Our Shared Shelf discussion

@Florian, I count as trans. I'm bigender (but one of my genders aligns with the gender assigned at birth).

Anyway trans people have made it very clear how they feel about the issue. btw, while in the context of this post I get what you mean by "trans people are the gender they feel they are", many have an issue with framing it as "feeling like a woman" or "identifying as non-binary". we don't say cis women "identify as women". they are women. so are trans women.

@Keith, trans people's dignity should not be a matter of opinion. You wouldn't apply this to other kinds of discrimination, would you?

Allie wrote: "Florian wrote: "You make a good point Allie. However, even though science would tell us sex is binary well... It would not matter, what matter is what people feel who they are, correct?
I mean, as ..."

So I have been reading this thread for awhile and have found it so disheartening. JK Rowling has made multiple transphobic comments over the years. As well as several other problematic statements.

But Allie thank you for noting that sex is not binary; this can be looked at a number of ways but for example if you look at "sex" chromosomes we taught (incorrectly) the XX=female and XY=male. But some people are born with XXX, X, XXY or XYY which result in a variety of sex characteristics.

I found this article which covers other aspects on how sex, while biological, is on a spectrum. This was written by a microbiologist.

https://massivesci.com/articles/sex-g...

But regardless of someone's biology, trans and gender diverse individuals deserve respect, just like cis gendered people. That is what Maya Forstater failed to do, and as a result her contract was not renewed (she was not fired as tweeted by JK Rowling).

Sex is real, it's on a spectrum, and JK needs to get all the facts before she tweets to her millions of followers and spreads hate.

To anyone who was upset by this thread and/or JK's tweets, particularly trans and gender diverse individuals, I send love and hugs (with consent). You matter and keep being your kind, caring, smart, beautiful extraordinary selves.

@Allie: I guess it's my bad, I did not miss read you. What I was trying to say is it does not matter if science explains with facts that sex is binary or not binary :) I suppose I was not disagreeing with you. It's just sometimes, people use science to prove something but we forget the "human" thing and science cannot explain everything. But yes, I agree with you. Thanks for the response, I don't use Twitter a lot, there are too many things there and it's hard to find out things.

@Marina: I probably missed that, my apologies. Fair point, kindness is one of the most important point! ☺️

I've edited the first post to ask everyone who disagrees that transphobia is real and misgendering is bad, to go elsewhere to argue about this. This is also not the place for bringing up everything you've ever disagreed with trans people about.

For the record, Camelia Rose deleted most of their comments after I said that dictionary-fighting me about the word "transphobia" is hijacking the thread. If any of my comments don't make sense out of context, feel free to ask and I'll clarify.

Not the same situation but this post explains why deleting your posts/comments often wastes lots of emotional labour - https://crossknit.wordpress.com/2017/... (see lesson six) If you genuinely want to be nice, be sure to ask if the person wants you to delete your comments.

Fallan (msyvettereads) wrote: "Florian wrote: "What concern me is "how far her words can influence people?" because to be honest if everyone who would read her would think "she says shit." then I wouldn't care.
But, we seem to b..."

This is actually a great post and i agree with a lot of it. However, you can virtually apply this to any celebrity, athlete, musician, or politician who uses their platform to speak or preach about social and political issues.

So unfortunately the greater responsibility falls on those who choose to use those platforms. Im sure JK is a wonderful human being and has done a lot of good in her life regarding equality and humanitarianism (if that is even a word).

But with that responsibility as a mouth piece JK, Emma, Trump, etc are also responsible for taking the criticisms that come with their actions or choices of words they use in social media and the like. When you take on the responsibility of being a voice for people you also take on the ACCOUNTABILITY of the words and actions you use.

As humans we are all flawed and imperfect, as individuals we all have our own views, experiences, and belief systems which can sometimes conflict with the messages we try to send. In the case of people like JK, the things she says gets magnified because of who she is and even though she may have a certain belief system in regards to gender it does not mean she isnt supportive (in this case of transgenders).

At the same time if JK makes a statement that makes others feel uncomfortable, angry, sad, or confused its ok for them to call her or any other public figure out on it. It comes with the territory when you are a public figure and have taken on that mantel as a mouth piece. With the responsibility of being a leader of a cause comes the responsibility of what you say and do.

what she said by definition means she's not supportive of trans people :( we don't care how she feels in her ~heart, we care what her words&actions show.

