You can expect a lot of neutrality from podcasts with titles such as J.K. Rowling’s Witch TrialsThe latest installment, however, still manages to bring the bar down from floor level. This week, we’re obviously diving into the toilet before the flush is flushed. It’s time (again, for some reason) to discuss the JK Rowling’s ongoing and widely debunked “concerns” about transgender women in public restrooms.
For the uninitiated J.K. Rowling’s Witch Trials It comes from The Free Press, the new media company of Bari Weiss, and claims to explore the ongoing controversy surrounding it. Harry Potter The author and many anti-transgender quotes she has made over the years. We kick off with a mind-boggling two-episode premiere full of digressions that make Rowling the podcast’s definitive protagonist. And last week we switched to Online “culture wars” (with many whistles and digressions)
This week’s episode finally comes to what might be the meat of the podcast, at least the title—“TERF. Wars”—leaves little mystery about its contents. As for the view of it? Let’s say that Rowling is allowed to call “TERF” a tirade without further “arguing,” while simultaneously raising questionable issues one by one. near the start of the story atlantic ocean Critic Helen Lewis, who writes about transgender people, has sparked controversy in the past. tells us that in her estimation, “’TERF’ is basically ‘witch’.”
Like each episode before it, “TERF Wars” works overtime to create the illusion of objectivity. while in reality Everything about the construction seems designed to develop a very specific story about Rowling and the storm of fire that surrounds her. The podcast features a few transgender people as expert resources. But it seems only if their views support the point. (One of those expert YouTuber ContraPoints refuse pre-launch podcast) This week we heard from transgender psychologist Erika Anderson, who tells washington post In 2018 she worried that teenagers were exploring their gender identity. Because now it’s “trending”
The four episodes speak volumes that host Megan Phelps-Roper has yet to interview a single transgender person who disagrees with Rowling. especially transgender without being censored. At the end we get a hilarious conversation between Phelps-Roper and New York Times Opinion writer Michelle Goldberg, who’s hilariously tasked with theorizing why transgender people feel the way they do about transsexuals. “Controversy” about their own rights Won’t free news outlets find a single transgender person who can tell them directly? Ouch!
This week’s episode focuses on all the old anti-transgender chestnuts we’ve seen in recent years – “concerns” about transgender women in sports. Transgender women in the private area of We are also starting with a more serious “context”. A case in point was the development of the UK’s first domestic violence shelter for women in the 1970s, when Rowling was very young. which is the basis for her future outlook.
“My feminism must remain based on gender class. And my sexual oppression suffers,” Rowling said. “That is the basis of our oppression. That was my understanding of why something happened to me.”
“TERF War” also had to distinguish between Rowling’s polite concern about transgender people being able to use the restrooms they wanted. With a wave of right-wing anti-transgenderism spreading across legislatures around the world in recent years, But there are now discussion points that even experts admit don’t fully reflect reality. Take, for example, the fact that in 2018 a transgender person admitted to sexually harassing a female inmate in a women’s prison should exclude transgender women. Does anyone keep being locked up in a women’s prison or even using a women’s public restroom?
Women’s changing rooms were one of Rowling’s main concerns in 2020 when she wrote a statement that initially poured kerosene on this discourse dump. Just anecdotes and personal fears. A 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found no link between transgender inclusion policies and bathroom safety. And a 2019 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that strict bathroom and locker room policies may be associated with higher sex risk. abuse of transgender youth
It is also worth remembering that ensuring access to the bathrooms of at-risk populations is not a new concept. Before Transgender People Become Dangerous du jourIt’s gay men who are supposed to lurk in stalls waiting for unsuspecting people to attack. and before We have separated the toilets by ethnicity.
Rowling admitted during the podcast that not all trans people are predators. But she also confirmed that “What predators want is access.” Still, she declined to suggest what non-predator transgender people should do when all they want to do is use a bathroom that matches their gender identity.
The billionaire writer never lacks a platform to express her opinions without censorship. She does that consistently on social media and on her blog. And her opinion always attracts attention. J.K. Rowling’s Witch Trials Functionally expanding on that with interviews and protest recordings that make transgender protesters sound as intimidating as they are. with Rowling seemingly found them. (The disembodied shout always sounds scary. Especially when set against the background, the drab sound of two people talking consciously)
There’s a particularly telling moment at the end of this week’s episode when Goldberg mentions a controversial article she wrote last year for the 2016 issue of The Guardian. New YorkerThe theme “What is a Woman?” after listeners heard a series of vicious online threats against “feminists” making certain comments about transgender people that Goldberg included in her work. The author clarified that “Those words you just read—I don’t think they represent transgender rights movement however There are a lot of feminists who are upset by the fact that people say, ‘If you don’t remember me I’m a woman. I’m going to rape you.’”
Of course, it’s a terrible thing to tell anyone. But if not representative of the movement Why is it such a controversial issue? If we acknowledge, like the podcast, that despite transgender inclusion policies, But physical harassment against women remains statistically trivial. Why did this matter come up? This week’s episode finally acknowledged the actual legal attack against transgender people – after three episodes of steadfast refusal to do so – but it was almost certainly the opposite. close to the end
and even then The last words had to be Rowling’s. As she talks (again) what made her make this point in the first place. Because it’s obviously more valuable to hear than talk. That talks about such oppression at the hands of the state maybe next week. We will be hearing opinions from transgender people who disagree with Rowling. That would require a real plot twist—and some magic.
