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Eddie Redmayne changes heart; defends JK Rowling in light of ‘hate’ she’s receiving due to her transphobia
- Thread starter Wallace Wells
- Start date
him and Jeff Tambor make an great case for why not to let cis actors play trans roles
on top of the hundred other reasons ofc
on top of the hundred other reasons ofc
I will say that I kinda hate when I see people being like "Punch a TERF" or seeing people get aggro toward her on Twitter because frankly, it just feeds into JK Rowling's weird persecution complex and gives her shit to cynically point toward to say "Look, I'm getting death threats!" which makes her appear more sympathetic to people who are ignorant about the situation
I get why it happens - these are trans people who have been oppressed and abused for years, and who are right to be angry, but JK Rowling's whole strategy is basically to bait them into saying something stupid or aggressive in the heat of the moment so she can say she's the target of "abuse." I don't want to tone police, because it's understandable to be incredibly angry about her comments, I just wish she wasn't cynical enough to take advantage of those comments to make herself look more sympathetic. Of course trans people's emotions are going to be heightened when the debate she's trying to push is whether we should be allowed to exist in society or not, there's a lot more at stake for us than there is for her.
But yeah, fuck Eddie Radmayne, he's just trying to justify continuing to work on the Fantastic Beasts movies despite knowing Rowling is a horrible bigot who will profit off of them.
I get why it happens - these are trans people who have been oppressed and abused for years, and who are right to be angry, but JK Rowling's whole strategy is basically to bait them into saying something stupid or aggressive in the heat of the moment so she can say she's the target of "abuse." I don't want to tone police, because it's understandable to be incredibly angry about her comments, I just wish she wasn't cynical enough to take advantage of those comments to make herself look more sympathetic. Of course trans people's emotions are going to be heightened when the debate she's trying to push is whether we should be allowed to exist in society or not, there's a lot more at stake for us than there is for her.
But yeah, fuck Eddie Radmayne, he's just trying to justify continuing to work on the Fantastic Beasts movies despite knowing Rowling is a horrible bigot who will profit off of them.
Seems like every conversation about JK is being forcefully pushed over to "everyone's been mean to her".
So blatantly dishonest. Too many takedowns of her argument so the narrative gets shunted along to something easier to defend. Context be damned.
Part of it though is rooted in ambivalence. "I don't know anyone trans" or "this doesn't affect me" so they don't see why people aren't itnerested in opening up "debate" about this sort of stuff or coddling anyone who opposes their rights.
So blatantly dishonest. Too many takedowns of her argument so the narrative gets shunted along to something easier to defend. Context be damned.
Part of it though is rooted in ambivalence. "I don't know anyone trans" or "this doesn't affect me" so they don't see why people aren't itnerested in opening up "debate" about this sort of stuff or coddling anyone who opposes their rights.
OP
OP
I sometimes wonder, when a person is on record claiming X, then suddenly find themselves 'motivated' to state Y, do they not understand it makes them look like a weak minded shitbag?
It's very true. The clip really lays bare the gimmick of that kind of casting... how it's basically a prop for the film to use. It's certainly a, for lack of a better word, transformative performance, but the actor is left kind of articulating half of the lived experience -- the external and less of the internal.
It always bothered me because how insulting it was to use cis actors because they're "bigger names"--the same excuse Hollywood has always used for not getting more black people or other minorities on either side of the camera.
I never thought about it in terms of how even thoughtful and well-done cis performances still reinforced the whole idea of trans women being "men in disguise."
Perfection. Quoting your whole post because it's that damn good.
I will say that I think many of Rowling's supporters are ignorant of the arguments of the LGBTQ+ community, and have been manipulated by those who show them "mean responses to a woman who is just trying to protect women's spaces from dangerous men". This doesn't apply to Redmayne, because he already condemned her tweets and then walked it back, but the disingenuous presentation of the response to her argument has clearly won her a lot of support from people who don't know better. I hope that someone explains the totality of the situation very loudly to them, but it's much harder to succinctly explain why "im sorry, if u have penus ur a man!!!!!!" isn't actually true.
Gonna quote myself from the other thread:
This shit has been going on forever but the rich old lady is the good guy becuase trans people/supporters don't want to take being treated like creeps and perverts on the chin anymore?
Redmayne needs to step outside and put himself in their shoes for a minute becuase god knows JK Rowling isn't going to.
This shit has been going on forever but the rich old lady is the good guy becuase trans people/supporters don't want to take being treated like creeps and perverts on the chin anymore?
Redmayne needs to step outside and put himself in their shoes for a minute becuase god knows JK Rowling isn't going to.
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This part from the Daily Mail interview where the rest of the quotes are from seems relevant:
Like, what he says first is alright, sometimes 'I just want to tell stories' is a valid position. Art can and should be political, but it doesn't always have to be.
But the last quote seems just defeatist to the point of 'I don't want to rock the boat by speaking out too much'
Like, what he says first is alright, sometimes 'I just want to tell stories' is a valid position. Art can and should be political, but it doesn't always have to be.
But the last quote seems just defeatist to the point of 'I don't want to rock the boat by speaking out too much'
What a fantastic video. Also I really need to hurry up and watch that documentary, thank you for the reminder.
