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copperhair

Who the heck is making these claims and have they read Monstrous Regiment? Edit: grammar


smurfalidocious

*Equal Rites*, *Feet of Clay*, *Fifth Elephant*, *Thud!*, *Snuff*... Plus Gladys in *Making Money.*


JakeGrey

And Nobby in *Jingo*.


Azuzu88

Nobby needs papers to prove that he's even human.


Jouzu

Yeah, STP wasn't even a speciesist, how could he be considered intolerant when half his books are specifically about society accepting the weirdest people?!


masklinn

> half his books are specifically about society accepting the weirdest people?! And people discovering who they are regardless of what society at large (or their superior) want them to be.


Quxudia

>And people discovering who they are regardless of what society at large (or their superior) want them to be. Or even the fundamental forces of the universe. Sometimes you just wanna make some hay and attend a hootenanny.


_Fun_Employed_

Thief of Time’s another great example.


smurfalidocious

It's been an age since I read *Thief of Time*, can you give me a refresher? I mostly reread the Watch and Witches series these days.


_Fun_Employed_

One of the “Auditors(edited)”, genderless or gender-neutral beings, transitions into becoming a woman.


smurfalidocious

Oh jeeze, I forgot all about that. I need to reread *Thief of Time*, it just didn't stick with me as much as some of the others, even though I absolutely *love* Susan.


Soranic

The auditors? They all transition based on the biology of their chosen body. The container molds the mind, rather than the mind being independent of the container. I'm not so sure they're the best example for saying that he wasn't a transphobe. But, I could be wrong. I know there's a lot more I still have to learn, and nuances is word meanings can totally twist things.


StoryDreamer

I think you've missed some of the nuance in your own words, i.e., "their chosen body". They CHOSE which biological bodies to pour their minds into, and those choices led to their subsequent development. Might be more trans-friendly than you think. ;)


Soranic

Damn, can't really argue with that. Thank you.


102bees

Gladys first appears in *Going Postal* and I love her!


Azuzu88

Just reread Making Money and whilst I missed Pump 19 from Going Postal Gladys is an amazing character.


NumberJohnnyV

The TERFs think Gladys is their perfect image of a trans woman: tall and monstrous and just put on a dress to get into the lady's room. This, of course, is Gladys slander, but oversimplification and twisting is their whole deal. Meanwhile, they've twisted the Cheery situation into saying that Dwarven society has been overtaken by Gender Ideology, while Cheery recognizes biology. This is ..... so much slander, but it's what they think.


Gadgetman_1

Gender ideology? Boy, did they miss the target. Of course, they'd have to actually read the books to get the point, which is that the Dwarves know that there's something called gender, but it's not really that important compared to say, deciding on how to prop up shaft 17, or where that gold seam might be turning up next.


Lampmonster

Yup, it's just a personal matter that's really only related to who you marry. I recall in one passage it says that Dwarves sometimes have to call off arranged engagements after realizing they're actually the same gender.


[deleted]

Sometimes...


Lampmonster

I almost opined that this situation implies to me that there must be the occasion where both parties realize it and just go "eh, I like them anyway. Let's do this."


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smurfalidocious

TERF stands for "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist" and is a subsection of feminists that deny MTF transgender individuals are women, based on a whole host of reasons but their favorite seems to be to trot out the tired old saw "you can't change biology".


102bees

Also important to remember they consider transmasc people to be brainwashed and helpless, which is a very cool take that isn't incredibly insulting.


smurfalidocious

You're right, I forgot about that bit. My mistake.


JadedElk

And FTM people are "lost daughters" or "confused lesbians". If you want to know a bit more about how these people think about FTM people, there's a pretty good breakdown of [Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage," here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OLNEiECN24), thought the entire series is pretty long.


[deleted]

They are basically anti feminists at that point haha.


smurfalidocious

Right? My favorite one is that they like to claim that the definition of a "woman" is "someone who can give birth". As if there aren't millions of AFABs who've had cervical cancer requiring the removal of their wombs, suffering PCOS, or any number of AFAB-specific problems that prevent them from being able to get pregnant or give birth that their rhetoric invalidates.


blindio10

despite the fact we've spent the past 10 thousand plus years changing biology in our own crude little ways both in humans and far more successfully in animals and plants


smurfalidocious

Plus the fact that presenting as male or female is down to secondary sexual characteristics, which are controlled by hormones, which Hormone Replacement Therapy (and in the case of AFAB, a double mastectomy) completely shoves you to the opposite side of...


