Will someone please tell them Quidditch isn’t real?

As others have said, she wrote in a way that appealed to even reluctant readers, so I'm not convinced that she is overrated. These things are subjective anyway.

Her descriptions seem to bring scenes alive, which doesn't always happen in books for children or adults.

“Quidditch” is a real and organised sport and but probably should be renamed and distanced from JK Rowling’s invention if the organisers wish it to continue to be an inclusive game.

JK Rowling seemed to have shot herself in the foot when she tweeted that the word “Women” should have been used in the slogan “People who menstruate”. This started an twitter storm which has left her being labelled a Terf.

Why did she ignore the fact that transmen and non-binary people may also menstrute?
Was she being non-inclusive or was she insisting on all people who menstruate being labelled as women?

Yes how transphobic to ask that the word woman be used and not removed. Be careful your misogyny is showing.

If a non binary Male was bleeding monthly they would need to seek urgent medical attention if a non binary female (who was pre menopausal) was bleeding monthly, they would need to respond in the way all women do when they have a period. Their sex is the deciding factor in the response.

JKR didn’t ‘shoot herself in the foot’. Sadly she’s been shot in the back by misogynistic activists who don’t understand inclusivity

Pinkarolina, she was just stating a fact.
Only women menstruate, whether they are transmen or non-binary. Maybe JKR shouldn’t have bothered. After all some people, think Quidditch is real and pretend they can play it.
The Quidditch argument shows how stupid people can be. Quidditch is a fantasy game, from a story, played flying on broomsticks. Any land-based game is not really Quidditch, in the same way that any male cannot menstruate.

Mollygo, this is it, it is all about labels. There are 2 distinctly different games called Quidditch, one land based, the other a fantasy invention.

To be politically correct a Trans man is a man and wouldn’t recognise himself included in something advertised just for women. A 10 year old girl who menstruates may not recognise herself as a woman and may feel the advertised sanitary products are not for her. However, everyone who menstruates are people and recognise themselves as such.

Anyway the argument about what we call the different people who menstruate has been discussed fully in the past and is derailing the thread.

What is under discussion are two different games but both of which include broomsticks and a golden snitch. Personally I’m on the fence about whether JK Rowling is transphobic or non-inclusive or not. To me it seems she dug a hole she can’t get out of. Rightly or wrongly she has become demonised as such and that’s why the organisers of the game played on the ground want to distance the game from her.

JK Rowling seemed to have shot herself in the foot when she tweeted that the word “Women” should have been used in the slogan “People who menstruate”. This started an twitter storm which has left her being labelled a Terf.
Thank you for answering.

It seems to me to be a huge leap to go from the idea that women are included in the category of ‘people who menstruate’ to being transphobic . I don’t use Twitter. Perhaps you could show us a direct quote from the woman herself, so we can judge for ourselves?

TERF, of course, stands for ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, which is even more confusing - how is asking that women be included in that phrase in any way excluding transpeople or being radically feminist? Even if we count transmen as male, women make up the vast majority of menstruators. It seems to me that it is the other way round, and that a refusal to include us is Women Exclusionary Radical Misogyny. WERM?

Maybe a direct quote would help to give context and clear the matter up? All I’ve read are paraphrases of what she said, which doesn’t help me to understand, particularly as they are always from people who dislike her.

Oh, we have cross-posted.

I would still like to see a direct quote from JKR, but to come back to Quidditch, that is also confusing me . As JKR invented the game, how can she be distanced from it? Also, as I remember it, Quidditch is magical, and involves flying broomsticks. How can any game played by Muggles not be distanced from it? A game of hobby-horse netball or whatever is in question seems only to be linked with Quidditch by the name. Are the players just seeking to capitalise on the imagination of someone they despise?

Even Autocorrect recognises the word Quidditch. It’s not one I use regularly (funnily enough), so it must be in the Apple dictionary. I’m sure that JKR has legal claim to it anyway. If I were her I’d be taking action to distance the WERMs from my invention. If I could be bothered to sink to that level, that is.