Marina wrote: "what she said by definition means she's not supportive of trans people :( we don't care how she feels in her ~heart, we care what her words&actions show."

Yes, i addressed that in my last paragraph.

you also said "it doesn't mean she isn't supportive", that's what i'm disagreeing with. you can't make your own ally cookies

Marina wrote: "you also said "it doesn't mean she isn't supportive", that's what i'm disagreeing with. you can't make your own ally cookies"

So in your opinion if she supports policies that benefit trans people but also believes that sex and gender are pre-determined that she cant be an ally? Yea, we definitely disagree there. You can have different belief systems while still accepting and supporting people for who they are despite the difference in beliefs.

James wrote: "You can have different belief systems while still accepting and supporting people for who they are despite the difference in beliefs"

Hmmm. I think this gets into semantics and community definitions.

I think the accepted term is supporter. This is someone who is outside the community who accepts the community.

Where as an ally is someone who eats, breathes, and lives for the community.

you are probably correct Pam.

James wrote: "This is actually a great post and i agree with a lot of it. However, you can virtually apply this to any celebrity, athlete, musician, or politician who uses their platform to speak or preach about social and political issues."

I agree with your sentiments 100%. Anyone with a platform with followers needs to be mindful of what they say and be the big enough person to show growth and that they are fallible.

She doesn't support policies that benefit trans people. She believes trans women should be in spaces for men (restrooms, locker rooms, prisons), even though it's dangerous for them.

Also, I wouldn't say an ally is someone who "lives and breathes the community". that would be a no true scotsman. not all allies are equally good or helpful, and it's much easier to recognize other people's transphobia than your own.

If you're referring to voting against the Tories or Republicans (for other reasons), I would describe that as an "accidental ally".

So now we should say that transgender women have XX chromosomes, and were born in a body with woman genitalia ? Otherwise it's trans-phobia?

Marina wrote: "what she said by definition means she's not supportive of trans people :( we don't care how she feels in her ~heart, we care what her words&actions show."
Why we should not care about how she feels, while with transgenders we must take into account what they feel? What are your criteria for people whose feelings matter and whose do not?

Marina wrote: "what she said by definition means she's not supportive of trans people"

What she said by definition means she's not supportive of someone's right to get a person fired. Should you have that right? Should I? Should anybody with an axe to grind? You can support people's rights and not think they should have the privilege of depriving people they don't like of a livelihood.

Supporting someone's rights does not have to -- and frankly shouldn't -- extend to the cringing obeisance of tilting our heads upward like baby birds, mouths hanging open, to swallow whatever someone wishes to pour down our throats. We can support people's rights without uncritical fealty to their every whim. Even a person whose rights I support can be wrong about things.

Marina wrote: "JKR does seem to have an irrational fear of cis men pretending to be trans women in order to rape cis women.
"
Hello everybody,
Unfortunately there are articles which describe that allegedly some people who claim to be transgender might rape other women. In particular, you can read about a man who pretended to be a trans woman to rape.
Here are recent cases:
https://www.womenarehuman.com/male-tr...
https://torontosun.com/2014/02/26/pre...
https://www.theguardian.com/commentis...
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...
Addressing this problem will help to build trust to trans women. Because when their words diverge from reality it destroys trust. Like we see with JK Rowling.

Marina wrote: "Do you see how being called "female" will just make his dysphoria worse and is a major reason to choose abortion?"
Hello Marina,
I recommend you to read feminism history. Feminists do not comfort people because they are not trained to do so. Expecting them to do this is sexist, because it means that you believe in sexist ideas of woman predisposition to be a free therapy help for everybody who comes along. Telling women to be nice is the same. Such kind of views have no place here. In addition nobody in power will listen to a woman being upset. To solve a problem you need to gather data, document them and compute statistics, and even then it would take years to resolve.
In your case it means that you gather pregnant trans-men (like a hundred) and watch how many of them would go for abortion after wrong pronoun.
Something like this: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/2...
Like feminists do.

Alright everyone. Let's take a deep breath.

Remember that this thread is a response to JK Rowling's tweets and not a debate on the trans community.

Allie wrote: "And science tells us that sex is not a binary."
While sex is not always defined for primitive life forms, and can be changed during a lifetime (fish, molluscs) but with mammals it is not so. They have a chromosome for this.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB...
A human sex can be determined by a genetic analysis which checks for a presence of Y chromosome amd it influences physical development.

There is a way to change the method if you believe that it's wrong. You are to became a prominent biologist and to prove other scientist why it is not so. If you are successful the definition of sex will be modified. This is the scientific approach. Arguing here about it will not change a thing.

Marina wrote: "She doesn't support policies that benefit trans people. She believes trans women should be in spaces for men (restrooms, locker rooms, prisons), even though it's dangerous for them."
Man places are dangerous for everybody, in particular for men as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_...
The problem is a man socialization and it starts from early childhood. We should suppress early boyhood aggression as we do with girls and teach them to be nice.

I feel that what she did was disgusting! People who are trans truly feel that they are the other gender- it's their right. And even if she dislikes people who are trans-gender, she should be more respectful about it!

Pam wrote: "Alright everyone. Let's take a deep breath.

Remember that this thread is a response to JK Rowling's tweets and not a debate on the trans community."
Isn't the title of the thread is "JK Rowling's Transphobia" and not "JK Rowling's tweets"?

Mushka wrote: "I feel that what she did was disgusting! People who are trans truly feel that they are the other gender- it's their right. And even if she dislikes people who are trans-gender, she should be more r..."
Again, we have no proof of a JK Rowling statement that trans people may not feel the way they feel.
Please keep in mind that "because I think so" is not sufficient. I'm a feminist and I need hard facts. Your emotional outbursts are not replacement to non-existing JK Rowling tweets.

well, i am just giving my opinion, which isn't fact.

Mathemilda,

OSS supports trans rights as seen when we read Fierce Femms and Notorious Liars.

You have the right to have a differing opinion and the right to discuss why you feel that way in a civil, respectful manner. But at any point when hate speech is used or you deny a trans person's existence your comments will be removed.

This will be your only warning.

Pam wrote: "Mathemilda,

OSS supports trans rights as seen when we read Fierce Femms and Notorious Liars.

You have the right to have a differing opinion and the right to discuss why you feel that way in a c..."
You mean that providing facts is not respectful? Asking people to show evidence of what they claim to exist? And trans-phobic? As a scientist, I'm surprised by the approach.
Please be more specific. As autistic person I need more information. Where I was not civil and respectful? It will help me tremendously if you can point it out.
If the facts I provided somehow are one-sided tell me about it. I would love to know.
Unless, of course, your intersexual feminism does not include autistic women.

Mind if I join the discussion?

Mushka gave an opinion regarding feelings. It is not related with fact, he/she shared what he/she felt.

What could be not kind is your following word keep in mind that "I think so" is not sufficient. In the context of emotions, it's hard to receive such comment, it might be perceived as your opinion is not relevant, don't speak for nothing. People's emotions are important and should be considered too, of course someone who is only using emotions and letting them controlling him/her is not good but suppressing them or saying to someone else "hey! Keep your emotion for yourself" could be belittling.
You may think for good reasons that someone should bring good argument to support a claim but it's not really kind to "attack" emotions. (ex: I understand your disgust and anger but I disagree with the fact Rowling is transphobic/ trans ally. What points make you believe she is supporting this and that? :😊).

I hope you understand what I mean. 😉 It's more about asking question, being less direct. Does it make sense?

@mushka: I don't know your gender I hope the pronoun won't offend you, let me know which one you use to describe yourself.

Thanks for the explanation. It jolts me when people claim something which is far from reality. My whole body turns tense, and I cannot think about anything else. In particular, JK Rowling did not do what Mushka claimed. Are my feelings important here? Currently it looks like nobody cares.
I've see a number of people trying your suggested approach, resulting in long discussions without success.
I've already asked for criteria whose feelings are important and whose not, and did not get any answer. Not that I demand my feelings to be of consideration. I just wander how it is defined.
I see that now Pam added "you deny a trans person's existence", and I never did it. But I guess after my comments will be removed nobody will know, and I may be blamed for anything. Because JK Rowling did not deny anything and in particular, did not deny trans person feelings. But still she got blamed for this.

