I am not an “OG TERF” as I am not a “feminist” by any stretch of the imagination.
I can, however, offer proof that I have from the beginning of this public controversy involving Rowling about Gender Identity vs Gender Critical stood with those saying sex is real. From my ‘Rowling Returns to Twitter with a Bang‘ post about Rowling’s 19 December 2019 tweet heard round the word in support of Maya Forstater:
I am left scratching my head about this re-surfacing of The Presence at her twitter page. Why now after a year of prudential silence? Is it that she says she is all but finished with Strike5 and has time on her hands to deal with online firestorms?
And why on this subject of all possible subjects? Can you think of one less likely to win her a second ‘Ripple of Hope’ award?
The science is indisputable and the PC police backlash is as predictable given the prevalent blurring of sex and gender into synonyms (sex is a function of chromosomes not organs while gender is, at least according to the Zeitgeist, what you will). Other than standing with a woman who is being treated unfairly, what did Rowling hope to accomplish here outside of a martyrdom by doxxing? [Google ‘TERF’ for the trending story.]
Why has she chosen this issue for her re-appearance? She keeps a silence through the recent elections but decides to surface on an issue that is guaranteed to cast her as a fascist trans-phobe Tory bigot (etc.) in twitter dom?
Rowling has always said that courage is the virtue she admires most — and is showing no little of that quality here. Looking at losing all she has gained in keeping quiet for the better part of a year with respect to the high opinion of fandom, Rowling stands up for a woman being pilloried for her courage to speak the counter-metanarrative biological truth about sexual reality.
I have to admire her for that; she certainly didn’t count the cost or consult with Warner Brothers and her publishers before she wrote and sent this tweet. Or, if she did, she ignored their advice. Unless they wanted the headlines on the principle that all publicity is good publicity? Forgive me for doubting that. [emphasis added]
Do read the whole thing (yes, I know I misused the word “doxxing”). Note that it went up at HogwartsProfessor on the day of Rowling’s tweet. Unlike the Robert Galbraith fans currently celebrating their consistently ‘Pro-Jo’ positions and the differences between their beliefs and practices with those of MuggleNet podcasters but who have paid exactly no cost personally or professionally for that heroic posture, my stand in 2019 and since has meant departing from MuggleNet podcasting, the end of speaking dates at university and fandom events, and de facto ‘cancellation’ with respect to publishing contracts and job applications at schools.
I neither want nor expect any acknowledgement from Rowling, Inc., any more than Nick and I expected an invitation to her Kanreki Party celebrations. The writers at Hogwarts Professor are not fawning toadies to Rowling but serious readers of her work. When the inevitable re-writing of history happens, however, as Rowling tweeted about today, I do hope that someone remembers that there was at least one outpost in Harry Potter fandom online that didn’t join in with the “Gender Identity bandwagon” hysteria but stood without qualification or quibble for the common sense of biological reality.
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