Piers Clashes With Trans Supporter Over JK Rowling's Controversial New Book | Good Morning Britain

uh a hashtag reading rip jk rowlings we said earlier has been trending on twitter harry potter author has not died his latest victim of cancel culture it comes because of her new book it is said to feature a male serial killer who dresses in women's clothing his divided opinion and of course caused a storm online so let's talk about this with rose of dawn who is a trans activist and youtuber who says jk rowling has done nothing wrong broadcaster and politician george galloway who says cancel culture is intellectually suffocating and journalist benjamin butterworth who says this is people being heard in a way they weren't previously benjamin butterworth i wonder if you could just explain first why jk rowling is in this mess well jk rowling has been tweeting derogatory comments about trans people for some months now some years she's been suggesting her anti-trans views and she has reportedly her new book under a male name indeed features a character who dresses as a woman in order to kill and a lot of people myself included are incredibly worried about how this that smears trans people you said a man who dresses as a woman in order to kill not a transgender person uh according to the reviews this person is a transvestite the truth is that for a lot of people but a transvestite is not necessarily a transgender person but you're saying this is an example of hate against transgender people even though it's not a transgender person i am indeed because in a lot of people's minds who are not familiar with the distinctions of trans people with these issues and may have seen jk rowling's other derogatory comments against trans people this will be seen as a way to debase them this will be seen as an insult to all trans people the idea that we should be afraid or nervous with respect you you haven't read the book have you no nobody's read the book besides so and do you support the rip jk rowling hashtag i mean i think if there's any sense of the people among those hashtags that were saying you know death threats or that she should be something like dead that is clearly unbelievably unacceptable would you like to happen to her then well what i would like is for people to not buy this book for people to challenge jk rowling on her views that are nasty and derogatory to attack people not to buy a book that you haven't read nick cohen who is a top liberal left writer has written a piece of the spectator jk rowling's latest novel which he's read is not remotely transphobic if you actually read it it doesn't have any transphobia in it so again i ask you you want to have a book cancelled that you have actually not read you also have not read the book cohen's full review which goes into great detail which means that actually all the premise for why she has to be r.i.p is actually based on a a complete load of nonsense and yet let's be clear about this what it is is about whipping up hatred and concern and fear whipping up the hatred and all those who have been contributing to the rip jk rowling they're the ones that want her dead cancelled shamed vilified finished for writing a novel that none of you have read which according to nick cohen in this lengthy review is not remotely transphobic and by the way he doesn't have a transgender character how can you want to cancel something and shame somebody and bury them and have them r.i.p on twitter for something you haven't even read look first of all peers jk rowling has not been cancelled the myth of cancelled culture is not alive and well that's the only thing that's dead today if she'd been canceled she wanted people not to buy the book you just said benjamin you wanted people not to buy her book why given it's not remotely transphobic because she has a character in there which is said to be a person who dresses in women haven't read it have you neither have you so you can't be sure of that i've read a very lengthy review here which completely repudiates the whole point of your position let me bring in george galloway george this is the problem here isn't it this cancel culture uh this is a perfect illustration where people have tried to shame destroy cancel ban boycott we had jedward of all people calling for the book to be burned they hadn't read it either no one's actually read the damn thing the irony of course is that this will put it to the top of the bestseller list the book they try to ban always ends up there 60 years ago alfred hitchcock made a movie called psycho it's rather a significant movie and the murderer in it norman bates didn't just dress up as a woman he dressed up as his dead mother no one at the time sought to cancel him for that because murderers come in all shapes and sizes including bra sizes you get people that dress up you get people that are women people that are men who kill other people it's fiction and when you're in the territory of hating someone for a fictional character they have drawn in a book that you have not read i'm afraid it's you that is deeply in psychiatric territory okay let's talk to rose of dawn because you are a trans activist um in the review that piers references nick cohen says transvestism barely features when it does nothing is made of the fact that the killer wears a wig and a woman's coat not a dress as a disguise when approaching one of his victims as a trans activist do you find depictions of somebody as a transvestite wearing a woman's coat and wig offensive of course not people are in the right to be able to dress whatever way they want we know that a transvestite isn't the same as a trans person however there is this kind of growing rhetoric from within the trans activist movement that there is this umbrella of various different gender identities gender expressions and that sometimes does include transvestites which have absolutely nothing to do with actual trans people that is people who deal with gender dysphoria and transition in order to deal with it that's what a trans person is by definition a transvestite has nothing to do with that that just going back to the book itself it from what i understand it's simply just one line and it's it's not even necessarily referring to the killer as a transvestite i think it just mentions that the color at one point wore a wig and a woman's coat so that there is no trans rhetoric coming out of this book at all and i take issue with ben saying that jk rowling has been issuing a lot of derogatory rhetoric around trans people i haven't seen her using any kind of slurs i haven't seen her saying anything which is incredibly problematic to the point where she needs to be removed from public life she's someone who probably the vast majority of the british public would agree with like for example the idea that there are only two biological sexes i mean that's something which we used to take and take advantage of until current year where it's being pushed on to us that this is more of a spectrum or a social construct which is absolutely nonsense if people really look at what jk rowling is saying they would see that all of this outrage is simply a way for activists to kind of feel important they want to have a target and it just so happens to be in this case it is one of the one of the richest women in the world now she has been a victim of cancer culture that have been people calling for her publisher to drop her there have been calls on social media to effectively remove her from the platform even a poster in edinburgh train station was removed which just said i love jk rowling simply because someone was upset at the idea that people might admire her yeah and the point is the point is benjamin butterworth i don't even like jk rowling i've had loads of run-ins with her she was leading the council culture she she was joyous when i got abused on national tv in america i've got no reason to defend her but i do defend her right to free speech and i would ask you this given that you want her canceled over a book you haven't read which you clearly have misunderstood anyway uh out of interest if she was to write if i was to write a novel tomorrow about i interviewed real life serial killers of all shapes and sizes and genders if i was to write a novel tomorrow it's your position that i was not i would not be allowed to make it a transgender killer because that doesn't seem very equal to me if your battle is for equality surely criminals in novels could be transgender or are you saying it's one rule for people like me so we'd have to be a white straight guy like me but i couldn't actually have a transgender killer what is your position the point is that when so few people know about trans people when they're so unfamiliar and so rarely covered in books like this the idea that the only supposed representation as most people will interpret it of a trans person is that they are a killer who dresses as a woman in order to kill so just just to clarify what you're saying about that but to answer my question then we could never have a transgender killer in a novel is that what you're saying well the fact that the idea that they dress as a woman in order to kill as is reported is the problem not the ideas in itself i just asked you a very straightforward question for whatever reason you're trying to avoid the answer the question's very straightforward could i write a novel with a transgender killer there are millions of transgender people in the world if you were to do that i would fear it would be to whip up the same hatred and so i wouldn't be allowed to but if i was to write a novel which had a person like me doing all the killing you would find that absolutely fine you are not as unfamiliar to people there are lots of cis rich white men that's men born i'm not actually a cis i'm just a i'm a white guy you can just call me a white guy you use i don't even understand white man let me bring in george get away here we have it george don't we this is the bottom line with this culture with this cultural war is that as long as i write a series i write about benny i think you've had to say george if we if i was to write a novel and the killer looks like me or you right is a straight white guy that's fine but if i was to actually make the killer a transgender killer and there are millions of transgender people in the world that is unacceptable and i would have to be shamed vilified and cancelled well can't people see the danger of policing fiction telling novelists what mold they must put their characters in uh what arc of narrative they must have because they might offend an activist like benjamin button it's unbelievably ridiculous and dangerous i don't think he's getting younger as he gets older clearly well it is it may have a point it is utterly dangerous that's my point susanna yes no i think listen i totally agree i've got a whole book coming out about all this and i hope benjamin hope you read it you're in it so i hope you read it oh yes you're in pierce's because you might learn that the best way to preach about tolerance is to show a vague semblance of tolerance yourself because that's the problem the problem with the brigade is you're never remotely tolerant what you want to do is have rip jk rowling trending because you because you don't like a book you haven't read i mean it's preposterous anyway we've got to leave it there guys thank you all very much indeed we really appreciate the debate

