# Is JK Rowling transphobic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 19, 2019, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105 "2019-12-19T19:47:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/161 "2019-12-21T17:57:56Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > **psychonaut** , the idea in bold is what I believe perfectly reasonable, non-bigoted people can disagree with. Please don’t accuse me of strawmanning or mischaracterizing a viewpoint plainly and explicitly articulated in this very thread. Notice the scare quotes in the bolded part. It’s common for the most raging of transphobes to use the argument _He thinks he’s a woman_. (Though not everyone who says that is a raging transphobe.) There’s an entire life underneath being trans, and it’s not nearly so simple as just deciding _Hey, I’ll be a woman now_. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/162 "2019-12-21T18:01:57Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > As noted, Murray was investigated formally by a committee, which found that both terms were intended as abuse. [Murray has had](https://genderdesk.wordpress.com/2019/05/16/gregor-murray/) other instances of aggressive and abusive behavior as well, several of them towards women. Weak. hell, I don’t even know what a _pish_ or a _roaster_ is. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/163 "2019-12-21T18:06:54Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > There was a coffee shop around the corner from where I lived. > > I went in one day and there was a sign by the register that said, “Do not assume my gender” (or something to that effect…it has been a while). > … > If I refer to someone as he or she but have it reversed or they prefer something else they need to not take offense because none was intended. It is an honest, simple and super-easy mistake to make. Chill out and politely tell me how you (general “you”) want to be referred to and I am more than happy to do that. Misgendering is when you know someone’s preferred gender but you use a different one, anyway. This is more a case of assuming gender, which everybody does. I’m sure it’s frustrating for transmen to be called _ma’am_ or _her_, but strangers can’t possibly know what is preferred. And we can’t start every introduction with _What are your pronouns?_ It’s just not practical. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/164 "2019-12-21T18:11:10Z")
Double post ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/165 "2019-12-21T18:09:36Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Notice the scare quotes in the bolded part. It’s common for the most raging of transphobes to use the argument _He thinks he’s a woman_. (Though not everyone who says that is a raging transphobe.) There’s an entire life underneath being trans, and it’s not nearly so simple as just deciding _Hey, I’ll be a woman now_. I noticed the quotes but I didn’t know they were “scare” quotes. So I have to confess I don’t know what you are really saying then. Aren’t you saying hypothetical Betty has a claim to womanhood just as long as her mind tells her she’s a woman? If that’s not what you believe, can you elaborate because it’s certainly not clear in your post. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/166 "2019-12-21T18:16:45Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I noticed the quotes but I didn’t know they were “scare” quotes. So I have to confess I don’t know what you are really saying then. The person I was responding to said something like “if they think they’re a woman,” so I put in the quotes to mock that sentiment a little bit. > [@](#): > > Aren’t you saying hypothetical Betty has a claim to womanhood just as long as her mind tells her she’s a woman? If that’s not what you believe, can you elaborate because it’s certainly not clear in your post. In a nutshell, that’s the idea, yes. If whatever parts of the mind that control our gender identity tell us that we’re this or that, then we’re this or that. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/167 "2019-12-21T18:25:50Z")
> [@kevlaw](#): > > Maya Forstater was fired. JK Rowling said, quite clearly, that the existence of trans-people does not harm her but that it’s wrong to force someone out of their job for their opinions. > > I don’t get how you think that is evidence of JK Rowling being shitty to trans-people. That’s the core of the debate. What did Rowling mean? On the one hand, sure, it could be that she doesn’t agree with Maya’s views, but she also doesn’t like the fact that Maya was fired for expressing them. On the other hand, it could be that she does agree with Maya’s views and doesn’t like that people can be fired for expressing that particular view. Thanks for trying to get the discussion back on topic. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/168 "2019-12-21T18:49:30Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > The person I was responding to said something like “if they think they’re a woman,” so I put in the quotes to mock that sentiment a little bit. > > In a nutshell, that’s the idea, yes. If whatever parts of the mind that control our gender identity tell us that we’re this or that, then we’re this or that. If a male-presenting person told you they don’t have gender dysphoria and they claim “woman” because they they just love the idea of being a part of womanhood, how would you categorize their gender? Would you see that person as woman? If you make it so that you HAVE to feel like a woman to be a woman, then where does that leave all the female-presenting people who don’t really feel “woman”, but don’t care enough to announce that ambivalence to the world with a confusing label? If a male-presenting person says they are woman because they hate patriarchy and they no longer want to be affiliated with misogynistic bros, is everyone else expected to just go along with that without uttering a single negative opinion lest they be accused of transphobia? Or is it fair to say, “Hold up now. ‘Woman’ doesn’t have that meaning for us!” Gender fluid folks have been pushing the idea that gender dysphoria should not be a criterion for who gets to change genders. If changing gender isn’t a big deal, then there should be no gate-keeping. If a person wants to be a woman because they just want the experience of being a woman, they should be able to do that. I can go there, I suppose. But that conflicts with the “men are people who feel they’re men” notion that you and lots of folks are espousing. That idea is more reasonable to me than “Everyone is whatever they say they are no matter what the reasoning”. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/169 "2019-12-21T19:18:45Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > The person I was responding to said something like “if they think they’re a woman,” so I put in the quotes to mock that sentiment a little bit. > > In a nutshell, that’s the idea, yes. If whatever parts of the mind that control our gender identity tell us that we’re this or that, then we’re this or that. I don’t see much daylight between saying someone “thinks they are a certain gender” and “the mind tells us our gender identity”. Do you think it requires a transphobic attitude to believe that there isn’t anything seated in our minds or brains that controls gender identity? Can’t a person be skeptical of this idea yet still treat trans gendered folks with dignity and respect? It occurred to me recently that “gender identity” is kind of like saying “person identity”. Biologically, our DNA is what makes us human beings. But DNA plus socialization is what makes us people _who identify as people_. If a human child is raised by gorillas, they’d still be a human courtesy of DNA. But they would likely identify \*with \*gorillas. Maybe they’d even _self_ identify as a gorilla. The socialization part, in other words, is important to identity. And yet still, we wouldn’t consider this child a gorilla even if that is what they identified as. The child might insist on being lumped in with gorillas and we might choose to do that, but we would still likely see the child as a person. Because of their DNA. With gender, we are expected to follow a different set of expectations. Although DNA is what makes certain human beings female and certain human beings male, to avoid being accused of transphobia, we now have to accept that gender identity doesn’t have anything to do with DNA. It’s controlled by the mind. If you have a “woman’s mind”, you are a woman and that’s all there is to it. When someone asks what is a “woman’s mind”, no one has a objective answer and they are accused of asking questions in bad faith. Do you see this as a valid problem or do you think is this just nonsense I’m spouting? ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/170 "2019-12-21T19:35:21Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I don’t see much daylight between saying someone “thinks they are a certain gender” and “the mind tells us our gender identity”. _Thinks_ is often used dismissively, as though the person were merely picking out which shoes to wear. > [@](#): > > Do you think it requires a transphobic attitude to believe that there isn’t anything seated in our minds or brains that controls gender identity? Can’t a person be skeptical of this idea yet still treat trans gendered folks with dignity and respect? Transphobic, no. But there pretty obviously is something since gender dysphoria is recognized by every major psychological organization. > [@](#): > > It occurred to me recently that “gender identity” is kind of like saying “person identity”. Biologically, our DNA is what makes us human beings. But DNA plus socialization is what makes us people _who identify as people_. If a human child is raised by gorillas, they’d still be a human courtesy of DNA. But they would likely identify \*with \*gorillas. Maybe they’d even _self_ identify as a gorilla. The socialization part, in other words, is important to identity. > > And yet still, we wouldn’t consider this child a gorilla even if that is what they identified as. The child might insist on being lumped in with gorillas and we might choose to do that, but we would still likely see the child as a person. Because of their DNA. I’m not sure that species dysphoria is a recognized condition. > [@](#): > > With gender, we are expected to follow a different set of expectations. Although DNA is what makes certain human beings female and certain human beings male, to avoid being accused of transphobia, we now have to accept that gender identity doesn’t have anything to do with DNA. It’s controlled by the mind. If you have a “woman’s mind”, you are a woman and that’s all there is to it. The medicine says that (again, in a nutshell) some men do, in fact, have minds that identify their selves as women. Whether it’s induced by DNA or some other factor, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/171 "2019-12-21T19:41:58Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > Why is this only true for gender? Following the outrage that proceeded the outing of Rachel Dolezal, that’s the type of question that one would expect to get skimmed over or ignored. Tribal politics always leads to further factionalizing. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/172 "2019-12-21T19:42:58Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > I don’t see much daylight between saying someone “thinks they are a certain gender” and “the mind tells us our gender identity”. > > Do you think it requires a transphobic attitude to believe that there isn’t anything seated in our minds or brains that controls gender identity? Can’t a person be skeptical of this idea yet still treat trans gendered folks with dignity and respect? > > It occurred to me recently that “gender identity” is kind of like saying “person identity”. Biologically, our DNA is what makes us human beings. But DNA plus socialization is what makes us people _who identify as people_. If a human child is raised by gorillas, they’d still be a human courtesy of DNA. But they would likely identify \*with \*gorillas. Maybe they’d even _self_ identify as a gorilla. The socialization part, in other words, is important to identity. > > And yet still, we wouldn’t consider this child a gorilla even if that is what they identified as. The child might insist on being lumped in with gorillas and we might choose to do that, but we would still likely see the child as a person. Because of their DNA. > > With gender, we are expected to follow a different set of expectations. Although DNA is what makes