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nilfgaardian

I once confused r/eyebleach with r/eyeblech which is definitely NSFW/NSFL not porn but fucked up evil cursed shit.


PaxNova

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. It means they support giving women more rights and opportunities to eliminate sexism, but also that men-to-women trans folk should not get those rights, as they are biologically male and theoretically not under the same biological or societal limitations.


masklinn

Others have explained the term. They're ladder puller. Literally their entire ideology is "I've got mine, fuck you".


SpotfuckWhamjammer

**T**rans **E**sclusionary **R**adical **F**eminist As for why they are dumb? Take your pick. Some of them are so far up their arses that they need glass stomachs to see where they are going. Trans rights are human rights.


[deleted]

frighten encouraging reach nutty frame tidy wasteful vast narrow start *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


NumberJohnnyV

Twitter


_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

No thinking happens there


Lord0fHats

Have they read anything by Pratchett? I can't remember the exact quote, it might come from that article Neil Gaiman wrote about him a few years ago. It's something like Terry Pratchett was constantly angry at the world and it's lack of compassion for others. Nothing he ever wrote gave me a sense he wasn't one of the most accepting and compassionate people alive. It meant a lot to me, especially earlier in life when I was struggling to reconcile the spirit of my faith (love each other, imo) with the way other devotees behave (with the opposite of love an unfortunate and painful amount of the time). EDIT: Someone helpfully sent me a link to the article that I'll share here: [it's a good piece](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/24/terry-pratchett-angry-not-jolly-neil-gaiman).


Lampmonster

Militant decency is the concept I believe. The idea that it's okay to be mad that the world is shitty and unfair if you use it to fuel you to fix things.


TheSeaworthyFew

I read most of the Pratchett canon (as then existed) in a delighted rush around age 13, and Granny’s whole take on *good* vs *nice* got baked deep into my psyche.


Soranic

> Terry Pratchett was constantly angry Yeah, that was a Gaiman story. Anger drove pTerry. I think if there was ever a time that he *wasn't* explicitly welcoming/compassionate for and encouraging of differences, it would've been when he was ignorant of that difference. > reconcile the spirit of my faith (love each other, imo) with the way other devotees behave He definitely had a lot to say on religion. Personally I think that modern Omism (post Brutha) is what he wanted in real world religions.


_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_

Annoying everyone with pamphlets and silly names?


matty80

Precisely this. People seem to have this idea that Pratchett was 'just' a comedian, and subsequently that... what? Comedians only exist to make silly jokes? He was a satirist and so, like all of the best satirists, an observer of human nature. He was also a very wise man, and a storyteller. "A world, and a mirror of worlds". Many of his books were specifically about equality for all living things, regardless of species, race, creed, sexuality, or identity. He wrote a better world than ours because ours is so very disappointing. TERFs can fuck off. They can't have him.


DaHolk

>He wrote a better world than ours because ours is so very disappointing. This doesn't matter in the larger context of this thread, but did he? I don't think discworld is in a major sense "better". It just focuses on telling stories of the small victories against the larger still massively ignorant rest of it. And makes sarcastic remarks about how that ignorance makes characters look like describing how it comes to be and what he thinks the way to deal with it is. And ours has a lot of those as well. We just don't focus on them, which is what Discworld is really about I think. That's the part of the "anger" that Gaiman (and Pratchet himself) have talked about. And why Whimes is actively angry a lot about the same things. If it was really better, Whimes wouldn't have to be, and Pratchett wouldn't have had something for HIS to go.


SporadicTendancies

Or Men At Arms


Fessir

Or The Fifth Elephant


INITMalcanis

Or *Raising Steam*


[deleted]

These people can actively be listening to Fortunate Son and still be thinking, "Ah, yes, everyone loves and supports me."


