Hi Joanne
Another chapter in the crisps on a train saga.
Just in case you missed Apparently it’s considered unprofessional, or have forgotten the details, Laurie Penny tweeted to the world yesterday that bad reviews of her book set off her (putative) CPTSD. Julie is satirizing that absurd claim, and JKR is sharing the joke. So what does the putative CPTSD sufferer do? She makes a public fool of herself all over again. Somebody really should tell her she’s the source of her own CPTSD.
Yes that’s the ticket. Do more of the same thing, so that even more people will see what an entitled self-admiring fool you are, and what a bully.
Laurie Penny is the one who said children shouldn’t stare at men’s penises in women’s changing rooms, because it’s rude. She’s not a non-bully.
Is Laurie referring to the essay in which JKR explained her position on transgender issues, reviewed her own history of abuse, and reflected that she had a lot of masculine interests as a young girl? For which JKR was attacked *AGAIN* as being transphobic, threatened, and all that? That essay?
I’ve looked for tweets on which Penny Red took up JKRowlings’ defense and haven’t found any so far.
Yes, and as JCJ and others are pointing out right now, Laurie Penny wrote a scathing bullying piece about Rowling at the time.
The epitome of “can dish it out, but can’t take it”. I have sadly known more than one of such a type in person.
Help me out here — what is CPTSD?
Peter N,
In my experience, it is a condition often experienced by someone for whom the unbearable heaviness of being — in the absence of any notable material difficulties — is simply too much with which to cope.
Peter N.
I too had never run across the term before & so googled CPTSD & found this:
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd-and-complex-ptsd/complex-ptsd/
This is exactly the sort of thing that drives me crazy when Penny and so many like her do it.
No, nobody’s CPTSD is being mocked, not even yours, Laurie. But you know that.
Your absurd suggestion that bad reviews caused (or triggered) your CPTSD so everyone should only ever write good ones is being mocked. But you know that, too.
Ceri Black has a thread about this here, I agree with every word:
https://twitter.com/FemmeLoves/status/1500884370349039620
As someone with direct experience of adverse mental health issues bought on by both long-term and specific traumatic events, I can very definitely relate to the struggles of others, especially around issues like depression, dissociation, self harm, and PTSD. Personally, I have the feeling that PTSD diagnoses are handed out (or claimed) just a bit too liberally and that depression and anxiety, its less sexy cousins, are often missed. I read the description of CPTSD and to be honest I’m struggling to differentiate it from ordinary PTSD, plus a mix of other mental health issues including those I’ve mentioned above. I should add that in my lay persons experience it seems pretty damn rare for a person to present with symptoms that are ‘pure’ versions of almost any of those conditions. Everyone I’ve ever met with a professional diagnosis has exhibited symptoms and behaviours on a spectrum that overlap multiple diagnoses. For now I’m inclined to consider CPTSD as the ‘my PTSD is more special than yours’ diagnosis.
I’m not taking the piss out of Penny here. If she suffers from depressions, PTSD, or whatever else she deserves help and needs to practice self-help as well. I wish her the best in her struggles. However, that doesn’t mean that she deserves special treatment. if she touts herself as a cultural commentator and thinker, writes books on controversial topics and appears constantly in the media (especially being combative as she is), then she can expect the scrutiny and push back of her work and statements that they deserve.
#7 latsot
It does not help Penny’s case that bad reviews are the risk all authors take when writing a book, meaning she opted into it when she decided to be a public communicator years ago, and every time she wrote an article, and yet again when she wrote a book. Even if she truly experiences psychological trauma rising to the level of CPTSD from negative reviews (which I doubt), she cannot use that as leverage to demand soft reviews.
The thing about cry-bullies is that people have a hard time even seeing them. Most of us can recognize when someone is just a bully, but the cry-bully is a different story. Present someone with a straight-up argumentum ad baculum and the fallacy is clear. (“If you don’t agree, then something bad will happen to you.”) Cry-bullies employ a mutated version that people are insufficiently inoculated against: “If you don’t agree, then something bad will happen to me.” That little shift in direct object turns the bully into the victim, making dissent the domain of monsters. But it’s still the same fallacy of irrelevance, and it’s still abusive.
DDW: I think the description that fits perfectly here is mimophant. It makes me feel positively ancient that I read Koestler’s orginal coining (for Bobby Fischer) almost contemporaneously.