Author JK Rowling sparked a bitter row on GB News following Sir Stephen Fry's claims that the Harry Potter creator has become "radicalised" in her views on trans rights.Fry, who voiced all seven of the Harry Potter audio books, told The Show People podcast that JK Rowling is now a "lost cause" after being "radicalised by terfs".FULL STORY HERE.
00:00Is J.K. Rowling an extremist, radicalised TERF?
00:05It's extraordinarily patronising to suggest that a woman who's created whole new magical worlds from her own imagination
00:12has to be radicalised by other people in order to form her own views.
00:16And that in itself I find extremely patronising.
00:19And, you know, a man may think that women don't have our own rich inner life and form her own political views,
00:25but we do, as Nana's just demonstrated.
00:28But secondly, there's nothing radical about believing that men and women are material realities
00:34and sometimes in law, in policy, in life, that matters.
00:38That's her position. It's a very common, in fact, it's a majority position.
00:42There's nothing radical about it.
00:44James Mathewson, is she radicalised in your view?
00:49Yes, in my opinion, she is.
00:51Unfortunately, what we've seen with J.K. Rowling is a pretty sad story.
00:55I mean, people of my generation, my age, were hugely impacted by the Harry Potter books and later the films.
01:02I grew up in a town which was transformed by Harry Potter because the first two films were filmed there.
01:09So I know the impact that J.K. Rowling's had.
01:12And J.K. Rowling could have done so much more.
01:14She could have been so much better.
01:16For our generation, I'm afraid, you know, you say it's the majority view, but not in my generation,
01:21because she's completely let down everybody who supported those books and who supported...
01:27So precisely, James, what's your issue with her?
01:29Precisely.
01:30What's she said or done which hurts her so much?
01:32Yeah.
01:32It's the complete disdain with which she's shown an entire community.
01:36And she's done it in a very...
01:38You know, we talk about the opinions...
01:40In what way?
01:41In what way, James?
01:42Specifically?
01:42Be specific, James, because you said that it's to disdain.
01:45What has she done that's disdainful, as it were?
01:48It's the way that she's mocked and the way that she's come about in a very cruel manner when she talks about trans people.
01:53Well, what has she said?
01:54What has she said?
01:55She's been doing this now for many years on social media predominantly.
01:58But she's started with this, you know, what we'd call gender-critical views, but has just gone rapidly down this pipeline, unfortunately, of this online space of, you know, so-called TERFs, whatever you want to call them.
02:12Whatever you want to call them.
02:13Hold on, hold on.
02:14TERFs is a reference to someone like me who believes in biological reality and someone like Fiona.
02:19Fiona, your thoughts?
02:22Well, J.K. Rowling has done a damn sight more than the four of us put together for people in the world,
02:27and especially for children and increasing literacy, but also for women and girls who are victims of male violence.
02:33She's given away millions of pounds.
02:34She co-founded the charity Lumos.
02:36So I think her legacy is pretty secure.
02:38I think she has done an awful lot more good than anyone could have expected.
02:43So that's the first thing.
02:45She has then had the courage to speak up and defend women and girls when we have felt unable to do so for ourselves.
02:53Now, I'm speaking up, but a lot of people, including the co-founder, the founder of our organization, Sex Matters, have lost their jobs for speaking up in defense of their own legal rights.
03:03And they are legal rights.
03:04It is entirely lawful and appropriate to recognize that sometimes we can't pretend that someone has changed sex because it matters to us.
03:13So it's extraordinary to criticize J.K. Rowling.
03:17She's gone further than most of our politicians have done in daring to speak truth in defense of the defenseless.
03:24Can I ask you, James, what is a woman?
03:28But that's...
03:29No, no, no, I'm just wondering.
03:30No, no, well, it's just a simple question.
03:32I don't do...
03:33Well, no, no, no, I'm just asking, what is a woman then?
03:35Do you believe that a man can become a woman and a woman can become a man?
03:40Yes, because man and woman is a gender...
03:42So what is a woman?
03:44So what is a woman?
03:44There is male and there is female, which is sex.
03:46This is the problem that I think a lot of you have, unfortunately.
03:49Well, I think the problem is you can't say what a woman is.
03:52If a man can become a woman and a woman can become a man, then what is a woman?
03:56No, no, you're not even letting me speak, right?
03:57What I'm talking about here is we've got gender, we've got sex, okay?
04:02Sex is a scientific reality.
04:03You've got male and female, okay?
04:05And then you've got gender, which are social constructs.
04:08Gender is a social construct.
04:10Many people now who identify as non-binary, for example, who don't feel in either gender
04:15and gendered terms.
04:17So that's a completely separate issue.
04:19No, no, gender stereotypes are a construct.
04:22Male and female is what you're talking about.
04:24And that's obviously a completely separate issue.
04:26But the whole point here is, and what I'm talking about, is the disdain with which J.K.
04:31Rowland, the disdain with the likes of sex matters, the way they have treated the trans
04:36community, right? Because let me tell you now, because we talk about the reality, people's
04:39opinions and feelings and all the rest of it, and that's fine, right?
04:43I'm a feminist. I believe in women's rights. I believe in women's safety.
04:46But the problem here is we are focusing on an absolute minority of people who have no,
04:52you know, when you look at it in the round, who have no threat to women, you know, statistically
04:57have no threat to women in the way that, you don't, the threat to women, the threat to
05:02women, sorry, sorry, can I just say, no, I did listen to you, no, I did listen, but I'm
05:06just going to say this. The threat to women isn't necessarily that small minority. The
05:10threat to women is women losing their rights as women for single-sex spaces and things like
05:16that. Because as you said yourself, as you said yourself, as you said yourself, that it
05:21is a biological reality. So you understand the biological reality. And whether a man
05:25dresses up as a woman or not, a man is still a man. And the reason why the spaces are separate
05:30is because women are actually... No, listen, this is the whole problem, is that you say
05:37man dressing up as a woman. Yes. That's despicable, Nana. Well, it's the truth. That is not the
05:42reality. What else? Nana, do you have any trans friends? I have plenty of. Do you mix with
05:49trans people? I mix with trans people. I mix with all people. Listen, we've got to
05:53go, James. We want to talk about this and we can spend more time on it. But unfortunately,
05:57we have some breaking news. Fiona McLean, very briefly, Fiona, finish with you. I think James
06:01has just demonstrated why men can't be feminists, because he's not centering women. He's centering
06:06this tiny number of men who claim to be women instead of the rest of us. Yeah, great point.
06:10I have to say that there's nothing that makes me cringe more than a man who says they're
