Rose McGowan has cancelled her upcoming public appearances for the launch of her memoir, Brave.
The author and actress was involved in a heated exchange with a transgender woman during a book reading at a Barnes and Noble store in New York this week.
McGowan later tweeted, “I was VERBALLY ASSAULTED for two full minutes @BNBuzz by an actor paid to verbally assault a woman who has been terrorised by your system.
“And no ONE in that room did anything. And everyone from my publicists, assistants, managers and every person sitting in their chairs frozen by their weakness, a weakness called COMPLICITY. The truth is you all failed me. Again. And again. And again.”
It was later revealed the heckler was Andi Dier, a transgender woman who allegedly has several sexual assault claims against her.
The Cult of Complicity- those I call out are after me. This is the monster who was paid to violate me publicly. An aggressive two minutes long assault on a long abused woman who is simply trying to change the world and make it better #RoseArmy pic.twitter.com/eAK8hZVdvz
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) February 3, 2018
Top Comments
McGowan is getting absolutely SLAMMED by people for this exchange, but lashing out at someone who is here specifically to heckle you is not a crime. Also, in one breath it's "trans women are WOMEN" and in the next breath it's "yeah but what have you done for TRANS women". My thoughts are trans women are women. So if there are women working to improve the lives of women, it includes trans women - becasue trans women are women!? Am I wrong?
Rose McGowan is a total narcissist. Her experiences with sexual assault and harassment sadden me, but her particular brand of feminism is toxic. She has manipulated the #metoo movement to exclude trans women and blocked the progression of a more nuanced discussion.
There's no doubt that all women suffer at the hands of misogyny and gendered violence, but transgender women are statistically more vulnerable and susceptible. It's so dismissive and ignorant to lump the experiences of trans women in with the experiences of cisgender women. We need to have a much more nuanced conversation about how we can help our trans sisters. When people like Rose McGowan make reductive statements like these, then play victim when called out, we are ignoring trans women and dismissing their, very real, problems.