Loved the podcasts, and enjoyed your discussion with Sam Harris. However, you told Sam that you could see letting "men" be a word for socially constructed gender and "male" for the biological concept. (I think I have that approximately correct. I apologize if I'm wrong.) Perhaps you've realized these are not comparable terms.
Male vs female refers to a biological category designating one of a pair of sexually reproducing life forms, male for those with small gametes and female for those with large gametes. Men vs women refer to a composite category, adult male human vs adult female human. Men and women are NOT social designations (except that "adult" may have different social meanings), they are biological designations. Men represent those lifeforms that have small gametes, have reached the age of sexual maturity, and belong to the homo sapien class of mammals.
If we were to abandon the traditional definition of men (women) we would need to come up with a new word for these categories. Men and women are categories of humans at the very heart of our species. For an atheist, there is no other reason for men and women to exist than that they find each other and produce children. How could we converse intelligently about humans, their prospects, weaknesses, and strengths as a species without making use of these categories?
I think those who want to appropriate the term woman as a social construct do so because they seek to obfuscate the original meaning of our laws. Transactivists seek to enhance the access of female-identifying men to spaces reserved for women and girls. So, although I believe you have argued in good faith, I don't consider those seeking to change the meaning of the word woman (man) to a gendered term to have made good faith arguments.
Rather than change the meaning of men and women, with attendant confusion to our legal system, the advocates for trans-rights should come up with new words for the socially constructed behaviors of men and women. As it happens, I think we already have pretty good terms: masculine and feminine. These are socially (and biologically) constructed adjectives that vary from culture to culture and over time. But, I haven't thought carefully about this suggestion and I think the burden falls on the trans-advocates.
Thank You Free Press! This podcast series was FANTASTIC! I'm a 57 year old Harry Potter and J K Rowling fan. Thank you for not just allowing her to speak out on such a wonderful platform, but for pretty brilliantly weaving this whole, fascinating time line of judgement, criticisms, and condemnations. J K does NOT deserve the bizarre treatment she's received, at all.
Episode 2 seems to cast shade on the veracity of the “she said yes” columbine story. As a child of the 90s who was inspired by that story, I definitely want to know more. Any suggestions for reliable sources for further reading?
Episode three blew me away. I didn't understand how 4chan and Tumblr were opposite sides of the same phenomenon. Wow! I'm an old, so thank you for explaining this world to me! No wonder mental health problems are plaguing the youngs too. Cheers, well done Megan.
The Hero's Journey is the journey to come to embrace yourself as a competent adult in the world. A boy becomes a man, a girl becomes a woman is the pattern. This is also the crux of Object Relations theory: we must learn to know ourselves in relation to who we love. We move from the family romance to the love of a mature human being. Harry has a powerful wand and there is no way to ignore the Freudian symbolism of this wand, its powerful virility. Rollings work at root is a guide to the hero's journey from childhood to adulthood from an object relations point of view. Face pain, fear, embrace courage and friendship, and learn to love as a typical adult. We are encouraged to move from the polymorphous perversity of the child to the single gender of the typical adult. This journey is difficult, and it is wrapped up in gender identity. So it only makes sense that Rollings would embrace the journey as one to manhood and womanhood. This is violently appalling to those who refuse to make this journey or cannot make this typical human journey. But Rollings' guide is not the guide for all people, and those who hate this advice simply need not take it. They need not kill the messenger whose message is not for them. So the bigger question is Who will write the Hero's Journey tale for transsexuals? Not Rollings. That is simply not her project. In contemporary words: Rollings is writing for the cis-gender journeyer. And we need guides too. The hero's journey is difficult for us all.
I am about 20 minutes from the end of Part 2, and I have to say I feel this podcast was mis-advertised. The way it was described in the FP post, I was under the impression it would be mostly about the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling's transgender comments and her subsequent "cancellation."
Part 1 was all background on Rowling and Harry Potter, which I found interesting. I am 37 minutes into Part 2 and I feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch. It has all been about the American religious right and their attacks on Harry Potter in the 1990s. And weirdly, the Columbine massacre. I don't need this much detail on controversies from 25 years ago except as a very general backdrop to what is going on now.
Don't bait-and-switch me, Free Press. I expect better.
I listen to the first two episodes with a very progressive friend. I was so happy that it started with conservative critiques because it would be a good way to ease her in. Unfortunately, when the left criticisms aired at the end of the second episode I asked her if she could hear the similar exaggerations and paranoia and she said no. I think this ideology is harder to dislodge than I thought. She can’t even hear the crazy on her own side!
