Times- Death threats don’t sit on the right side of history
Alex Massie: Death threats don’t sit on the right side of history
The abuse heaped on JK Rowling by trans allies should not be ignored
Alex Massie
The Sunday Times
Today, like yesterday and like tomorrow too, the most famous person living in Scotland will probably receive at least one death threat and all but certainly be the lucky recipient of plenty of other promises of violence. And today, like yesterday and probably like tomorrow too, very few people will bother to be concerned about this. There will be no vigil, no statements of support or solidarity, no suggestion this is a monstrous state of affairs to be deplored by all decent people, no indication at all, in fact, that there is anything to see here at all. It will be just another day in the life of JK Rowling.
Even if the Scottish parliament were sitting, no politician would draw attention to the abuse heaped upon Rowling for the crime (sic) of thinking women’s rights and those of trans people may sometimes conflict. Scottish PEN will remain silent and so will the actors and other artists whose fame and fortunes have in large part been made as a result of Rowling’s work. That may be their right, but it is craven nonetheless.
No evidence, let alone any convincing evidence, is ever produced to substantiate the accusation that Rowling — or other feminists — is transphobic. The assertion is considered proof of guilt itself. If you suspect this speaks to what is, at root, a suffocating new orthodoxy familiar in the pattern of its thinking to students of totalitarianism you would, of course, be correct.
Last week, drawing attention to one threat made against her, Rowling acidly observed, “Now that hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever”. It is important to note that these threats are not confined to the fetid swamps of social media. At a Trans Pride march in London last month, activists carried signs emblazoned with the messages “Rot in Hell Rowling” and “Kill JK Rowling”. I suppose these must also be laughed off. They are not real threats and, anyway, Rowling is rich and famous and straight and white so, ultimately, the bitch is kind of asking for it in a yes-no-but-actually-yes kind of way.
Absurdly, we are asked to believe that those threatening violence upon Rowling are the people who, in their own pious, self-aggrandising phrase are “on the right side of history” and it is Rowling who, in defiance of all evidence to the contrary, is guilty of fomenting hatred and violence. That being so, the death threats sent to her daily must be considered a natural response to her provocations. They are but a means by which truth may be spoken to power and if it is regrettable that some folk take this too far the fact remains she started it and it is she who bears responsibility for the violent fantasies of those who promise to kill her. Truly, we are through the looking glass.
But then so much of this so-called “debate” is fantastical. Rowling’s offence — her notional offence, I mean — is to have stated her belief that biological sex is real. This in no way trivialises or discounts either the experiences or the desires of trans people, it merely insists that what is true is indeed true. If this kicks against the modern fashion for being who you wish to be and being that merely by affirming it, then so be it. Reality is a stubborn chiel and it does not ding.
For we are now asked to embrace and even welcome a new world in which, for example, people with male bodies must be permitted to enter women’s sporting events even though the existence of women’s sport is based upon the inherent, unavoidable, physical differences between men and women. Sport for women exists because men and women are different and, in most athletic pursuits, the former enjoy a significant advantage bestowed upon them by their physical characteristics. If people with male bodies are permitted to enter women’s sports the eventual result is the end of elite women’s sport.
There are other areas in which, contrary to what the first minister appears to believe, the rights of trans people may from time to time conflict with women’s rights but, as so often, the Scottish government’s preferred response is simply to deny plainly observable reality. If you wish hard enough, a problem — or a clash of rights — may be made to disappear.
Except, of course, it can’t. Nor is there any way of avoiding the obvious truth that Rowling’s thought crimes are exacerbated by her sex. She not only dares to say what she thinks, she has the audacity to do so as a woman. The level of hatred directed towards her is sex-based too. It cannot be explained away by her wealth or celebrity; it is of a type and an obsession that is wearily familiar to many women. To put it simply: there are plenty of men who hate women and it is always a mistake to forget this.
Many of the loudest voices in the so-called trans-rights movement are not those of trans people themselves but, rather, of men whose self-professed alliance with trans people often seems like a convenient cloak for rampant misogyny. Any woman who dares note this can count on receiving a vastly greater measure of abuse than a man making the same argument might. This has always seemed telling.
The relish with which Rowling’s haters assail her is also revealing. The violence wished upon her may often be a lurid fantasy but such fantasies are themselves acts of male violence. Some men get their kicks in truly miserable fashion.
Once again, trans people should, indeed must, be at liberty to lead lives brimful of joy and dignity. Trans men and trans women are as much flesh and blood as anyone else. I pity those trans people who, rightly noting the difficulties they often face, find themselves saddled with allies so thoroughly in love with sexual violence. Inviting JK Rowling to “suck my trans dick” seems a mightily strange way in which to be “on the right side of history”. So strange, in fact, that it seems like something to which we should pay some attention.
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