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CW: General bigotry of a lot of stripes, transphobia

It seems to me that there’s two main arguments that ignorant bigots use to try and pass on their ignorance and bigotry to others. Of course, there’s plenty of variations, because if there’s one thing these people are creative about, it’s their hatred. But (based on my limited experience) they can be broken down into two basic categories: the Threatening, and the Condescending.

The Threatening is pretty much what it says, it casts the minority as something directly or indirectly dangerous. Bonus points if the ‘danger’ is towards the Wife And Children. Men of colour will attack your wives and girlfriends. Gay people will attack your children. Liberated women will emasculate your sons and turn your daughters and wives/girlfriends into lesbians. Immigrants will attack your wives, girlfriends, AND children, and they want to force you to wear a hijab and make it illegal for you to go to church. Our entire society and way of life is at risk! Although it’s obviously hateful and ridiculous and damaging, if you’re in the right mood this one can feel kinda empowering - damn right I’m a threat, bitch.

The Condescending is also pretty much what it says on the tin. “I don’t HATE them - of course not! They’re not BAD people, they’re just confused!” I’m sure all of you have seen this, and most of you have experienced it. You’re not gay, you’re just confused. Women claim they want independence and need to be treated as equal, but they’re just confused - the little featherheads wouldn’t know what to do with independence if we gave it to them. People of colour don’t need equality, look at their education and crime rates, they clearly aren’t equal. There’s many permutations, but the core message is the same: when somebody from a minority tells you what their perspective is, what their experiences are, what their wants and needs are, you don’t need to listen because they don’t know their perspective, their experiences, their wants, their needs. You do. You know what they want and what they need, and what they want and need is a firm, paternal hand to guide them back to where they belong. The people of colour need civilised white people to control them. The women need smart, rational men to control them. The gay people need to be shown that, deep down, they’re not attracted to the same sex, they just think they are. There’s no occasional good feelings from this bullshit. At best it’s dismissive, at worst it’s suffocating.

So anyway, a little late to the party on this one, but JK Rowling has recently shared some thoughts on trans people. As best as I can make out, she has two main areas of concern. 

The first is that cis people should be scared. They should be scared that trans women are just men looking for an excuse to invade single-sex spaces for their own gratification, or that allowing trans women into single-sex spaces will allow cis men to enter for their own gratification. That wives, girlfriends and children will be at risk. Cis people should be scared that accepting trans people will wind back the clock on medical conditions that present differently in assigned women and assigned men. They should be scared that trans people will erase the concept of biological sex and women won’t be able to express their experiences and gay people will be erased completely.

The second is that she’s worried about trans people. Obviously she doesn’t think they’re BAD, they’re just confused. Trans men are just gay people or straight women who think they want to transition because they’re not accepted as who they are. Especially she’s worried about autistic people, who (I guess) are even less capable of knowing their own identity. She’s worried about friend groups of people, all thinking that they’re trans because of the social pressure of the others thinking they’re trans.She doesn’t feel any need to listen to us about our perspectives and our experiences and our wants and needs, because she already knows what those things really are, and she’s worried that we’re confused and we just need people like her to guide us.