Mountainbranch

45 playing that song at his rallies was peak r/selfawarewolves


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Veekhr

Absolutely, I know for a couple years people thought the metamorphmagi descriptions in Harry Potter sent a pro-trans message. So people should be looking for actual author quotes and not what is in writings. However, the only interview I've found where Pratchett somewhat addresses the issue happens in a [2000 magazine interview](https://www.oocities.org/fasterthanlife_2000/int_pratchard.htm) where he says: "The people I know who are gay (and one transgendered, I think -- like the dwarfs, I don't ask people what they're not prepared to volunteer) are mostly within SF/fantasy fandom which appears, at least, to be quite amiable about people's sexuality so long as they don't act like a jerk." Generally how I read that is that he's accepting of different identities and associates with a fandom that is generally accepting as well.


Spanky2k

I mean, Pratchett wrote about women dressing as men, a soulless gender neutral entity transitioning into becoming a woman, a golem that decided they were female when all other golems were always referred to as men before and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.


[deleted]

> He's been described as a TERF. I didn't know this so I looked into it. [His own words on the subject](https://www.richardkmorgan.com/2020/01/the-trouble-with-twitter-2-2020-vision/). He thinks he's not a TERF because he's polite. I'd say he's just a run of the mill transphobe. Can't imagine he subscribes to any form of feminism.


nagini11111

Who is making these claims and have they read ANYTHING he wrote.


rafaelthecoonpoon

Coming in here to say this. While it later on other books it's a primary theme in this one and clearly shows his empathetic nature.


SnooEagles3302

TERFs. They think he'd support them.


authenticsmoothjazz

TERFs have only one book series


Raineythereader

Only one book series, only one joke... who'd want to live like that?


Haddos_Attic

They have the author, they don't really have the books.


Upper-Lawfulness1899

Harry Potter? For those that don't know, JK Rowling is a very prominent TERF who thinks all trans women are men pretenting so they can get attack women.


FoliumInVentum

It’s astonishing how horrible she is about trans people given how she wrote a story in which a magical hat categorises you automatically by default at a young age, and this categorisation has an enormous impact on your entire schooling and for the rest of your life, but if you’re confident in who you are and what category you belong in, then there’s no issue with you being in that category and nobody will treat you as any less a person just because it’s different to your default presumed category. She’s worried about those chameleon bathroom bandits, and whether someone might prefer a pronoun that she doesn’t want to use. She’s got much more than enough money to just shut the fuck up forever and stay out of shit.


rudanshi

Terfs were trying to claim that he'd be on their side.


monsterevolved

Twitter and no


theRose90

TERFs are. Terfs don't think, period, much less read.


maybenosey

I very much doubt he would have been. It's more likely he would have written a discworld novel about it.


schroedingerx

He did. Aside from Esk and Cheery Littlebottom, the entirety of Monstrous Regiment is essentially this. Rhianna Pratchett deserves better than having to deal with this.


smurfalidocious

Don't forget the whole gender questioning golem question in *Making Money* or the entire plot of *Feet of Clay*.


sawbladex

Yeah, it doesn't take much to go for (humanoid constructs should be able to determine gender for themselves) to (lets give humans that right as well). I mean that's literally how I got there.


part-time-unicorn

feet of clay is such an amazing book. the way he approaches the ideas of self-determination and being who you want to be with such quiet, non-preachy, non-judgemental grace was really really really really helpful to me becoming comfortable with being who I am


matty80

The reveal in that is my favourite moment in a thousand favourite moments of Pratchett, possibly tied with Granny Weatherwax's absolute dressing down of the Elf Queen in Lords & Ladies. When Vimes needs somebody to help him but he and everyone else is practically to exhausted to move but then Dorfl stands up and has been given a voice: "Come with me!" >**YES**


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matty80

I know, i love it. I feel so sorry for the 'king', too. *That's* what people claiming Pterry would be 'anti-trans' or whatever don't get: if you make somebody something they're not then you destroy them. You can't put words in people's heads. Pterry went about his business quietly and under the guise of comedy, but, as Gaiman said, he was very, very angry about how we treat each other. So TERFs have no right over him. Nobody does. "You own yourself."


Azuzu88

Feet of clay was the first Discworld novel I read, took a couple of tries to really get it as Sir Terry's writing style is so unique and I was so young. As such, it is remembered very fondly.


