Gender? Sex? Help me out please.

Gossamerbeynon1945

Apparently, 15 year old girls are now having double mastectomies. Did all these politicians miss their biology lessons in school. Biggest load of rubbish I have ever read - look at Robert Winston on Question Time. He says what I think, and he is an expert! no-one can change sex - it's impossible!

Have you got a link to this Gossamerbeynon1945? Given that I had to wait 2 years for a double mastectomy, post cancer, despite having the BRCA gene, and had to go through a course of therapy first, I'd be very interested to know how 15 year olds manage to bypass all the 'prevent' intervention.

Mollygo

I really shouldn’t let myself be tempted, but if you don’t like an author, for any reason, you can always find things that don’t suit you. But this is a fun deviation from the subject.
trisher
It's not really about the subject but I just looked at the books she's written as RG and one had an audio sample. I fell about laughing when Strike stood "his eyes sweeping the pavement" Oh come on no one writes such tosh!!!

trisher
Oh come on no one writes such tosh!!!
That from you trisher????

One of the absolute no-nos taught in any good writing class (and even in good English classes) is using a phrase like that- the classic being "his eyes swept the room and came to rest on the mantelpiece"
I do wonder when JK Rowling became above criticism.
My criticism of her began way before her stance on trans issues by the way.

volver

FannyCornforth

I did find it odd that I’d never seen you on the trans based threads volver
I haven’t read the thread yet.

Yeah, and I don't think I'll be on any more.

It's a shame, isn't it volver. Such an interesting topic and so policed it isn't a pleasure to debate it at all.

I feel the same about Tolkien GG it was 'The Hobbit' that got our DS into reading for the sheer joy of doing so.

Don't forget that children have been more willing to wear their specs because of Harry Potter.
I am not a great fan of her writing really, my children were too old for Harry Potter but I enjoy a detective yarn. My grandchildren enjoy HP.
She has also said something on another topic which I disagreed with strongly, but that is no reason for a boycott.
(secretly, I think JRR Tolkien was a bit of a one hit wonder!)

Smileless2012

I also wonder if Tolkien's success was ever referred to as a one hit wonder GG. JK Rowling's sold over 500 million copies of the Harry Potter series and it's been translated into more than 70 languages.

Not bad for a one hit wonder.

I am eternally grateful to her for getting our two youngest children who were reluctant readers so engaged and enthralled by her Wizard World that they now read many different genres vociferously.

Ilovecheese perfect honestly

Let me put forward one of the compromises I think would be a good one.
Regarding prisons:
If a person has been living as a transwoman for some years and has then committed a non violent crime, their request to be housed in a women's prison could be considered.

If a man has been living as a man all his life and then commits an act of sexual violence for which he is convicted, and he then and only then, decides he wants to be a woman and be sent to a woman's prison then his request should not be considered.

Doesn't science teach an open mind about such things? No fixed point in science and evidence has been found in the past about differences in trans people

Evidence it is possible already exists in nature

Unless we believe ourselves as superior and evolution stopped when it created humanity... Like "oh yes, this is perfection, let's just stop now"

A timely article about JK Rowling and the transgender debate.

www.spectator.co.uk/article/JK-Rowling-trans?fbclid=IwAR2MwPGncfRLXnrg3iO-KA1fPuiGJkS1GJHK5iQzHJN-q_Rn3Y0T5KbtlJs

I also wonder if Tolkien's success was ever referred to as a one hit wonder GG. JK Rowling's sold over 500 million copies of the Harry Potter series and it's been translated into more than 70 languages.

Not bad for a one hit wonder.

volver

Why did she call herself JK Rowling and not Jo?

Why not? Kentucky Fried Chicken changed to KFC. Marks and Spencer are now M&S, Asda was that from the start because Associated Dairies was too long and Gransnet posters change their names. Is their something suspicious about that?

Ilovecheese

This thread is typical though, there seems to be no wish to accommodate the opposing belief and come to any sort of compromise.

How can there be compromise about whether sex can be changed? It’s like asking for compromise about whether straw can be spun into gold. We could all get bored with repeating the facts (or fictions) and ‘compromise’, but anyone wanting to retire on the proceeds of the sale of a haystack is going to be very disappointed.

I'm sure she has answered that question somewhere volver I got all my info from her own words

You'd have to ask her volver and I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

volver

Why did she call herself JK Rowling and not Jo?

I wonder if anyone asked J.R.R. Tolkien why he was published under his initials as opposed to his given name?

Why did she call herself JK Rowling and not Jo?

GillT57 @ 17.29

Another excellent post Doodledog.

As you've said GG JKR isn't pretending to be a man simply because she's chosen to do what writers of both sexes have been doing for centuries. The suggestion that an extremely successful female writer is using a man's name in order to sell more books is quite frankly laughable.

People aren't saying that men aren't allowed to be women trisher they're saying that men can't be women.

Ilovecheese

This thread is typical though, there seems to be no wish to accommodate the opposing belief and come to any sort of compromise.

On either side. What sort of compromise would you like to see?

Sorry for the errors, not particularly helpful to clarity

granygravy

I did not say I haven't read her books

I have read a few

I said I had not read all of that particular book a d I will no longer by her books

She is a millionaire anyway and won't notice myissing money.

In the interest of clarity

This thread is typical though, there seems to be no wish to accommodate the opposing belief and come to any sort of compromise.

Sex = Born XX or XY chromosomes
(I know a small % can have different chromosomes).
Sex can't be altered.

Gender = whatever you choose .

Imho Womens only spaces in particular should be based on Sex not Gender.

GillT57

Well that didn't take long. Within minutes we have someone who hadn't even read the bloody book carping on with all sorts of silly conspiracies about why J K Rowling chose to use a nom de plume. Of no relevance and no help.

I do find it difficult to understand how someone can be derogatory about an authors writing style and their books when they haven’t read them.