In short, it was an article which used the term "people who menstruate" (given that trans men or nonbinary people may still have their periods).
This article gives a full dive into the controversy, but we're going to go through it step-by-step here. Kindly go shove a knarl up your ass.Īlright, now that that's out of the way, we can move on to the DRAMA, and boy howdy is there a lot of it. It doesn't change the fact that Rowling is a transphobe. You can post a five paragraph essay in the comments about how "trans women are coming to steal my vagina", or "it's not transphobic to do XYZ transphobic thing". Rowling couldn't be a transphobe, right?īefore I get started, I want to make something clear: JK Rowling is a transphobe. Again, super obvious in retrospect, but at the time, the general response to any concern was "Just because she wrote it doesn't mean she supports it." Nobody really took it that seriously.
Her novels included some extremely transphobic elements, such as a serial killer who targeted women by dressing as a woman and going into bathrooms, and the hero of the books telling a trans woman that she'd be raped. Rowling also wrote some detective novels under a man's name (the irony is palpable). Some people did speak out criticizing her at the time, but it was mostly chalked up to Twitter drama.
Again, pretty obvious what her intention was now, but at the time, the response was mostly some variation of "she has free speech" or "she's just anti-cancel culture". For those who don't know, Maya was fired for being openly transphobic, she then sued the company and lost. Rowling's first really worrying tweet came when she tweeted in support of Maya Forrester. Generally, the response fell under the umbrella of "we can't judge her based off this" or "Twitter is getting upset over nothing again". Rowling had a history of dancing close to the edge of transphobia, without making any clear statement. However, the prelude to this specific drama occurred mainly through her Twitter (although in retrospect, the books have some weird shit going on with gender, especially women). She was writing these in the 90s and early 2000s, people can change. However a lot of that could be brushed off as mistakes, or just the time period. Her books have a lot of issues in retrospect (Jewish caricatures run the bank, Harry is canonically a slave owner, her werewolves are the single worst metaphor for gay people ever). yeah, actually I probably should have seen that one coming". Rowling is a bit of a textbook case of "I can't believe. details to the books (like how wizards would shit themselves), but it was regarded as more of a meme than anything else.Īnd, if there's one thing the Harry Potter books taught us, it's that a charismatic leader who has some vaguely dark and ominous ideas beneath the surface should always be trusted. She had been an impoverished single mother when writing the first book, so she was celebrated as a feminist icon, as well as a "rags to riches" type story. In doing so, she became fabulously wealthy and successful, and amassed a rabid fandom. I probably don't need to explain who Jowling Kowling Rowling is, but for those who have been living under a rock, she wrote the Harry Potter books. However, this post more than just a personal vendetta, as I've done my best to provide actual evidence and minimally biased analysis. Buckle up, it's gonna be a bumpy ride (insert Whomping Willow joke here).ĭisclaimer: At some points in this write up, it may seem like I hate JK Rowling. And also, how Vladimir Putin is apparently the same as her. This is a cautionary tale, of fear and lust and pride. I was looking through this sub, and was shocked to find out that no one had done a post explaining JK Rowling's descent into Terfdom, and the insanity it caused.