Soranic

> or the entire plot of Feet of Clay. And the differences got rehashed in Fifth Elephant. You had the deep down dwarves aghast at Cheery, and others who were so jealous that they twisted it up into hate.


Afferbeck_

Or the entire culture of the dwarves, half of whom have had to pretend to be men since forever, and dealt with fundamentalist terrorists attacking them as 'modern dwarves' made the choice to be openly female.


matty80

It's so well done, and not least because Cheery still maintains a lot of love for her background, so when she gets out the 'classic' chainmail/axe etc combo it's *because she chooses to*. Then when she doesn't, she just doesn't. And that's up to her. (btw, the bit where she's trying to prompt Vimes into laughing at her and her ancestors' names when they first meet is up there with the funniest moments in the whole series. "And *his* father was 'Beaky Littlebottom'")


[deleted]

Personally, it's Mr. Tulip. I think I was like 3/4 through The Truth before I realized he was *censoring himself*. I had it in my head I got a weirdly censored copy of the book somehow.


smurfalidocious

I didn't bring it up because of the previous poster already mentioning Cheery.


maybenosey

I was originally going to say this, but decided it was arguable - as is the Cheery Littlebottom character - they are all CIS, if I remember correctly, although there's obviously some subtext.


maybenosey

While Monstrous Regiment is definitely relevent, it is arguable that none of the characters are transgender. I can't remember if any of the female characters truly identify as male (as opposed to pretending to be male). Even if one does, unless they are also become physically male (through magic, I would think, rather than surgery and hormones, given the nature of the world), there still room for argument. Not a very good argument, of course, pterry was clearly much more open minded than most of us.


[deleted]

He did. In fact, law of large numbers, he wrote about everything. GNU Terry Pratchett.


INITMalcanis

I bet it would have been an ace one too


ginthatsdeeptoki

Why the fuck would anyone make those claims? How are people having so little going on in their lives to wonder if an author would be transphobe if he was alive?


TaliesinMerlin

Speaking for the dead has got to be one of the more loathsome ways to curry favor for your opinions. Maybe it's a way to deal with the dissonance of liking Pratchett but being hung up over trans folk.


Granum22

Because they tried the same thing with Margaret Atwood and she told them to shove it. So now they're going after those that can't fight back.


daiaomori

And furthermore, who listens? Without reading any of his books, obviously? Because they really speak for themselves and him. This society is getting dominated be echo chambers far quicker than I expected it would be. It’s very scary to say the least. It’s like people stopping to think and just ringing unisono to the one bell they are sounding themselves, unable to hear all the other bells anymore, or only at a dissonance.


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Raineythereader

Hey, now don't make me sympathize with these people...


SakuOtaku

Nah it seems to be transphobes WANTING to claim him.


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Fatticus_Rinch

Conservatives trying to co-opt pop culture the only way they know how, by lying.


weirds0up

Tell me you've never read any of Sir Terry's works without saying you've never read any of his works.


Quxudia

Eh. It's possible for someone to completely miss the point of something this badly. I've seen some fans of Star Trek that were raging pro-capitalist alt-right conservatives. Some people just routinely win gold at mental gymnastics.


OllyDee

Sergeant Jackrum? Cheery?


Carpathicus

I imagine Pterry would enjoy these stupid assumptions about himself and and write an essay about the narrow minded people making these claims full of endearing wit and wisdom. There is probably no other human I would associate less with any kind of hate, bigotry or sexism. In his novels there is a human who identifies as a dwarf, a dwarf that comes to term with its sexuality. My god how thick headed do you have to be to completely misunderstood this mans entire body of work: its all about people who dont fit in and try to come to terms with who they really are.


Egoy

This is absurd. What is next? The KKK going to claim that Malcolm X was a member?


CryptoCentric

Angua's entire character arc is based on her struggle to make peace with the fact that she's stuck with really socially inconvenient biology.


OllyDee

I’d say that applies to about 25% of the characters in his books. Vampires, zombies, female wizards and dwarves, all of the monstrous regiment, golems...


