Talk about institutional capture…
UN Women quoting a male movie star publicly attacking the woman author who made him rich and famous. UN Women saying men who think of themselves as women literally are women. UN Women throwing women overboard with a boulder chained to their neck.
Comments
19 responses to “Out of the way, bitches”
The headlines have been awful. Rowling’s “anti trans” views; the “TERF” echo chamber; and so on. Nothing about the rights of women, or about domestic violence.
I agree with JK Rowling on this subject.
I disagree with the Harry Potter actors. I also think it would have been nice if they had simply stayed out of it.
If they feel this way, though, and want to speak up, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I’m surprised that Ophelia thinks out of loyalty they should not (honestly surprised, not using “I’m surprised” as a rhetorical device). If they were virtue signaling at her expense that would be one thing, but if this is their honest opinion then I don’t think loyalty should compel them to keep it to themselves.
I have found their statements to be pretty mild, for the most part saying what they believe without attacking or even mentioning JKR. Yes, there’s an implicit rebuke of her ideas, but if they disagree, they disagree. I wish they didn’t, and hopefully they can be eventually convinced, but I don’t think they owe JKR silence.
And I’m all for ripping their bad ideas to shreds. They should not be expressing these ideas because they’re poorly formed, not because they conflict with JKR’s ideas.
But shouldn’t they, yes out of loyalty, be more charitable to her and take the time and make the effort to understand her opinions, before aligning themselves with those who call her TERF and transphobe, of which she is neither?
Skeletor @ 2 – If they feel what way though? Don’t forget, Rowling didn’t attack trans people or say they shouldn’t be safe or anything like that. Radcliffe implicitly accused her of doing too little to “support transgender and nonbinary people” and of “invalidat[ing] their identities” and causing them harm. That may be the way Radcliffe “feels” but it’s still a lie at Rowling’s expense. Given the wild inaccuracy of what Radcliffe said [given that it was unmistakably aimed at Rowling, and at distancing himself from Rowling] yes it damn well is virtue signaling, and do it to her not to me signaling.
And it’s not even loyalty that I think should have prevented Radcliffe and Watson and Grint and Redmayne from pointing and hissing at Rowling, it’s just fundamental awareness that she is the source of all their good fortune and it would become them to stfu about her while thousands of shits are calling her a cunt and a stinking dried-up hole.
So, yes, if I thought they were right I would probably feel differently about whether they should speak up or not. If I agreed with them I would probably feel differently about whether they should speak up or not. So? What of it? The details, the circumstances, the particulars, the issues make a difference. We choose our battles. Some aren’t worth fighting, others are. If Rowling were talking Trumpian racist shit, that would make a difference. Why shouldn’t it?
Also, why now? Why not 2 years ago or 5 to stand in support of transpeople? You bet it was implicitly aimed at JKR. They are ingrates. Maybe someone (probably maliciously) asked them to speak out, maybe Radcliffe at first, but now it’s a me-too dogpile and it’s shameful. Again reiterating that she neither said nor did nothing against the trans community in the first place. I guess doing your homework isn’t a huge priority for young actors, so they probably have that bad habit to deal with as well.
Their comments were clearly in response to her essay. If they are going to reject her essay, if they are going to throw her under the bus, then out of loyalty and decency they owe it to her to make sure they understand what she actually said, what her actual views are. It is painfully obvious that they did nothing of the sort; they are attacking a popular caricature of her views. It was more important that they distance themselves from this caricature, regardless of the cost to JKR, than that they check at least somewhat whether the caricature applies.
Re #7, I agree it sounds like someone instigated a dogpile deliberately. Or perhaps “I’d better not be the only major HP star who didn’t take the approved stand, or else I’ll never get a job in this industry again.” Or both.
I think it’s all but certain that they all came under heavy pressure to denounce her the minute she published.
Evanna Lynch (who played Luna Lovegood) said she disagreed with what JKR said about transgender people, but JKR was a kind person who has done a lot of good for the world, and the abuse against her was horrific.
Lynch received considerable backlash for this failure to burn the witch, and has now suspended her Twitter account.
It’s nice to be able to generalise about one class of people,
Actors are dim bulbs, as thick as bricks, as ignorant as swans and no-one should ever take their statements on anything seriously ever.
Actors are worth listening to on acting, or show business – that’s something they know about. On all other subjects, they know about as much as the average 12 year old.
The UN looks like an idiot quoting Daniel Radcliffe as some kind of voice of authority.
Radcliffe isn’t a bad guy, and he isn’t a bad actor, but the only reason he has been quoted is that he starred in Harry Potter films.
Skeletor? Anything? For the 900th time – I wish you wouldn’t start conversations and then walk away.
To KBPlayer#11. Just to say that I have acted and directed professionally. Actors can not be generalised as a class as ‘dim bulbs, as thick as bricks, as ignorant as swans’ (the Swan of Avon, perhaps? – he was an actor, among other things). Some of them are, of course, as are some in every walk of life. The great problem nowadays, deriving originally, I think, from the adulation of the actor as hero and cultural icon that was created by Hollywood, is and the assumption that anyone who is in any way in the public eye necessarily has opinions that are worth listening to, and there is a certain kind of actor who likes the attention and importance it seems to cover. Look at this lot ‘taking responsibility for racism’ – the link should work as it is – it makes one, though not them, cringe: the sincere accents, the pitiful platitudes – oh, bugger off, you silly little people who suppose yourselves celebrities :
https://twitter.com/MarlowNYC/status/1271083755915149312 …
And The Skeletor Returns! Mincing his words! Neither this nor that, but nevertheless this and that, though there is that and this…
Tim – don’t forget KBPlayer’s first sentence. I think that hints that the next sentence is not entirely literal.
Ah! Missed the irony! Well, I lost my sense of humour at birth – I knew what I was in for…
Assigned humorless at birth; the tragedy of it! When we first smell the air we waul and cry…
Couldn’t even manage that! – I was stuck in an oxygen tent and administered a drop of brandy by an old-fashioned doctor to get me breathing! Well that set me up for life… I was one of twins, and was born 8 hours after my sister and my mother was so exhausted she didn’t want even to see me. I don’t blame her.
#2 Skeletor
I think the loyalty they owe to Rowling is not that they need to agree with her, or even that they need to keep silent if they happen to disagree with her. I think rather they owe it to her to contact her in private first. It’s what I’d do if someone I respected was saying something I considered wrongheaded in public – I’d privately try to set them straight as a first resort, and only go public if that failed.
The wording of the announcements from the trio does not indicate that they did her this courtesy; it appears they went straight to the public option.
One of the more substantial arguments against JK Rowling was that she is a rich, white, cis woman….
Like it was about the adjectives………