I listened to the first three episodes yesterday in the car with my 12 year old daughter.
The entire Harry Potter phenomena missed me. In the 1990s I was busy living through the collapse of my entire country (USSR) and at the turn of the century I was busy making it as a fresh graduate immigrant entirely on my own in the USA. And then this and then that.. When my own kids came along I still did not think of Harry Potter much because I myself grew up reading giants like Tolstoy. Quite honestly I looked down on Harry Potter as a literature..
But when after the lockdowns my own teen daughter got in a very dark place emotionally and the entire Russian literature could not come to her rescue (bitter self irony) we tried Harry Potter books and... miraculously, they helped! They helped her to start getting out of her severe depression (along with many other things, indeed), but Harry Potter books was the first thing she got really excited about.
Though I did not think much of Harry Potter as a book, the reaction of the mob to Jane Rowling statements made me sick. The historical memory of the 1930s repressions in the USSR and most importantly the cowardice and the mob mentality among the Soviet writers and beurocrats that made those repression possible got imprinted in my mind. It was chilling to see the same thing unfolding again in the so called civilized, democratic society.
I talked to my daughter, who sympathized with trans rights about everything that happened to Jane Rowling and yesterday we listened to the seires together. It brought us closer. And for this I am forever grateful to Jane Rowling. I have to admit, Tolstoy never managed to appeal to a distressed teens' mind the way Ms. Rowling did.
I am sure Tolstoy will still have a chance to play his role, but the very fact that there is such an opportunity in the future is very much thanks to Jane Rowling. It is because she did what she did and is who she is. It was her genius that helped our family out of this terrible situation. I will make a stand in her favor at every opportunity. There won't ever be "mneeeaaaaa" on my side, should anyone ask me: "what about the author, J.K. Rowling?" She is a both, talent and integrity.
Thanks to everyone who made these series possible.
Illuminating so far. I knew JK Rowling was a struggling single mom, but I didn’t know about the loss of her mother so young and the abuse she suffered.
Also, the juxtaposition of her being asked to not use her real name (as a woman) is quite striking when one considers she is now speaking up for biological women’s rights/safety and being vilified. It made me think about the many tentacles of misogyny.
I read so many hysterical comments regarding trans rights that say, “people are dying!” I always think, “Yes, women are killed all the time. By men most often in domestic situations.” Yet that is tacitly accepted. But trans lives matter. Not saying they don’t at all, just that the priorities and level of concern in the culture is curious.
I just finished episode 2. This is yet another high quality piece of journalism that makes me proud to be a member of The Free Press. It handles a complex topic with a high level of nuance and treats all parties with respect. And as a huge Harry Potter fan I was delighted to hear from J.K. Rowling herself. Such a treat!
I respect Rowling a lot as she has produced very good products that all three of my kids embraced and learned from. The products she sold have made her billions of dollars to help her do necessary battle.
The trend of billionaire's is Lefty politics which breeds irrationality like mutilating children. I do have to say that it is a little enjoyable watching her fend off attackers that she helped create. Now it is her responsibility to help make things right.
Can someone at the FP figure out why Vimeo agreed to remove affirmation generation from their platform?
I am genuinely curious if there was really something wrong with that film, as it didn’t seem to say anything new, just with more authority and interviewees.
I first started purchasing these books for my children, back when my daughter was 12 and my son was 10. I read them aloud to the entire family (including my husband). I can remember laughing so hard, while reading the beginning of the first book, that I had tears in my eyes. Even though I was an adult when I first discovered the story of Harry Potter, to me this story was always about Love being the most powerful force in the Universe (a theme first introduced to me when my fourth-grade teacher read aloud to our class Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time). More than ever now, I believe we humans need new stories (what Joseph Campbell once referred to as "new myths") that will inspire our hearts and minds to listen to the quiet voice of conscience within ourselves (a voice which J.K. Rowling refers to in Chapter Two of this podcast series). Thank you, Megan, for this series! I am really, really enjoying it, and I feel like I'm even more of a fan now of J.K. Rowling than ever before. : )
Just -Wow! I have been wanting an in-depth interview with Rowling since this latest kerfuffle. There couldn’t be a better interviewer. Love this!! Thank you FP. Love both of these women.
