I read the Mermaids letter.

It seems to want us to conclude that if @jk_rowling continues to talk on these issues she will be responsible for the suicides of young people and that she is already responsible for some of them self harming.

I don’t know if young people have self harmed as a result of these conversations (&I hope none have).I do know it isn’t women talking about our rights,or those raising sincere concerns,who have created an environment of hysteria so toxic that young people may feel vulnerable

This whole conversation is bound up in tactics of abuse. Whether it is the rape and death threats women field every day, or the myriad attempts to silence and stifle everyone who won’t agree wholesale with a specific set of ideas. Coercive control is a consistent tool being used.

The leverage is everything from someone’s social standing,to their employment,to their safety,to their genuine fear of harm coming to vulnerable trans people if they don’t capitulate enough.But accusing a public figure of something so serious is extraordinary&feels like a new low

If you go onto the women’s aid website and read their information about domestic abuse you will see threats of suicide and self harm listed under “pressure tactics”. Abusive people get what they want, or get cover to continue their behaviour, by using various pressure tactics.

In this case it isnt happening in a personal relationship behind closed doors but playing out in the public sphere with young people apparently acceptable fodder to be used to manipulate others in this way.Almost w/o exception the ppl most subjected to these tactics are women

JK Rowling may be a brilliant writer whose work has gone round the world but the fact of her being female is still being used against her. The goal from so many directions seems to be to isolate her from everyone else by making her untouchable.

A new witch for a new age.

She is one of the strongest voices asking questions about the lack of rigorous care for children and adolescents and about the overreaches which, many of us feel, groups like Mermaids can take their share. Of course she feels like a threat. The truth so often does.

By demonising her not only can everyone who wishes to do so deflect public scrutiny of their own positions but they can retain control of the conversation and make other women fall silent, too.

If people keep going after her, and they succeed in shaming her into silence, they may believe the rest of us will be afraid enough to stop talking again as well. Once upon a time that might have been true. Many of us have been genuinely frightened to speak out as it is.

The problem they will find is they have pushed that method of engagement too far and too long. We are not afraid anymore and we recognise that if one of us is made to stop talking, other women (and increasingly men as well) are watching this unfold and will simply take our place.

All the Mermaids letter has done, all the mermaids letter *can* do,is demonstrate very clearly the dynamics in play. It is a reminder to women of exactly what is at stake

Not just our ability to speak freely&to keep our rights,but the safety of an increasing number of children.

The wellbeing of young people cannot be left in the hands of a movement that would seek to convince them that they are hated by members of society who are asking for reasonable safeguards when it comes to their care.

Those young people deserve far, far better than that.

The discussion of women’s rights, too, and how they are impacted by all of this cannot be left in the charge of anyone who thinks that intimidation,or wild accusations,are a fair substitute for reasoned conversation

#IStandWithJKRowling and I hope she knows that so many of us do