long verses in complex Arabic. It often speaks of violence towards non-believers, both in this life and the next. It often insults and sneers at Christians and Jews. It often speaks of violence against women. It speaks of the murder of homosexual men - and never brings up the unthinkable, homosexual women. It speaks of the evils of women, befriending non-believers, homosexuality and disobedience. It speaks of women being unclean while on their periods. We are not allowed to touch the Qura’an or even speak it aloud during our periods. I am still forced to memorise it, to this day.
I am forced to dress in long, uncomfortable, itchy materials, even in 50 degree weather (celsius) in the Saudi Arabian sun. I can not wear see-through materials, or tight materials, or even half sleeves. Every inch of me must be covered save for my hands, my feet and my face. I often pass out from the heat. I can’t wear a swimsuit at the beach. I can’t wear shorts or tank tops in my own house. I can’t stand in the cool breeze with my hair blowing behind me. I am not allowed to become a judge. I am not allowed to be a ruler. My word in court counts for half of what a man’s does. I am the image of the devil. I am sin. I am a woman.
I can’t stand up and say, I am an ex-muslim, I can’t stand up and say, I am a bisexual woman. I can’t stand up and say I denounce this religion, I denounce this life, I reject these limitations. I reject these ideas. My hair is not so enticing that I have to cover it. My arms are not sexual organs. My name is not arousing. My sexuality is not wrong. My logic is above your 1400 year old myths. I can’t stand up and say no. I can’t say, I was born into this life, I did not chose it, I was born a muslim, with muslim parents, in a muslim country. I can not say, I’ve tried your Islam and I didn’t like it, and I don’t believe in it. I can not say I’ve decided I don’t want it.
All I want is the right to say no. The right to reject a life that was thrust upon me without my approval. The right to seek out my own paths.
All I want is the right to say, No, I will not surrender.
“jk rowling wrote slytherin to be aristocracy bla bla bla” so what
sure it’s aristocracy, doesn’t change the fucking fact it’s a bunch o wizard nazis lol the problem isn’t what kind of shitty group of people the house is supposed to be, it’s the fact that at the end of the series nothing changed.
“what do you mean nothing changed? voldermort is dead! their leader is dead! harry defeated all evil!” dude this is systematic racism and eliticism not the one ring to rule them all, that is not how that shit works!!!!!!
if u kill trump tomorrow white supremacy/sexism/racism/islamophobia isn’t just gonna go away cause u killed off a major leader/representative of this shit. nothing is gonna change, they gonna fucking get a new leader and might even use the dead one as a matyr.
the fucking problem is jk wrote a motherfucking house where a bunch of rich racists get sorted into and did nothing to change or even address that. voldermort is dead, but he was defeated before, and the other dude, and other before him i bet. the point is: that doesn’t mean shit when ur book is writing about racism or even class structure/struggle.
jk rowling is a lazy writer cause she killed off a dude thinking that would be the end of the aristocracy and/or racism and guess what? that’s not how this shit works and sending this message is problematic, nonsensical AND lazy.
note: not to go jk x rick riordan cause they both garbage lol but at least on the end of pjo, rick has percy address the intial issue and say hey gods! maybe u should sign ur kids birth certificate and send an occasional card! that might help avoiding this sort of situation next time! did it work? no, cause hoo is garbage lol. would have been enough? no, they could have added some therapy, but hey at least he addressed the bigger issue in stake.
My god, the fuckery of your response. XD you didn’t even tag me! I know better than to expect nuanced and layered thinking from an anti-JKR person, but I’m to respond anyway for my own peace of mind.
You don’t understand Harry Potter. At all. I don’t even think you understand what Aristocracy means or even class.
No, they’re not Nazis. Nazis are a specific group. Not all bigots are Nazis and using it so thoughtlessly as a generic term is offensive to Jewish people like me. Accept that you’re ignorant about British culture and history and step back.
There’s no part of Harry Potter where it’s claimed that all systematic bigotry and elitism suddenly vanished after Voldemort was defeated. His defeat was still an enormous victory for the wizarding world, given he was murdering and imprisoning innocent people on mass and setting up a fascist social system which would have led eventually to genocide and slavery. By defeating Voldemort, Harry and everyone else who fought prevented that from happening. Obviously, there was still an enormous amount of work to be done.
You seem to have developed some bizarre headcanon in which the wizarding world became a Utopia after Voldemort was defeated. That’s all in your head and isn’t applicable to Harry Potter meta. Voldemort’s defeat absolutely led to less death and horror, that’s not debatable.
