Response to ‘Addressing The Claims In JK Rowling’s Justification For Transphobia’
Following J.K. Rowling’s recent unapologetic stance in support of women, a few people have had less than complimentary contributions to make to the discussion. One such contribution was written by Katy Montgomerie, in which Katy attempts to dismantle the arguments made by Rowling in her essay. Since words are, after all, our most inexhaustible source of magic, I thought I would take a look at those arguments and see how credible they are. In keeping with Montgomerie’s style, I will address them point by point and include a helpful contents list, just as Katy did. It is, however, going to get a little convoluted as I quote JK and relevant snippets of Katy’s arguments to complete the picture. Bear with!
Contents
- The Maya Forstater Legal Case
- Support for Magdalen Berns
- TERF — Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist
- Biology
- Education and Safeguarding
- Freedom of Speech
- Lisa Littman and Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria
- Desistance, Detransition and “If I Were a Kid Today I Would Have Been Transed”
- Misogyny and Women as a Political Class
- “Trans People Think Being a Woman is a Costume”
- Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault
- Trans Women in Women’s Bathrooms and GRA Reform
- Fear
- Conclusion
The Maya Forstater Legal Case
For people who don’t know: last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets. She took her case to an employment tribunal, asking the judge to rule on whether a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology is protected in law. Judge Tayler ruled that it wasn’t. — J.K. Rowling
Katy cites the ruling from the case here, and argues that JK misrepresents the situation, stating that
This was not a simple case of someone tweeting something innocuous in passing, it involved months of (still ongoing) campaigning to take away the rights that trans women have today for protection against the misogynistic sexism and sexual violence they face for being women, a refusal to respect trans people for who they are, and a bitter dispute with a trans person.
Which is, is it not, a conclusion that tweets acknowledging the biological determination of sex is a sackable offence? As if an ‘absolutist’ (read: certain) understanding of who is a man and who is a woman is an unacceptable position to hold. I would like to remind Katy that the rights we hold as women are legislated for according to sex, and not gender. This is because women’s oppression is based on sex, and not gender. Gender is the mechanism by which we are oppressed, not the reason. Consequently, what Katy describes as ‘months of (still ongoing) campaigning to take away the rights that trans women have today’ is in fact months of campaigning to retain the rights we fought hard to win.
Katy then goes on to make some spurious claims that I presume relate to DSDs, but as they aren’t evidenced or referenced directly, I can only presume, and consequently, I’ll state for the ten millionth time that DSDs do not negate sexual dimorphism any more than people born without legs negate bipedalism. I’ll also note the predictably tedious attempt to appropriate the struggles of intersex people once again, which is completely irrelevant to the discussion of gender identity.
In reference to the above quotation, Katy says ‘The idea that trans people can’t be trusted around children because of who they are is an extremist and disgusting position, so is the idea that they are somehow lying by being themselves.’
Extremist? I would think it is extraordinarily manipulative to teach children about sexual dimorphism as part of their national curriculum, and then lie to them to save someone’s feelings. There’s a word for when you tell someone that what they can see with their own eyes isn’t true. It’s gaslighting. Are we endorsing the gaslighting of children now? She also didn’t say they shouldn’t be around children. She said they shouldn’t be in a position of responsibility with children. Parents have the right to decide whether they want their children to be exposed to gender ideology. She’s not talking about safety; she is talking about ethics. I would be equally uncomfortable if my child’s class teacher insisted that any kind of religion is an absolute fact, outside of lessons written for the purpose of educating children about the spectrum of faiths in existence. Really, Katy, if all you have is straw men and tenuous appropriations, this is going to be a tedious deconstruction. Try harder.
Support for Magdalen Berns
Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises
To open, Katy appears to require some assistance with a burning question: ‘What does “A believer in the importance of biological sex” mean?’ Allow me to clarify this for you, Katy. It means women understand that their precarious position in society is broadly stabilised by rights that were written to protect the female sex. That’s pretty much the entire reason we’re all here. Moving on.
Katy argues that ‘What chromosomes you have doesn’t determine how people interact with you, what sexism you face or who finds you attractive.’
They do form the basis for it, however. Nobody can see your chromosomes so this is a red herring. What they can see are secondary sex characteristics, and they have determined that female secondary sex characteristics are inferior to those of male people. Consequently, they rape, batter, discriminate against, and generally torment us for it. The male ones. The ones with male secondary sex characteristics. Are you following? I do hope so.