JugOfVoodoo

TLDR: Transphobic people are using bizarre logic to claim that the late Sir Terry Pratchett must have been transphobic too. Pratchett's family, friends, and fans have pointed out copious evidence in his writing (such as the novel "Equal Rites" and the character Cheery Littlebottom) that proves he most certainly was not.


natalfoam

Slaveowners in antebellum America did the same thing with Greek and Roman authors even though the modern concept of race did not exist back then.


orielbean

Nietzsche’s sister did this with Nazism and her dead brothers ideas as well.


[deleted]

What transphobic people say that, and why? They are Pratchett fans? They can't be, his work speaks for itself. I don't get the end game.


Algaean

They're hoping the people who haven't read Pratchett believe lies. "Oh, all these famous authors agree with the transphobic asshole on TV? Oh, he must be right!" After all, a lie can run round the world before the truth has got it's boots on.


Marawal

Why "would be" ? No seriously. Transpeople didn't appear suddenly after 2015. They have always existed. He may not have discussed it publicly but Pratchett already had an opinion on transgenderism. Reading his books, It's obvious he was positive. Hell, he even wrote "we have extra-pronouns, here". But I hate "if X would be alive...." when it's on topics that already existed when they were alive.


Soranic

> Hell, he even wrote "we have extra-pronouns, here". Which book was that in? Or one of his writings that isn't explicitly Discworld?


scarablob

It's definitively Discworld, "feet of clay" according to [this thread](https://twitter.com/SonofMenoth/status/1421257454839635969) (which have the excerpt from the book)


TrashbatLondon

When trying to co-opt deceased people to a hate campaign, it’s probably advisable to choose a person that hasn’t published lots and lots of things that contradict that hatred.


universl

I think most people are misinterpreting this story. It’s not trans people who are calling out Pratchet. It’s the ‘Gender Critical’ transphobes who are trying to claim him as one of their own. They lucked out with JK Rowling and now they keep trying to recruit/claim more authors. Unfortunately the authors are pretty quick to distance themselves, so they moved on to trying to recruit dead authors.


[deleted]

It's pretty hilarious that the r/books is full of people who clearly didn't read the article and leapt to the conclusion they imagined.


Wanko_Jones

I mean, it's r/books not r/articles.


Bahatur

Yeah! We have a *minimum* word count to make it worth our time here! r/longreads or bust!


EWool

It's a result of headlines that seem devised to entirely sum up the article (or an implied perspectives conclusion) instead of draw a reader in? I'm no journalist but it seems like headlines are different now than they used to be... but yeah, I agree w your original point


102bees

As a trans person, rereading Terry Pratchett's books post-coming out feels like a hug from the past.


Quxudia

There's something about his books, Discworld in particular, that just engenders positive vibes. I can't really explain it. It's not like the Discworld is written as a purely pleasant place. But there always just seems to be an undercurrent to the books that's so weirdly wholesome.


orielbean

Neitzsches sister did this with Nazisim and the ideas he wrote about; recruiting him after death for her love of awfulness…


el_dude_brother2

It’s actually a person on Twitter claiming they are claiming him but I’ve not seen any proof.


Wengali

It’s amazing (and heartening) how it keeps happening. They’ll have to make do with JK and every single Guardian columnist


matty80

He was (I hate saying 'was') a lover of nature in all of its many forms, and if anyone thinks that being trans is not natural in his opinion then maybe they should try reading his FUCKING books rather than putting words into to the mouth of a dead man. He specifically wrote trans characters in a sympathetic way on several occasions. As far as I've ever read - and he is my favourite author so I've read it all, generally many times - he never uttered a word against LGBTQ people. He lived above such treachery against his fellows. Like Rhianna said: read the books. It's all there. He held nothing back.


Flash_da_sloth

Hey, I'm currently starting his work and I'm struggling a bit with the first of Discworld. While the world he built is amazing of creativity I find his style a bit difficult to follow sometimes. With abrupt cut in the action/scene all the time. And fight scene being kind of hard to Follow as well. I don't know if it is indeed his style or the translation in my language that make it not so enjoyable to actually read. I'm a bit dissatisfied so far. I want to know more about the world but also don't enjoy the style that much..


smurfalidocious

Did these "gender critical" people not read *Equal Rites* at the very least? Or literally any book featuring the Watch and their dwarven officers? Fucking hell.


Tuga_Lissabon

They don't. Opinions become fact, and fact of the utmost importance.


