"Dumbledore is Gay" sez Rowling

In other words zero credibility

you just linked to a national review article written by someone who openly hates trans people

if there's one thing I fucking hate it's disingenuousness.

The Telegraph is trash. Pink News is trash. That's where the story came from. None of us here have read the book. I remember JKR getting burned at the stake over Scottish Independence. I remember getting burned at the stake for Brexit. What's new?

I don't know anything about everything

lol I can’t credit linking to the National fucking Review to support your point in the same argument where you refer to “witchburning”, jfc

Pink News is trash because it inconveniently covers trans people as though they are with respect and rights, yes

it really doesn't matter if the original article overstates it - jk rowling's public persona has been defined by her views about transgender people for the better part of a year, far far beyond her terrible post-HP writing no one cares about. there was never a possibility that a book she wrote that includes a crossdressing man doing literally anything wasn't going to attract attention and suspicion. if you don't think this response is exactly what she wanted you're a rube.

putting the rube in tru believer

guardian article is typical "I've read the book and I'm a professional writer, therefore I'm right" - when she actually gets down to it her argument seems to be "these tropes are familiar, therefore they can't be transphobic" which is less missing the point than sticking your head in the sand to avoid it.

it's annoying that any coverage of this book exists is in reaction to the Telegraph review, but Pinknews' reviewer aims to debunk Nick Cohen's debunking: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/09/16/jk-rowling-troubled-blood-serial-killer-cross-dresser-womens-underwear-plot-character/

Wait the Guardian review was by Nick Cohen? 😬

there were two guardian articles

Troubled Blood indeed

Hmmmmmm, I'm not ~entirely~ sure I'd count The Guardian as a trusted source on what's transphobic and what's not.

but the guardian presented articles the topic from both sides, a TERF and a sex pest.

sad lol

https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt37083bb618e0e529/5e3b0275db561b2b59d8ad85/Nick_C.png

as the Terf broadsheet of record i think we should trust the Graun on this

Go ahead and endorse an obvious troll from the Telegraph then if it makes you feel clever. They're laughing their heads off over there, I guarantee it.

well if the national review says it isn't transphobic

Aw man, the Telegraph is now declaring the book NOT transphobic after all! What a surprise. Surely this is also JKR's fault.

i'm not sure what level of smug satisfaction you're on but it's impossible to recognize as a human response

the guardian review reads as "it's not transphobic, it just has several tropes that are traditionally used to stoke hatred towards transgender people".
which is kinda how one could summarize jkr position on transgender people. she's not transphobic. she just likes promoting many tropes that are traditionally used to stoke hatred towards transgender people.

this however..

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/jk-rowling-trans_ca_5f5fb236c5b68d1b09c60ee5

"There’s a trans character named Pippa in Rowling’s book The Silkworm, who’s described as “unstable and aggressive,” according to Katelyn Burns, a trans author writing for Them. Burns quotes one section of the book, when Pippa tries to escape the hero detective: ”‘If you go for that door one more time I’m calling the police and I’ll testify and be glad to watch you go down for attempted murder. And it won’t be fun for you Pippa,’ he added. ‘Not pre-op.’”

so, jkr, let me see if i got this right: a suggested rape won't be fun, but hey, it just might be. post op.
this is not a dog whistle anymore. it's a fucking vuvuzela.

I took a look at Rowling's twitter feed today, I didn't realize how much she's doubling down on this cause. Jesus Christ lady. I guess she truly believes this otherwise I can't imagine her risking the threat to her career like this.

thanks, scanner darkly, I'd forgotten what a vuvuzela was.

it's fucked up all these newspapers are saying that jkr's book is transphobic when her social media presence is screaming "i'm transphobic" all on its own

how dare they misrepresent her work by suggesting it contains her actual views

considering it's a 900 page volume the ratio of transphobia per page is not that high surely

i'm not sure what level of smug satisfaction you're on but it's impossible to recognize as a human response

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Thursday, September 17, 2020 6:35 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I humbly apologize for mocking Telegraph stans.

love too burn witches at the stake (criticise billionaires for their consistently shitty politics and bigotry)

By all means go for it then! Stanning for a Telegraph article clearly intended to troll the left doesn't really do that.

She's got a whole twitter feed you could critique instead of genuflecting at clickbait trolls from the worst of the UK media.

Nobody is stanning or genuflecting itt, as you well know from having read the posts itt

Do you worship the national review?

Do you masturbate over the Telegraph?