Im glad the mods decided to decouple this news piece from the main JK rowling thread cause I would not have seen this post otherwise.
So, not only is he a coward but he is a coward who is too afraid to take any stance unless it will affect his paycheck. Got it.
I'm glad I never liked Eddie Redmayne. He's a scared white man who is happy to profit off of trans stories because he only sees them as stories, but has no spine to stand for or against trans rights. Fuck him.
Fuck him twice, once for this and once for the danish girl.
Hire trans actors for trans roles.
And since that clip is being shared I am going to say it again, don't feel like it can be said enough if you have Netflix and have not watched Disclosure please fix that and watch it. Very important piece of media and cuts to the point, especially about how media affects perception, even more so with trans people than other minority groups due to how few of us there are and how unlike other non-White,Christian,straight people there is a good chance a lot of people just honestly have never met or interacted with a trans person leaving media as their only view into these issues.
Hire trans actors for trans roles.
And since that clip is being shared I am going to say it again, don't feel like it can be said enough if you have Netflix and have not watched Disclosure please fix that and watch it. Very important piece of media and cuts to the point, especially about how media affects perception, even more so with trans people than other minority groups due to how few of us there are and how unlike other non-White,Christian,straight people there is a good chance a lot of people just honestly have never met or interacted with a trans person leaving media as their only view into these issues.
It's weird that the Academy is taking initiatives to be more diverse, while you have an Oscar winner who played a trans-character defending people like Rowling. By all accounts, Redmayne should give that award back, or the Academy has to tell him to hand it over.
I always despised the underlying implication of whataboutism like this that somehow the people angry at JK Rowling & bigots like her aren't entitled to be angry. She's on a massive platform stripping trans people of their humanity with faulty & worthless rhetoric & that isn't seen as violence in the eyes of people with zero skin in the game like Redmayne. Yet the people tired of trans panic defenses, epidemics of trans targeted murder, vilification of trans people as pedophiles, active sweeping legislation to keep them from public spaces or in institutions like the military, lack of diversity in hiring and creative representation on top of lifetimes of abuse within & outside of social media aren't allowed to be fucking furious at another insulated cis person coopting tired regurgitated anti-trans arguments to perpetuate the violence historically & currently being inflicted on/experienced by trans people. Like it's such a bullshit naive position that just shows that even though he is willing to use the veneer of being a queer ally as a shield, he's failed to internalize any of the actual realities of not just being trans but how oppression exists & persists for them.
It's the same with racism and sexism. These aren't bugaboos marginalized people talk about to keep ourselves busy. For trans people & other disenfranchised groups, these are conversations that we're staking our lives on; that have an effect on our safety, sanity and basic rights as human beings. This is the arena we're actually arguing in and in that reality of course people would be highly emotional & less than eager to treat it as some high school debate level bullshit. Shit isn't a fucking game.
Thanks for this clip. I'm ashamed I haven't sat down to watch disclosure yet.
It's the same with racism and sexism. These aren't bugaboos marginalized people talk about to keep ourselves busy. For trans people & other disenfranchised groups, these are conversations that we're staking our lives on; that have an effect on our safety, sanity and basic rights as human beings. This is the arena we're actually arguing in and in that reality of course people would be highly emotional & less than eager to treat it as some high school debate level bullshit. Shit isn't a fucking game.
Thanks for this clip. I'm ashamed I haven't sat down to watch disclosure yet.
idk why y'all keep saying this when this is probably just what he actually believes
Its really gross how the narrative around this seems to be quickly slipping into "oh the poor woman" overlooking the fact that she has caused some VERY serious harm to people who are in an extremely vulnerable place in most countries around the world.
I swear I heard this sentiment from a trans person a long while ago that the point at which he took that role instead of stepping away to leave space for an actual trans actress was the moment he revealed his commitment to trans equality & allyship was always surface level.
i dont understand the title says "changes heart" when he actually didnt?
like, what he said is bad since he is not taking into account all the harm that JK rowling has brought upon so many people.
but he is not actually saying "you know what, jk rowling is right you all people should not exist!"
like, what he said is bad since he is not taking into account all the harm that JK rowling has brought upon so many people.
but he is not actually saying "you know what, jk rowling is right you all people should not exist!"
Screw him!
Disappointing he has kind of backtracked on his initial statement. I wonder if his managers/WB pressured him given he is an ongoing part of the HP franchise. Either way it's still inexcusable.
Disappointing he has kind of backtracked on his initial statement. I wonder if his managers/WB pressured him given he is an ongoing part of the HP franchise. Either way it's still inexcusable.
The original article from the Daily Mail says he 'still disagrees with her', but it makes it seem rather like he's equivocating around it, and not directly addressing what it is she's actually said or why it's harmful in any particular way:
I don't know if there's a more direct interview and transcript, but framed like this - by the Daily Mail, it must be stressed - it seems like he... well... merely 'disagrees' with her, and views the matter of transgender abuse in more general terms, rather than really about what an author of Rowling's stature brings to the table
Edit: To put it another way, he's not as terrible as Robbie Coltrane, but still not doing right in this case
