JKR’s Claims Part 8: Misogyny, Women as a Political Class and Trans Women
Recently JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter, tweeted some transphobic statements and dogwhistles on Twitter that I have addressed here. After a few days silence she wrote a lengthy post trying to justify her position on her website. This is part 8 of my series addressing the claims in her piece. You can see the full thing here.
Misogyny and Women as a Political Class
From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’, to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble
I wasn’t born until 1989 so I don’t remember the 80s, however I agree with her, there definitely seems to be a rise in misogyny in recent years as the world seems to be becoming more reactionary. This is most clearly seen in the USA with the rise of Trump and attacks on women’s access to abortion and reproductive freedom. But the insinuation here that “trans activists” are part of this is beyond ridiculous — they are targets of the same force. With rising misogyny comes rising homophobia and, of course, transphobia. It has always worked like this — this is what feminists such as myself mean when we talk about “the patriarchy”. Trump has consistently attacked trans rights almost from his first day in office. Incels, and in fact the entire “manosphere”, generally have the same views of trans people and trans rights as Gender Critical people. They will regularly be seen allying together in arguments online, and sometimes you can’t even tell them apart. This is why so often you see “TERFs are Nazis” being thrown around online, because they have the same views on trans rights.
Two of the core aspects of feminism are bodily autonomy and autonomy of sexuality. That means “to make your own decisions about your own body” and “to be allowed to love whatever consenting adult you want”. These are both at the absolute core of both women’s rights AND trans rights. Neither trans people nor women can be free without these two things. Yet GC people regularly argue against both.
As I have already said, trans women face misogynistic sexism and sexual violence for being women. Any increase in misogyny inevitably affects trans women too, and they know it because they experience it. Every single trans woman I know experiences #EverydaySexism. The insinuation that trans people either want, or don’t care about, an escalation in misogyny doesn’t make any sense, especially when they know GC people are trying to take away their protections from it.
It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or — just as threatening — unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class.
Trans women have been at the front of many struggles for women’s rights. Most recently seen in the fight for abortion rights in Ireland. The idea that a trans woman who experiences sexism every day is actually part of a conspiracy to take away women’s ability to organise by saying “yes this affects me too” is bordering on delusional.
As a feminist I cannot think of much more important than making sure that women are able to organise and fight against their oppression, and this has to include all women or you aren’t fighting against the patriarchy, you are just fighting for yourself, and you end up being part of it and oppressing everyone else.
“Trans People Think Being a Woman is a Costume”
But, as 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.
As soon as someone says this in relation to trans people you can be sure that they don’t know what they are talking about. One of the key premises of trans rights is that anyone can present any way and still be themselves. There are trans men and women who present in every single way imaginable. I personally know “masculine” trans women, and butch lesbian trans women, and trans women who play guitar in a death metal band (me!). I know “feminine” trans men, trans men who love makeup and dresses, trans men who are drag queens. Not only are trans people more likely to be “gender non-conforming” than cis people; the claim that they aren’t is in direct contradiction to the other main GC claim: that “men are now just saying they are women and aren’t transitioning”! It can’t be both that trans people think that just wearing a dress makes someone a woman AND that trans women “don’t even bother to wear dresses”. Ask almost any trans person “do you think that wearing a dress makes someone a woman” and they will say no very assertively. This is unequivocally a strawman.
