An open letter to Róisín Murphy

I see the witch hunters ride again

Dear Róisín,

I interrupt my regularly scheduled Substack to write this open letter to you, because I was so horrified at what I read yesterday about your new album. Due to comments you made, on your private Facebook page, about giving puberty blockers to kids, your record company, Ninja Tune would not only be halting all marketing and promotion of your new album — they also would be donating “all proceeds from the album to organisations dedicated to combating transphobia.” This according to an unnamed source, and reported in the Toronto Star.

Hopefully this person is just some pissy intern and not a grown up record company executive. But things are so crazy that I ask myself: could this really be true? Surely, they can’t do that? If it is, and they do, what a cruel, psychopathic retaliation. Not only to deprive you of the fruits of your labour and talent, but to give those proceeds to support the very act — transing kids — that you find so upsetting. It’s like the contemporary cultural version of something a sadistic camp guard would do — a hideous power play designed to torment the mind instead of the body. I should no longer be shocked, after watching the terrible things the people who push this ideology do, but that one did shock me. I see the witch hunters ride again.

[For anyone who hasn’t come across this story, this was the offending comment Róisín made, shared on Twitter by an inaccurately named fellow called Joanna Cuddle:]

I didn’t come across your music until three years ago, but when I did come across it, it transported me back in time to my early 20’s when I was living between Dublin and New York. At that time, I was nursing a broken heart from a torturous relationship, but I was full of the fizz and beauty of youth, and I knew it. Your music reminded me of younger me. I feel in love with it. This song in particular brought back that painful push-pull, can’t- let-go dynamic that so many of us experience in young love:

I remember the first time I heard you sing, on BBC Radio 6. I loved the deep disco groove and the sultry vocals. When the radio DJ announced at the end it was by a person called Róisín Murphy I was stopped in my tracks and I immediately looked you up. I had just assumed it was being sung by a black disco queen, not a middle-aged woman from County Wicklow. It was such a blast of fresh air to hear a beautiful Irish voice that was not engaged in some lament. I love it when my assumptions are upended.

You are at a crossroads right now. Your statement saying “I’m sorry my comments have been directly harmful to many of you..I will now completely bow out of this conversation in the public domain,” is a pretty strong indication that you have made your mind up about your direction of travel.

But before you take your next step, I hope you pause to take a look at those people who are supporting you. I hope you have people telling you what’s up. That TERFS are not a bunch of Bible-bashing, mouth-breathing, homophobes. We are just people — gay and straight — who understand the basics of life, and are sick of seeing harms done to children and young people by a very powerful movement that benefits, as you correctly pointed out, ultra-rich pharmaceutical companies. 

Judging from the private Facebook comment you wrote that set off this atom bomb in your life, you already know what’s up. It sounds to me like you have been paying attention. I hope the Judas who took the screenshot of your (perfectly reasonable) comment and shared it publicly gets his or her comeuppance some day. Isn’t it crazy how many snakes surround us?

All you said —and you said it privately — was that children should be allowed to grow up with their bodies intact. The vicious reaction to that completely sane comment should be proof enough that we are dealing with malevolence on a level that has not been seen before in our lifetime.

It’s quite ironic, isn’t it, that your new album features a great song called You Knew, which contains the lyrics: “What’d you expect me to tow the line for? Extra! Read all about it! When you were given fair warning…you knew exactly what you’re buying.”

Yet your apology came swiftly — no surprise there. You might feel the need to repudiate our side even further — and if you do, I will try not to judge. But know that even if you do repudiate those of us in the reality-based community, even if the haters make you release further hostage statements, and you comply in a bid to save what’s left of your shattered career, even if you never again stick your head above the parapet, know that what you said in that private conversation was 100 percent correct. The uniquely vicious public flogging meted out to you has but hardened our conviction that this ideology must be stopped. Be heartened that #IStandWithRoisinMurphy was trending on Twitter.

Nothing drives me round the bend like seeing an innocent person get bullied. Ever since I was a really little kid, it provoked in me a red fury like nothing else. The trans lobby are world-class bullies, posing as defenders of children and young people and gays when they are the exact opposite. Their reign of terror needs to come to an end. Whether you stick with us or not, you will have played a part in bringing about that long overdue justice.

And finally a word, if I may, directly those people agitating publicly and privately for the destruction of a beautiful creative voice: due to your smug derangement, you guys are not aware of how wrong you are, because you are all trapped in a noxious bubble of propaganda that poisons mind and soul. But that will not be a sufficient excuse when it’s time for you to pay for your actions. And to everyone joining in on social media to tar and feather this talented woman: you will not be judged kindly in the end. More and more people see this for what it is, and you are very much on the wrong side of it. Start thinking now about how you will defend your disgraceful behaviour when the tide turns against you. As it inevitably will. In the meantime, go fuck yourselves.

I realise that some might not approve of outright curse words being lobbed about. I, however, think that obscene, aggressive language has a time and place, and this is it. I say it not to be crude, but to accurately convey the strength of my contempt for the people coming for you.

You were right on the money when you sang: You can’t hide from the truth, because the truth is all there is.

Good luck to you, Róisín.

Sincerely,

Jenny

P.S. In the likely event that the people reading this are my subscribers and not, in fact, Róisín Murphy, can I ask you all a favour? Can you play some of her music today? I know it’s not exactly a hunger strike, but it’s all I can think of to do. Even if dance music and disco is not your jam, just play it — put it on mute if you have to. These are my favourites of her catalogue: