Lillian Crawford came to my attention thanks to recent comments on Amol Rajan, ably rebutted on
Twitter.Why I’m picking trans* rights over Harry PotterIn Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling describes the worst punishment that exists in the Wizarding World – the Dementor’s Kiss. The procedure involves the removal of your soul from your body, leaving you with nothing but corporeal reality. Your essence, in other words, is destroyed. Rowling wrote that the human body in and of itself is worthless, that it is nothing without the soul, that it is a fate worse than death: a life merely existing in a body without an identity is not worth living.
Spoiler alert.
During childhood I was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the overwhelming discomfort one feels in the sex they were assigned at birth.
Lillian is male and has assigned himself into the female sex class.
This isn’t something I talk about often – certainly not publicly, because it’s part of my private medical history.
GQ, where this piece appeared, hasn't been known as Gentleman's Quarterly for quite a while, but I still applaud the author's apposite choice of venue to go more public. They've even got
a special section for
some crowding under the transgender umbrella.
The current climate around gender and sex in Britain, especially ‘gender critical’ campaign groups, no longer respects that privacy and has forced trans* [trans* is inclusive of a wide spectrum of gender identies including gender-fluid, agender as well as transsexual and transgender] people to be open about their identities when their rights are under threat to protect themselves and others.
DARVO is a staple in trans* fiction.
* [
the other side of reality]
While I have never seen the Harry Potter books as works of great literature, what they offered to me as a child was a story through which I could explain my feelings.
So, good enough literature.
Like many children of my generation, I tried to find myself within the Potter world. Of course, I was Hermione – a girl unafraid to be clever and to show that off to others, to be bookish despite it not being ‘cool’.
Hermione was a ‘mudblood’, someone who didn’t come from magical privilege, and had to prove that she belonged as much as her ‘pureblood’ classmates, which she does through academic excellence. This is one way Harry Potter resonates with young people – the books offer reassurance that you can come to terms with your identity later in life, and that you can find a community of similar people who understand you.
It's lovely that a bookish girl could capture the imagination of a bookish boy.
Here's another author for you. (Necktie clashes with the chair btw.)
I've never read HP and have no plans to, but it strikes me that as it demonstrably shaped the lives of Lillian and many others, we might consider upgrading it to 'great' after all.
I believe that everyone who feels a disconnect between their gender and their sexed body should be supported in transitioning to whatever degree is right for them. I believe that we as a society should not distinguish or discriminate between those who have undergone processes of transition and those who have not. To paraphrase Simone de Beauvoir, we all become, rather than are born, a man or a woman.
"The very concept of ‘woman’,
de Beauvoir argues, is a male concept: woman is always ‘other’ because the male is the ‘seer’: he is the subject and she the object – the meaning of what it is to be a woman is given by men."
This is not a belief that J.K. Rowling shares. In 2018 she liked a tweet that described trans women as “men in dresses”, which her spokesperson claimed was a mistake made in a “middle-aged moment”. At the end of 2019, she voiced her support through Twitter of Maya Forstater, whose work contract had not been renewed after she claimed “men cannot change into women”. Since then she has criticised gender-neutral language, endorsed gender critical activists and organisations, and reprimanded members of the Labour party for including trans women within their definitions of, well, women.
Rather than a single incident, it is the persistency and aggression of Rowling’s tweets and actions that have made her a threat to trans* people.
My bold. Let the record show more DARVO.
Following those links I fail to find anything that raises so much as an eyebrow, unless you count
PenisNews, which thanks to its unswerving devotion to, well,
you know, reliably raises gorge.
I sympathise with Potter fans who struggle to let go of the world Rowling created because it has been one into which people have projected themselves and felt represented. This has been felt on such a scale that many fans believe Rowling should leave her work behind, and stop creating new stories in her Wizarding World.
Part of growing up is
learning when to let go.
That day may come, but while Rowling remains financially and creatively tethered to the franchise, it is impossible to distinguish the art from the artist. Every time you buy a Harry Potter book or pay to see a Fantastic Beasts film, you contribute directly to the maintenance and growth of Rowling’s power.
Ah, the power of words to cast a spell.
As an adult, I have identified with Rowling herself, as a fellow survivor of sexual assault. My own trauma has left me with anxiety and depression, and a complex distrust of men.
Gentle reminder that you're a man. Yes, I can quite grasp the complexity.
When I was diagnosed with complex PTSD, it transpired that I could not even begin processing the abuse I had suffered until my transition was complete because the dysphoria itself was traumatic. As a result, spaces apart from cis males are important for me, as they are for many women, non-binary, and trans* people. I have felt sympathy for Rowling when she has voiced concern at the apparent intention to dissolve these safe spaces, something she has written about at length.
What I cannot sympathise with is the move from a rational fear of abuse to an irrational fear which sees all people, or in Rowling’s case pre-operative trans women, as potential abusers. That because you have been abused by a “penised individual” – to use a phrase from one of Rowling’s own tweets – does not mean all people with penises are going to abuse you.
How many times must it be said? Women can't tell the difference between
men intent on harm and men who aren't. Segregation in states of vulnerability as a first line of
defense is entirely proper. Why should women and
girls be the default victims of a new
safeguarding minefield?
Those who push and parrot TWAW and promote self-ID have a lot to answer for.
In recent weeks, Rowling has made repeatedly clear her connection to the gender critical movement – which promotes the view that sex is biological and immutable – that continues to grow and gain momentum.
Yay
science.Earlier this month, Rowling dined with the figureheads of this movement on the same day thousands protested against the government’s announcement that trans* people would not be protected by an upcoming ban on conversion therapy in the UK. In 2020 Rowling had said that she would march for trans* rights if they were being discriminated against.
clickyMy turn to be
hysterical I guess (see below). It must be social
contagion. It has been argued that the words Rowling has used are confined to Twitter, and therefore cannot do any real harm. However, reports have been published proving that the mental health of trans* and cis* *my link people have been affected by ‘gender critical’ rhetoric, including most recently in The Guardian.
We're aware which side isn't a big fan of debate or free speech in general.
Moreover, the citation of Rowling by leaders such as Vladimir Putin, as well as others in America my link again, as they target discriminatory policies against trans* people only reinforces the direct line of connection that exists between her words and real-world actions.
So many go
Godwin. Well swerved.
The fact is that trans* people at all stages of transition are currently living in an intense state of fear DARVO.
I've never come across a more
hysterical lot than trans rights activists, who take
victimisation to new heights.
Where reform and progress had been promised and enacted over the past decade, we now see violent backlash akin to the ‘gay panic’ of the 1980s under Margaret Thatcher. As this climate intensifies, we have to decide which side of history we are on and impose boycotts and sanctions on those who oppose trans* rights. That includes J.K. Rowling.
Wrapping it up now, better squeeze in moral panic,
forced teaming, and language calling to mind racial injustice. All this and
Thatch too! There's a joke struggling to get out.
When I transitioned, I made a definitive break with the past.
Wherever you go there you are.
The most recent stage of that process has been to let my connection to Rowling and her works die with it, while making my peace with the significance they once held for me. I invite you to do the same – after all, to use Rowling’s own words, one cannot live while the other survives.
While I'm confident that's not an actual
threat, it sounds uncannily like one. Quelle surprise.