Mathemilda wrote: "Please be more specific. As autistic person I need more information. Where I was not civil and respectful? It will help me tremendously if you can point it out.
If the facts I provided somehow are one-sided tell me about it. I would love to know.

Sure Mathemilda.

You have a very strong voice; one that is demanding and requeating hard facts. In a court of law, in a research paper that would be fine.

But your comments came off as proof seeking against a marganlized person's feelings of being diminished by yet another person denying their right to exist. This being particularly poignant because our Group's founder is so closely tied to JK Rowling- and- who many of us found solace in her imagination.

The other factor of this is that Marina, the person who started this thread, is not the sole voice of trans life. It is unfair to attack her emotions or statements as if she could speak for the entire community. She can only speak for herself.

With that, by quoting her or a post she linked to, to me you came off as putting her on trial for all of trans life. For example, you wrote "hate to break it to you, but people who claim to be be trans" Here you are calling Marina out specifically. By using the phrase "break it to you" it seems as if you are implying that YOU are letting her in on a secret that only you possess. And by using the phrase "people who claim to be trans" it reads as if you are questioning someone's assertion on who they are; you are denying them the ability to self-identify. You may have been couching your answer to give Marina wiggle room to also denounce these individuals. But because this is coupled to her name and letting her in on a secret, it comes of as being incredibly dismissive to trans life and therefore her life.

We can discuss further via private message if you would like.

Again, there are other threads under the Fierce Femms book here that have whole pages of other members asking tough questions about trans life who receive equally tough answers back. This thread isn't the place to discuss trans life but more to see the POV of someone who felt let down and betrayed by JK Rowling.

Thank you

Thank you for your post.
I got an impression from this thread that trans women do not like to be raped in man jails and would like to change it. And they would like some help from feminists, in particular JK Rowling.

Here is an example of feminist work:
https://www.ted.com/talks/esta_soler_...
It took 30 years, people. Only to accept that wife beating is not included in a marital bliss. With painstakingly gathered evidence and witnesses. Because men in power ignore woman feelings.
In one of links I provided we see a trans woman being transferred back to male prison. It happened not because JK Rowling demanded it. It was decided by men in power. Do you have any idea how to reach them otherwise than collecting documented evidence? It would be a great help, because for the last century feminists did not find any other working solutions.
Or I'm mistaken, and trans people do not look for practical help in their predicament? Is their goal only feeling acceptance? Is the jail raping on its own is fine? Then, of course, everything what I said is not suitable. Although as a rape survivor I'm rather surprised. But I guess it is just me. Or maybe they are not ready yet for actions. Well, venting a frustration is a start.
JK Rowling cannot save everybody in the world who desperately needs it. What about girls in India who are born in a prostitute village and have no other choices in life but to be repeatedly raped several times a day until death? She did nothing for them. What about migrant workers in Saudi Arabia who have no rights whatsoever under their contracts and actually are sold to another owner? She did nothing for them, too. What about war raping, which still happens regularly in Africa? She did nothing for this as well. Even in her native England she did not say a word when pimp circles who targeted and forced into prostitution girls from dysfunctional families were discovered. She is not a much of a fighter. (And here I could offer my sympathy, but it was called demeaning, so I won't.) This is why she has her influence, by the way. If she would be a consistent feminist she would be badmouthed and banished from public spaces, as it has happened to others.
The phrase "people who claim to be trans" is not mine. It's from one of articles. Would it help if I put it in quotes?

I get both of you. But ur right, there was technically no sure-fire proof that she did what i said. {also, i am not offended by the pronoun use}

"JK Rowling cannot save everybody in the world who desperately needs it"

Mathemilda, I don't think anyone is asking JKR to "solve" it - just not to be a part of the problem.

You've presented some good logic. Sadly, logic and proof are not usually what changes cultures. Humans are not logical creatures. Even humans who believe they are logical, are subject to emotions, conditioning, and the influence of their own perceptions and interpretations.