My god, your argument is so incoherent I’m not sure how to respond to it. What? What exactly are you saying? Yes, the children from the oldest, wealthiest, most privileged families tended to be sorted into the same House, because they shared the same values of ambition, ruthlessness and cunning. Things which tend to go along with entitlement and social privilege, just like bigotry goes along with social privilege on many occasions. What did she fail to address? She made exactly the point she was trying to make, it just went over your head.
The defeat of Voldemort was the starting point. The harder, long term work took place afterwards, with Kingsley as Minister for Magic and Harry and Ron starting to clear the DMLE of corruption. Or are you saying that it’s impossible, ever, to make positive social change? Because that’s what it sounds like you’re saying. And that’s infinitely more problematic than a children’s book series telling people that they should fight, and keep fighting, even when the odds are terrible.
The only thing lazy is your reading comprehension. You’ve flattened a nuanced, complex story into something one dimensional.
I’m also laughing at the number of stories your criticism -could- apply to: The Lord of the Rings, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, so so many. It’s classical myth structure, the Hero’s Journey. I want to bang my head against the wall. Take a literature class, please. Learn how to read.
Thank @bounding-heart for single-handedly saving this fandom with her patience and articulate meta posts. <3
This is E X A C T L Y what i mean when i say that the Houses are representative of social classes or political parties, and not just a personality test. The personality test is surface reading and good for WB’s merchandising i guess, but it’s not the point. Sure, in theory the Hat is supposed to sort you in the House that corresponds to your personality. But in practice?
Ronald Weasley, eleven years old, book one: “I hope i’m into Gryffindor cause that’s where everyone in my family went and it’s the best probably. Slytherin bad!”
Harry, also eleven: “Oh no, not Slytherin, that’s the bad house Hagrid told me about!” Hat: “Ok, not there then.”
Hermione, in year five: “Oh yeah, the Hat wanted me to be in Ravenclaw but i wanted Gryffindor.” (She says in book one that she wanted to be sorted there because that was Dumbledore’s house).
Neville, per Word of God, wanted to be sorted in Hufflepuff (out of self-deprecation, not out of genuine preference). The Hat had to take a full minute to convince him that he belonged in Gryffindor. He didn’t just put him there by force; he needed his approval.
Practically speaking, the Hat sorts kids wherever they ask, if they bother to ask. The Hat can object, but it can’t literally go AGAINST the kid’s wishes. And… a lot of kids are probably gonna ask to be in a house that pleases mommy and daddy best. Which is how, generations after generations, a system develops, where Slytherin becomes “the house of the rich racists”.
So yeah, Harry Potter is a story that simply… lets you see that (and more). “There are systems that create injustices. Here is how they work. It’s not as simple as “some people are bad and some are good” - sometimes the systems are rooted really deeply.” No, it’s not telling readers *what to do* to *uproot* said systems. The story doesn’t end with Harry burning the Sorting Hat or destroying the Ministry of Magic to start something else. It’s not “revolutionary” in that sense. Because… it’s addressed to children. Before you teach children to make the revolution, you want to make sure they understand why change would be needed; you want them to decide for themselves what they want to do with their world, and to ensure they will make informed, intelligent choices. Rowling designed funny, satirical social metaphors to encourage young readers to use their brains and analyse these metaphors in relationship to what they could observe in real life. She doesn’t tell kids what to think: she helps them develop their own critical thinking.
tumblr idiots are like well dating someone doesn't mean having sex with them and i'm like i'm glad ninth grade is going well but most adults want sex in their relationships
US — . The Pharmacy Times recently posted an article referencing the report “Deep vein thrombosis in a transgender woman,” which is in the database of the US National Library of Medicine – National Institutes of Health. Amongst the reports findings is that “high doses of estrogen,” including for “transgender treatment” increases “the chances of getting […]
This risk is also there for detrans ftm who had their ovaries removed as part of their transition.
Why, because he supports a “national treasure” who went on a national campaign to support Synthia China Blast…
A trans inmate who’s in prison currently serving hard time for the kidnapping, mutilation, murder and rape (in that order, don’t forget) of a young Black girl named Ebony Nicole Williams.
When called out for supporting the child-murdering rapist, Cox said he didn’t know, but hadn’t done the googling, but was terribly sorry that he’d exposed his fans to such an awful thing.