No because discussion of rowlings transphobia is not endorsement of whatever pub has covered it obv. It’s a rhetorical q I’m assuming the answer is no for both of us but getting less sure

But yes nobody itt has mentioned her twitter feed or drawn conclusions from the other reviews of this book, the last 50 posts itt didn’t happen and we are all just saying “the telegraph is good”. You are either thick or trolling.

This outrage about the book is a troll by right wing media. All the reports lead back to the one article in the Telegraph, who love to provoke the left on identity politics. A very successful troll btw and great for business. Sure, double down on trusting the now retracted clickbait review from the bullshit pape. jk rowling is frequently posting her own words on twitter which could be discussed but so far on this thread have not been.

A schism exists between feminist theory, queer theory and trans theory. Eg. gender-based rights vs. sex-based rights when applied to female-only safe spaces like prisons, rape shelters etc; how and when trans people should compete in sex-segregated sports; age of consent for minors to transition; & a couple of other topics. There are similar nuances in the BLM conversation which are beyond stating if you are for or against. It's more complicated than that.

Supporters of the Harpers article see that it's not a request by the signatories to not be flamed but that these conversations have become difficult to have in left-ish groups such as academia, the arts, non-profits, unions and so on. Meanwhile the right-wing look on & laugh.

ILX leans left and it's unlikely that there could be a thread on gender theory here. Several posts are already saying that this is a stupid thread - a reaction to some posts getting close to difficult viewpoints being aired. It's worth thinking about.

― everything, Saturday, July 11, 2020 11:34 PM (two months ago) bookmarkflaglink

Love the idea that nobody would have picked up on the transphobic content in this book if the telegraph hadn’t (even tho ppl have also discussed the guardian review, which is based on the content of the book and not just that telegraph piece, and drawn the same conclusions)(also a bullshit paper tbf)

jk rowling is frequently posting her own words on twitter which could be discussed but so far on this thread have not been.

did you read any of the other posts in this thread before saying this or were you just hoping people wouldn't remember

Xpost Not a gripe - a comment. I don't think ilx is particularly "left" either but maybe i dont spend enoigh time here. I dont feel like I am defending Rowling by pointing out what I feel was a huge successful troll by a publication known for such things.

You should spend less time here tbf

You should engage with JKR's actual words tbf.

jk rowling is frequently posting her own words on twitter which could be discussed but so far on this thread have not been.

jk rowling has been a terf for years. she is also very friendly on twitter with "brian spanner" a unionist troll account that has tweeted at multiple female snp msps calling them cunts

― xmas respecter (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, December 24, 2019 6:40 AM (eight months ago)

don't want to link to wings over scotland but he details her literally @ing the brian spanner account 200 times.

― xmas respecter (jim in vancouver), Tuesday, December 24, 2019 6:42 AM (eight months ago)

to me it seems unlikely that an angry entitled millionaire soft Tory would be a terf

― a very powerful woman in the dog world (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, December 24, 2019 8:06 AM (eight months ago)

can’t wait for my wee girl to be old enough to want to read these and then spend years trying not to yell about how all harry does is defend his elite private school and the horrible racist status quo it supports from having to make any sort of change and then grows up to be a cop so he can do it some more

and also that rowling is a blairite terf

― hot nuts (small) (bizarro gazzara), Saturday, December 28, 2019 11:56 PM (eight months ago)

You know, I don't really think whoever wrote this bit was purposefully aiming at Rowling, but I think they hit her pretty well with it:

https://entertainment.theonion.com/frozen-2-creators-confirm-that-elsa-gay-but-also-tran-1839981134

― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Monday, December 30, 2019 1:19 AM (eight months ago)

I certainly agree that tokenism is mockable.

The Telegraph is trash. Pink News is trash. That's where the story came from. None of us here have read the book. I remember JKR getting burned at the stake over Scottish Independence. I remember getting burned at the stake for Brexit. What's new?

― everything, Thursday, 17 September 2020 bookmarkflaglink

What's this burned at the stake for Brexit? You a Brexiteer?

'crossdressing serial killer' is still a transphobic trope even if that character isn't really the focus of the novel

like, congrats to rowling on managing to write a book that isn't as hateful as her public comments (but still very much reflective of her worldview) or one of her previous galbraith books ('the silkworm', as mentioned earlier)

lmao @ the idea the torygraph is "trolling the left" by pointing out transphobia in the works of a writer who agrees with the torygraph on Scottish independence, Corbyn, neoliberalism....

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/20/making-a-demon-of-jk-rowling-is-a-wretched-sport-born-of-misogyny-and-resentment

Observer columnist says the JKR controversy is all about misogyny against JKR. Personally I am not convinced by that.