In a wide-ranging interview with La Repubblica, the twice Booker prize-winning novelist also gave her view on the monarchy, told how endometriosis has “devastated my life”, and how Boris Johnson “should not be in public life”. She also addresses the criticism of JK Rowling and her stance on transgender rights.
Mantel said the online attacks on Rowling after her essay were “unjustified and shameful”.
She added: “It is barbaric that a tiny minority should take command of public discourse and terrify those who disagree with them.”
She said: “I recently found myself ‘misgendered.’ I received a university publication, with news items relating to alumni, where I was referred to as ‘they’, not ‘she.’
“My books were ‘their books.’ I wasn’t singled out – the other alumni were similarly treated.
“I thought: ‘Being a woman means a lot to me. I do not want my womanhood confiscated in print.’”
Source: Hilary Mantel: I am ashamed to live in nation that elected this government | UK news | The Guardian
I fully agree with Hilary’s comment:“It is barbaric that a tiny minority should take command of public discourse and terrify those who disagree with them.” But it is frightening to think that there is probably not a country that Hilary can move to in order to seek refuge from such barbarism. This is precisely what the Taliban has again done in Afghanistan – ‘a tiny minority has taken command of public discourse and terrifies/terrorises those who disagree with them.’ But, the take home message from Afghanistan’s capture should not be focused on the speed of the Taliban takeover; instead, we should consider the speed of abandonment by its protectors. Barely a shot was fired by Afghanistan’s defence forces – they simply rolled over to the bullies.
Name me a country in the western world where the Trans Taliban is not taking over (or has not already taken over) and where the defenders – the people that women had come to expect to defend our rights (academics, politicians, bureaucracy, military, Police, Courts) – have not abandoned their defence of good and joined forces with evil. As we were warned decades ago, legislation does not change what people think; if the dogma is so strong in the head of the individual, they may change what they say publicly, but it doesn’t change what they believe – the overt doesn’t go away, it becomes covert.
And, in the past half century, what had been overt discrimination against women (in the western world) for centuries simply became covert – and dark forces have been working furiously being the scenes to bring back what they believe is their birthright; men controlling women. A few may have even volunteered to kamikaze their own private bits, in order to achieve the end game, but most don’t need to. The takeover has been helped by women siding with their abusers; it does seem to be a case of Stockholm syndrome on a global scale, by women too ignorant (uneducated) to know how to recognise danger – and to stick up for themselves and their children.
And who was it in Australia that introduced HECS fees – and offered massive discounts to those who could pay up front (i.e. encouraged the rich to get a University Education, while discouraging the poor – by leaving them with a massive millstone of a debt hanging around their necks)? And some idiots still call him a hero.
The word resilience (the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events) is tossed about these days like a feather, but what has become totally lacking is the foresight to prevent adverse events – really serious adverse events (not losing your mobile phone for a few seconds, or spending a few days or weeks under temporary house arrest) – from happening in the first place. Foresight (the ability to predict what will happen) develops as a consequence of hindsight (what has happened), and what is happening now (terrorism by the Afghan Taliban and the Trans Taliban) is what happens when people with experience of adversity (the elders) are silenced. People who don’t know their history are set to repeat it. Suffer the women and children (again). There is nowhere to run to Hilary; we either stand our ground and fight for our lives – or roll over and be tortured by the barbarians.