Channelknight Fadran
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Kay.
So... I have a question. Several, actually. And I'd rather like to not be cancelled.
It concerns J.K. Rowling and the whole "transphobia" thing, so I'll drop them in spoiler boxes for anyone who wants to keep themselves out of the drama. I'd particularly like to ask any trans people here on the shard for their opinion:
SpoilerDoes she actually seem transphobic to you?
I'm definitely not saying that she's completely innocent of saying anything insensitive, but after reading over the most contested tweets and her massive 4000-word essay, the last thing I'm reading from it is hate. She isn't illegitimizing or persecuting trans people as far as I can tell; only presenting issues that actually make a lot of sense.
Her main concern is with the safety of women in public. She takes no issue with actual transitioning of male to female; Rowling only said "When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman... then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside."
Honestly, at this point I just think that most people are going by hearsay; it's a lot easier to say "J.K. Rowling is transphobic" than it is to read through every tweet and essay she's released. Again, she isn't completely innocent, and she hasn't directly apologized for any offense given, but I do not think that she is transphobic or hates trans people.
But I want to hear what you guys have to say, because it's (very) possible that I'm just reading everything wrong--I'm not trans or queer or anything of the sort, and I haven't even known very many trans people throughout my life long enough to come to understand their struggles. I'm very much a vanilla male who's only (relatively) recently been introduced to all this stuff.
I'm asking because I'm writing an essay about this, and would like some other opinions.
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QuoteDanex, people care because she has a huge platform that tons of people can see, and things she says are more likely to be heard and listened to, regardless if they've actually been researched or are right. You don't have to be a politician to do damage.
This may be controversial, but I kinda think that's more her audience's problem, not necessarily hers. Or maybe not controversial, but idealist. Here, lemme start over. In a perfect world, her entire audience would- wait no, lemme make this more broad to more accurately describe my point.
I think that in a perfect world, all people with any sort of following would only be respected for the thing that made them famous in the first place. I think that influencers have no right, or responsibility, to speak on subjects that are unrelated to their field.
I will acknowledge that this is not a perfect world, and therefore you are correct in that Rowling can cause damage.
However, I certainly wish that we did live in that world, so I'm going to do my part to lean towards that reality by choosing to not care about Rowling(or any non-political public figure)'s political opinions in any way, at all, at to encourage others to do the same.
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