To the mother of the little girl whose body was desecrated, shoved into a box and stomped on until she fit, and then lit on fire by a man who believes he’s as much a girl as the one he killed — Cox said nothing. He didn’t even apologize for making her relive this, or see the media deify the man who mutilated her daughter’s corpse so severely that she had to identify her little daughter by her dental records.
But yaaaaay! You love the man who said Ariana Grande should be flattered after being groped by a gross old priest on stage!
Because he stans for a man who stans for a man who murders and then rapes kids!
This dude just compared trans people to mythical creatures that literally don’t exist and said that if you write about mythology you should understand and accept trans people. Literally calling trans people fairy tales and you’re upholding this as some sort of fantastic epic activism.
Just wanted to add that Pete Davidson also joked on SNL about switching Ariana Grande’s birth control out with tic-tacs because “I believe in us, an all…I just want to make sure she can’t go anywhere.” Wow, progressive king!!
J.K. Rowling acknowledged biological sex was real.
But you guys would rather stan a man who “jokes” about violence against women? K.
So I’m very conflicted- like I think JKR is basically mildly transphobic but I read about how much she’s donating in the pandemic and in general and that she’s a huge philanthropist and now idk. Is she basically an ethics question? Does she do more good in general than harm?
You do realize billionaires like JKR get tax breaks for giving to charity right? Trans women are so marginalized like I’d need an itemized list of what exactly she’s giving to them and it would have to be equal or more than all the harm she’s doing to the trans women around the world but especially in Britain.
I’m just so angry as an enby who is trans this makes me really angry that you think that jkr is doing enough good to balance out all of her racism and transphobia. She’s not mildly transphobic at all and I think you need to do more research as to why her arguments are deeply harmful. Also you should search jk rowling on this blog and on @fandomshatelgbtqpeople
what legitimate harm has she done to trans women lmao.. also the "rich people donate for tax breaks" is more for when Jeff bezos gives 16k to some random charity, not when jkr gives enough money to not be a billionaire anymore
Lmaooool... a woman donates so much money a takes herself off the billionaires list
Uses all the profit of her book for Covid 19
But yeah i need an idiot who thinks the word “enby” has any other meaning besides narcissistic prick to tell me to look at their opinion to be an authoritative opinion on anything.
I'm still trying to figure out how you can be both nominate and trans, but these folks all need to get off JKRs fits about *checks notes* acknowledging that sex is a biological reality.
I never thought there would be a time people would get off on the idea of being oppressed and yet.........
You all like to be “oppressed” by reality, acting like the whole world is here to chase you down, what a narcisistic trip.
She only made questions, demanded women to be allowed to not be persecuted for not believing in the Gender God and for women (and trans men and nb females) to not be called mestruators or to be defined for one of our body functions.
It wouldn’t kill anyone for the market to say “ ‘cis women,’ trans men and nb females” but it is funnier and pleasing for men to call women menstruators or people who menstruate completely despersonalizing us by acting like we aren’t human beings with a specific body shared by all female humans.
You all just fucked it up for underprivileged women who now have to deal with all sort of males while these women are in the most vulnerable positions like in prison or in rape shelters, you fucking narcisisists.
So I’m very conflicted- like I think JKR is basically mildly transphobic but I read about how much she’s donating in the pandemic and in general and that she’s a huge philanthropist and now idk. Is she basically an ethics question? Does she do more good in general than harm?
You do realize billionaires like JKR get tax breaks for giving to charity right? Trans women are so marginalized like I’d need an itemized list of what exactly she’s giving to them and it would have to be equal or more than all the harm she’s doing to the trans women around the world but especially in Britain.
I’m just so angry as an enby who is trans this makes me really angry that you think that jkr is doing enough good to balance out all of her racism and transphobia. She’s not mildly transphobic at all and I think you need to do more research as to why her arguments are deeply harmful. Also you should search jk rowling on this blog and on @fandomshatelgbtqpeople
what legitimate harm has she done to trans women lmao.. also the "rich people donate for tax breaks" is more for when Jeff bezos gives 16k to some random charity, not when jkr gives enough money to not be a billionaire anymore
@fandomshatepeopleofcolor is either an idiot, seriously misinformed, or deliberately spreading lies to try and make Rowling somehow adjacent to the likes of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk. Rowling isn’t a thief who used the money of daddy and money to create a system and abuses workers, she’s an artist who came from a modest background. She pays her taxes in full, has repeatedly gone out to say she does so with pleasure since she herself benefited from the system when she was struggling as a jobless single mother. She’s a leftist, admitedly not as much of one as i’d personally liked, but she’s not responsible for rich people getting tax breaks. The majority of her money that isn’t taxed goes to charitative organisms, including those she created.
