Novelist Ian McEwan has been criticised for comments that seem to question the right of trans people to identify with a particular gender.
The popular author of numerous works of fiction - notably the best-selling novel Atonement and Amsterdam for which he received the Booker Prize - asked whether factors such as biology and social norms limited our ability to adopt a different gender during a speech at at England's Royal Institution
“The self, like a consumer desirable, may be plucked from the shelves of a personal identity supermarket, a ready-to-wear little black number,” McEwan said.
“For example, some men in full possession of a penis are now identifying as women and demanding entry to women-only colleges, and the right to change in women’s dressing rooms.”
Many people in the audience branded his comments as offensive and asked him to clarify what he meant - however he remained unrepentant.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I tend to think of people with penises as men,” the 67-year-old novelist said. “But I know they enter a difficult world when they become transsexuals and they tell us they are women, they become women, but it’s interesting when you hear the conflict between feminists now and people in this group.
Comedian Eddie Izzard hit out at McEwan for his remarks claiming that his statements were "a bit weird".
However McEwan isn't the first celebrity to find themselves in hot water over anti-transgender comments. In October, the 77-year old feminist and academic Germaine Greer drew fire from campaigners after remarks she made on the BBC's Newsnight programme.
Germaine Greer claimed a trans woman "can't be a woman"
She was unrepentant about her belief that a post-operative transgender woman "can’t be a woman" adding, "I’m not saying that people should not be allowed to go through that procedure, all I’m saying is that it doesn’t make them a woman,” along with some more colourful expressions of complaint.
Transgender comedian and actor Rebecca Root later hit out at her comments, which she said were grossly offensive.
“On the one hand it’s tempting to ignore her, and not to give her a greater platform, but at the same time if we didn’t stand up to bullies then they would just continue bullying. . . her comments are grossly offensive, quite ludicrous and very very out of date.”
Barry Humphries aka Dane Edna criticised Caitlyn Jenner
In January of this year, drag artist Barry Humphries aka Dame Edna Everage also drew the ire of campaigners after he excoriated Caitlyn Jenner in a newspaper interview. "You're a mutilated man, that's all, " he said.
"Self-mutilation, what's all this carry on? Caitlyn Jenner – what a publicity-seeking ratbag. It's all given the stamp – not of respectability, but authenticity or something. If you criticise anything you're racist or sexist or homophobic.'
Caitlyn Jenner
Despite calls for him to be sacked, the BBC said that it would continue to let him continue on-air saying “Barry Humphries is a freelance presenter for BBC Radio 2 and these are his personal views, which are not reflected in his radio programme."