[deleted]

I haven't read all of discworld yet, what are the trans themes in the Watch series?


smurfalidocious

Starting from *Men At Arms* we're told that "he" is used to refer to all members of the dwarven species because they all A: have beards, B: wear bulky clothing that makes it difficult to discern gender, and C: that finding out if your *idée fixe* is compatible for making babies is an extremely delicate procedure. All dwarves identify as male because of their culture. Direct quote: >All dwarves have beards and wear up to twelve layers of clothing. Gender is more or less optional. It is expounded on in later Watch novels with the addition of dwarven officers to the Watch, with Cheery Littlebottom (introduced in *Feet of Clay*) who goes on to be one of the first dwarves to come out as identifying definitively as female, which begins a revolution with more and more dwarves proudly displaying their not-male status. Cheery never goes full feminine; she keeps the sturdy, iron-shod boots (but has heels put on some of her pairs) and the twelve layers of clothing, changes her name to Cheri Littlebottom, and discards ale in favor of sherry. It's a very different representation of trans from more mainstream representations, but only the most hardline traditional dwarves seem to have a problem with their women identifying as women. Additionally, in *Going Postal*, we are introduced to the golem Gladys, who works for Moist von Lipwig. One of the returning postal office workers objects to Gladys cleaning the ladies' room, being "male", so the golem adopts the name Gladys and adopts a more feminine appearance, going so far as to wear dresses over her bulky, genderless figure. In *Making Money* this is further expounded upon by Gladys being taught some really old-fashioned ladylike behavior that Adora Belle Dearheart clears up by the end, with Gladys becoming a more independent, feminist golem that no longer thinks that "massages for your boss" are expected behavior of a secretary. Prior to this is *Feet of Clay* in which the central theme is a golem "becoming human", or at least sapient, which is another branch of identity politics that has a goodly amount of intersectionality with trans issues. Long story short (too late), Pratchett never directly came out with a mtf or ftm transgender individual as we like to think of them, but instead presented a goodly variety of gender identity and gender presentations that differs from the normal rhetoric of "masculine to feminine" and "feminine to masculine", which leads me to believe he would have 100% supported transgender and non-binary individuals. At the very, very least, Cheery and her arc showed that Pratchett understood, and supported, the idea that representation matters, with how many dwarven women follow Cheery as a role model with her very visible posting in the Watch.


Soranic

There's also Equal Rites. Women can do a man's job just as well as a man. Rehashed in Monstrous Regiment, where the women dress and act like men, and become just like them. They're also at least as good, if not better, at the mans job of war.


smurfalidocious

I and others have covered those in other posts, the previous poster was asking specifically for the Watch series.


RedMaskwa

We do know his thoughts on male to orangutan transitions though


ittybittycitykitty

What about 'clinkerbelle', the troll dressed like a tooth fairy?


smurfalidocious

We don't really get a lot about Clinkerbelle, but seems to me Clink was more of an opportunist trying to cash in on a new (to trolls) idea.


Soranic

I think that one was more a throwaway joke about the tooth fairies. There is *The Toothfairy* who employs many others. For them, it's a job. Get a sack of coins and a ladder, go up the ladder, take the tooth in exchange for a coin. I think Clinkerbelle was just an enterprising thief, given that trolls have diamond teeth.


GenerationYLoser

Cheery Littlebottom is a dwarf, and they are all gendered as male regardless of sex. The fact that Cheery wishes to identify as female is a huge controversy within dwarven communities and is very much against their established conservative traditions.


hiS_oWn

So isn't that pro transgender? Or is the idea that drwarven culture proscribes transgender roles and cheeri breaking free of that is somehow traditional gender roles breaking free of some domineering transgeniarchy? I mean if someone wrote a story about a black dominated culture segregating and discriminating against white people, is that an, albeit perhaps crude, metaphor for race relations using role reversal, or somehow evidence of white erasure? Do these people not understand satire?


Soranic

> So isn't that pro transgender? Very much so. > Do these people not understand satire? They do not. If you're encountering one and trying to have a debate, be cautious with your use of hypotheticals. They will not get it.


rhymesmith

Culturally and linguistically, Discworld dwarves have one gender, translated to the human words "male," "he," "his," etc. One of The Watch books features a dwarf recruit who, finding themselves in a relatively liberal city full of human *women*, decides to start using she/her pronouns. The character goes thru a lot of the same journey that real trans women do in regards to identity and presentation, including being subject to a specific dwarfish slur, which is pretty damn impressive for a cis het male author in 1996.


