I'll get over it if you let me breathe from the skin

[sovay]

I had just been going to mention belatedly that I will not be attending NecronomiCon Providence 2022 starting tomorrow despite planning on it for two years and designing some of the programming because there is still too much plague on, but was somewhat distracted when I checked into the internet by the news that Joanne Harris is being harassed personally and professionally over her support for trans rights, including her own child; it is being framed as a free speech issue in the way that once again seems to mean "you are legally obliged to support my bigotry, but you're breaking the law if you exercise your own right to express a difference of opinion from me." Claiming that her child disqualifies her from holding an elected position in a trade union, as if her trans son is an undisclosed conflict of interest (though it sounds as though she was accused of bias against the transphobic even when she was believed to have a cis daughter: cherry-pick that ammunition as you find it). If I'm exhausted just reading her Twitter feed, I can only imagine how ready to roll everyone up into the sun Harris is. I am glad she has no intention of resigning. Her son's cat is indeed excellent and I don't think I had known either that it is Black Cat Appreciation Day or that Harris' own pronouns are actually she/they since last I checked. As a piece of news, it flashed out at me not only because I like their books and care about trans rights, but because I have just been discussing freedom of expression in conversations both online and off. I hope everyone, cat included, stays safe.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Another friend on here _andrewducker_ who I think you know, picked up on this and my response was as follows:

As a trans woman (and author as it happens- I'm a published poet), I've had to stand by for ages and listen to hatespeech without much chance to reply and we still don't seem to be getting past that after fifty years.

When one is the victim of these people's unreasoning and unreasonable hate, it feels altogether different. One tires of hearing the same old same old hoary myths being peddled over and over...........

I'm sure Joanne Harris knows what I mean!

[minoanmiss]

*deliberately uses icon of our lady Bast*

you are legally obliged to support my bigotry, but you're breaking the law if you exercise your own right to express a difference of opinion from me."

*groans*
*hugs you supportively*
*wafts hugs to Joanne Harris and her son*

[rachelmanija]

I'm missing context here - are the consumers of Necronomicon harassing Harris?

[sovay]

I'm missing context here - are the consumers of Necronomicon harassing Harris?

No! I just got distracted from the post I was going to make by news which sucked a lot more than my not attending a convention. I can clarify.

[rachelmanija]

Consumers - sorry, autocorrect. I meant conrunners.

[kore]

I saw the edges of that happening on Twitter and checked out her account and wow that letter written by Julie Bindel was really something. Including the "lurkers support me in email" anonymous signatories. As was the complaining about people pointing out that they were shifting the topic from Rushdie, who was NEARLY MURDERED IN PUBLIC, to JKR.

[sovay]

I saw the edges of that happening on Twitter and checked out her account and wow that letter written by Julie Bindel was really something. Including the "lurkers support me in email" anonymous signatories.

I decided not to give Bindel's letter the clicks, so I appreciate the hit your brain took in relaying this information to me.

As was the complaining about people pointing out that they were shifting the topic from Rushdie, who was NEARLY MURDERED IN PUBLIC, to JKR.

I did notice that. But really, since he wasn't stabbed for defending TERFs, isn't she the real victim here?

[sovay]

One tires of hearing the same old same old hoary myths being peddled over and over...........

They are very tiring.

*hugs* if useful.

[sovay]

*wafts hugs to Joanne Harris and her son*

May Bast and Sekhmet carry them.

[adore]

Whenever the 'bigotry is free speech but your criticism of my bigotry isn't' argument crops up I just want to slap every bigot with the tolerance paradox and bid them bad day.

[sovay]

Whenever the 'bigotry is free speech but your criticism of my bigotry isn't' argument crops up I just want to slap every bigot with the tolerance paradox and bid them bad day.

I like your plan.

[cmcmck]

Always! :o)

[cmcmck]

Bindel really is a piece of work of the nastiest description.

[asakiyume]

Wow, people, man. People. I don't know Joanne Harris, but I went to her twitter after reading this, and I started feeling tense and sick to my stomach after approximately 45 seconds. People who feel they have permission to be awful sure can be eager to be awful.

ETA: Wow, that was weirdly oblique. Let me clarify: reading people's attacks on her made me feel tense and sick to my stomach (not reading *her*). And by "people who feel they have permission to be awful," I mean people who feel legitimated in attacking others due to something terrible [in their eyes] about the person they're attacking. Here, those are the people attacking Joanne Harris.

There never seems to be a shortage of people eager to do some public attacking.

[sovay]

People who feel they have permission to be awful sure can be eager to be awful.

I find it distressing and confusing in the way that frustrates me to try to describe, because I don't mean it disingenuously, I am well aware of the reality of the behavior, I have been on the receiving end of it personally and it shapes the sociopolitical climate in which I have to survive; it is not that important to my personal cosmology to have someone to hate.

[moon_custafer]

My stomach dropped in the days after the attack on Rushdie, not just because of the attack itself but because people started claiming it as an object lesson about where “cancel culture,” etc. leads.

In a horrible way I’m almost glad Rowling so publicly to make it all about herself; because it’s forced everyone to distinguish between (a) a powerful group actually putting out a hit on an author, and (b) an oppressed group saying “hey, stop demonizing us.” If they continue the conflate the issues, well, at least we know where they stand.

ETA— Of course none of that’s much comfort to Harris and her family.
ETA2– Her son. I shouldn’t have picked a term that gives the TERFs any wiggle room, even if I doubt any of them will read this.

[asakiyume]

it is not that important to my personal cosmology to have someone to hate.

I know. You sing things into being. More people need to connect with their generative side.

[sovay]

ETA2– Her son. I shouldn’t have picked a term that gives the TERFs any wiggle room, even if I doubt any of them will read this.

You're making sure the magic of language is lined up correctly. You're cool.

[selkie]

WHO WAS AWFUL TO YOU
I WILL BITE THEM
I WILL BITE THEM AND HANG ON UNTIL THEY ARE DEAD
I WILL NEED HOT SAUCE