Katy says ‘If you are not attracted to someone because of their genitals then you are not attracted to them. You do not choose who you are attracted to, and no one should be called a bigot for it. Of course it is possible to find trans people who disagree with this, as it is usually possible to find someone who disagrees with any given view, but this is the mainstream position by far.’
Wow, Katy, this didn’t age well, did it?
Awks.
Katy says, in disgust towards Magdalen Berns’ outspoken critisism of the trans community, ‘Trans people aren’t actors, they don’t get “sexual kicks” from being trans.’
No? What about these ones? Are they not RealTrans™?
I could go on and on and on but we’d be here all day. And before you fire off at me, I’m not saying all transwomen are fetishists any more than I’m saying literally every man is a rapist. These things are relevant to assessing risk, however. Is some honesty too much to ask for? Come on, Katy, just peruse trans twitter for a bit. You’re in denial, mate.
TERF — Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist
Literally the only things I have to say in response to this entire subsection are thus:
When a word takes on the power to incite violence against an already marginalised demographic, it becomes a slur. Which is why Twitter now removes tweets containing it, thankfully.
Ironically, although I don’t know if it was obvious, Katy hits the nail on the head with this little nugget:
‘You cannot address oppression if you cannot name your oppressor.’
That’s exactly it, Katy. Exactly it. The class of people responsible for the oppression of female people is male people. When you blur those lines, you make it extraordinarily difficult to identify who the oppressor is. You can’t legislate for the rights of a demographic that shares sex-based inequalities if you deny sex. Way to shoot yourself in the foot.
Biology
As someone who is an avid lover of biology
Me too, Katy! This should go swimmingly, right? Right??
Oh, clownfish. We peaked early. Katy, you do realise they spontaneously change sex? With physical, demonstrable modifications that take place during sequential hermaphroditism? Do you know they carry male and female reproductive organs? Katy, you do know fish don’t feel like the opposite sex, right? They are born exclusively male. This is an evolutionary adaptation to ensure the survival of the species, since it’s too dangerous for them to stray from their anemones to find a mate. It’s not so they can wear stilettos and invade the toilets of ladyfish. Also, I’m not sure you’re aware, but it really is crucial: humans are not fish.
However, since we’re comparing humans to fish, maybe we could adopt some of their social conventions as their school hierarchies function with a female at the top. A male only changes sex when she dies, so he can replace her. Do you hear that? Fish have the decency to wait for their female counterparts to die before they start trying to take her place. Someone should tell Lily.
biology is very complicated
I can see you’re struggling.
Education and Safeguarding
Teaching kids about LGBT people, who may be their parents, teachers, friends etc, or even themselves, is clearly only beneficial to children. Letting kids be kids requires letting LGBT kids be LGBT kids. — K. Montgomerie
A disproportionate amount of kids presenting at the Tavistock gender clinic are autistic and female. In fact, the latter aspect was so concerning that Penny Mordaunt launched an inquiry into why girls are suddenly so keen to escape their sex. It’s almost like being female is a bit crap under patriarchy. This was the outcome.
Freedom of Speech
…ironic that JKR talks about freedom of speech in an article she posted with comments turned off, and tweeted with replies turned off, days after silencing someone with a legal threat. — K. Montgomerie
You neglect to mention, Katy, that the tweets referenced suggested that J.K. Rowling — a children’s author — was not safe to be around children. You understood that it’s deplorable to say that sort of thing when you falsely attributed that claim to Maya Forstater at the beginning of your piece, but you’re struggling to understand why that might be entirely unacceptable when hurled at JK.
So you can twist a woman’s words, but when it’s blatantly stated towards a children’s author, you’re suddenly incapable of understanding the issue.
I see you.
Lisa Littman and Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria
‘The claims that LGBT people are confused, or that they’ve been tricked into being LGBT, or that they can be converted out of it are as old as homophobia and transphobia themselves. Not only are these claims wrong and completely unevidenced, they are very dangerous.’ — K. Montgomerie`a
Katy, as was outlined in the subsection above, what people are most concerned about is the exponential increase in young girls seeking gender reassignment. Frankly, I’m concerned that you don’t appear to be remotely worried about that, considering that it was only recently that the NHS quietly updated their guidance to reflect the actual situation apropos what we actually know about medical transition. Are you not even a little bit concerned about the potential risk that thousands of girls underwent treatments without understanding the ramifications of doing so?
