Stephen King's input

RANT Submitted June 29, 2020, 8:10 a.m. by thelastpringle21

So, yesterday (or 12 hours or so ago), JK Rowling tweeted Stephen King thanking him. He retweeted this and within seconds, he was inundated with TRAs accusing him of being a TERF and retweeting TERF views. An hour later, he tweeted the TRA slogan "Yes. Transwomen are women".

Naturally, the TRAs were happy about this and were grateful to Stephen King, saying shit like "we have Stephen King on our side". Yet, they conveniently forget how Stephen King was massively criticised last year for having a gang rape of a minor female featured in one of his books. Whilst this is a separate point, it just shows that it doesn't matter what the people before did/said, it just matters that they regurgitate their slogan.

I'm certain that if Trump publicly said "transwomen are women", they'd endorse him also, completely forgetting what he has done and said throughout the years.

35 comments recovered from the Pushshift database.
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GarageDouble · June 29, 2020, 8:34 a.m.

King is a terrible misogynist, so...idk why anyone cares what he does or says.

inpieces1 · June 29, 2020, 8:52 a.m. · 4 replies

So yesterday I emailed JK my support and this morning I had an email back from her assistant! Not just a generic one either. That is amazing. Haha.

thelastpringle21 · June 29, 2020, 9:02 a.m.

Thats awesome!

TerfSedaiBlue Ajah, stirring that shit · June 29, 2020, 9:51 a.m. · 1 reply

Could you PM me her email address? I've been wanting to do this for ages, but only found one that's via her publishers -- did you find a more direct public one? Thanks!

lavender_watercolor · June 29, 2020, 10:28 a.m. · 2 replies

What's her email address?? I was looking for it but couldn't find it on her website, only an enquiries address.

ou-va-le-mondeunapologetically female · June 29, 2020, 10:30 a.m.

I'd like to know too!

ponyokeslytherterf · June 29, 2020, 10:30 a.m. · 1 reply

I believe the only one is inquiries page one. I sent mine there and received a response this morning.

TerfSedaiBlue Ajah, stirring that shit · June 29, 2020, 11:06 a.m.

Thanks, that is helpful!

FrenchieFrankenstein · June 29, 2020, 9:57 a.m. · 1 reply

I had one too! Made me smile. I hope she gets to read them herself

inpieces1 · June 29, 2020, 10:07 a.m.

She mentioned on twitter about all the emails she has been getting...i hope so too!

tervacious · June 29, 2020, 10:18 a.m.

I did too! Bless JKR and the people working in her office, who probably have to deal with all manner of crap these days.

ponyokeslytherterf · June 29, 2020, 9:15 a.m. · 5 replies

I don’t wanna get downvoted for this so lemme just say up front, I adore what JKR has done, I’m a huge potter fan, i even sent her office an email of support yesterday. But I want to raise the genuine question of, might GC women be doing the same with JKR?

I’d like to hear y’all’s thoughts as I don’t have any good argument when TRA’s bring up how JKR has defended Johnny Depp in the past, or the lack of/bad POC representation in her books. (As an Asian person, I personally am not actually offended or care about that last point, but I can see what they’re saying.)

JKR is 100% right in this situation, but are we right for deifying her?

KelseyAnn94ThePowerofSapphoCompelsYou · June 29, 2020, 9:24 a.m.

TRA’s bring up how JKR has defended Johnny Depp in the past,

Umm, Amber Heard is in some pretty deep shit right now after video leaked of her admitting to hitting Johnny and stating that no one believe him.

Omina_SentenziosaI' m not a TERF: I' m just ladybrained that way! · June 29, 2020, 9:29 a.m. · 2 replies

Nobody should be considered a deity. JKR is a human being who has opinions and ideas of her own.

Unlike "progressives" we are smart enough to understand that agreeing with someone on a topic doesn't mean that we have to agree with everything.

I have been incredibly critical of JKR for past comments she made, and I didn't suddenly start agreeing with her on those after her TERF coming out because "OMG, ONE OF US, SHE IS PERFECT!".

I think most of us have a similar attitude towards her, we are just happy that a woman of her status and sees the same things we see and is brave enough to say it.

She deserves all the praise in the World for being someone who has decided to speak up about it and is standing up for it. She isn't a goddess or a perfect human being for that, though.

fxkatt · June 29, 2020, 9:50 a.m. · 1 reply

I fully agree, and very well put. The only difference I have is with your last not-a-goddess sentence, which sounds less gracious, because the person your responding to do wasn't bringing her down, I don't think, but only mentioning one fact with the intention of cooling some of the heroine worship which has been quite heavy on this sub.

Omina_SentenziosaI' m not a TERF: I' m just ladybrained that way! · June 29, 2020, 9:54 a.m. · 1 reply

I wasn't attacking or even disagreeing with the poster, I agree with them that treating JKR as a goddess is bad. One thing I found really cringy was seeing an image in which she is photoshopped on a saint/Virgin Mary painting: that's a huge nope for me.

Sorry if it came out the opposite: what I meant is simply that I fully support the women who praise her for speaking about it, but doing what she does doesn't make her a goddess nor erases the stuff she has said in the past.

fxkatt · June 29, 2020, 9:59 a.m. · 1 reply

Oh, to me "less gracious" doesn't equate to "attacking." I just meant less gracious than all your own gracious words.... I'm with you!

Omina_SentenziosaI' m not a TERF: I' m just ladybrained that way! · June 29, 2020, 10:02 a.m.

Ah, sorry, I am always worried that I don't explain myself well enough. 😓

tervacious · June 29, 2020, 10:28 a.m. · 1 reply

we are just happy that a woman of her status sees the same things we see and is brave enough to
say it and use her position to spread the word.

