Her their views
Waterstones has come under fire for sacking a bookseller who claimed she would “tear up and bin” an author’s novel over their gender-critical views.
Their gender-critical views?? Her views. She’s a woman and doesn’t pretend otherwise.
Book influencer and Waterstones employee Tilly Fitzgerald, who uses the TikTok page Tilly Loves Books to share her reviews of novels, was fired after breaching the retailer’s social media policy during an interaction with author Christina Dalcher.
“Book influencer.” Yuck.
Ms Dalcher was subject to Ms Fitzgerald’s criticism after the author appeared to endorse a new publishing network for those “concerned about the impact of gender ideology” and the safeguarding of women’s rights. This prompted Ms Fitzgerald to write on X/Twitter: “Ooh I’ll enjoy tearing up your books and popping them in the bin today. Thanks for the heads up.”
The bookseller was subsequently dismissed from her job and took to social media to tearfully express her sadness – and clarify her stance on Ms Dalcher’s books. She said her intention was not to have the author removed from the shelves of Waterstones – merely that she did not want to personally support the author.
And she did want to personally trash the author on social media.
Following news of Ms Fitzgerald’s dismissal, supporters of the LGBTQ+ community have flooded Waterstones’ social media posts with comments encouraging the bookstore to reinstate her.
There is no such “community.” It’s a fiction of the initials-besotted.
Ms Fitzgerald uttered some deepities for the Independent.
“I’m so grateful for all the support people in the book community have shown. The last thing I would consider myself is an activist (although I’m forever in awe of those who are brave enough to fight so relentlessly), but to me, it’s fairly simple – we just let people be who they want to be and begin with kindness.”
Sure, let people be who they want to be. Let Trump be a descendant of enslaved people if he wants to be. Let all white people be descendants of enslaved people if they want to be. Let people be Barack Obama or Harrison Ford or Simone Biles or Taylor Swift if they want to be.
Well you must have had some result in mind when you posted what you did. You were “active” when you did that. And not all “activism” is equal; some goals are worthy to fight for; others not so much. You were expressing your support for the silencing and blacklisting of authors and publishers who disagree with trans ideology, which, in its current formulation, is inimical to women’s rights and child safeguarding.
Love this!
I would say there isn’t really any such thing as the ‘book community’, either. There are a lot of people who love books, who read books, who write books – but they can’t all get together in commonality. For instance, people who read nothing but Zane Grey and Louis Lamour aren’t likely to have much in common to hold a conversation with people who read nothing but Stephen J. Gould and Richard Dawkins.
Book lovers are like religion – so many ‘sects’ and denominations it can be difficult to find two who agree on enough to be called a community.