I love this upbeat post, and perhaps my fave thing (of many) is that you used a footnote to hilarious effect. May there be many more good days in ALL of our futures.❤️🙏❤️
Two important things here: First, and foremost, now that I know you are a fan, I must recommend the 2017 Louis CK special, which I think is his finest.
Second, I do want to point out that the whole trans "rights" movement is not 10 steps forward at all. It is millions of steps in the wrong direction, some backwards (anti-gay, misogynistic, anti-First Amendment) and some in a crazy and horrible direction where we are harming vulnerable individuals in a whole new way we could never have imagined!
College students using "gay" to mean bad? I see this in my middle schoolers - well, one of them, because the other one may actually BE gay and is fending off this stuff from his brother constantly... It does concern me, and I absolutely think it's a backlash to the alphabet soup nonsense they have been force-fed since elementary school. But by college you'd think they'd have outgrown such behavior.
I do struggle with how to handle this behavior in my son. I'm constantly reprimanding him for this sort of language, or jokes about his brother's femininity. On the other hand, I worry that I'm just making him want to say it more, because he clearly thinks it's so funny, and as we know, suppressing speech doesn't work in the long run. Fortunately, my feminine son doesn't really seem to care when his brother calls him gay, but he does hate it when he calls him a girl. On that note, he got "misgendered" (or shall I say missexed?) twice at school yesterday when he went to a new after-school club, because people can't process the fact that a long-haired, elegantly dressed 7th grader could actually be a boy. I'm not sure if they really thought he was a girl or if they assumed he identified as trans and wanted to "gender" him correctly. Ugh.
I've had Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a woman" speech running in my head the last few days. I really want a feminine man to do a version, just to knock back the foolishness.
I had a similar moment, although on a much smaller scale. I was at an ultimate frisbee event, and between points I was throwing a disc back and forth with the kid of one of my teammates. He was maybe ten--I never can tell kids' ages--and seemed chatty, so I asked what he was reading. He lit up and started going on about Harry Potter, and which book he was on, and what he thought of this character or that one. I smiled internally at the knowledge that this boy had not yet been infected by Rowling Derangement Syndrome, and at the reminder that normal people don't pay much attention to gender woo-woo.
I always love telling people that my son and I read the Harry Potter series 4 TIMES, all seven books, between 2020 and 2023. Depending on who I'm talking to, I always wonder what they are thinking... but nobody ever seems to blink. Just recently, one of my woke FB friends posted a thing about an artist who cuts up Potter books to make collage portraits of "m*rdered trans women" (I'm not sure which tenet of this ideology requires the asterisk), and then talked with her fellow "trans allies" in the comments about what a "turd" Rowling was. I really wanted to say something but was afraid of coming across as callous towards the "m*rdered trans women".
There's a TV/movie trope called "wall of crazy", which is when a character obsessively pins up photos and other papers related to an investigation all over a wall or large easel. Cutting up Rowling's books to make a portrait of a murdered person *absolutely* qualifies as a wall of crazy.
Haha, but the friend had to *buy* those books to cut them up, which put money in Rowling's pocket!
Speaking as a (much less famous) author, I can tell you that I don't care if people want to burn, mutilate or eat my books...so long as they pay for 'em.
I love this post. I was in Manhattan on Saturday- maybe I walked past you - for my teen’s college visit, to one of those “ hopelessly woke” schools, a topic my teen has talked about lot about with me, as she’s looking for a school where it’s ok to be gay but also ok to not be on the gender ideology train. The remarks from your professor friend are simultaneously encouraging and concerning.
the weirdest thing is when you have a kid who says she's a lesbian and you have to tell her to keep away from the GSA then because it's not a safe place for lesbians
It's important to move beyond the polarisation between people whose favourite fantasy fiction writer is J K Rowling and people whose favourite fantasy fiction writer is Judith Butler.
I love this upbeat post, and perhaps my fave thing (of many) is that you used a footnote to hilarious effect. May there be many more good days in ALL of our futures.❤️🙏❤️
Two important things here: First, and foremost, now that I know you are a fan, I must recommend the 2017 Louis CK special, which I think is his finest.
