Some time ago (March 2023) I listened to a podcast interview with JK Rowling, a person who has been vilified, victimized and threatened with violence and death for speaking objective scientific truth. I found the interview impactful. and have just found a partial transcript
Question: You have said that you respect trans people, you said that you would march with them, that you think the transition is right for some people, but you also say that there’s a real difference between biological women and trans women and a meaningful distinction between the two in their experiences. And I think some of your critics point to that and say, you’re essentially making trans women, second-class women, you know, like “you’re almost women,”” that despite all of their efforts to live in the world as women, as what feels right and authentic to them, you are essentially saying, “I’ll treat you as a woman, you are an honorary woman”, but this distinction that you are emphasizing, the biological distinction that you see as being so important, it can feel hurtful to them, like they are, you know, almost a thing, but not quite, like something is being held back. Can you understand the pain that that could cause?
Answer: Yes, is the short answer, yes, I can understand that hurt. The thing is women are the only group to my knowledge that are being asked to embrace members of their oppressor class, unquestioningly, with no caveat. Now, on an individual basis, and I think many people new to this argument would see it on that level, because many people of my generation particularly think that we’re talking about old-school transsexuals, people who’ve been through full sex reassignment because of profound gender dysphoria. And I feel 100% compassion for such people and I would absolutely respect their pronouns always have, always will, and would want, as I say them, to have comfortable, easy lives. This movement, though, is pressing for something different, very different.
This movement has argued, continues to argue, that a man may have had no surgery whatsoever, but if he feels himself to be a woman, the door of every woman’s bathroom, changing room, rape centre should be open to him. And I say no, I’m afraid I say no. And we are in a cultural moment where that individual’s hurt is being prioritised over the hurt of women whose rights and boundaries are under sustained assault, and I think it’s interesting to ask why the pain of one group is being prioritised over the pain of other groups.
And then what you could almost call precognition
Question: There are a lot of critics who say you and your comments are giving fuel to the right.
Answer: Well, my, my answer would be I think you're giving fuel to the right. This is, this is why many left wing feminists in particular are sitting with their head in their hands. The the right has wanted for years and years and years to, not all of the right, but certainly the further right and the religious right have wanted to castigate the lesbian and gay and bisexual movement as is inherently degenerate and part of the left's broader degeneracy. When you defend the placing of rapists in cells with women, you are handing the right a perfect opportunity to say you see, we told you the moral degeneracy that would result if you say homosexual relationships are ok. And I think for many leftists, for many feminists, we are despairing of the fact that people are in our view. Colluding with, and in, a deeply misogynist movement which is benefiting politically speaking the far right?
And I worry very deeply that as the left becomes increasingly puritanical and authoritarian and judgmental, we are pushing swathes of people towards not just the right, it's pushing them to the alt right. That's what scares me that particularly young men when they're being told everything in the world is their fault and they have no right to a voice and they are everything that is wrong with society. It is unfortunately a human reaction to go to the place where you will be embraced. And if the only place where you can make a joke or be accepted is a place that is full of poisonous ideas, then you're likely to go there, particularly when you're young.
So I think that the left is making a tremendous mistake in espousing this kind of, in my view, quasi religious, incredibly sort of witch hunting behavior because there will be people who will just feel when they've been shamed and abused and they feel it was unfair. Where are they going to go? You know, this, that worries me very deeply in my lifetime. We've seen such a shift on the left and I still would define myself as of the left. But, you know, I was born in the sixties when transgression really was the preserve of the left, you know, when challenging authority and then making the dark joke and then breaking societal norms was very much the preserve of the left. I've lived to see the left become incredibly puritanical and rigid and watching the alt. right. And this is a new phenomenon. The alt right is not the conservative right with whom I disagree on many, many, many things. But I'm just saying we're seeing the growth of something very much facilitated by the internet that, that alarms and disturbs me and it worries me that the left are absolutely playing into that demographics hands.
