JK Rowling and transphobia

[Sacred Jellybean]

These tweets seem pretty innocuous to me...



What's wrong about this? The prominent belief that sex and gender are different concepts is accepted by both liberals and sociologists. We have two words to categorize women: transwomen and ciswomen. So why is it offensive to say that ciswomen have a different experience than transwomen? They're both women (gender) but have different anatomy (sex). ...and? So why is Rowling getting raked over the coals?

She expands on her beliefs in this essay: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-r...er-issues/

It's heartfelt, and most of it seems reasonable to me. The most objectionable parts seem to be:

• Women deserve and are entitled their own spaces (i.e. it's okay to exclude transwomen in same cases)
  
• We must not be too hasty to allow transwomen to enter female-designated bathrooms, dressing rooms, and other vulnerable spaces. Rowling laments that Scotland allows a person to simply declare they are a woman, to be considered one in the eyes of the law.
  

Rowling has a history of domestic abuse (she is traumatized by it to the point where sudden loud noises frighten her). This has instilled into her a latent fear of men, making her leery of cagey men who want to pose as transwomen, to enter safe spaces of women. Most of us liberals can agree that it's bigoted to conflate transwomen with men. This is a sticky scenario, though. Here we have a battered woman, who has a visceral reaction to a male body, and fears that a criminal cismale will potentially pose as a transwoman and invade women-only spaces and assault them.

Let's be clear: this is an incredibly rare occurrence. But it does happen: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018...der-prison

I have no figures to back this up, but my intuition is that it's less likely for a dangerous man to pose as a transwoman, than it is for a transwoman to be thrown into a group of men and be assaulted. So is this a utilitarian issue, where we have to weigh the options? As trans rights take hold, wouldn't it follow that criminals will exploit them for their own ends?

Why is it so controversial that a person's sex will inform their experience? The way I see it, if that was false, then transgenderism wouldn't exist to begin with. Isn't the central issue with being transgendered that the "gender" of your brain doesn't align with your bodily sex? So how could your biology NOT have an affect on your mentality?

As for Rowling, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think her feelings are valid, and besides, as a man and supporter of feminism, I'm troubled by the idea of attacking a woman for her opinion. But, I can also see how her comments are problematic and transphobic. It's ironic to me that feminist activists would harass and threaten her. Surely there must be a middle-ground where feminists stand up for their transwomen members, and not outright attack another woman?