certain human beings female and certain human beings male, to avoid being accused of transphobia, we now have to accept that gender identity doesn’t have anything to do with DNA. It’s controlled by the mind. If you have a “woman’s mind”, you are a woman and that’s all there is to it. When someone asks what is a “woman’s mind”, no one has a objective answer and they are accused of asking questions in bad faith. > > Do you see this as a valid problem or do you think is this just nonsense I’m spouting? The issue is not just being treated with dignity and respect. Some women feel oppressed by men and that because of that they need to create female only spaces in order to be free of that oppression. Thus they want to exclude men from these spaces. Some transwomen want to be included in these spaces. tthere is a tension between women who want to be away from men and transwomen who want to be included. No amount of treating people with dignity and respect can solve the problem. There must be agreement over who is a woman and who can be included in women only spaces. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/173 "2019-12-21T20:16:06Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > … I still think people should be treated respectfully, with preferred pronouns and all that. People shouldn’t be harrassed or discriminated against for identifying how they want to identify. But as you said, I think this is as much as people should expect. Everything else seems to be bordering on “thought police.” > [@iiandyiiii](#): > > In my understanding, being trans is a lot more than just a feeling. It’s certainly nothing close to flippant or casual, like “I think I’ll wear this hat today”. It’s entirely possible for someone to dishonestly claim to be trans, whether to try and gain some benefit or just because they’re a real-life troll. But since we can’t read minds, especially with strangers over the internet, I think we owe it to trans folks to take people at their word, barring evidence of dishonesty. It’s not like we’re in a society that comes close to treating trans people with respect and decency, generally speaking. So I think we should be very, very careful about criticizing the gender identity of people based on (what appears to be) superficial traits, at least until we build that fair and decent society in which trans folks aren’t facing a big ol’ pile of hateful shit every day. The ask to be treated respectfully, to have your preferred pronouns respected, the whole package of rights that go with that, is a more than very reasonable one. Doing otherwise would be hateful. If that is what Rowling did then she was being hateful. The ask to demand that others _think_ of you in the way you want them to think of you, that others in their minds consider you in the manner you wish, and _when asked what they think_ (which this thread does) either parrot what you want to hear or be quiet … is not at all a reasonable ask. I will ask again my question if those who identify as “fluid” really belong in the same grouping as those who are trans. My understanding is that most people who are trans have a persistent from childhood cohesive and pervasive internalized identity of a gender discordant with their biological sex, such that trying to live as the gender of their biological sex is painful. Do those identify as fluid or non-binary claim that? Do they have to deal with that same issues that transpeople do? I suspect I will be flamed for even asking this, but do some younger adults put on “fluid” or “non-binary” as an image statement more than as a persistent and dysphoric gender/biological sex mismatch? (Not anything I’d ever say to anyone who so self-identifies, or course they are “they” or “he” or “she” or just [name], and no comments otherwise made.) > [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > That’s the core of the debate. What did Rowling mean? … And why do people care what a celebrity happens to think? I do not think cancel culture can have much impact on her at this point. Do you? On preview I see **puddlegum** ’s post. If the only time this came up was when cis-women wanted to have spaces private themselves, dealing with issues that they feel are different issues than a transwoman experiences, I think it would be one thing (and could be expressed with dignity and respect, without denying a transwoman’s womanhood, but appealing to the differences in the issues they, as women with different paths to their womenhood, are dealing with. The behaviors discussed here are much wider than that narrow application, and with exclusion which are to the quick read at least based on … other factors. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/174 "2019-12-21T20:19:46Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > The medicine says that (again, in a nutshell) some men do, in fact, have minds that identify their selves as women. Whether it’s induced by DNA or some other factor, I don’t know. Is there research showing the frequency of males identifying themselves as men who have female brains? I think if we’re going to point to brain scans as evidence of gender, we need to know how well a brain scan predicts someone’s self-identified gender. We need to know the rate of false positives and negatives. I don’t think we are there yet. At any rate, I don’t think we want to make it so that transgendered folks are only deemed “valid” if they can produce neurological evidence of their self-identified gender. Because if a self-professed feeling is all it takes for someone to be a gender, nothing else should matter. Sent from my moto x4 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/175 "2019-12-21T20:34:36Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I will ask again my question if those who identify as “fluid” really belong in the same grouping as those who are trans. My understanding is that most people who are trans have a persistent from childhood cohesive and pervasive internalized identity of a gender discordant with their biological sex, such that trying to live as the gender of their biological sex is painful. Do those identify as fluid or non-binary claim that? Do they have to deal with that same issues that transpeople do? I’d be more comfortable letting someone who is genderfluid respond to that. On the whole, though, I think that anybody who doesn’t conform to their at-birth identity faces many of the same issues. > [@](#): > > I suspect I will be flamed for even asking this, but do some younger adults put on “fluid” or “non-binary” as an image statement more than as a persistent and dysphoric gender/biological sex mismatch? (Not anything I’d ever say to anyone who so self-identifies, or course they are “they” or “he” or “she” or just [name], and no comments otherwise made.) It happens. Anything that’s seen as edgy or non-conformist eventually draws poseurs. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/176 "2019-12-21T22:04:36Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > Is there research showing the frequency of males identifying themselves as men who have female brains? I think if we’re going to point to brain scans as evidence of gender, we need to know how well a brain scan predicts someone’s self-identified gender. We need to know the rate of false positives and negatives. I don’t think we are there yet. … Honestly the fact that a sense of gender has any correlation with something as big of structural brain change to be measurable on MRI is pretty flabbergasting. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2019, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/177 "2019-12-21T22:46:37Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > > [@elfkin477](#): > > > > Women can’t even talk about their periods and pregnancy without causing offense these days. “Some men have periods too!” is a common correction in discussions like that, and of course we get told that we’re causing some people to feel dysphoric by implying that women have periods or can have babies when not everyone who identifies as a woman is capable of doing so. Wording like “pregnant people” and “menstruators” get thrown around in earnest in attempts to appease. > > In my experience, whenever I face something like this (i.e. I forget to mention a certain group that might sometimes experience the same thing as whatever I’m talking about), I can simply apologize and move on, and this has uniformly been accepted graciously. Same here. As a cisgender woman, I don’t see any problem with expressions like “pregnant people” and “menstruators” to acknowledge that the experiences of pregnancy, menstruation, etc., are not limited exclusively to those who currently identify as female. Yes, we also need to be able to talk about the experiences that **are** unique to cisgender women (as well as many transgender men), e.g., the experience of being perceived and treated as female beginning in one’s childhood. But we can do that without inaccurately assuming that the category “woman” = “cisgender woman”, or getting hurt or indignant if somebody points out our inaccuracy. > [@DSeid](#): > > If the only time this came up was when cis-women wanted to have spaces private themselves, dealing with issues that they feel are different issues than a transwoman experiences, I think it would be one thing (and could be expressed with dignity and respect, without denying a transwoman’s womanhood, but appealing to the differences in the issues they, as women with different paths to their womenhood, are dealing with. The behaviors discussed here are much wider than that narrow application, and with exclusion which are to the quick read at least based on … other factors. Yup. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/178 "2019-12-22T00:11:53Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Honestly the fact that a sense of gender has any correlation with something as big of structural brain change to be measurable on MRI is pretty flabbergasting. I’m not aware of this research. Can you cite it? ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/179 "2019-12-22T01:04:59Z")
[Here for example.](https://www.endocrine-abstracts.org/ea/0056/ea0056s30.3.htm) > [@](#): > > … We found that hypothalamic responses of both adolescent girls and boys diagnosed with GD were more similar to their experienced gender than their birth sex, which supports the hypothesis of a sex-atypical brain differentiation in these individuals. At the structural level, we analyzed both regional gray matter (GM) volumes and white matter (WM) microstructure using diffusion tensor imaging. In cis-gender girls, larger GM volumes were observed in the bilateral superior medial frontal and left pre/postcentral cortex, while cis-gender boys had more volume in the bilateral superior-posterior cerebellum and hypothalamus. Within these regions of interest representing sexually dimorphic brain structures, GM volumes of both GD groups deviated from the volumetric characteristics of their birth sex towards those of individuals sharing their gender identity… My _impression_ is that these group-wide correlations are NOT at the level of having testing predictive value, positive or negative. Still first I read **Una** citing some of them was a major whoa moment to me. FWIW my ignorant take on it would be that what matters most is the longstanding persistent and pervasive nature of the sense of identity … and of course respecting others’ autonomy in matters of their identity within very wide ranges (clear appropriation being a limit to that range, which is why the Dolenz comparison fails). ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105/180 "2019-12-22T01:30:42Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > WTF. This is such a weird thing to say in response to what my post. > > No, they aren’t really, really different. But maybe our experiences on this planet are really, really different and you just haven’t been exposed to the same things I have, so your ability to see what I’m talking about is very very weak. As I understand your analogy, you’re suggesting that just as a black person who can pass for white will experience less racism and may not understand the experiences of black people who can’t pass, there could be women who can pass for men who will experience less sexism and may not understand the experiences of women who can’t pass. Is that a fair summary of your analogy? Black people are analogized to women, white people are analogized to men, racism analogized to sexism? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-jk-rowling-transphobic/845105.md?page=10)