I am constantly amazed at how the masses can be so easily controlled. Mass media isn't the only place for it; people will blindly repeat what they've heard with little thought and I have yet to really understand why.
Has anyone else noticed that, seemingly synchronously, men are being debased while woman hood is being erased? Is there a point to that? It's almost as if it's on purpose.
Science can debate facts and philosophers truth, but that doesn't really have anything to do with an individual. And for this individual, I think that both sex and gender matter; that one is not at the expense of the other; and that equality is not synonymous with "same".
Good read. I read the Harper's open letter first, then stumbled upon an angry opinion piece from a trans woman in a Belgian newspaper (De Standaard), an attack on J.K. Rowling who also signed that letter.
That led me to duckduckgo for "jk rowling ..." which autocompleted to "... transphobic". Search algorithms are also quick to judge! A few link clicks later I luckily ended up on this article. It's harder to dismiss a nuanced article that demonstrates and backs up a position of genuine concern.
Thank you for this reaction and the research you put into it. It’s refreshing to have someone notice nuance and genuine concern!! To be labeled “transphobic” for expressing those is unfortunate but all too common with many quick labels.
This seems entirely reasonable to me. I'm glad she took the time to explain her point of view and I'm happy to hear that she's received an outpouring of support, though it doesn't make up for the non-stop public attacks.
Jeff, I’m totally with you on this. Her article was well thought out and not hateful at all. Rushing to judgment seems to be a very disturbing trend and affects free speech.
Definitely worth reading, for two distinct reasons:
(1) To better understand how and why bullying happens on Twitter
(2) To better understand the debate about trans issues.
JK Rowling is a thoughtful, careful writer. And when you know that someone put a lot of work into a piece of writing, it really makes you want to pay closer attention to each detail in the piece. That's what's happening here. Nuance. It's a beautiful thing.
Another example of why Twitter and fast uninformed reactions are so damaging to us all. I had heard that she was not a supporter of trans people and lowered my own opinion of her with just that much information. Now I see how unfair that was. I am glad and also sorry that she had to tell her backstory publicly to get understood. There is a lot to think about here.
Yo, same! I’m happy to have read this and to have some more nuance to my opinion on the situation. But I still do feel like her stance is just naturally going to become obsolete. Even without trans activism we’re progressing as a society to have already eliminated the legal need for gender conforming appearances. That means women don’t need to wear make up and dresses and men don’t need to wear suits and can wear lipstick if they want. “Impersonating a woman” used to be illegal. If we want to continue to embrace all of these freedoms of expression it is my feeling that gendered language and spaces will naturally evolve or dissolve. And I believe that will be a safer world for all. Of course when it comes to medical/biological sex people will be treated accordingly but that is usually a personal matter that shouldn’t serve as a life sentence to perform or reject.
Somehow I've been out of the loop and didn't even know about her situation until yesterday when I saw a nasty tweet about her. I had no idea that that wasn't in isolation and now I know a bit more about what is going on.
I was in the same boat. I saw a video from Lindsay Ellis, YouTuber who I really respect, titled "Rowling Boogaloo" and was pretty shocked when I first watched it and then really disappointed after reading this essay. It seems no one is immune from this rush to judgment mob mentality. Lindsay usually takes months to research and produce high quality video essays and it's scary to see that she, like so many others, is so quick to declare Rowling a bigot over a few Tweets.
I strongly believe if a person is born feeling that her or his sex is not the correct, we have to support and not judge, but what I hate is gay, trans and some community want to do is brain watch kids to become something they are not, and I understand her concern after reading this post there a lot of predators in some countries is easy to say I am transgender and be allowed to enter to women bathrooms just to damage a woman, so we should not allow governments be so easy in this matter.
I am constantly amazed at how the masses can be so easily controlled. Mass media isn't the only place for it; people will blindly repeat what they've heard with little thought and I have yet to really understand why. Has anyone else noticed that, seemingly synchronously, men are being debased while woman hood is being erased? Is there a point to that? It's almost as if it's on purpose. Science can debate facts and philosophers truth, but that doesn't really have anything to do with an individual. And for this individual, I think that both sex and gender matter; that one is not at the expense of the other; and that equality is not synonymous with "same".
Good read. I read the Harper's open letter first, then stumbled upon an angry opinion piece from a trans woman in a Belgian newspaper (De Standaard), an attack on J.K. Rowling who also signed that letter.
That led me to duckduckgo for "jk rowling ..." which autocompleted to "... transphobic". Search algorithms are also quick to judge! A few link clicks later I luckily ended up on this article. It's harder to dismiss a nuanced article that demonstrates and backs up a position of genuine concern.
Thank you for this reaction and the research you put into it. It’s refreshing to have someone notice nuance and genuine concern!! To be labeled “transphobic” for expressing those is unfortunate but all too common with many quick labels.
This seems entirely reasonable to me. I'm glad she took the time to explain her point of view and I'm happy to hear that she's received an outpouring of support, though it doesn't make up for the non-stop public attacks.
Jeff, I’m totally with you on this. Her article was well thought out and not hateful at all. Rushing to judgment seems to be a very disturbing trend and affects free speech.
Definitely worth reading, for two distinct reasons:
JK Rowling is a thoughtful, careful writer. And when you know that someone put a lot of work into a piece of writing, it really makes you want to pay closer attention to each detail in the piece. That's what's happening here. Nuance. It's a beautiful thing.
This commencement speech by Rowling is also awesome, and also made a splash here on Readup.
Another example of why Twitter and fast uninformed reactions are so damaging to us all. I had heard that she was not a supporter of trans people and lowered my own opinion of her with just that much information. Now I see how unfair that was. I am glad and also sorry that she had to tell her backstory publicly to get understood. There is a lot to think about here.
Yo, same! I’m happy to have read this and to have some more nuance to my opinion on the situation. But I still do feel like her stance is just naturally going to become obsolete. Even without trans activism we’re progressing as a society to have already eliminated the legal need for gender conforming appearances. That means women don’t need to wear make up and dresses and men don’t need to wear suits and can wear lipstick if they want. “Impersonating a woman” used to be illegal. If we want to continue to embrace all of these freedoms of expression it is my feeling that gendered language and spaces will naturally evolve or dissolve. And I believe that will be a safer world for all. Of course when it comes to medical/biological sex people will be treated accordingly but that is usually a personal matter that shouldn’t serve as a life sentence to perform or reject.
Somehow I've been out of the loop and didn't even know about her situation until yesterday when I saw a nasty tweet about her. I had no idea that that wasn't in isolation and now I know a bit more about what is going on.
I was in the same boat. I saw a video from Lindsay Ellis, YouTuber who I really respect, titled "Rowling Boogaloo" and was pretty shocked when I first watched it and then really disappointed after reading this essay. It seems no one is immune from this rush to judgment mob mentality. Lindsay usually takes months to research and produce high quality video essays and it's scary to see that she, like so many others, is so quick to declare Rowling a bigot over a few Tweets.
I strongly believe if a person is born feeling that her or his sex is not the correct, we have to support and not judge, but what I hate is gay, trans and some community want to do is brain watch kids to become something they are not, and I understand her concern after reading this post there a lot of predators in some countries is easy to say I am transgender and be allowed to enter to women bathrooms just to damage a woman, so we should not allow governments be so easy in this matter.