Payback
If you sign a letter or say a thing in support of JK Rowling you must be punished.
Punish her. Never mind that she didn’t do anything wrong, punish her, just to be safe.
Tip Jar
If you sign a letter or say a thing in support of JK Rowling you must be punished.
Punish her. Never mind that she didn’t do anything wrong, punish her, just to be safe.
What punishments have been meted out to the men who signed the letter?
Well I suppose Graham Lineham has already been banned from Twitter (long after any woman who’d tweeted nicer things) but I doubt that counts.
Talk about tarnishing your brand.
If you do a search on Twitter for the author whose “discomfort” precipitated this episode, you’ll see lots and lots of tweets from women writers and publishers supporting her, and by extension implicitly supporting threats of rape and murder. (There are far fewer such tweets from men.) Here are some examples:
“Love and solidarity with @Kiran_MH who is not only a beautiful writer, but also a beautiful human being. I absolutely understand why she didn’t feel comfortable judging this panel alongside someone who co-signed that letter and it is her right to express that.”
“HUGE respect for @Mslexia who in 2018 dropped Lionel Shriver (for racist, homophobic, classist, ableist, transphobic statement) and replaced her with judges who were women of colour (including me).” [A touch of self interest there from Professor Singh]
“Oh I am so happy to hear this! Back when I thought I wanted to be a novelist (lol) I subscribed to @mslexia
AND bought every back issue I could – now genuinely considering resubscribing just for this”
“If you needed any more reasons to love and support @Mslexia…and am also now and every day feeling very lucky to work with @Kiran_MH, a brilliant author who always stands up for what is right [from Head of Marketing at Picador]”
I’m at a complete loss to understand why these educated women should think it delightful that Amanda Craig has had to step down because she protested against rape and death threats. I mean, I know how we came to be in this situation, but why do these women think as they do? They clearly believe that rape and death threats are acceptable. There seems to be some sort of collective psychosis at work. I’d be grateful if anyone can offer any enlightenment.
Women have always been in the role of policing other women’s behaviors. My mother was a champion at this. Making other women feel miserable because they made choices that are not acceptable within the group the policing women want to be part of is part and parcel of our training, though not overt.
Why these women accept rape and death threats? My guess is that they don’t see them as actual threats. They see them as just…I don’t know, jokes?…something other than real rape and death threats. They can brush them aside and say “Oh, it’s just Twitterspeak” or something else to minimize their cognitive dissonance.
And there are women (I know a few) who think rape jokes are funny, who believe women lie about rape in most instances, and who are ready to pile on the derision and hatred of women who refuse to tow whatever line is drawn today.