Second, I do want to point out that the whole trans "rights" movement is not 10 steps forward at all. It is millions of steps in the wrong direction, some backwards (anti-gay, misogynistic, anti-First Amendment) and some in a crazy and horrible direction where we are harming vulnerable individuals in a whole new way we could never have imagined!
College students using "gay" to mean bad? I see this in my middle schoolers - well, one of them, because the other one may actually BE gay and is fending off this stuff from his brother constantly... It does concern me, and I absolutely think it's a backlash to the alphabet soup nonsense they have been force-fed since elementary school. But by college you'd think they'd have outgrown such behavior.
I do struggle with how to handle this behavior in my son. I'm constantly reprimanding him for this sort of language, or jokes about his brother's femininity. On the other hand, I worry that I'm just making him want to say it more, because he clearly thinks it's so funny, and as we know, suppressing speech doesn't work in the long run. Fortunately, my feminine son doesn't really seem to care when his brother calls him gay, but he does hate it when he calls him a girl. On that note, he got "misgendered" (or shall I say missexed?) twice at school yesterday when he went to a new after-school club, because people can't process the fact that a long-haired, elegantly dressed 7th grader could actually be a boy. I'm not sure if they really thought he was a girl or if they assumed he identified as trans and wanted to "gender" him correctly. Ugh.
I've had Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a woman" speech running in my head the last few days. I really want a feminine man to do a version, just to knock back the foolishness.
I had a similar moment, although on a much smaller scale. I was at an ultimate frisbee event, and between points I was throwing a disc back and forth with the kid of one of my teammates. He was maybe ten--I never can tell kids' ages--and seemed chatty, so I asked what he was reading. He lit up and started going on about Harry Potter, and which book he was on, and what he thought of this character or that one. I smiled internally at the knowledge that this boy had not yet been infected by Rowling Derangement Syndrome, and at the reminder that normal people don't pay much attention to gender woo-woo.
I always love telling people that my son and I read the Harry Potter series 4 TIMES, all seven books, between 2020 and 2023. Depending on who I'm talking to, I always wonder what they are thinking... but nobody ever seems to blink. Just recently, one of my woke FB friends posted a thing about an artist who cuts up Potter books to make collage portraits of "m*rdered trans women" (I'm not sure which tenet of this ideology requires the asterisk), and then talked with her fellow "trans allies" in the comments about what a "turd" Rowling was. I really wanted to say something but was afraid of coming across as callous towards the "m*rdered trans women".
There's a TV/movie trope called "wall of crazy", which is when a character obsessively pins up photos and other papers related to an investigation all over a wall or large easel. Cutting up Rowling's books to make a portrait of a murdered person *absolutely* qualifies as a wall of crazy.
Definitely. But my friend thought it was such a beautiful, creative idea, and such a great way to deliver the "ultimate insult" to Rowling.
There is a reason I haven't had a desire to see her in person since 2020, even though we live in the same city.
Haha, but the friend had to *buy* those books to cut them up, which put money in Rowling's pocket!
Speaking as a (much less famous) author, I can tell you that I don't care if people want to burn, mutilate or eat my books...so long as they pay for 'em.
I love this post. I was in Manhattan on Saturday- maybe I walked past you - for my teen’s college visit, to one of those “ hopelessly woke” schools, a topic my teen has talked about lot about with me, as she’s looking for a school where it’s ok to be gay but also ok to not be on the gender ideology train. The remarks from your professor friend are simultaneously encouraging and concerning.
the weirdest thing is when you have a kid who says she's a lesbian and you have to tell her to keep away from the GSA then because it's not a safe place for lesbians
It's important to move beyond the polarisation between people whose favourite fantasy fiction writer is J K Rowling and people whose favourite fantasy fiction writer is Judith Butler.
As a last night on earth, I’m at a loss for what would top that one. #NYCfomo!
What time is the 12/12 book club?
I think 1pm est but still confirming!
12:12?