During the roaring moments of early 2020, I had a number of data based epiphanies about COVID, as most will remember. I am a permabear, but for once, I was bullish that the “fake death” that was being brought to the markets and society by COVID lockdowns was wrong. I analyzed data from Diamond Princess cruise ship, the ship without a home for 30 days. The ship with no masks, no HVAC purification, a lot of all you can eat buffet goers, the elderly and the obese. And out of 3900 passengers and crew, 700 got sick and initially 7 died (ultimately I think the total hit 10). When you age and weight adjusted that trial into society, the IFR for COVID was something like 0.3%. We knew that in April 2020 and now, writing it, it’s no longer a controversial thing for me to say. I won’t lose readers. I won’t get death threats. I wouldn’t have family and friends angry and threaten to cut me off. And it won’t make me unhireable for saying it any more (good news - I appear to have permanently been given that label since 2020 without work release but I digress). Which brings my to JK Rowling.
She, the author of Harry Potter. She, the rags to riches story that proves that merit, and a hell of a book series, can allow you to achieve your dreams. Well, apparently, she has been labeled a transPhobe because she rejects the premise that biological men can be women. Not that my opinion matters, but so do I. But JK is a very very well known person. She is, as a result, getting an unbelievable about of hate in the Twitter sphere. What do I love about her? She is absolutely leaning in to what she believes.
Last week, Scotland enacted a “incitement of hate” law where effectively someone can be jailed for saying mean things and causing hate. What did JK do? A 13 Tweet series identifying women who used to be men and were rapists and murderers and did an April fools post to force the authorities to arrest her. They didn’t.
In response to a fan that said “but you are JK Rowling, of course they won’t arrest you!” She responded, if any woman says something about trans women that gets them arrested, I’ll repeat it and they will have to arrest me too. Not surprisingly, the authorities aren’t really sure what to do about this act of defiance.
And today, she wrote this. More than anything in this world, I believe in freedom of speech, speaking for what you believe and being the change you want to see in the world, so JK… you are a bad ass.
You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes.
I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.
I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn't more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn't stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she's done either of those things, or ever wants to.
Womanhood isn't a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib.
Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say 'I thought you didn't want to be defined by your biology,' it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don't want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It's one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don't and can't, because we belong to our sex class.
Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren't born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.
I am strongly against women's and girls' rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men's desire for validation.
I sincerely hope that answers your questions. You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate.
Were those your words, or those of JK Rowling? The commentary was written by a woman, but presented as your own. Quite confounding.