John Byrne is a Transphobic Asshat

[RedRajah]

TW: Transphobia

[h=2]Comics Pro John Byrne Compares Transgender People to Pedophiles In Conversation With Fans On His Online Forum[/h]

 

[Diana Hignutt]

Okay, John Byrne seems like he's a bit of an asshat. An ignorant, transphobic asshat. Sadly, there are a lot of those.

 

[Emermouse]

Sad part is that the rewrite he did of Superman in the eighties, is actually pretty decent. Toned down the amount of powers Superman had and broke with tradition, by playing up the Clark Kent side of his personality more.

But that's probably a problem people have been dealing with since the invention of the printing press made books more within the reach of your average Joe Blow: what to do when you discover a writer you like is a total asshole.

 

[Raventongue]

I never discover a writer I like is a bigot. I sometimes discover that a writer I THOUGHT I liked is a bigot.

The moment I find out I chuck any of their books I own, never read, buy or even look at reviews of another one again, cease passing their name on to people I'd otherwise recommend them to and burn every bridge. It's probably not what everyone does nor the right solution for everyone, but it's right for me because when my head slams down to the pillow at night I can peer into the darkness and honestly say I've not tolerated a single iota of that person's bigotry.

The first time this happened to me I think was with Elizabeth Bear who turned out to be a total racist, and I still regret a post I made on AW almost two years ago recommending her to someone before I knew.

 

[Emermouse]

I understand that impulse, Raventongue, but the truth is that, well, a lot of writers in the literary canon probably didn't have very enlightened views on other races and women. They may have been revolutionary and world-changing, but at the same time, they were limited. I cite as example, Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, guy who wrote the Declaration of Independence, which preached "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," while at the same time, Jefferson denied it to the slaves he owned. You hold onto the good and throw out the bad when it comes to historical figures and I suspect sometimes you do the same, when it comes to writers. Acknowledge all they've done, good and bad.

 

[Amadan]

Huh - from the title, I was expecting to find that John Byrne said something like "Transgender people are pedophiles."

What he said was not particularly enlightened, but it betrays, at worst, a lack of understanding about how transgenderism works, not the fear and hate that that Mary Sue article so bombastically went on and on ascribing to him.

 

[Tally]

Oh wow. GROSS. That is about as vile and disgusting as it gets short of calling for violence. Bleh.