Gretchen Shmetchen
Couldn’t happen to a nastier guy.
DC has shelved its Red Hood comic book series following writer Gretchen Felker-Martin sharing posts on Bluesky that joked about the shooting of Charlie Kirk, who was killed by an assassin’s bullet Wednesday.
“Hope the bullet’s okay after touching Charlie Kirk,” read one post. “Thoughts and prayers you Nazi bitch,” read another by Felker-Martin. The writer is trans, while Kirk was known for his anti-trans stance. Felker-Martin’s Bluesky account is now deactivated, but those posts were screenshotted and widely spread before DC canceled the series.
To refresh your memories of Felker-Martin’s novel that had JK Rowling sadistically murdered:
A horror novel by a transgender author that features the death of JK Rowling has been branded “vile, misogynistic drivel”.
Manhunt, by Gretchen Felker-Martin, follows two transgender women’s battle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world in which they face threats from murderous “terfs” (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) and a virus that turns people with a certain level of testosterone into zombies.
As well as naming Rowling, who has been accused of transphobia and received death threats over her stance on gender, the novel features a warship called the Galbraith, which appears tobe a reference to Robert Galbraith, the pseudonym Rowling uses for her Cormoran Strike novels. In Manhunt, Rowling reportedly dies in a fire in a Scottish castle.
Hur hur hur. Art for art’s sake, yeah?
H/t Mostly Cloudy
I just posted this link on your “Imbalance” post, but I think it belongs here too.
Video of Kirk talking to a young trans-identified woman:
https://youtu.be/FhzqKQzueKU?si=rIJbBoGZ0H5goWC9
I just saw this on a Reddit thread discussing the controversy. Seems G F-M also posted this on the day he was banned from Bluesky:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlockedAndReported/comments/1ne7c7t/dc_comics_cancels_gretchen_felkermartins_red_hood/?sort=new
Very 2020-era statement, from the “Abolish the police” and “In Defense of Looting” era.
Of course, a large number of DC’s fanbase would either be in law enforcement or have a friend/loved one who is, and wouldn’t take kindly to G F-M’s belief that such people are subhuman monsters who should die.
DC Comics’ parent company is Warner Brothers, which is currently being offered to Paramount /Skydance to be purchased as part of a corporate merger. Given the outrage that the G F-M posts caused, maybe the WB high-ups told DC to give Gretchen the boot, lest the Trump Adminstration try and obstruct the merger.
Roxane Gay has suddenly discovered the virtues of the free speech that she spent years mocking, and is defending Wretched Felcher-Moron on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/roxanegay.bsky.social/post/3lylccufivs2l
I am in favour of free speech for controversial ideas, but I would draw the line at someone threatening or advocating violence. Which is exactly what G F-M did with his Bluesky posts. He said the death of police officers did not bother him, and he celebrated the murder of a political antagonist. He should not have posted those messages.
(And yes, to be consistent, Graham Linehan shouldn’t have been arrested, but he also shouldn’t have tweeted that people should punch a Trans-identified male “in the balls” if they refuse to leave a woman’s space)
Why? Advising self-defense is not the same thing as advocating violence.
Well, I was imagining somebody theoretically turning up here, and accusing me of hypocrisy for apparently having different views on the advocacy of violence.
“You objected to Glinner (whose views on gender identity you agree with) being arrested for advocating violence online. But you welcomed the firing of G F-M (whose views on gender identity you disagree with) for advocating violence online !”
Linehan said if someone was breaking UK law and was repeatedly refusing to follow it, to use violence against them to make them comply with it (your “advising self-defense”).
Felker-Martin said if someone campaigned against his political views, to use violence to kill them. Advocating political murder.
Yes, my “advising self-defense”, because men can be a physical threat to women in a way that women cannot be to men. I think that’s the point of Graham’s joke. Men who like to be a physical threat to women have that one vulnerability, like Achilles and his unprotected heel. Sarcastically advising women on how to subdue invasive men is not comparable to the slasher fiction of Felker-Martin.
Self-defense courses for women literally teach “kick/punch them in the balls.”
Self-defense isn’t the same thing as advocating being the initial aggressor.
The Comics Journal has a deferential interview with G F-M here. It says he was warned by DC Comics not to post extremist statements online and he ignored that. He also says he doesn’t regret his comments about Kirk.
https://archive.ph/njhEt