John Cleese wants to be a ‘Cambodian police woman’ as he voices support for JK Rowling
"Is that allowed, or am I being unrealistic?"
John Cleese has made fun of trans issues by saying he wants to be a ‘Cambodian police woman’ after voicing support for JK Rowling.
The Fawlty Towers icon took to Twitter to make the comments yesterday, in response to a critic asking him “Why the fuck can’t you just let people be who they want to be?”
Responding to an old tweet of Cleese’s about him co-signing a letter of support with JK Rowling, the Twitter user continued: “Do you actually think there is some deep conspiracy to turn people “against their genders”?
“Or do you like her as a person and therefore there isn’t anything she can do wrong? Latter probably…”
“Am I being unrealistic?”
To this, the actor replied: “Deep down, I want to be a Cambodian police woman.
“Is that allowed, or am I being unrealistic?”
Deep down, I want to be a Cambodian police woman
Is that allowed, or am I being unrealistic ? https://t.co/oGPwEWJM9a
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) November 22, 2020
In 2018, Cleese was slammed for using a homophobic slur to describe his late Monty Python colleague Graham Chapman.
Cleese’s comments follow feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recently calling JK Rowling’s gender-critical essay from earlier this year a “perfectly reasonable piece.”
“Steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably“
In her 4,000-word essay, Rowling said she has “deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement” and cited a controversial 2018 descriptive study which argued that “social contagion and peer influences” had an effect on gender dysphoria.
Rowling also propagated myths about people who ‘detransition’ or express regret at their gender transition.
“I’m concerned about the huge explosion in young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning (returning to their original sex), because they regret taking steps that have, in some cases, altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility”, she wrote.
Stonewall research has shown that of the 3,398 trans patients who had appointments at an NHS Gender Identity Service the UK between 2016 and 2017, less than one per cent said in those appointments that they had experienced transitioned-related regret, or had detransitioned.
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