Dismayed swathes
Another _______ has apologized to the LGBTQ+++++++ communinny for saying ________ and promises she will never never never utter an opinion again.
Pop singer Róisín Murphy has apologised after criticising the use of puberty blockers by transgender children.
The Irish musician, formerly the frontwoman of Moloko who has since released a series of acclaimed solo albums, had dismayed swathes of her fanbase – which includes a sizeable LGTBQ+ quotient – with a statement posted on her personal Facebook account.
She wrote: “Puberty blockers are fucked, absolutely desolate, big pharma laughing all the way to the bank. Little mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected, that’s just true.” She pre-empted criticism, writing “please don’t call me a terf, please don’t keep using that word against women”.
She was right, right, right, right, and right. Naturally she had to grovel.
Somebody took a screengrab and took it to Twitter, because of course somebody did. So she abased herself.
She said the issue of puberty blockers, a treatment used by transgender children to delay the development of sex characteristics that don’t align with their gender, “was something that had been on my mind”, but
acknowledgedshe was “stepping out of line” by commenting about them on Facebook.
Stop that, Guardian. “Acknowledged” assumes that she was “stepping out of line,” and she wasn’t.
Really disappointing.
I’m a big fan of Róisín Murphy’s music. I don’t see how she’s “stepping out of line” by criticising the use of puberty blockers. Heck, I recall Murphy criticising Brexit a few years ago, and nobody went after her.
It might be the case that Murphy has a family member or close friend that’s very strongly into gender ideology, and this public capitulation was made mainly for the sake of “keeping the peace”. Rather like some of us have people we care about but whose political opinions are strongly at variance with ours, so we avoid bringing the contentious subject up in their presence.
Also: us pop & rock fans remember when some of our favourite musicians went deliberately out of their way to *antagonise* their fans .
We remember when Lou Reed recorded “Metal Machine Music” to annoy his fanbase, Keith RIchards of the Rolling Stones thumped a fan who’d tried to steal his vest, or Donita Sparks of L7 threw her used tampon at a heckling crowd,.
Jerry Coyne has a guest post up today about puberty blockers that was written by a pharmacology student. It’s worth a read.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2023/08/29/guest-post-the-pharmacology-and-effects-of-puberty-blockers-with-felid-lagniappe/
Thanks for the link, AoS.
I wish someone would write a protest song protesting against the use of puberty blockers on gender nonconforming children and teenagers.
At least Mr Shock Rock himself is on the sensible side of the debate:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/08/24/alice-coopers-rocknroll-revolt-against-trans-ideology/
Yes thanks AoS, informative post.
The Scottish playwright David Greig – a very good one – has recently been forced to apologise for liking two ‘transphobic’ tweets, neither of which struck me as being either ‘nasty’ or ‘controversial’. Particularly in the arts world nowadays you have be very careful about what you ‘like’ since your position will be threatened. Nick Cohen has a good article about the problem on his website ‘Writing from London’.
Ninja Tune, Róisín Murphy’s record label isn’t going to promote “Hit Parade”, her new album, in response to her comments criticising the use of puberty blockers.
https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/music/r-is-n-murphys-record-label-ceases-promotion-of-her-new-record-following-transphobic-social/article_9217e450-3bc1-5995-bd78-2249fe65e90f.html
This is crazy. Post-Tavistock, you’d think people worldwide would be prepared to listen to more public criticism of the use of puberty blockers.
Are Ninja Tune going to release an album called “Take lots of Thalidomide ” next?