New Video: The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling

So I liked this video so much that I went and listened to the podcast (oops, sorry ... but I actually think Natalie and Noah both interviewed really well!), and ... 1) There are some kind of uncanny parallels between Natalie & Rowling: both made art during dark times that skyrocketed them to fame, both are "mother" figures for fandoms largely made up of outcasts, both are seen as moral leaders, both read Simone de Beauvoir, etc. 2) It's fascinating to hear Rowling's initially horrified reaction to online bullying & compare it to her twitter feed ... she seems to genuinely hate an activity that she's VERY CLEARLY taking part in. It's also wild to hear her & Megan discussing the poor media portrayal of the feminist activists of Rowling's youth WITHOUT REALIZING THAT THEY'RE DOING THE SAME THING TO TRANS RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ON THE PODCAST. 3) Finally, they seem to imply that the popularization of certain terms through social media (ie: 'microagression,' 'gender identity') de-legitimizes them (ie: trans people were invented on tumbler). BUT, then they talk about how the term "domestic violence" was only popularized IN THE 1970s by feminist activists, along with the demand that intimate partner violence be taken seriously ... which was treated by their detractors as an SJW type snowflake demand. It seems like so many of the virtues they extoll are really good . . . there's just this massive double standard of who they apply to.

Rose Dombegh

For fellow nerds who want to learn more: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexual-lizards/

Rose Dombegh

A VERY IMPORTANT note on Tala the alien: complex vertebrates actually can reproduce asexually. Whiptail-lizards lay eggs without fertilization (often after having non-reproductive sex with each other). So "scientifically speaking" Tala the they/them alien is 100% realistic. Except maybe for the aliens part.

Rose Dombegh

just had to pull this up again because a lifetime family friend just came back from the uk and immediately recommended the podcast to me.......sent her the video with my fingers crossed

Natasha Ryan

I just discovered you on YouTube. Now I just can’t get enough, I just can’t get enough…

Debra Girard

I wonder if JK Rowling has seen this or the other Rowling video. If not, she should. Natalie's approach might get through to her, or at least give her food for thought.

I really like your tangent videos! Only just subscribed on Patreon, but wanted to send the feedback that they are very well done!

Philippa Russell

You make a nearly 2 hour video feel like 30 minutes, you're just that good. Excellent video and excellent points. 👏 👏👏

The "topic" you are not interested in is currently at the vanguard of one of the biggest social backlashes in recent memory, and J. K. Rowling is one of the biggest (arguably, the most influential) figureheads of this backlash. The podcast reached a lot of people BECAUSE of Rowling's fame and incredible investment in transphobia. If you are not a trans person, not very online and generally oblivious to related news, it's easy to think all of this is unimportant, but well, it isn't.

Congratulations on the Peabody ! ❤️

Anouk Jones

I have been a big fan of all other contrapoints videos, but I really couldn't get into this one. Part of it is just because personally I really seriously need to be done hearing about JK Rowling and don't feel like there's anything more to be gained from talking about her TERF beliefs and continuing to fixate on it just gives her attention she doesn't deserve. So I don't get why another long video on this topic was needed. The drama with Vaush also was really off putting to me. I hadn't heard about it, probably because I'm not on twitter and don't follow his youtube, and I really don't care and just why would you want to bring that up in a video and make it part of your body of work? There were some interesting historical tidbits and I loved the hilarious interjection advertising mail order human meat, but it seemed like the point of the video was to explain how shitty the podcast was and then drag another youtuber. It felt like a departure from the other videos which have way more focused arguments and are so artistically unique. Idk, maybe it's just because production was more rushed on this and it was not a topic I am interested in.

Logan Rand

Soooo not gonna lie my crazy came out! I got banned from Twitter for 12 hours because I got rude with someone who got rude with you!😹 So much for Elon's free speech bullshit! Nobody fucks with the goddess Natalie Wynn!

Gary

I'm so obsessed with queer history 💕 I'd love hear more about it's parallels with current events. The world is terrifying right now, but it gives me hope that the world will turn back in our favor. Millenials&Zoomers are so overwhelmingly queer. They can't silence us all, especially since many of those with antiquated beliefs are dying off. There are some young bigots, but they're so loud because they're terrified of us. We're radical and futuristic. They're still stuck in their grandparents' childhood.

The TERF's and Posie et al as handmaidens - Thank you for this POV, it removes the nasty hateful feelings I harbour (and also wanting to send you video of Posie getting pummeled in NZ - which you've likely already seen a million times) Going back to basics reserving hate for the patriarchy again. Feels nicer hating on that than a human. I mean, all the tomatoes for Posie though. She's cooked.

Would love to see a video or blog of books on your shelf or films of interest. You reference so many!

re: Megan Phelps Roper possibly incomplete conversion and "moral relativism" Megan used to believe in something unethical: "Got hates f*gs." Then she discovered she was wrong, but the lesson she took from it wasn't to switch to an ethical belief: 'I love LGBTQ now!' Instead she decided belief itself is the problem. So instead of moving from lawful evil to good, she just moved to lawful neutral: 'I was wrong once, therefore no one should ever believe in anything too strongly.' Hopefully eventually she tries believing in something that is right instead.