It took far more than "30 years" for wife-beating to stop being acceptable. It took centuries. Centuries in which jokes about beating wives, common conversations about wives which reduced them to property, children, or slaves - and in those centuries, at first everyone thought it was fine. Then they thought it was "unfortunate." Then we migrated to "well you really ought to be nicer, but that's your own personality - and it's still your right to beat them." It took a VERY long time to get to a place where that 30-year conversation could even happen. And now that we have laws against it and we as a society say it is wrong - we still blame victims ("why does she stay with him?!"). We still refuse to issue retraining orders until the abuse is so bad it is often life-threatening. Women who are murdered by their domestic partners still make up the largest single group of murder victims every year.

The difference between "the law that was finally placed on the books" and "the reality that women live" happens not in a courtroom, but in the court of public opinion. As long as we, as a culture, still have significant groups of people who think jokes about women/wives are funny, when they reduce women to property or servants - then we will continue to have places in our society where wife beating is considered funny, minor, not that big a deal - and women will continue to be beaten and murdered by their partners.

In the same way - when we allow racist jokes and derogatory stereotypes about people of color - we ensure that people of color will not be treated as true equals.

30 years ago, if you had told a group of people you experience autism, they would have declared you intellectually inferior, probably laughed at you and bullied you. Today, you can say that, and at least some people understand that you experience/interpret differently and will make an effort to explain to you. There are still people who will make fun of or bully you for it.

That's the same thing as "we have changed the law, but women still get beaten." it's the gap between "when we start to figure a thing out (beating women is bad, autism is just a slight difference of the brain, race has no scientific basis and racism is unreasonable) and when "what we know" becomes a part of "what we, as a society, expect."

Nobody expects JKR to change the laws or to change all of society. They DO expect that someone who has made her platform a matter of supporting the oppressed, or claiming to support the oppressed - not propagate misinformation that harms oppressed people.

Someone who claims to support marginalized groups - can reasonably be expected not to say things that are harmful to marginalized groups. And dismissive, derogatory, or denigrating comments *are harmful. They are part of what makes it "ok" to do real harm.

100 years ago, men could freely beat their wives - and when they talked about it in town, nobody would ask them what the hell they were thinking. They would just nod and even if they didn't think the wife should have been beaten, they would acknowledge that this is his right.

50 years ago, people could freely ridicule you for being autistic - and while folks standing around might think it was unnecessary or even mean, they would have accepted that the person had every right to do it.

And today, people feel free to speak dismissively of and denigrate trans people - and there are people emboldened to murder trans people for no reason other than because they are trans. The great thing is - there are people wiling to stand up and say that they don't think that's OK. Those people want JKR to be one of them - not to be one of those who talks negatively and contributes to the environment that excuses harm.

JKR, having positioned herself as a champion of the marginalized, should be - well, championing marginalized people rather than contributing to the harmful environment. When she did exactly the opposite of that, it disappointed many people. When confronted with that information, she could have said "OMG - that was thoughtless and unthinking of me. I am sorry for propagating that harm" and corrected her course. After all, we're only human - we make mistakes and we learn from them. but she didn't choose to do that. She chose to decide that some marginalized people were worth her support and others weren't. And for fans whose love of JKR is rooted in the way that she supports and represents those marginalized and underserved groups - from muggles to "welfare moms" - to see her trample on a marginalized group is extra disappointing, because that kind of hypocrisy makes people wonder whether her support for those groups is real, or whether she has that little regard for THEM too.

I think you are trying to genuinely and authentically argue for something you see as logical - and the thing to recognize here is, that isn't the conversation that others are having. You have inadvertently missed a step.

In order to "solve" something together, people must first agree on what the problem is. and the problem isn't the law or the physical situation. The problem is the perception that it's OK to ignore the needs of trans people, to make decisions or recommendations 'for them" rather than "with them." That it's OK to discuss "whether" they really exist ("people who claim to be trans" - whether you said it or quoted it - starts from a place of "we must first establish whether their claim is even true". )

Not sure if this is a good example, so apologies if it is clumsy. but imagine if you were having a hard time in a conversation due to your autism, and the person you were talking to was getting angry. You say "hey, I'm autistic, and I need you to understand my needs so we can communicate in a way that works for me." And instead of pausing to think "OK - what does that mean and how do I need to change what I am doing to make this conversation successful" the other person said "yeah, people who have no manners and don't care what other people feel, CLAIMING to be autistic to get away with just being jerks..." - that person, implying that your experience isn't real - or that you are lying about it to 'get away with' something - is not engaging with you with the goal of finding a common place. they are taking the information you gave them and turning it into a weapon to dismiss and insult you with. And there's no path from that place, to a successful conversation.

