J.K. Rowling and the erosion of the rights of women and girls

I imagine the last few days have been some of the worst of J.K. Rowling’s life. How could they not be? Tens of thousands of people posted vitriolic tweets about her on Twitter and clearly felt that this was acceptable behaviour. Imagine for a minute that you were the recipient of all this hate speech. It’s a chilling thought. The intention was to silence a strong, assertive woman who dared to speak out for the rights of women and girls, to state the truth: women are adult female humans. If silencing a woman for stating the obvious sounds misogynistic it’s because it is. However, the world has gone so far off its head lately that this simple act attracted a barrage of hatred that boggles the mind.

How could it be so hateful to state the truth? Until recently it seemed self-evident to say that a woman is an adult female human. Now you risk ostracization and being called a transphobe and much worse for stating this fact. Why is it suddenly considered offensive to state the truth, to quote a dictionary? Answer: because transwomen (natal men) feel that this is exclusionary. In our patriarchal, misogynist world we women are being told not to define ourselves as we have always done because it is hurtful to some men. This is the state of madness we have descended into.

J.K. Rowling was not ignorant of the response that awaited her for speaking up. Most adult female humans (aka women) have learned through experience that there is a price to pay for refusing to remain silent in the face of patriarchy and misogyny. Moreover, she had done her homework and was familiar with the issues (trans gender people, gender dysphoria, etc.). And yet, she chose to speak up anyhow. She did this, as she explains thoroughly on her website (jkrowling.com/answers/), for several reasons. One of these relates to her concern, shared by many, many women, around single-sex spaces and the desire to avoid making women and girls less safe. She writes, “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.”

Women fought long and hard for single-sex spaces where women and girls could feel safe; safe from men spying on them, safe from men bullying and harassing them, safe from men sexually assaulting them. Women did this because experience taught them that they needed single-sex spaces where they could be protected from men. In 2015 Statistics Canada stated that 94% of sexual assaults perpetrated on women are committed by men.[1] The same report stated that in Canada in 2014 there were 20,700 police-reported sexual assaults (the majority of sexual assault victims are women). Furthermore, Statistics Canada states on its website: “It is important to note that the number of sexual assaults reported by police is likely an underestimate of the true extent of sexual assault in Canada, as these types of offences are likely to go unreported to police. For instance, self-reported victimization data suggest that the majority (88%) of sexual assaults experienced by Canadians aged 15 years and older are not brought to the attention of police.”[2]

No evidence demonstrates that men who identify as women do not pose as great a threat to women and girls as men who identify as men. So why should we welcome them into our bathrooms, our change rooms, our rape crisis centres and our prisons? Why should we trust them to treat us any better than men have treated us throughout history? In a misogynist, patriarchal society these are the questions nobody is bothering to answer adequately. In such a society the rights of women and girls are held cheaply and certainly as secondary to the rights of men.

[1] Statistics Canada, Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2014, Jillian Boyce, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, July 2015

[2] Statistics Canada, Police-reported crime statistics in Canada, 2014, Jillian Boyce, Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, July 2015

​© 2020 Alline Cormier