J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues

[DonFerrari]

Mnementh said:

JWeinCom said:

Ugh.  I had a whole response to this and my computer crapped out.

To sum it up, JK Rowling is presenting herself as someone who is researched and unbiased.  Yet, she's doing things like citing studies with obvious fundamental flaws in their methodology (the study she cites was conducted by surveying parents on websites with an explicit position against transitioning).  She then characterizes the backlash to this study as "a concerted campaign to discredit both her and her work" without addressing the very valid critique of the work. Now she is promoting the position that peer pressure can cause children to transition.

Essentially Rowling already had her opinion, and sought out data to cherry pick to support it.  Whether her initial position was actually correct, I don't know.  I'm not an expert on gender identity or gender dysphoria which is why I simply shut the fuck up about it beyond my personal opinion (that if someone wants to be identified a certain way I'm happy to do so which I think is simply not being an asshole).  Likewise, (while she shouldn't be threatened), JK Rowling is not an expert, and should shut the fuck about it as well.  And while she certainly has the right to express her opinion, people equally have the right to tell her to shut the fuck up.

While I mostly agree with your post, one thing I want to add: nobody  should shut up with their opinion. Everyone should be open to arguments to the contrary, but don't talking about your opinions doesn't make them go away. So everyone should always feel free to offer their own opinions, but should be prepared to get counter-arguments.

But shutting up only means some people dominate the public discourse while others still have differing opinions - only shutting up. This allows to produce societal divide. Also, simply speaking, if people don't offer their opinion that the moon is made of cheese you never get the idea that you should disprove that notion.

Sometimes letting people speak is the only way to know you should keep the distance from.