To everyone else in the conversation here - i apologize if i am "derailing" - I am certainly not addressing the original conversation.

To mathemilda - I hope those examples give you some options for different ways to understand what people are saying to you, or how/why your arguments may not have been perceived or had the effect you intended.

I believe you're all attempting to engage authentically and respectfully - and sometimes our gaps make that hard. If any of the above helps bridge some of those gaps - yay. If not, I apologize for intruding unnecessarily into the conversation

Hello Diana,
here is still no evidence that J.K. Rowling is a part of the problem and claimed that trans people do not exists.
My example was about a practical way in which feminists solve their problems. How they do it (gathering statistics, working with lawmakers) and how they get results. It is a practical approach which proved to be effective. How you got from it that I denied problems I do not see.
As for your reasoning then I mentioned groups of women around the globe who have hardship right now. You do not mention them at all. Does it mean that you deny their existence?

J.K. Rowling never claimed that trans people do not exist. She supported a woman who wants transphobia to be protected speech by law. No matter what you think of trans people personally, hate speech and insults should never be sanctioned.

What was the hate speech? It was never quoted here.
Have you ever heard a phrase "I Disapprove of What You Say, But I Will Defend to the Death Your Right to Say It"? Do you understand what it means?

Mathemilda wrote: "What was the hate speech? It was never quoted here.

The link from the first comment on this thread has the quote. More importantly it also explains why it's offensive to the trans community.

As a "transgender" woman I was really disappointed and saddened by her stance as she's someone I've greatly admired and looked up to as Harry Potter was a safe space and her story is pretty inspiring. What is frustrating is that some people like to see transgender individuals as less than and don't believe us or see our experiences as valid of those that are born in the right body. It's not about becoming somebody different, but about becoming who we've always been. Rather "Trans" or "Cis" we are women at the end of the day! We should be given the same equality, rights, and oppuntinues as our counterparts. It's disheartening people can't just love people for who they are. We need to stand with each other. I will not be erased!

Alyssa wrote: "As a "transgender" woman I was really disappointed and saddened by her stance as she's someone I've greatly admired and looked up to as Harry Potter was a safe space and her story is pretty inspiri..."

i agree it's disheartening, alyssa. dismissal of a person is just wrong. your words were heartening, by the by. *raising fist in the air in solidarity*!

Mathemilda wrote: "Marina wrote: "Do you see how being called "female" will just make his dysphoria worse and is a major reason to choose abortion?"
Hello Marina,
I recommend you to read feminism history. Feminists ..."

I've read feminist texts, yes. Nobody is claiming that only cis women should be inclusive of trans people. Cis men also should. And binary trans people should remember non-binary ones. I trust trans women and I don't hold them responsible for shitty cis people who pretend to be trans.

As for abortion, it was just an example. I wasn't saying that gender-neutral pregnancy care is only needed to prevent aborions. Pretty much 100% of trans people will say they don't want to be misgendered (though some are used to ignoring it). Also, your hypothetical example counts only pregnancies that have already occurred. It doesn't account for trans people who choose to have a hysterectomy or use contraception in order to avoid being misgendered non-stop for 9 months. (obviously in practice it's often not the only reason, but this is irrelevant if you care about trans people and not just their hypothetical babies)

And nobody is claiming that trans women are XX. (People don't actually know their own chromosomes unless they get tested!) But 99% of the time this isn't relevant anyway. If you go out of your way to say a trans woman has XY chromosomes, you're just being obnoxious.

I know little about trans/cis issues and am interested to learn. I heard about the JKR issues on Twitter & read this yesterday:

https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-...

