Oh No, There's A Troll In The Girls' Toilet

[poliphilo]

Dear J K Rowling,

You are asking us to fear the bogeyman.

To whit: a transwoman who visits public toilets with the aim of raping cis-women.

I'm not saying your bogeyman is an impossibility (because human beings are infinitely various) just that if I came across this character in a detective novel I'd mark it down as unlikely.

As you know- and as anyone knows who has given it a moment's thought- the most dangerous place in the world is the family home. That's where you're most likely to meet your abuser, rapist, murderer.

And they won't be a transman or a transwoman but someone you know and thought you could trust.

Bogeymen belong to fiction. They're vanishingly rare in everyday life.

When members of a minority are demonised by a fearful member of the majority it's called a witch hunt.

There was a time when I had you pegged as being on the side of the witches. I'm sorry your fears- your unreasonable fears- have tipped you into the opposing camp.

It's very Muggle of you.

Fear is the worst possible basis for a philosophy, a religion, a public policy, a Tweet.

Fear causes the innocent to suffer and deforms and twists the person who projects it.

Comments

[cmcmck]

And the number of that kind of attack ever in the UK is?

Zero.

[poliphilo]

I didn't know that- but I'm not in the least surprised.

[sovay]

There was a time when I had you pegged as being on the side of the witches. I'm sorry your fears- your unreasonable fears- have tipped you into the opposing camp.

That's well said.

[poliphilo]

Thanks.