There was a lot wrong with Littman’s paper. Firstly the study involved no trans people, just the parents of trans people.There was a lot wrong with Littman’s paper. Firstly the study involved no trans people, just the parents of trans people. Secondly all of the participating parents were found on just a handful of websites such as “Transgender Trend” and “Youth Trans Critical Professionals — K. Montgomerie
Yes, the responses were from the parents, because the youngest participant in that study was eleven years old. It concerns me how quickly transactivists are willing to grant children the right of informed consent when we understand categorically that they have not undergone critical neurodevelopment to make this a prudent decision. I should think anyone from the trans community would be against contributing to anything that doesn’t portray transgenderism in a positive light. I’m unsurprised that it was parents who were concerned about their children that elected to participate in the study. Furthermore, the opinions of parents were sought on the back of concerns such as the following:
Desistance, Detransition and “If I Were a Kid Today I Would Have Been Transed”
No trans person thinks that they are trans because they liked painting their nails or climbing trees. As a kid I liked lego, trains and maths and pretty much nothing else and I was still trans. Doctors don’t diagnose kids as trans unless they show persistent dysphoria, and have gone through therapy for years. — K. Montgomerie
Are you genuinely trying to argue that you have somehow missed the avalanche of trans stories that inevitably begin with ‘I knew I was a girl because I loved insert sex stereotype’? Here are a select few I have prepared for your perusal.
I have to be honest with you, Katy, that one is particularly galling. When talking about the games they played at school, Isla said they played doctors and nurses, and ‘For whatever reason, I was never the doctor, always the nurse.’ Wait, so women can’t be doctors? That’s sexism, Katy.
You take my point. Gender stereotypes form the basis from which people decide they don’t belong in their bodies, which is why trans ideology is inherently sexist.
On this basis alone, me and every tomboy in my school would have faced pressure to transition, much like butch lesbians do now.
I’m also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60–90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria — J.K. Rowling
This can be a very complicated topic with lots of concepts to get your head around, especially when they are all intentionally conflated together by GC people, as JKR has done here. — K. Montgomerie
Do you see how Katy does this quite systematically in this piece? Whenever something is iffy and it’s apparent you might raise an eyebrow, Katy says it’s complicated. It’s a subconscious attempt to make you think you don’t understand because you aren’t clever enough. It’s really not complicated, and you’re right to raise an eyebrow. There is ample cause for concern here.
there is no evidence that being trans is something you can be talked into.
Yeah, just because you don’t personally like the concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria, doesn’t mean it’s not a thing, Katy. There is evidence you disagree with.
But finally and most importantly on this section, why do you think you know more than all of the experts and doctors in this field of study? When you read a blog post that links to a handful of studies that seem to go against the entire worldwide medical consensus, why do you think you know enough to say science is wrong?
First of all, there’s quite an active contingent of medical doctors, researchers, and scientists in the gender-critical community. Second of all, what science? Is this the clownfish again, Katy?
Misogyny and Women as a Political Class
Oh, we’re finally getting to the bones of it! Awesome.
I wasn’t born until 1989 so I don’t remember the 80s, however I agree with her, there definitely seems to be a rise in misogyny in recent years as the world seems to be becoming more reactionary. This is most clearly seen in the USA with the rise of Trump and attacks on women’s access to abortion and reproductive freedom. But the insinuation here that “trans activists” are part of this is beyond ridiculous — they are targets of the same force.
Katy, do me a favour. Go over to Twitter and search ‘TERF’.
Then watch this.
Then reread everything I just told you about the trans lobby’s campaign to remove sex-based protections in law.
Incels, and in fact the entire “manosphere”, generally have the same views of trans people and trans rights as Gender Critical people.
What kind of Hitler-was-a-vegetarian bullshit are you bringing to the table here, Katy?
This is why so often you see “TERFs are Nazis” being thrown around online, because they have the same views on trans rights.
Do you want to go down this road? Because many transwomen have exactly the same views as incels. For these men, their entire modus operandi is positioning themselves as superior to women.
