Wimpund

The Times (NY) is more circumspect…thus I suppose living up to its reputation for establishment conservatism, but that buys into the absurd new arrangement whereby thinking men become women by saying so is left-wing while thinking women and only women are women is right-wing. To be clear: thinking women and only women are women is not right-wing. It’s tautological, but it’s not right-wing.

J.K. Rowling, the creator of the popular “Harry Potter” series, came under fire from L.G.B.T.Q. groups after she took aim at an article that referred to “people who menstruate.”

The online op-ed article posted last month, with the title “Creating a More Equal Post-Covid-19 World for People Who Menstruate,” highlighted some of the risks faced by primary caretakers, “particularly women in the household and health care workers,” during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Saturday, Ms. Rowling wrote on Twitter, where she has 14.5 million followers: “‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”Her Twitter post appeared to be responding to a line that described the “menstrual health and hygiene needs of girls, women and all people who menstruate.”

And or to the stupid title. Talking about “people who menstruate” is, among other things, just another way to erase women from public consciousness, which we already get quite enough of thanks to the use of “men” to mean “people” and “he” in general statements and all the rest of it. One of the things feminism has been doing for the past half century is simply reminding all of us that women exist and are not a minority and should not be hidden or forgotten or ignored. Headlines and articles that substitute “people” for “women” are not helpful.

The backlash was swift, with users calling out her comments as being anti-transgender people.

One user wrote on Twitter: “I decided not to kill myself because I wanted to know how Harry’s story ended. For a long time, that was all that kept me alive. Until I met my husband who helped me learn to love myself and to want to live. You just insulted him to my face.”

Snort. That’s so typical of the level of discourse. “To my face”? It could hardly be less to anyone’s face, since it’s on Twitter. The whole point of “to my face” is that it’s not general, not public, not abstract, but entirely personal. “Nononono it’s all about meeeeeeeeeeeeee.”

What do we want? Narcissism! When do we want it? Always!

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