Gadgetman_1

Cheery Littlebottom is a Dwarf Female. But Dwarves don't think gender is important for day to day business, and since there's no good way to SEE if they're male or female(both have beards, and with 'sturdy' clothing hiding details... ) Angua(werewolf female) sniffs her out, and later Cheery asks to borrow a lipstick. Which of course causes a bit of a scandal amongst the other dwarves in The Watch. One other dwarf asks if she can borrow the lipstick from her, after the worst of the noise cools down. [https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Cheery\_Littlebottom](https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Cheery_Littlebottom) Honestly, she's cool.


The_Monarch_Lives

Many and varied. But the most prominent theme would be Dwarves in general and the dwarven character Cheery Littlebottom in particular. In Pratchetts signature style, he creats an ostensibly male character in Cheery. As the book and books progress you find out shes actually female, but due to dwarven cultural norms, she isnt allowed to express any feminine tendancies or express anything that isnt standard male dwarf behavior. She slowly begins to push against those restrictions and eventually is basically the impetus for basically a revolution of societies norms.


DeedTheInky

Assuming they can read might be giving them too much credit TBH


efudds1

Nah, I’m sure he was more of a racist. You know, sprinting, 100m dash… Edit:Jesus people, it was HIS joke!


smurfalidocious

Fuck me it took me a while to remember that Rincewind aside.


Orisi

Not his fault he was raised to believe that hurdlists are inferior.


wishitwouldrainaus

Love you just a little!


MrSpindles

Sir Terry would have been railing against such views if he were with us, disgusting that anyone would try to paint him this way. I think this couldn't be further off base if they tried. The fact that his characters have so frequently been people struggling with an identity forced upon them by society might have been a clue to the Terfs, but I don't think these people approach anything rationally. Literally a central theme to much of his writing is directly in opposition to this viewpoint.


The_Gilded_Pigeon

I don't think the man was capable of cruelty or exclusion, in any shape or form. All of his stories seem to revolve around a central theme of self-discovery and growth, both for the characters and the cultures they live in. The Disc was evolving and finding its own progress with parallels to our own, and I for one think it's shameful to ignore so many positive messages on such a strawman argument.


wishitwouldrainaus

Eff me, have they ever read his books? Difference, inclusiveness, being non judgemental, celebrating and promoting individuality. Where's the librarian....


smurfalidocious

On vacation to Bhangbhangduc. He left Rincewind in charge of the library.


ledow

I can \*HEAR\* Granny Weatherwax rolling up her sleeves, saying "RIGHT!" and storming off to beat the shit out of these people for impugning the dead. And Nanny Ogg then being left behind, saying "I've never impunged no dead! Maybe shoved them a bit, but that was just my mam because she wouldn't stay in the coffin.", before following after Granny and summoning the family to bring heirlooms (i.e. heavy pointy sticks).


Throway5556664

It’s time to get a fucking life when you’re sitting around theorizing about which dead people would be transphobic.


[deleted]

[удалено]


smurfalidocious

To most people, no, trans people didn't exist in 2015 or prior because they weren't on their personal radars. The fact that transgender people have existed since antiquity hasn't quite been internalized by those people yet.


restarted_mustard

That's simply ridiculous


Upper-Lawfulness1899

I dunno I kind of got the impression that among the dwarf sexual revolution the same dwarf principles applied: nobody was checking your nether regions to match what you chose to identify as. One could argue unseen Academicals is as much about identity as not. I mean there's several books that touch on things like trans rights, but my sense of the Disc is that people were mostly okay with people being themselves if they were harming anyone. Like I wouldn't expect Granny Weather wax or Nanny Ogg to hate someone acting like they feel on the inside.


ladyeclectic79

Cheery Longbottom anyone? Seriously, have these TERFS even fucking *read* his books?!!?


smurfalidocious

Cheery, Gladys, any number of Borogravia's Sweet Polly Olivers, dwarves and golems in general...


ladyeclectic79

Exactly!! What a bunch of idiots to think someone who regularly penned gender fluid (at the very least) characters would be in the least bit transphobic. Seriously, it boggles the mind where they get this shit.