That sure is fucking better than anything Bruce Jenner has done recently, isn’t it?
Furthermore, Rowling isn’t “mildly transphobic” indeed, she’s NOT transphobic AT ALL. She cares for the safety of actual trans individuals, as well as women, and gay people, much more than organisations like Mermaids who have tried smearing her name and are now facing public rejection and at least one lawsuit, likely to be followed by many more because every single thing Rowling pointed out in her essay (without even calling them out directly, which is more graceful of her than they deserved) was right.
Shima Sedu, a 19-year-old Algerian girl, was raped in 2016. She responded in a way unusual for the society at the time by reporting her rape to the police and who was responsible for taking away her innocence. The rapist was sentenced to 6 months in prison at first. He pressured her to marry him as stated in islamic law, he will not go to jail if the victim agrees to marry him. She (rightfully) refuses. This angers the rapist.
Sadly, she didn’t live a peaceful life after. She received continuous death and rape threats from both the rapist and the rapist’s mother. We didn’t know that they were being serious until it was too late.
4 years later, the rapist sought his revenge for having his life ruined because of Shima’s report. He kidnapped Shima, kept her captive, beat her until she was bloodied, then raped her again. He then killed her, mutilated and burned her body so no one can identify her or trace it back to the rapist. It took the police a long time to finally identify that this was the same girl who had reported that she was raped 4 years ago.
She suffered a lot of harassment and threats after her report - from the rapist, his mother, and from her own community as well. She never lived a peaceful life after she was raped and now she’s gone. She wanted to live her own dreams, fight for her freedom and future, free from the restrictions of religion and her society. But she couldn’t.
She was born in a society raised by a religion that does not care for women… and that was not her fault. We offer our condolences for Shima. You didn’t deserve this.
Please stop saying that Xtianity - or even every religion - is “just as bad.”
I saw this series of tweets and thought I should share it here. To anyone who wears docs: please be aware of lace code. Although many newer/younger alternative folk are unaware of it and it might seem “outdated”, it’s still important to be aware of (especially if you plan on going to any protests). You don’t want to be disrespectful or unintentionally align yourself with the wrong people.
find me a place in 2020 that genuinely uses (or even knows about) the lace code. these were probably people who are way too online and found some old tumblr post about lace code and believed it
I said this in the tags before but I’ll say it here instead so that people will be able see it in the “reblogs” section of this post:
I’ve heard people argue that lace code is not important or “a thing” anymore. It’s true that a lot of younger folk are unaware of it and don’t follow it, especially since the rise of 2000s emo culture had kids wearing docs with all different color laces and other “punk-inspired fashion” without being aware of the culture. I totally get it.
I think it’s still important to be aware of it though. You can see in the screenshots above there are still people who know about it. And there are still groups who use it (as well as other things) to identify each other in a crowd. Obviously if you’re living your daily life just minding your own business people probably aren’t gonna think twice about your laces. Nobody is gonna think anything of a random teenage girl at the mall wearing white laces, for example. But at certain scenes or among certain crowds, it has meaning to it and I think it’s good to be aware of that. I think asking someone not to wear the white laces on their docs at a blm protest is fair. If anything, it’s just a matter of safety.
omg I really should have put everything in one long post. I already said this in another reblog ;.; Yes, the colors can vary depending on the area and can sometimes even vary among different scenes in the same area. However, the “white laces = white supremacy” thing is pretty common in a lot of areas. It’s definitely not just an American thing. It literally started in the UK as a way to distinguish racist skinheads from the originals/non-racists.
This is probably the last time I’ll reblog this but here are some asks I got regarding this post. I thought I should add them here!
Edit: just added an ask about ladder lace to this post because I thought was important.
Also...
I just wanna say I completely agree with the people in the screenshots above. While I think it’s important to know about lace code in your region to keep yourself and others safe, you shouldn’t immediately harass or assault someone for their laces. It’s not a universal thing and it could just be a person who doesn’t know. Context is very very important.
If anyone has some more specific questions about this post and you want to send an ask, I’d prefer if you send me an ask off anon so I can reply to you privately. (No need to be shy! I'm pretty chill, I won’t judge.)
origamiaround
dailybridgerton
janainaart
turnnoffyourmind
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