Arts & Entertainment
Rose McGowan cancels tour after public verbal altercation with trans woman
the actress had been promoting her memoir ‘Brave’

(Screenshot via YouTube.)
Actress Rose McGowan has canceled upcoming dates for her book tour following a verbal altercation with a transgender woman during one of her appearances.
On Wednesday, McGowan, 44, was at the Barnes & Noble in Union Square in New York City to promote her new book “Brave,” a memoir about her experience with sexual assault in Hollywood.
While McGowan read passages from the book and answered audience questions, transgender activist Andi Dier stood up and asked her to address comments she made on RuPaul’s podcast “What’s the Tee?”
“I have a suggestion. Talk about what you said on RuPaul. Trans women are dying and you said that we, as trans women, are not like regular women. We get raped more often. We go through domestic violence more often. There was a trans woman killed here a few blocks [away]. I have been followed home,” Dier says.
McGowan interrupts saying, “Hold on. So am I. We are the same. My point was, we are the same. There’s an entire show called ID channel, a network, dedicated to women getting abused, murdered, sexualized, violated, and you’re a part of that, too, sister. It’s the same.”
“You do nothing for them. Trans women are in men’s prisons. And what have you done for them?” Dier asks.
“What have you done for women?” McGowan responds.
As Dier is being escorted out of the room by security she yells “white cis feminism” causing McGowan to launch into a rant.
“Don’t label me, sister. Don’t put your labels on me. Don’t you f—ing do that. Do not put your labels on me. I don’t come from your planet. Leave me alone. I do not subscribe to your rules. I do not subscribe to your language. You will not put labels on me or anybody. Step the f— back. What I do for the f—ing world and you should be f—ing grateful. Shut the f— up. Get off my back. What have you done? I know what I’ve done, God dammit,” McGowan says.
Later, she compares the mistreatment of transgender woman and cis-gender women.
“Trans women are women and what I’ve been trying to say is that it’s the same. The stats are not that dissimilar. When you break it down, it is a much smaller population. There’s not a network here devoted to your f—ing death. There’s not advertisers advertising tampons with a camera lovingly going up a girl’s body as she’s being lovingly raped and strangled. Piss off. And until you can collect that f—ing check, back up. My name is Rose McGowan and I am obviously f—ing brave,” McGowan says.
In an interview with publication them, Dier explained why McGowan’s comments on the podcast bothered her.
“The fact that not only did she suggest that we don’t live life as a woman, experiencing what women go through. But there was hint that we deal with less shit. The only difference between Rose and I getting harassed on the street is that where her experience can end in sexual assault, mine has a likely chance to end in sexual assault followed by murder. This is especially true for trans women of color. I mean — fuck, I was almost shot in the Bronx for what started as a catcall,” Dier says. “She doesn’t have to worry about getting followed home [any]more with her security detail and privilege, while my trip to Barnes & Noble could have been my last one.”
Some people agreed with Dier that McGowan’s behavior was textbook white cis feminism.
Rose McGowan literally told a transwoman to shut up, had her removed, said she was from another planet, started talking vaginas, and cried, when confronted about past transphobic comments. Did her fans call her out? No, they consoled her. #Whitefeminism in a nutshell. https://t.co/QN6qeGkYEZ
— freedlist (@freedlist) February 2, 2018
Rose McGowan is an absolute disgrace. It’s not feminism if it’s only for one kind of woman.
— Stef Sanjati ? (@stefsanjati) February 2, 2018
Real quick, being a sexual assault survivor does not give you the right to be say problematic things. I’m seeing a lot of folks on here – specifically cis White women – struggle with this. Do better.
— ReBecca Theodore-Vachon (@FilmFatale_NYC) February 2, 2018
Being able to invalidate the struggle of transwomen by telling them “shut up” – “I don’t come from your planet” – “you should be grateful” while getting applauded/validated for it by an audience is the pinnacle of ciswhite feminism. pic.twitter.com/Gtz6o2x2BG
— ???? ?????????? (@NickNBeauty) February 2, 2018
McGowan tweeted to announce she is canceling the remainder of her tour and accused Dier of being a paid actor hired to call her out. She also blames everyone from the audience to assistants and managers for their “complicity” during the altercation.
And everyone from my publicists, t 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.
— rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) February 2, 2018
Watch below.
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