Pinkarolina. Only women menstruate. It’s a biological fact. None of this people that menstruate. Trans women can’t menstruate. It’s not transphobia and I think, as women, we need to start making as much noise as the trans activists who are just using the trans situation to advance their misogynistic aims.

What is under discussion are two different games but both of which include broomsticks and a golden snitch.
?

Which came first?

Perhaps JKR should have registered the name.

tickingbird

*Pinkarolina*. Only women menstruate. It’s a biological fact. None of this people that menstruate. Trans women can’t menstruate. It’s not transphobia and I think, as women, we need to start making as much noise as the trans activists who are just using the trans situation to advance their misogynistic aims.

I agree. It's a shame, as I have every sympathy with what I call 'genuine' transpeople who harm nobody and just want to get on with their lives; but their cause has been hijacked by misogynists, and it needs to be stopped in its tracks.

This is the article JKR commented about.
www.devex.com/news/sponsored/opinion-creating-a-more-equal-post-covid-19-world-for-people-who-menstruate-97312#.XtwLnv0aEeR.twitter

JKR also said this.

And recently, about this article -

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/absurdity-police-logging-rapists-women-s6576v825

(Penised prisoners are already being housed in women's prisons, in Scotland and the rest of the UK.)

FarNorth

JKR also said this.

And that’s supposed to be transphobic?
I don’t think I can add your image.

Why did she ignore the fact that transmen and non-binary people may also menstrute?

If, in five thousand years’ time, the interred skeletons of transmen and non-binary people are excavated and forensic tests are carried out on them, what do we think the conclusions will be? That those skeletons were of males and of people who had no sexual identity at all?

It’s all smoke and mirrors. BTW, I love the acronym WERM!

Thank you, SueDonim

Why did she ignore the fact that transmen and non-binary people may also menstrute?

Did she? If I said that some dogs are brown, does that ignore the fact that so are some cats?* Would that make me catphobic?

The people who are demonising JKR are the same ones who want to remove the work 'mother' from maternity wards, and house male-born rapists in women's prisons. They are also unable to define what a woman actually means, despite insisting that female-born people have no right to claim the word for themselves.

It's really difficult to avoid the conclusion that there are people out there who are simply misogynistic.

*other brown animals are also available, and have equal right to be known as such.

SueDonim

^Why did she ignore the fact that transmen and non-binary people may also menstrute?^

If, in five thousand years’ time, the interred skeletons of transmen and non-binary people are excavated and forensic tests are carried out on them, what do we think the conclusions will be? That those skeletons were of males and of people who had no sexual identity at all?

It’s all smoke and mirrors. BTW, I love the acronym WERM!

SueDonim in 5000 years time I think they’ll know, because the skeletons of transmen and non binary will all be wearing badges saying ’my preferred pronoun is they’.

Regardless, even if we have long since gone down the road of all men getting to muscle in on everything that used to be female, and female-identifying women being seen as failed men only fit for breeding, I strongly suspect that the sex of the skeletons will still be of interest to people in 5000 years' time, as it is that, rather than gender, that determines all sorts of things about us.

I’ve always had a lot of respect for Professor Robert Winston, who a few months ago when he was on Question Time said you categorically cannot change your sex. I believe him to be correct. I’m quite happy to accept men who have had all the surgery as women, although I know they are not women, and also to accept women who have had all the hormones as men, even though I know they are not men. This is because, however much surgery a person has, or however many hormones they take, no one can change the chromosomes they were born with. Females have two X chromosomes and males have one X and one Y. This can never be changed, whatever else I’d done to the body. Robert Winston is correct.

whatever else is done to the body

I don’t seem to be able to get on the Guardain online vote, it seems to be closed, is this so or is it me?

mokryna

I don’t seem to be able to get on the Guardain online vote, it seems to be closed, is this so or is it me?

Yes it’s now closed. It says so in very small print !

It’s closed and I think Elon Musk won it for the most unusual way to spell a child’s name.