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 1,573,859

Rating: 4.7119493 out of 5

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, itv, piers morgan, susanna reid, Talk Shows - Topic

Id: bDI6j0pH87k

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ljg168]

Hiding behind the fact that the 'character is not transgender' despite the character being the embodiment of all of the things TERFs say about transwomen, seems like wilful blindness or at best not knowing how dog whistle bigotry works. Look at the context of who the author is, who her supporters are, and the other things she's saying, Piers.

[u/ChloePrice4Ever]

So the person who thinks trans women are just predatory men in women’s clothing wrote a book about a predatory man in women’s clothing. But it’s ok because the character is technically a transvestite and it’s totally just a coincidence that it’s being released shortly after she began airing overtly transphobic views on twitter. 🧠

I’m more bothered by how much the British media is actively complicit in shaping this narrative.

[u/cfcnotbummer]

If I ever bump into Morgan he will remember the occasion for the rest of his life

[u/blekkja]

I’m not from the UK so while I do do know that people hate Morgan I’d not had the misfortune of actually having experienced why myself. I lasted about a minute. They blatantly have an agenda and that was to shut down the only one of the panel they’d invited on who had a negative opinion about JK.

[u/HawlSera]

Isn't this the book where a man in a dress kills someone. Steals their panties. And masturbates while wearing them?

[u/DonDove]

Oh no!

Anyway