JK Rowling, Maya Forstater, Transmisogynistic Tweets? Gender Dysmorphia and Gender Spectrum

J.K. Rowling does it again! JK is part of a large movement of women who believe that if they quash trans people and erase them from existence, that they will magically have all the rights in the world and no longer have gender inequality. They use poorly quoted statements from trans people and twist the language. She is part of a disinformation scheme that will set women back decades. 

Updated: 7th June 2020


J.K. Rowling faces backlash over tweets considered transphobic


Image: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling


Image: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling





JK Rowling courted a supposed controversy for supporting Maya Forstater who lost her job over transmisogynistic tweets by claiming that people cannot change their biological sex.

Although I personally do not support Maya Forstater's and JK Rowling’s views. I also believe they did not say anything unscientific. It's debatable, definitely. However, Maya Forstater's views on sexual identity are certainly "absolutist" as ruled by the employment tribunal. I agree with the term “absolutist” but I don’t support her dismal in any way. I believe it was unfair.
  
Women who are TRANS are WOMEN. People's cisgender privilege doesn’t change that. I also believe that. It is difficult sometimes as a Diversity proponent to take sides. That’s why I am right now on a very neutral ground.

Transphobia like Homophobia has many dimensions. Being a woman can also be a feeling. It’s not just about putting a costume and a performance. It is also a personal expression when one feels drawn to gender or even just be gender fluid. Gender exists on a spectrum. Everything exists on a spectrum. To deny people that gender dysmorphia exists and that people can’t win formal recognition of what their gender identity is, it’s ludicrous.

Personally to me people who oppose this operate from a pure punitive mindset...There are lesbians and bi women. There are also women that do not conform to a gender identity that is culturally associated with their assigned sex. They go through a lot of misogynistic blabber like the one I have been seeing on social media in the wake of JK Rowling’s tweet.

Unfortunately, it is often perpetuated by a lack of perspective, empathy, and an understanding at the cost of hurting feelings. Similarly, there are men with inconsistent gender identities. They dress like women, act like women. They want to be women inside and out. Whether they have the desire to permanently transition to the gender with which they identify shouldn't be the reason to call them fake and enforce scientific explanations of XY and XX. Let us not enforce the workings of biology on people who choose to express their gender in a different way than their biological makeup might indicate. They have every right to assert their sexual identity.

Similarly, people who do not support this ideology have also the right to their own beliefs and opinions. To dismiss someone for their personal views is WRONG in all aspects.

I’d like to end the blog on deep insight, quoting Roberto Montenegro, a chief fellow in child and adolescent psychiatry at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He studies the biological effects of discrimination and says: “A lot of people hear “microaggressions” and they think, “Oh, it’s just the little things that hurt people’s feelings.” “It isn’t about having your feelings hurt. It’s about how being repeatedly dismissed and alienated and insulted and invalidated reinforces the differences in power and privilege, and how this perpetuates racism and discrimination.” Credit: Microaggressions don't just 'hurt your feelings'

Think about how JK Rowling’s tweet might in support of Maya Forstater's plays upon trans people. Isn't the tweet about their cisgender privileges at play? Being in the business of Diversity Recruitment, I firmly believe that Diversity of Thought is necessary for every workplace for people to grow, learn, and grow as a result of it. At the same views of the majority and minority must not be imposed on each other holding absolute principles about the rights and privileges of the other, and lack thereof

-Amit Anand

Comments