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Comment by fnord123 | Hacker News Reader

> One example of a person who has become a laird is the British novelist J. K. Rowling, who is best known as both the author of the bestselling series of children’s novels Harry Potter and also arguably the most influential proponent of transphobia in the English-speaking world today.

It should be noted that JK Rowling does not identify as a transphobe.

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"Trans-exclusionary radical feminist" is the etymology of "TERF", which is IIRC what she's objecting to being called (but I don't know because the search results are polluted by the drama of the arguments rather than the actual causes).

IIRC (same caveat) she's being called that as a result of excluding trans women from her definition of women.

If this was about logic (rather than the way certain labels are applied and can become terms of abuse divorced from their original context[0]), then that would imply she was objecting to being called a "radical feminist".

[0] e.g. "artificial", "hysteria", and arguably "Lucifer"

TERF and transfobic are both terms used to smear people who don't agree with some changes. They're rarely targeted at bad people. Instead, the terms are used to bully people into agreeing with unwanted changes.

Take the word "woman". Until recently, it had a definition clearly understood by everyone (see Kindergarten Cop). But now, if you don't agree with the redefinition you're labeled a TERF/transphobe.

The medical community has a much more "it depends what you mean" attitude to gender (androgen insensitive XY vs. normal XX to name one of at least a dozen edge cases), and various nation's legal communities have recognised transitioning for a long time now. Culturally, attitudes have also varied a lot historically even prior to meaningful medical interventions.

I can barely remember any of Kindergarten Cop let alone trans issues, but a random film, no matter how entertaining, barely tells you about general culture, let alone what is "clearly understood by everyone" — it's not like the popularity of the MCU is evidence of "everyone" being pagans even though it features a race of gods as main characters.

Many racists don't identify as racist.

I was enjoying this essay until it was interrupted by this pseudoscience gibberish.

Oh? Why is that?

Are you asking why it should be noted? I'd say because often the Internet makes its mind up about things on limited evidence, or things getting exaggerated as they're repeated, and it's nice to hear the subject's side as well. Otherwise we might be left thinking Justine Sacco is racist etc.

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