Sending women unsolicited dick pics is the progressive height of 2020, amirite?
You should know that the bimbo trope seems to be quite popular, often coinciding with trans fetishes.
Are you just not looking, or..?
Come on, Katy, I expect better research from someone who goes to the trouble of including a contents list in their article.
“Trans People Think Being a Woman is a Costume”
But, as many women have said before me, ‘woman’ is not a costume. ‘Woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head. ‘Woman’ is not a pink brain, a liking for Jimmy Choos or any of the other sexist ideas now somehow touted as progressive. — J.K. Rowling
As soon as someone says this in relation to trans people you can be sure that they don’t know what they are talking about. — K. Montgomerie.
See: Desistance, Detransition and “If I Were a Kid Today I Would Have Been Transed”
One of the key premises of trans rights is that anyone can present any way and still be themselves.
And yet, they so often reduce womanhood to sexist stereotypes. Why is that?
Ask almost any trans person “do you think that wearing a dress makes someone a woman” and they will say no very assertively. This is unequivocally a strawman.
But their like of dolls/trains as a child does? This is confusingly inconsistent, Katy. The trouble with transgenderism is that it suggests there is a commonality between women (beyond biology) that can be identified with. The subtext being that women are homogenous by personality, not sex. If not, then what else is there to identify with? Women are all individuals. We have individual tastes and preferences, emotions, and responses. We are not the same. Identifying with a commonality that doesn’t exist is identifying with a sexist stereotype.
Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault
Most of the trans women I know, including myself, have experienced sexual assault for being women, and I am grateful that JKR extends empathy and solidarity to the women who experience this
Male on male violence — sexual or otherwise — is a terrible crime, but we’re specifically talking about the risk posed to women here, and that is not the same, nor has it ever been.
Trans Women in Women’s Bathrooms and GRA Reform
As I pointed out in my last piece; in the UK — where both JKR and I live — trans women have used women’s spaces longer than either of us have been alive, and have been legally protected to do so since 2010
Disingenuous, Katy. If I go and grab a manager and tell them there’s a bloke in the loo, they will remove him. Because I have the right to request single-sex space on this basis:
The normalisation of men in women’s spaces is the problem, because these guidelines merely outline the legality in facilitating sex-specific spaces. Private businesses can elect not to honour those requests. If anyone can identify as any sex in law, then private businesses run the risk of being cancelled in a kangaroo court on social media because they chose to prioritise women’s safety.
All of this is somewhat moot since self-ID has now been shelved anyway.
England and Wales recently admitted that over 70% of the responses to their consultation were positive
They also said they strongly suspect trans advocates intentionally skewed the results.
‘It is plainly clear that it is Gender Critical people who are not listening to the concerns of women.’
Yeah, must be that, Katy.
I do not know how anyone who claims to have done any research on trans people could not know trans women already use womens spaces in the UK, and always have. This idea that it’s new or we need to ban them because of something that might happen in the future is completely fabricated in the minds of people who fear trans people.
We know what men do, Katy.
Fear
In 11 countries it is against the law and punishable by the death penalty to be a trans person. In the USA in 43 states it is still considered a valid legal defence to murder a trans person if you found yourself attracted to them (yes seriously). Right now in the USA they are debating whether it’s legal to fire someone for being trans in the top court in the land. Over half of the trans people I know personally have lost jobs because of being trans, though usually in that subtle “sure you used to be the top employee every month for the last 5 years, and this is nothing to do with you being trans, but we are downsizing one month after you have come out and only you are being asked to leave” kind of way. I’ve talked to trans people who have been beaten to the verge of death, who have been permanently mutilated, who have been raped by their own family, who have had to flee their countries and all kinds of other horrific abuses. I know people who are trans and no one in their life knows because they need to keep it a secret for their safety. I, a very privileged person, have personally been doxxed and received countless threats of violence just for standing up to transphobia.
I’m just wondering why you thought this was a reasonable answer to the claim that women are afraid. It’s not women doing those things to transwomen, is it? So why do you imagine it’s helpful to put women at further risk because transwomen are? Is that your idea of ‘sisterhood’?
Gender critical women aren’t beating up 60-year-old grandmothers, Katy.
Conclusion
This was long. J.K is prioritising women. That is all.