Loved the podcasts, and enjoyed your discussion with Sam Harris. However, you told Sam that you could see letting "men" be a word for socially constructed gender and "male" for the biological concept. (I think I have that approximately correct. I apologize if I'm wrong.) Perhaps you've realized these are not comparable terms.
Male vs female refers to a biological category designating one of a pair of sexually reproducing life forms, male for those with small gametes and female for those with large gametes. Men vs women refer to a composite category, adult male human vs adult female human. Men and women are NOT social designations (except that "adult" may have different social meanings), they are biological designations. Men represent those lifeforms that have small gametes, have reached the age of sexual maturity, and belong to the homo sapien class of mammals.
If we were to abandon the traditional definition of men (women) we would need to come up with a new word for these categories. Men and women are categories of humans at the very heart of our species. For an atheist, there is no other reason for men and women to exist than that they find each other and produce children. How could we converse intelligently about humans, their prospects, weaknesses, and strengths as a species without making use of these categories?
I think those who want to appropriate the term woman as a social construct do so because they seek to obfuscate the original meaning of our laws. Transactivists seek to enhance the access of female-identifying men to spaces reserved for women and girls. So, although I believe you have argued in good faith, I don't consider those seeking to change the meaning of the word woman (man) to a gendered term to have made good faith arguments.
Rather than change the meaning of men and women, with attendant confusion to our legal system, the advocates for trans-rights should come up with new words for the socially constructed behaviors of men and women. As it happens, I think we already have pretty good terms: masculine and feminine. These are socially (and biologically) constructed adjectives that vary from culture to culture and over time. But, I haven't thought carefully about this suggestion and I think the burden falls on the trans-advocates.
Thank You Free Press! This podcast series was FANTASTIC! I'm a 57 year old Harry Potter and J K Rowling fan. Thank you for not just allowing her to speak out on such a wonderful platform, but for pretty brilliantly weaving this whole, fascinating time line of judgement, criticisms, and condemnations. J K does NOT deserve the bizarre treatment she's received, at all.
Episode 2 seems to cast shade on the veracity of the “she said yes” columbine story. As a child of the 90s who was inspired by that story, I definitely want to know more. Any suggestions for reliable sources for further reading?
Episode three blew me away. I didn't understand how 4chan and Tumblr were opposite sides of the same phenomenon. Wow! I'm an old, so thank you for explaining this world to me! No wonder mental health problems are plaguing the youngs too. Cheers, well done Megan.
The Hero's Journey is the journey to come to embrace yourself as a competent adult in the world. A boy becomes a man, a girl becomes a woman is the pattern. This is also the crux of Object Relations theory: we must learn to know ourselves in relation to who we love. We move from the family romance to the love of a mature human being. Harry has a powerful wand and there is no way to ignore the Freudian symbolism of this wand, its powerful virility. Rollings work at root is a guide to the hero's journey from childhood to adulthood from an object relations point of view. Face pain, fear, embrace courage and friendship, and learn to love as a typical adult. We are encouraged to move from the polymorphous perversity of the child to the single gender of the typical adult. This journey is difficult, and it is wrapped up in gender identity. So it only makes sense that Rollings would embrace the journey as one to manhood and womanhood. This is violently appalling to those who refuse to make this journey or cannot make this typical human journey. But Rollings' guide is not the guide for all people, and those who hate this advice simply need not take it. They need not kill the messenger whose message is not for them. So the bigger question is Who will write the Hero's Journey tale for transsexuals? Not Rollings. That is simply not her project. In contemporary words: Rollings is writing for the cis-gender journeyer. And we need guides too. The hero's journey is difficult for us all.
I am about 20 minutes from the end of Part 2, and I have to say I feel this podcast was mis-advertised. The way it was described in the FP post, I was under the impression it would be mostly about the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling's transgender comments and her subsequent "cancellation."
Part 1 was all background on Rowling and Harry Potter, which I found interesting. I am 37 minutes into Part 2 and I feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch. It has all been about the American religious right and their attacks on Harry Potter in the 1990s. And weirdly, the Columbine massacre. I don't need this much detail on controversies from 25 years ago except as a very general backdrop to what is going on now.
Don't bait-and-switch me, Free Press. I expect better.
I listen to the first two episodes with a very progressive friend. I was so happy that it started with conservative critiques because it would be a good way to ease her in. Unfortunately, when the left criticisms aired at the end of the second episode I asked her if she could hear the similar exaggerations and paranoia and she said no. I think this ideology is harder to dislodge than I thought. She can’t even hear the crazy on her own side!