It sets out her position clearly & I believe there are many valid points. Human beings are very complex and in all our debates, we need to remember that. Always so many sides to a story - danger of a "single narrative". (Adichie)

She didn't make any new points, she just expanded on her tweets (and admitted that at the time of the first problematic "like", she was still on the fence about the topic and looking for different opinions) and explicitly aligned herself with the "gender-critical" community.
The world is not divided into women, men and trans people. Please read this - https://twitter.com/Carter_AndrewJ/st... (that's a thread, you can also read it here https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/12... )

I am honestly a bit mad at what JK Rowling is saying. A main theme in her books is about the power of love and openness, and I think what she tweeted goes against that. I don't agree at all with what she's said, although I personally prefer being neutral in debates like this.

That being said, I also don't want to boycott the Harry Potter series the way some people are doing. I don't see the point in giving up some of my favorite books in an effort to speak out against their author, because I do still strongly admire what JK Rowling accomplished. I admire and love her work, and I am still going to do that despite the fact that I blatantly disagree with the author's actions.

(you're free to disagree with me, everyone else here seems a lot older than me anyway. I'm fourteen and probably don't have a very mature worldview)

@AspiringAuthor I don't know if that's the correct method to reply to someone's comment here (I'm new here); don't you worry about the age gap sweetie, I'm 20 and I totally agree with you. I admire her work too and I wouldn't just turn down all of that admiration because of what her opinions are IRL. I just don't like her opinions, but that and her work are two different things :)

This is why many people think she can't be separated from her work https://hufflepuffperks.tumblr.com/po... (and this doesn't acknowledge her fatphobia). Not to mention not wanting to support her financially or not wanting to make trans people feel unsafe by wearing merchandise.

BTW for those who are on facebook, there's a group for those who reject her TERF views but still love something about the characters/story.

I am a bit late for this. Can someone please light me up ?
I want to know abt this thread.

Just found this thread. Only yesterday I changed my rating for Harry Potter and wrote a review explaining how not only are JKR's comments problematic but the beloved book itself as well..
here's that review

I am disheartened and disappointed by people still willing to defend Rowling... If it's either out of blind loyalty, or not truley understand what exactly was transphobic about the things she said, or they know full well she's transphobic and resort to "it's just her opinion and we should respect that". Transphobia is not just an opinion. If you like pineapple on pizza is an opinion and should not be grouped with invalidating someones gender as just an opinion. I can be a civil person and say that hey if you don't believe trans people deserve rights and deserve to be seen...well OK. We will never get along. And that's that. I will move on with my life. But... The fact that people of voting age can legally take away trans people's rights... Makes me unable to be civil. Rowling is one of those people. She has a huge platform with the ability to unknowingly (or knowingly) spread miss information to her audience. Information that is deliberately hurting trans/non-binary /intersex people. JK Rowling is transphobic. That is a fact. That is not an opinion. And if you know this and still financially supporting her work. Just know that your money cab be used by Rowling to support any Anti-lgbtq+ organizations of her choosing. And if you know this... And still support her. Well... I don't think I need to say anything more about that...
If you still financially support Rowling knowing she's transphobic... And is struggling and feel guilty about it... I don't think you are alone there. It definitely is hard to give up something that means so much to you and has had a big impact on your life. I get it 100%. I am still struggling with how to find ways to no longer give her my money. I will no longer be seeing any of her movies in the theater. I will buy her books second hand... I will buy unofficial merch. I wanted to see the Cursed Child... Knowing full well it wasn't that great but now I will save my money for something better. I know some people can just quite cold turkey and I respect that. I'm still struggling with this. But... This struggle does not compare to the trans women who are being murdered for just being trans. And thousands of trans people who are losing their basic human rights.
Rowling is transphobic. She uses fear tactics to spread hate. Not wanting trans women in the women's restroom because of fear of cis men pretending to be women. Is the age old transphobic narrative that trans women are just men in dresses.
JK Rowling is transphobic.

She's using people who detransitioned as a weapon against trans rights which is so ridiculous. Like, people are going back and forth about their sexuality all the time. It's not a problem. But somehow for gender identity it is? They both can be fluid, you know

Also, plenty of people who "regret" transitioning still identify as trans, they just wish they had stayed in the closet. Oh and many regret some of the surgeries they were pressured to undergo in order to "pass" better.