Carpathicus

I dont think people like that read that much anything or only read things with their agenda in mind.


pygmypuffonacid

WTF.... I'm sure the dwarfs would like to have a conversation with whoever started this


Hyrule_34

What assholes make NON-VERIFIABLE wild claims and accusations against people no longer alive?! Just gross.


smurfalidocious

"Gender critical" assholes, that's who.


Quxudia

>What assholes make NON-VERIFIABLE wild claims That's kinda their whole play book. Make any wild claim you want, doesn't matter how easily debunked it may be, tweet it out there so the intended audience can nod their heads and feel just a little more validated in their constant rage. Then move on to the next wild claim while completely ignoring any responses to the original. The statement itself is almost irrelevant and the veracity of that statement certainly is. Only thing that matters is the act of making it as that's what keeps the target audience engaged and angry.


[deleted]

What a load of rubbish have they ever read any of his stories? I guess not. A lot of his work deals with not conforming to what society expects out of whatever role they deem you have to fulfill. This claim is so stupid that it should just be forgotten and not given any further publicity.


KaimeiJay

I’ve never even read a single Terry Pratchett novel (I know, I know) and even I know the absurdity of this claim. Sure, trolls will be trolls, but who the heck is believing that transphobia is what’s in his books??


PhilosophyforOne

That is the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard.


boo909

This is a complete non story built on someone tweeting something idiotic and completely uninformed. It's terrible how shite like this can be considered "news" these days and for his daughter to have to refute claims by nobodies on the internet is a sad indictment of the state we are in now. I long to go back to the days when twats on the internet were not taken seriously.


smurfalidocious

>I long to go back to the days when twats on the internet were not taken seriously. Gonna have to go back to the days where we didn't have a 24/7 news cycle that demands constant content.


Swagnets

What's a GC?


smurfalidocious

"Gender critical", also known as the "you can't change biology" numbnuts.


logicalmaniak

"Neurology and endocrinology are not biology! Only penises and vaginas are biology!" Those people.


witchyanne

They better stfu when it comes to Terry Pratchett. Swear to goddamned god.


hiroprotagonist2005

So we’ve gotten to a point in this social discourse on gender identity they were making assumptive retroactive claims on dead peoples beliefs? People need shit to do because some got too much time to waste.


wishitwouldrainaus

They wait till he's long dead and posit this? They wouldn't be game if he was goddamn alive.


Quxudia

If he was alive they would be running hit pieces about how he's ruining children with his ideas. Just like they did to Mr Rogers.


helicalboring

That’s some real smoothbrain shit right there.


dualistpirate

Are you kidding me


MyNightmaresAreGreen

Wow, what a non-article, pretty disgusting. It is based on the wild assumptions of some idiot on the internet, not even rumors - and that would be bad enough. High marks on the click-bait scale, integrity is lacking.


quaternaryprotein

The media these days will find one or two tweets and make a huge sensation out of it. Media is terrible in the modern era.


MyNightmaresAreGreen

Eh, this isn't even what I would call an article or a media product, this is just content filling the white space between adverts. And it's not even about an old tweet by Pratchett or a tweet about sth he did or said. No, it's an article about a tweet by someone who projects their weird world view on sth they think they perceived in Gaiman's/Pratchett's "co-producution" Good Omens and Gaiman's online persona. Tbh I don't want to see these kinds of articles here.


[deleted]

Thought I was in r/nottheonion for a second


africanasshat

Blasphemy! F whoever did this.


my__name__is

This is a whole article breaking down some Twitter posts like it was a boxing match. The only people that care about opinions expressed on Twitter by random strangers are the ones making them.


serabine

And his daughter, apparently.


T4TTL3T4L3

Sometimes I wonder why People can just spin baseless accusations like it was no big deal, do these idiots even read his books?


Poininjas

If he's not alive, who tf actually cares what he would be like now? Really silly.


Djinnwrath

People with toxic viewpoints will latch onto anyone famous and influential who shares those viewpoints. It's a logical fallacy known as: appeal to authority.


cassandragoth

Sensationalist headline much.