People on Twitter are praising Rowling’s integrity and courage for returning the RFK award after Kerry Kennedy saw fit to issue a statement calling her transphobic.
I think Rowling has bags of integrity and courage but I don’t think integrity and courage were required to return that award in the circumstances. I think the difficulty was in not telling Kerry Kennedy that she should have the award dropped on her from a great height.
Or maybe that’s just me.
But I doubt it. I think when people publicly call you an evil person, on grounds that you know to be deeply mistaken and deluded and in fact destructive, it doesn’t take a whole lot of will power or integrity or courage to tell them to go fuck themselves.
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11 responses to “Keep it”
Ah, but you, Ophelia, have will power, integrity, and courage. I suspect a lot of people would have kept the award and found a way to justify it to themselves.
I agree. I don’t think it was about integrity and courage so much as it was an excellent opportunity for Rowling to make another well-made rational and compassionate statement. No doubt it will drive a lot of people crazy. Perhaps she’ll be accused of weaponising groundless accusations this time.
Aw, jeez, thanks Sastra. blush But really I think it’s just that I’m irascible!
Irascible people seem to be what’s needed for this fight. For other fights we’re not so useful.
Now there’s another example of why I hang around here. People who know the word irascible, and use it correctly. I am surrounded by people who think in text language, for whom words are just so passe. (Fortunately, my husband shares my love of words, and neither of us text, so we do have each other to bounce words around.)
Mind you, I temper it with a lot of “tell them to go fuck themselves.” Constantly whisk the irascibles while you slowly slowly add the tell them to go fuck themselves so that they will emulsify. If you don’t whisk the sauce will just scramble.
And now Mermaids has decided to do a whining emotional blackmail lie-fest of an article claiming that trans people have self-harmed and attempted suicide because Rowling won’t kiss Susie Green’s ring or something.
Maybe that’s what’s wrong with me lately. My sauce is scrambled.
See, this is what I hate most. This is almost certainly a lie, but if it isn’t, it’s outlandish. I have been suicidal. I tried to kill myself over pain from abuse, real abuse like hitting and kicking, sexual harassment, all sorts of other nastinesses. I can’t imagine even thinking about killing myself because some author, even a favorite author, didn’t accept my view of myself. (And I don’t know that Margaret Atwood would likely agree with how I see myself, if she knew me. I think I’d get over it.)
This whole thing so trivializes suicide. They are not likely suicidal because of Rowling. They are likely suicidal because they have problems, serious problems, and need counseling or something to help them. Also because they have been fed a lie that changing gender (sex – whatever we’re changing today) would help them, and it didn’t. They can’t accept that was a lie, so they think it’s because people are so mean to them by insisting on saying “him” when they see a bearded, male-bodied human walking toward them. But it isn’t…it’s everything that was already there, everything that drove them to trans in the first place, and everything that won’t be solved by becoming Jane instead of John.
Iknklast @ #8
Exactly so.
Those who are rejected are rejected because of their own issues, not because of “being trans.” People who are just happy to be themselves don’t have such problems. But those aren’t the trans people to beat society over the head with. No, the trans who are weaponized as “the most vulnerable, most marginalized,” are self-vulnerable and self-marginalized. Trans who have problems obtaining or keeping employment are unemployed because of basic personality problems, abrasiveness, arrogance, inability to get along with others, call it what you like. It’s not transness that is the cause of joblessness, homelessness, poverty, depression, unhappiness, suicidality, or what have you. It’s the underlying characteristics of the person that are responsible for both the circumstances and the trans identity.
southwest – I did a post on the Mermaids “statement” just 3 minutes before your comment. What crap it is.
iknklast and maddog – that’s the dirty little secret, isn’t it: it’s not the trans, it’s the Difficult personality. How do we know? Because of the behavior, the actions, the words, the demands, the rages, the threats, the malice.
I wonder how long it’s going to take the allies to notice.