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The Free Press Investigates

The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling | 4. TERF Wars

The Free Press Investigates

The Free Press

Society & Culture

4.7 • 16K Ratings

šŸ—“ļø 7 March 2023

ā±ļø 61 minutes

šŸ§¾ļø Download transcript

Summary

The movement for trans rights hits its stride in the early 2010s, but encounters fierce resistance from an unexpected source. J.K. Rowling watches the battle unfold with mounting unease. Produced by Andy Mills, Matthew Boll, and Megan Phelps-Roper, with special thanks to Candace Mittel Kahn and Emily Yoffe. This show is proudly sponsored by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. FIRE believesĀ free speech makes free people. Learn more atĀ thefire.org. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, dear listener. I'm Megan, host of this series. And before we get into the show,

0:09.9

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about our sponsor, Fire, the foundation for individual

0:14.9

rights and expression. We live in a moment when free speech, the bedrock of our democracy

0:20.5

and of all free societies, is often viewed as suspect, where many argue that the right

0:25.4

to free speech is too dangerous, and that even listening to ideological opponents is morally

0:31.4

wrong. Many people just don't see a problem with using the law, corporate power, and even

0:37.8

extraordinary social pressure to censor viewpoints they disagree with. But many of us feel the

0:43.5

costs of all this in our everyday lives. We feel it when we self-sensor, afraid to say what we really

0:49.8

think, sometimes even in private conversations with friends or loved ones. We feel it when

0:55.3

we opt out of a growing number of public discussions, afraid of the potential cost to our jobs,

1:00.8

and even our relationships. Fire shares a mission with this show. To remind us why a culture of

1:07.4

free speech in open dialogue matters, and regardless of how loud the calls for censorship are,

1:13.6

fire's defense of that culture is unshakable and invaluable. And if you want to remember why we

1:20.4

choose freedom, even for people we strenuously disagree with, you can learn more about fire's

1:26.2

incredible work at thefire.org. And now, onto the show.

1:38.8

This episode contains language that might not be suitable for children.

1:42.1

So, for someone who's never heard the term turf, trans exclusionary radical feminist,

1:54.2

what is a turf? Where does that term come from and what does it describe?

1:58.4

Yeah, I'm not sure you're getting quite how offensive a term is to many people.

2:03.0

Journalist Helen Lewis, staff writer at The Atlantic, an author of the book Difficult Women,

2:09.0

a history of feminism in 11 fights. Think about it like the word queer, which some people are

2:14.6

very happy to self-describe as, and for other people it's the term that, you know, someone with a

...

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