Police Scotland continue to tie themselves in knots in relation to the Hate Crime Act, but seem to be hoping no-one will notice. However, a new clanger relates to an FOI request submitted by Wings Over Scotland, who asked about the Hate Monster’s pronouns and whether the Hate Monster ‘has a sex and/or gender’.
(Obviously I’ve been careful to avoid any pronouns there, because as well as my knowledge of the subject being a bit, er, sketchy, in addition to the obvious he/her/they there are apparently myriad others, thus a potential misgendering minefield and best avoided. And Wings’ question seems to presuppose that the Hater Monster’s gender is unknown, so maybe best not to use pronouns at all.)
Police Scotland responded thus:
In terms of Section 17 of the Act, I can confirm that the information you have requested is not held by Police Scotland.
By way of explanation, the gender of the Hate Monster was not produced. The hate monster is an animation, as such no pronouns are required.
Eh? That ‘hing’ called the Hate Monster has a distinctly male voice – see YouTube video at bottom of this post. Of course, that wouldn’t preclude him identifying as a her. Presumably. However, the narrative refers to the Hate Monster using the terms ‘he’ ‘he’s’ and ‘he’ll’ about half a dozen times, as do the accompanying subtitles:
The description below the video reads (emphasis added):
He loves it when you get angry. He’ll make you want to have a go at somebody to show you’re better than them. It could be a neighbour, somebody on the street or in the chippy, your taxi driver even. Before you know it, you’ve committed a hate crime.
Moreover, Police Scotland hate crime materials have explicit linked the Hate Monster and hate crime to ‘young men’, also linking this to ‘white-male entitlement’:
The Hate Monster represents that feeling some people get when they are frustrated and angry and take it out on others, because they feel like they need to show they are better than them. In other words, they commit a hate crime.
We know that young men aged 18-30 are most likely to commit hate crime, particularly those from socially excluded communities who are heavily influenced by their peers.
They may have deep-rooted feelings of being socially and economically disadvantaged, combined with ideas about white-male entitlement.
It’s thus surely reasonable to assume the Hate Monster’s sex and/or gender is male, and that his pronouns are he/him? Or that, to put it slightly indelicately, the Hate Monster is a bloke?
On the other hand, I’m so totally confused by all of this at times that perhaps I’m spectacularly missing something. Or maybe it’s Police Scotland and Establishment Scotland more generally who are tying themselves in knots.
But if the Hate Monster is now gender-fluid or non-binary, then Police Scotland must have initially misgendered them. Alternatively, they’re maybe now simply ignoring the Hate Monter’s preferred pronouns. Either way, a potential hate crime, surely?
But since JK Rowling’s high-profile ‘misgendering’ was found not to have reached the criminal threshold, maybe it’s not worth filing a complaint.