Rose McGowan has been incredibly outspoken in recent months as one of the first women to come out and accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, as well as .
Currently, McGowan is on tour promoting her memoir Brave which not only features details about the alleged rape by Weinstein (who she refers to as "the Monster") but also misogyny in the industry as well as fighting against "the machine, the manufacturers of myth, the gaslighters themselves, the sacred men of Hollywood".
During a Q&A for the book at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, McGowan was answering pre-submitted questions when a transwoman confronted her about comments she had made on RuPaul's podcast What's the Tee? in July last year.
On the podcast, McGowan said, "[Trans women] assume because they felt like a woman on the inside. That’s not developing as a woman. That’s not growing as a woman, that’s not living in this world as a woman, and a lot of the stuff I hear trans complaining about, yeah, welcome to the world.”
After her comments, many labelled McGowan a "TERF" or "Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist".
The woman who confronted McGowan at Barnes & Noble stood up and said, "I have a suggestion. Talk about what you said on RuPaul".
She continued: "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."
McGowan fired back "So have I. We are the same. My point was we are the same."
The encounter soon became a shouting match with one audience member filming it and putting it on Instagram. The woman was escorted out by the store's security as she shouted "white cis feminism" at McGowan which, according to , sent her into a tirade.
“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," McGowan continued adding, "I’m mad that you put s*** on me because I have a f***ing vagina and I’m white or I’m black or I’m yellow or I’m purple. F*** off. All of us want to say it. I just do."
This isn't the first time McGowan has clashed with the transgender community, in 2015 she posted a similarly incensed rant after Glamour magazine awarded Caitlyn Jenner their "Woman of the Year".
In her acceptance speech, Jenner said that the "hardest part about being a woman is figuring out what to wear". McGowan wrote on Facebook, "We are more than deciding what to wear. We are more than the stereotypes foisted upon us by people like you".
"You're a woman now? Well f***ing learn that we have had a VERY different experience than your life of male privilege."
After she faced criticism for her early remark McGowan walked back the intensity of her critique adding, "Let me amend this by saying I'm happy for what she's doing visibility wise for the trans community, and I'm happy she's living her truth, but comments like hers have consequences for other women".
"How we are perceived, what our values are, and leads to more stereotyping. If you know you are going to be speaking to media about being a woman, maybe come to understand our struggles."
