Adele - Trolling

with the

Sheep

Adele won the best artist category at the Brit Awards. Brilliant, huh?

It was recently changed from best male/female artist to best artist, due to the many geni-arses who identity as plural. It would be exclusionary, unless they also added in a separate nonbinary award, and that would only out people or misgender them. Misgendering is "“basically you invalidating who they are as a person,” said Dr. Derek Fenwick (he/him), a psychologist with the Institute of Living (IOL), he and Dr. Brianna Pollock (she/her)..."

So, they went for the one size option.

Nonbinary is an umbrella term that includes the 'most marginalised in society' (genderfuck, Godgender, chronogender, Shrödingender, soft-littlegender etc) who must never be made to feel weird or different, because they'd hate that and they definitely aren't wanting a fuss. It would also be inaccurate, rude and violent to give Sam Smith an award for best male artist (did you know he they gets a layer of fat on their hips like a lady?)

Not noncey - soft-littlegender

Thus the award was changed so as to remove the gender (sex) of the nominees. However, Adele then appeared on stage, in the body and attire of someone stereotypically associated with the social construct of a sex which is commonly aligned with the gender that is woman. I.e. as a woman.

And while we waited in vain for her pronouns, problematic stuff came from her mouth, via a microphone - she understood why the name of the award had changed but she was still really proud of being a woman. Here's where the internet uproar began:

However, it was perhaps overblown by the media.

If Adele had been old and not as cool or as valued; if trans activists weren't already starting to face widespread and more mainstream pushback for frenzied overreaction to simple, inoffensive statements, I can see how this may have quickly spun out of control.

For example, slamming Adele for missing a concert in las Vegas, for fitting more eurocentric, heteronormative beauty standards with her impressive weight loss, for having black singers on backing vocals, problematic lyrics or any other perceivable slight could easily have followed, just as it did with the conspiracy theories dogging JK Rowling;

Luckily we have the intrepid reporter Benjamin Butterworth who told us a few nights later at a G-A-Y do Adele shouted out to the audience "you're all women who identify as women!", which was to "stick two fingers up every transphobe who misinterpreted her words" at the Brits. It’s fab Butterworth is able to give us such insight and analysis, and I will heartily agree he fully understands Adele's thought processes and intentions if at some point there is confirmation beyond his report. Because, well - because he then deleted the tweet divulging the Good News.

This is the thing: the trans rights activists had no critique of JK Rowling as antisemitic, slavery-endorsing, rape-enthusing until she committed wrongthink. Then it was rampant, from theories she named her pen name Robert Galbraith to celebrate a gay conversion 'therapist' Robert Galbraith Heath and all the above.

And while Benjamin Butterworth walks among us, praised as an ally, no one wants to acknowledge the fact his own advocacy for trans rights might stem from his own transracialism (he identified as black to take a place set aside for PoC while at uni.) Imagine if that'd been Rowling?

Still, they only said they were right, not logical, fair or consistent.

So while no, there definitely are/were people calling Adele transphobic, the outrage was in its early gestation before the mighty pill of "this really will make us look mental" and the realisation she's not shown herself to be irrelevant and isn't over 40 shed any remnant of hospitable terrain for it to cling to.

Now, while I'm kinda looking forward to (desperately anticipating with my own shadenfreude dessert wine) their own tactic of obvious lies hurling back at them, it's still a untrue to say this was confected. I gathered the above screenshots this afternoon but of course many have been deleted.

So it was, for some, a PR save for brand TERF-branders, this time. We only need look at the screaming loons misrepresenting JK Rowling, or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or anyone/anything else to see this is the process that trans activists work by, and be grateful Adele was saved the relentless and bad faith hostility bestowed on so many others.