What kind?
Alex Massie has a fine blast of rage at the bullying of JKR:
Today, like yesterday and like tomorrow too, the most famous person living in Scotland will probably receive at least one death threat and all but certainly be the lucky recipient of plenty of other promises of violence. And today, like yesterday and probably like tomorrow too, very few people will bother to be concerned about this. There will be no vigil, no statements of support or solidarity, no suggestion this is a monstrous state of affairs to be deplored by all decent people, no indication at all, in fact, that there is anything to see here at all. It will be just another day in the life of JK Rowling.
Even if the Scottish parliament were sitting, no politician would draw attention to the abuse heaped upon Rowling for the crime (sic) of thinking women’s rights and those of trans people may sometimes conflict. Scottish PEN will remain silent and so will the actors and other artists whose fame and fortunes have in large part been made as a result of Rowling’s work. That may be their right, but it is craven nonetheless.
All this is because they declare she is transphobic. No need to establish that she really is; it’s enough to say it.
Last week, drawing attention to one threat made against her, Rowling acidly observed, “Now that hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever”. It is important to note that these threats are not confined to the fetid swamps of social media. At a Trans Pride march in London last month, activists carried signs emblazoned with the messages “Rot in Hell Rowling” and “Kill JK Rowling”.
Progressive yeah?
Nor is there any way of avoiding the obvious truth that Rowling’s thought crimes are exacerbated by her sex. She not only dares to say what she thinks, she has the audacity to do so as a woman. The level of hatred directed towards her is sex-based too. It cannot be explained away by her wealth or celebrity; it is of a type and an obsession that is wearily familiar to many women. To put it simply: there are plenty of men who hate women and it is always a mistake to forget this.
I used to think the hatred had gone underground a little.
Ha.
Many of the loudest voices in the so-called trans-rights movement are not those of trans people themselves but, rather, of men whose self-professed alliance with trans people often seems like a convenient cloak for rampant misogyny. Any woman who dares note this can count on receiving a vastly greater measure of abuse than a man making the same argument might. This has always seemed telling.
The relish with which Rowling’s haters assail her is also revealing. The violence wished upon her may often be a lurid fantasy but such fantasies are themselves acts of male violence. Some men get their kicks in truly miserable fashion.
No no they’re Being Kind.
That attributes to them too much human decency. We know that if they are actually silent today, it’s only because they already joined the shouting mob yesterday.
Tragically, there seem also to be too many women who hate women. And that’s letting off the hook those women who simply aren’t really aware of what they’re supporting and what it entails.
Kind like a (kimono clad) fox (killer).
In some cases, probably to act out their own personal disappointment with their own lives, and with themselves. Which of course does not excuse the pathetic bastards, or their behaviour.
You know, even if — and I stress this is a hypothetical if — JKR was transphobic, IT WOULD NOT BE OK TO MAKE DEATH THREATS TO HER.
It’s not ok to make death threats to Donald Trump. Or the Proud Boys. Or a Nazi.
It’s just not.
And you don’t need to cushion any statement about a death threat to any person with qualifications about how you’re not saying they deserved it, but, you know, wink wink nudge nudge.
“Nobody should issue death threats, but…” should be treated with the same scorn as “I’m not a racist, but…”
It used to be known that no matter how awful a person may be, you don’t use or instigate the use of violence against them. But then some nazis got punched in the face, and the woke went wild and abandoned that knowledge. Violence is now fine and cool and progressive if the person is bad enough, reasoning that was previously nearly exclusive to the far right with their ‘culture war’ rhetoric.
Rape threats were considered especially vile, because not only were they threats of violence, they were also about degradation, humiliation, and dominance. In particular, male dominance. But that knowledge is also lost, and so we see threats of rape via ‘girl dick’ from men to women. The woke have joined the right in its culture war thought mode.
Right Wing Watch posts an ongoing flood of vicious hatred toward trans-people. From the Billy-Bobs and rednecks and Republicans, all male. Perhaps I’m not watching closely enough, but there doesn’t seem to be even a whisper of the unhinged rage that can be whipped up against any woman who won’t wheesht.
To be fair, a site called “Right Wing Watch” isn’t probably going to cover abuse of women being perpetrated by left wingers. Not their purview, so to speak.
@Holms #4
I agree, but one nit:
If the person is declared bad enough, or given a label that is bad enough. That’s often sufficient. So long as someone gets called a Nazi or a TERF or whatever the badness indicator du jour is, they deserve whatever you want to do to them. No examination of what the label means or if it applies.
@ARC #6
I agree, this is out of RWW’s usual beat. It does, however, bring to mind recent discussions of how difficult it is to tell what is Right-Wing and what is Left-Wing in some areas of modern politics. I do think that some of the violence against “noisy” women can be characterized as right-wingers pretending to be left-wing for various political purposes; we’ve seen that many times in history. And many left-wing feminists get accused of being right-wing because their positions on certain issues have some resemblance to ones held by right-wingers.
Sackbut
True, the
credibleaccusation alone justifies – no, necessitates – the instigation of violence.And even an accusation with an ill-defined label is sufficient. What’s a Nazi, what makes someone a communist, what’s a TERF? Only the vaguest definition is needed. “She’s a witch”, whatever that means.
It’s fun to punch NAZIs and TERFs until someone decides that you are the equivalent of a NAZI or TERF.