Sophia Sakellis

Professional Greek-English Translator, Scholar, Vegetarian & Humanist

[Jacinta Nampijinpa @JNampijinpa]

My thoughts in the wake of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.

I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.

Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.

However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.

When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.

The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.

Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?

I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.

The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.

Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.

[Celine against The Machine @celinevmachine_]

I don't want to raise my daughter in a country with a Ministry of Truth. I don't want to raise my daughter in a country that’s divided into “us and them.”

Thank you to everyone who came along to today's event to take a stand against the mis/dis Bill.
It was an amazing day and I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people!

Thank you to everyone who spoke and shared their stories, and thank you for giving this future Mum so much hope in our future.

I love this country so very much.

🇦🇺♥️

(Thank you to whoever filmed this as well. If someone could let me know who it was, that'd be great!)

[Daniel @VoteLewko]

They knew. A healthcare worker tried to warn about antisemitism in Sydney hospitals shortly after October 7 over a year ago. You won't believe what happened to her.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

@GailAlfarATX I predict that the Sydney Morning Herald will continue to lose readership in 2025 for relentlessly lying to their audience and boring them to death

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video's for you. An undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bullshit to support something he wants to be true, but isn't.

According to the UN, female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to trans-identified men competing against them in women’s sporting categories. Girls have been ousted from teams to make way for boys. Women have suffered serious injury playing against trans-identified men (see Payton McNabb, mentioned below).

Again and again I've come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points. With a straight face, the 'believe the science' guys will say 'actually, we don't yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls'. The 'be kind' crew can't see what the issue is. 'Why are you bothered, it only affects a tiny minority of females?'

To prove to their progressive credentials - and (coincidentally, I'm sure) indemnify themselves against repercussions from cultural elites in the media, academia and publishing who've showed themselves more than ready to kick people to the kerb for failing to mouth the approved mantras - people with a lot to lose are currently prepared to make idiots of themselves. They'll stare unabashedly into a camera and insist that their audiences' eyeballs are incapable of seeing what's plain as day, and that there's something wrong with the great unwashed for believing that girls are being robbed of opportunities and put at physical risk.

If you want to tell the world you're happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist post-modern ideology embraced by a minute fraction of the world's population, fair enough; you're allowed your opinion. But if you've just told girls they don't deserve fair sport, maybe rethink using all too real and common sexual predation against young women as a punchline for your 'edgy' closing joke.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

'A trustee of Britain’s oldest breastfeeding charity has resigned after it introduced an inclusivity policy that allowed men to attend support groups.'
Can we talk about the fetishists yet? Or must we turn a blind eye, lest we seem prudish, or unkind?
https://t.co/Uulae6dE9j

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

It’s crazy

[Helen Joyce @HJoyceGender]

I'm very comfortable indeed saying that the Taliban are running an extremely inferior culture in Afghanistan. To think otherwise is to think that total oppression of women is as valid as any other way of organising a society

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

If the “five trans players” were five women who think they’re men, there wouldn’t be an issue.

Because the issue isn’t “trans”. Trans isn’t real. The issue is men. It’s 5 men on the women’s team.

Men who claim to be women have completely destroyed women’s rights.

[Ricky Gervais @rickygervais]

How do you rate my chances at breakdancing in the next Olympics?

[Henry Ergas @HenryErgas]

📷Olympics a showcase of values the West is deserting

https://t.co/lF8QooleGx

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

If men punching women for entertainment & glory at the Olympics doesn’t make you realize gender ideology is bad, nothing will.

[J.K. Rowling @jk_rowling]

High court rules the UK ban on puberty blockers is lawful. We seem, at last, to be moving back to treatment for vulnerable youth based on evidence-based medicine, as opposed to the unevidenced claims of ideological lobby groups. https://t.co/fHqaZvv5Oq

[James Dreyfus @DreyfusJames]

Beautiful.

[Martina Navratilova @Martina]

And the only selfie I took while there:)
⁦@ChrissieEvert⁩ - looking fine:)

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

A man (who claims to be a woman) has been nominated for a “best supporting actress” Emmy Award.

*ahem*

When a man takes a woman’s place in the name of “inclusion”, a woman misses out. She doesn’t have other options like he does, like he could/should be on the men’s shortlist.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Thank you for your excellent analysis of just how dangerous this is for children