'I too have no problem with individual jews. It's International Jewry that is the enemy of the Reic- I mean, the, er, existence of our people and the future of our children.' Feels like I've heard this before somewhere?

Rachel Bayston

Absolutely loved your breakdown on everything. I laughed, I cried, and I applauded at your fantastic recitation on the current movement against Trans rights. It's an honor to become a Patreon member of yours!

A masterpiece <3

Excellent video as always. Loved learning so much about feminist history, would pay to listen to Natalie talk for hours and hours!!

Intended or not, I liked the thematic pairing of the idée fixe from Symphonie Fantastique – a musical representation of an artist’s obsessive fixation which gradually descends into madness — with Joanne’s monomaniacal obsession with trans people.

Ted Mackey

This is such an excellent video and the historical perspective it offers is so essential. You quickly shake off your frustration at the suggestion that trans gender identity is a creation of millennials and zoomers, originating on Tumblr, but it is vital to know that this is quite far from a new discussion. I have dedicated a fair amount of time this year to sifting through newspaper archives, particularly those of the NY Times, just consuming coverage of LGBT issues and figures of note, through the ages. The parallel you draw between Rowling and Bryant -- while acknowledging that, of course, Rowling is a whole other level of famous and beloved -- was fairly masterful. Particularly when focusing on the 70s, it's incredible how quickly one learns that nothing being debated now -- nor the ways these matters are being discussed -- is the least bit new. I'll spare you my findings here, but if anyone curious has not already done so, I recommend it. In the NY Times' archive is a treasure trove of discourse and coverage from ages passed, both appalling and shockingly nuanced and sensitive (sometimes in the same article). I will add this. There does seem to be a change in how the Times discussed these matters -- pivoting from smirking mentions of prominent figures from Warhol's Factory scene, and the like, and reporting of various studies drawing widely differing conclusions regarding "transsexualism" -- starting in 1976. This is when tennis pro, Dr. Renée Richards emerged. I'm not going to get into her story for those unfamiliar, but I do recommend Googling her as she's a massively important trans activist (and, not for nothing, her story is evidence that this whole "trans women in sports" discussion is quite far from new, down to the precise nature and shape of the arguments). Indeed, if you search the Times' archive for the term "transsexual" up through, like, 1980, there appears to be no individual or single topic who/that received more coverage. She was local, as was the US Open -- the tournament in which she fought to compete, grabbing headlines while doing so -- which would explain why the Times, in particular, would cover her so much. But she was big time national news. While she was a ranked tennis player, even pre-transition, her day job was as a very successful surgeon. She put her career on hold to take up the fight of being allowed to compete in the woman's division. She was 42, and one prominent argument was that a cis-woman that age would never be as competitive as she. At the time this was probably true, but she hardly dominated the division. It certainly made for a compelling discussion. Regardless, she elected to draw all of this heat and subject herself to this kind of scrutiny in the name of representation and raising awareness. And this shit was nearly 50 years ago, and the woman is very much still alive at 88-years of age. ANYWAY (sorry), the coverage of her, mostly in the Times' sports section, was broadly respectful and supportive, as was the reader response. While I was a literal toddler at the time, Richards was certainly the first trans person of whom I was ever aware. Not only did she receive a lot of news coverage -- much of which was supportive and positive, while also frequently clumsy and inappropriate (YouTube has clips) -- but, as it turned out, my mother and she had been friends when they were both young medical professionals, working at the same NYC hospital. At the age of 5, I was exposed to transness by a mother who absolutely affirmed it and never questioned, or misspoke of, the gender identity of her former colleague. Somehow, it must be noted, this occurred and yet I didn't wind up becoming trans myself. Hmmm, curious that... Holy shit, do I digress (honestly, as a rule, I'm in a constant state of digression)... Of course, the coverage of trans issues in the greater sense was a mixed bag. For example, and this is actually relevant to the video, in 1979 the Times published a wildly trans-invalidating, unabashedly rave review of Janice Raymond's The Transsexual Empire, written by Dr. Thomas Szasz (author of The Myth of Mental Illness, and a quite deep rabbit hole unto himself). Jesus. I'm hitting "post," now that I've typed all of that. My point was really that this video was beautifully argued and executed and provided absolutely invaluable context for the immensely worrying -- and I say this knowing that my worry, as a cis person, is largely vicarious -- time in which we find ourselves. Knowing what fights have come before, what setbacks were faced, what battles were won and lost, what the enemies looked like and how they were ultimately defeated is all essential. Also, final thought... Your description of Dworkin was so spot on. I won't speculate as to the woman's mental health, but I will say that I frequently disagreed with her on a vast array of (most?) topics, but when she was right, she could be so right, and so eloquent in expressing her ideas. Genuine radicals like Dworkin, when they are also gifted in irrefutable ways, can be hugely worthwhile, precisely because the shit they say gets lodged in your brain; even if you're engaged in a heated internal debate with the wacky arguments, they're still in there. People like Dworkin help one to better understand and argue their own beliefs.

Matt Quigley