Posted on 06/11/2020 1:58:44 PM PDT by Kaslin
The feminist left's embrace of transgenderism probably means a lot of younger people have never encountered a feminist with Rowling's position on trans issues. To some of them, such a feminist is unthinkable.
J.K. Rowling’s decision to double-down on her resistance to transgender dogma is not surprising but it is powerful, and for one particular reason: her feminist framing.
After irking leftists for more than a year with her increasingly public opposition to the movement, the “Harry Potter” author self-published a long, thoughtful essay explaining her reasoning on Wednesday. You can read the full post here. It is compassionate and reasonable and exhaustive.
Rowling has been labeled by detractors as a “TERF,” or trans-exclusionary radical feminist. Connotation aside, the label pretty much fits. She criticizes transgender ideology from the left, not as one of us toothless Christian rubes you might find in, say, a Taylor Swift video. It’s exceptionally rare for celebrities to challenge LGBT dogma, let alone someone as influential as Rowling. As observers have already noted, she’s basically “too big to cancel.”
Rowling’s influence makes her a rare voice of opposition, sure. Her statement is powerful in a climate that leaves most public figures too intimidated to represent the other side of this pressing and consequential debate. But I think that’s even less important than the way Rowling framed her argument, which might actually just make it persuasive.
Read this paragraph (emphasis added):
[A]s many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive. Moreover, the ‘inclusive’ language that calls female people ‘menstruators’ and ‘people with vulvas’ strikes many women as dehumanising and demeaning. I understand why trans activists consider this language to be appropriate and kind, but for those of us who’ve had degrading slurs spat at us by violent men, it’s not neutral, it’s hostile and alienating.
Rowling is rightfully claiming the feminist mantle. Transgender ideology, which allows men to literally claim the experience of womanhood despite not being born as biological women, dilutes and undermines the significance of the female experience. That is not a feminist cause, as TERFs have long argued.
The biological and cultural implications of femininity demand a women’s movement that fully accepts that reality. Otherwise, it cannot fully represent women’s interests because it does not acknowledge them. (Camille Paglia has long questioned why women’s studies programs don’t include biology.) Affirming the particular experience of womanhood is what the feminist movement should be all about.
It’s mystifying how feminists who share Rowling’s perspective on this issue have been cast aside by the movement. That defending this perspective now means she will receive days of bad press from the world’s most powerful media outlets is similarly baffling. It is simply common sense. The feminist left’s embrace of transgenderism probably means a lot of younger people have never encountered a feminist with Rowling’s position on trans issues. To some of them, such a feminist is unthinkable.
Daniel Radcliffe’s apology for the pain Rowling may have caused the LGBT community is a textbook case of mansplaining. It should make true feminists fume—a man stepping in to correct a silly woman who’s menstruated and birthed children, explaining to her what womanhood really means. Instead, he’s cast as the protagonist, and Rowling is the villain.
Accepting the farcical progressive definition of sex leads to policies that harm women, and take away some of the advantages earlier feminists fought hard to secure. “I want trans women to be safe,” Rowling wrote. “At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.”
From children to sports, there is much to say when it comes to the dangers of this dogma; Rowling covered much of it. The author truly is too big to cancel. Her essay is drawing a lot of eyeballs to a well-argued defense of biological reality from a prominent writer, which may at the very least convince some people their opponents are reasonable and not bigoted.
Rowling’s essay is certainly significant for its reach, its quality, and the credibility of its author. But her thoughtful presentation of the argument from an authentic feminist perspective makes it even more persuasive, and means it’s likely to do some serious good.
She also threatens the left because she wrote a multi volume epic about the battle of good vs evil, and in the end evil is soundly defeated...
Worse, she earned a fortune by her own hand!
The left wants conformance, period. No dissent is permitted or tolerated. It is this complete intransigence and resistance to reason that makes all argument pointless. Perhaps the best service Rowling is offering here it to make that intransigence perfectly clear to the millions of young people who adore her. By exposing the left for who they really are and how they would govern if they ever gained the total power they seek, we can hope that at least some youth will question their by-default support for the left.
The current left is Maoist by nature, and will impose another "Cultural Revolution" on the US if given the opportunity. We've been given a foretaste of this with the draconian and arbitrary edicts that have been promulgated to deal with Covid-19. What was sold as temporary measures necessary for public health were clearly never intended to be temporary and only serve a social conditioning for even more strict controls to be imposed if real power is achieved. The only question is will we heed this last warning we've been given?
She makes points I agree with and she accepts points about transgender people that I do not agree with.
But most of all I support her claim to the right to say what she thinks without her words causing danger, harm or retribution to come down on her.
Eating their own.
... Impressive. Thanks for sharing.
Part of the history of our family, baked into my bread, as it were
>>Worse, she earned a fortune by her own hand!<<
not according to obozo. Remember “you didn’t write that?”
She’s pretty sexy and hot in that pic...
How does she fit into the Hot/Crazy matrix?
This also shows that pandering to SJWs doesn’t protect you when you commit blasphemy. Excuse me, “hate speech”.
I’ve noticed how many Asians are getting thrown under the bus by BLM.
A British Asian reality TV star attacked and losing her job for putting up a BLM black square but not stopping her bikini posts. Moral peacocking wasn’t enough.
The white American soccer player in the UK forced to denounce his Asian wife for a BLM critical statement she made on social media that wasn’t even in English. And they still fired him.
It is so blatant that one Asian commission criticized another for its BLM statement insinuating that Asians had white privilege.
Asian commission criticized for Black Lives Matter statement
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Asian-commission-criticized-for-Black-Lives-15324978.php
Then you get the practical matters like a Pakistani or Indian immigrant made to sit through diversity training that ignores them or puts them literally on the bottom just above white men. Especially in tech.
Volvo with humans.
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