I listened to the first three episodes yesterday in the car with my 12 year old daughter.
The entire Harry Potter phenomena missed me. In the 1990s I was busy living through the collapse of my entire country (USSR) and at the turn of the century I was busy making it as a fresh graduate immigrant entirely on my own in the USA. And then this and then that.. When my own kids came along I still did not think of Harry Potter much because I myself grew up reading giants like Tolstoy. Quite honestly I looked down on Harry Potter as a literature..
But when after the lockdowns my own teen daughter got in a very dark place emotionally and the entire Russian literature could not come to her rescue (bitter self irony) we tried Harry Potter books and... miraculously, they helped! They helped her to start getting out of her severe depression (along with many other things, indeed), but Harry Potter books was the first thing she got really excited about.
Though I did not think much of Harry Potter as a book, the reaction of the mob to Jane Rowling statements made me sick. The historical memory of the 1930s repressions in the USSR and most importantly the cowardice and the mob mentality among the Soviet writers and beurocrats that made those repression possible got imprinted in my mind. It was chilling to see the same thing unfolding again in the so called civilized, democratic society.
I talked to my daughter, who sympathized with trans rights about everything that happened to Jane Rowling and yesterday we listened to the seires together. It brought us closer. And for this I am forever grateful to Jane Rowling. I have to admit, Tolstoy never managed to appeal to a distressed teens' mind the way Ms. Rowling did.
I am sure Tolstoy will still have a chance to play his role, but the very fact that there is such an opportunity in the future is very much thanks to Jane Rowling. It is because she did what she did and is who she is. It was her genius that helped our family out of this terrible situation. I will make a stand in her favor at every opportunity. There won't ever be "mneeeaaaaa" on my side, should anyone ask me: "what about the author, J.K. Rowling?" She is a both, talent and integrity.
Thanks to everyone who made these series possible.
Illuminating so far. I knew JK Rowling was a struggling single mom, but I didn’t know about the loss of her mother so young and the abuse she suffered.
Also, the juxtaposition of her being asked to not use her real name (as a woman) is quite striking when one considers she is now speaking up for biological women’s rights/safety and being vilified. It made me think about the many tentacles of misogyny.
I read so many hysterical comments regarding trans rights that say, “people are dying!” I always think, “Yes, women are killed all the time. By men most often in domestic situations.” Yet that is tacitly accepted. But trans lives matter. Not saying they don’t at all, just that the priorities and level of concern in the culture is curious.
I just finished episode 2. This is yet another high quality piece of journalism that makes me proud to be a member of The Free Press. It handles a complex topic with a high level of nuance and treats all parties with respect. And as a huge Harry Potter fan I was delighted to hear from J.K. Rowling herself. Such a treat!
Just listened to first two episodes. Very well done! I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m hooked. Looking forward to next episode!
I respect Rowling a lot as she has produced very good products that all three of my kids embraced and learned from. The products she sold have made her billions of dollars to help her do necessary battle.
The trend of billionaire's is Lefty politics which breeds irrationality like mutilating children. I do have to say that it is a little enjoyable watching her fend off attackers that she helped create. Now it is her responsibility to help make things right.
Great first 2 episodes, can’t wait for the rest. Anyone know how many there will be?
Can someone at the FP figure out why Vimeo agreed to remove affirmation generation from their platform?
I am genuinely curious if there was really something wrong with that film, as it didn’t seem to say anything new, just with more authority and interviewees.
3 guesses; first 2 don't count.
I first started purchasing these books for my children, back when my daughter was 12 and my son was 10. I read them aloud to the entire family (including my husband). I can remember laughing so hard, while reading the beginning of the first book, that I had tears in my eyes. Even though I was an adult when I first discovered the story of Harry Potter, to me this story was always about Love being the most powerful force in the Universe (a theme first introduced to me when my fourth-grade teacher read aloud to our class Madeleine L'Engle's book A Wrinkle in Time). More than ever now, I believe we humans need new stories (what Joseph Campbell once referred to as "new myths") that will inspire our hearts and minds to listen to the quiet voice of conscience within ourselves (a voice which J.K. Rowling refers to in Chapter Two of this podcast series). Thank you, Megan, for this series! I am really, really enjoying it, and I feel like I'm even more of a fan now of J.K. Rowling than ever before. : )
Just -Wow! I have been wanting an in-depth interview with Rowling since this latest kerfuffle. There couldn’t be a better interviewer. Love this!! Thank you FP. Love both of these women.