This is where I stand. I generally don't care about authors or artists as people unless they're criminals. They're regular people with all that implies. I don't expect their art to address much outside the world they create. Harry Potter is not my jam. But I will give props to people who publicly resist this crazy -ass McCarthyism and say that 2+2 really doesn't = 5. This shouldn't be a risky POV to state and yet.

Omina_SentenziosaI' m not a TERF: I' m just ladybrained that way! · June 29, 2020, 10:37 a.m.

Yeah, I am the same. The only time I care about celebrities it's when they say or do something idiotic or terrible. Or exceptionally amazing.

I am not even a fan of JKR' s work, I am a fantasy fan, but I have never gotten in the Harry Potter HYPE. But it takes incredible bravery to do what she is doing, and I am just giving her props for something I admire. As I said previously, this doesn't erase the stuff she has said I disagree with or makes me think her work is amazing, though.

But I will give props to people who publicly resist this crazy -ass McCarthyism and say that 2+2 really doesn't = 5. This shouldn't be a risky POV to state and yet.

Funny you mention that, I just recently watched a movie about that period and topic, and I couldn't help but make comparisons. Denounce the TERFs, make sure you don't have contacts with the TERFs, are you now or have you ever been a TERF?

hystericaleparoxysm · June 29, 2020, 9:31 a.m. · 1 reply

I think one of the pitfalls of identity politics is the idea that ideological purity exists, and that there aren’t ways to be supportive and critical of someone at the same time depending on what issue it is you are engaging with. While I did enjoy Harry Potter as a young person and think that JK deserves her success for connecting with and inspiring so many kids, I don’t think it’s a flawless literary masterpiece or that she has never had any biases that could be reflected in her work. We all have blind spots at the end of the day. However as a woman who has encountered discrimination in the literary world and as a survivor of sexual abuse, Rowling speaking up about the dangers of trans activism isn’t hypocritical. King parroting ‘trans women are women’ after first giving the illusion he supported Rowling with his retweet, when he has gotten away with really gross sexist writing for half a century, reeks of hypocrisy - and now he’s being praised as a ‘true ally’ By the trans mob the irony seems even more absurd to me.

fxkatt · June 29, 2020, 9:44 a.m.

Yeah I think this is a difference between King's and Rowling's past. And it's a really significant difference.

rad-sage-fem · June 29, 2020, 10:13 a.m.

I also think it's important to keep in mind when the books were written. Things have really changed for representation of POC (and LGB you didn't mention this but it's one the common critiques I hear). She's done a bit better in the Fantastic Beasts movies.

The other thing is that she was pressured to make her name gender-neutral/more masculine. I don't think she had much power, at least in the earlier books but possibly later as well, to include all the representation we would have liked to see.

I haven't been following the Johnny Depp thing but I vaguely heard that new info came out and that it wasn't as black and white as we thought?

microfatcat · June 29, 2020, 10:33 a.m.

I’d argue that she doesn’t need to be a perfect person to have our support.

I’m on her side re Johnny depp (do you deserve to lose your job cos of a messy divorce? She wasn’t there. She’s not the casting director. She doesn’t have to do whatever the outraged Twitter mob says she should).

Nor do I think the books have a lack of POC (the racial makeup of Harry’s year group is spot on for the racial makeup of the Uk in 1991. He dates a Chinese character. Ginny dates a black character. George marries a black character. Fred and Georges best mate is black. The minister for magic is black. No evil people are black. Harry and Ron’s dates to the ball are Indian. I don’t think all these love interests would be black if jkr was racist).

InaraRed · June 29, 2020, 10:10 a.m. · 1 reply

What's a TRA?

Stephen King has a lot of problematic content in his novels. His books are pretty dark. It's what he does, and the book you're referring was written decades ago, it's not from last year.

I'm still happy he's pro LGBT.

thelastpringle21 · June 29, 2020, 10:17 a.m.

I didn't say the book got written last year, I said it was massively criticised last year as IT 2 came out and it was in the public view again.

Also, given that a lot of LGB people feel erased by the trans movement, him saying TWAW suggests he's not as pro LGBT, he's just pro T.

Hour_Scarcity · June 29, 2020, 10:28 a.m. · 1 reply

If Trump said “trans women are women”, the entire world would peak.

Omina_SentenziosaI' m not a TERF: I' m just ladybrained that way! · June 29, 2020, 10:52 a.m. · 1 reply

Or if he started identifying as a woman.

thelastpringle21 · June 29, 2020, 11:29 a.m.

Omg imagine! It'd be like Caitlyn Jenner

systemrot · June 29, 2020, 11:43 a.m. · 1 reply

Well, looking back a few posts, a lot of people on here were pretty stoked that King retweeted JKR. So I don't really see your point.

thelastpringle21 · June 29, 2020, 11:46 a.m.

I didn't see the previous points, nor was I one of those stoked by King's retweet. As far as I'm concerned, even if I had seen those tweets, they wouldn't have changed my mind.

Sorry you don't see my point.

elven93 · June 29, 2020, 11:50 a.m.

People praising the situation are so dishonest, I woke up today and the news came like "JK deleted her tweet about Stephen King and unfollowed him, woah hahaha she's so fucked up" but I just viewed his profile and she's still following him (people making things up so they can use it as a reason to mock? You don't say).

I won't judge her for deleting the tweet because he acted kinda coward on his statement.

testymessytess · June 29, 2020, 11:50 a.m. · 1 reply

TWAW and their other slogans sound to me like a statement of religious faith. They don't get be be examined or critiqued. They must be taken on faith and if you don't agree, you are shunned or excommunicated.

thelastpringle21 · June 29, 2020, 11:51 a.m.

Yes, I agree. It's like a constant mantra. If you say TWAW in front of the mirror and on social media three times you don't get dick pics or rape threats it seems.