I read JK Rowling’s first (only?) essay on why she feels the way she does regarding transgender issues. It’s thoughtful, and partially based on personal trauma. While I still didn’t agree with her, I respected the fact that she actually researched and considered the issue, instead of just blindly lashing out at something that made her feel uncomfortable.
I don’t feel that way anymore. It was fine when she was simply explaining her feelings, but now she’s actively spewing hatred and cheering when people have their rights taken away. I lost any kind of respect or empathy for her years ago.
The original was still wildly transphobic. Even if it seemed she had researched, she hadn’t. The ‘research’ she was doing was following a literally insane bigoted woman with a brain tumor who called for genocide of trans women, and a handful of TERFs tweeting all day about how much they hate trans women.
In that very first essay, she stated that trans women are a danger to cis women. She started from a position of hatred. All she has done is become more vulgar and less subtle. She is a threat to the existence of transgender people, and she has been since the very first day. The transgender community was pointing out how far gone she was on day one.
Her hatred for queer people is not limited to trans people. She’s also said some anti-sex workers’ rights and anti-abortion adjacent stuff lately. Her platform is Twitter. Her fanbase is growing increasingly to comprise white nationalists.
Thank you for pointing out what I didn’t pick up on. I was just beginning to educate myself on transgender issues at the time, so there are probably a lot of problems with the essay that I simply missed. I haven’t reread it since that first time, and I don’t want to.
It may have taken me a bit longer, but at least we’ve come to the same conclusion: Rowling is full of shit.
Yeah I just skimmed the essay, and it’s pretty bad. There’s a lot of false claims, a lot of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, and a lot of thinly veiled transphobic phrases and remarks.
It just comes across as very dishonest to me. Although maybe she actually thinks she is being fair, thoughtful and caring, who knows.
Yeah, I suspected that, due to her pigheadedness. Doubling down is a trauma response. And it makes me angry, because it’s continuing the cycle of abuse. Turning on an entire group of people because you have never adequately addressed your trauma is wrong.
Like, my earliest introduction to a male guardian included him emotionally, financially, and then physically abusing me. I wasn’t even an adult, I was a minor. But I understand it’s not okay to demonize all men because of that. You take people on a case by case basis.
I also understand quite clearly that men don’t NEED to put on a skirt to gain access to women to abuse. In fact, being trans punts you right to the bottom of the social pole, and puts you in danger. Identifying as trans to gain access to women is socially stupid and NOT NEEDED to gain access to victims. It’s already very easy for an abuser to abuse without taking the social hit of being trans. How do we know this? ::gestures at 100s of years of history where abusers abused without changing social status to do it::
Also, on the JKR front…the fact that I can get over my trauma–which honestly is much worse than hers and started younger if we’re playing Oppression Olympics–while living in poverty while she rolls in money is like…what the fuck. WHY. Why is she rolling in the mud and the mold and the hate and spite? WHY?
I could do SO MUCH to improve myself and my health if I had her resources…and she just takes what she has and rolls in mud and hurts others…I mean, why don’t more people act like Dolly Parton when they get rich? We need more Dolly Partons and less J. K. Rowlings.
I mean, why don’t more people act like Dolly Parton when they get rich?
I often wonder this same thing. I wouldn’t want nineteen cars and a ginormous house. I know that nothing I could buy would be as emotionally fulfilling as helping others.
I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime would think of Nazi Germany. … I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the Wizarding world. So you have to the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is a great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves on nothing else, they can pride themselves on perceived purity. … The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it’s one of the reasons that some people don’t like the books
JK Rowling, 2009
Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?
#IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill
I read JK Rowling’s first (only?) essay on why she feels the way she does regarding transgender issues. It’s thoughtful, and partially based on personal trauma. While I still didn’t agree with her, I respected the fact that she actually researched and considered the issue, instead of just blindly lashing out at something that made her feel uncomfortable.
I don’t feel that way anymore. It was fine when she was simply explaining her feelings, but now she’s actively spewing hatred and cheering when people have their rights taken away. I lost any kind of respect or empathy for her years ago.
The original was still wildly transphobic. Even if it seemed she had researched, she hadn’t. The ‘research’ she was doing was following a literally insane bigoted woman with a brain tumor who called for genocide of trans women, and a handful of TERFs tweeting all day about how much they hate trans women.
In that very first essay, she stated that trans women are a danger to cis women. She started from a position of hatred. All she has done is become more vulgar and less subtle. She is a threat to the existence of transgender people, and she has been since the very first day. The transgender community was pointing out how far gone she was on day one.
Why is she against asexual people, though? I don’t think she makes sense and that trying to make sense of her is a mistake.
Her hatred for queer people is not limited to trans people. She’s also said some anti-sex workers’ rights and anti-abortion adjacent stuff lately. Her platform is Twitter. Her fanbase is growing increasingly to comprise white nationalists.
Thank you for pointing out what I didn’t pick up on. I was just beginning to educate myself on transgender issues at the time, so there are probably a lot of problems with the essay that I simply missed. I haven’t reread it since that first time, and I don’t want to.
It may have taken me a bit longer, but at least we’ve come to the same conclusion: Rowling is full of shit.
Yeah I just skimmed the essay, and it’s pretty bad. There’s a lot of false claims, a lot of misunderstandings and misrepresentations, and a lot of thinly veiled transphobic phrases and remarks.
It just comes across as very dishonest to me. Although maybe she actually thinks she is being fair, thoughtful and caring, who knows.
Yeah, I suspected that, due to her pigheadedness. Doubling down is a trauma response. And it makes me angry, because it’s continuing the cycle of abuse. Turning on an entire group of people because you have never adequately addressed your trauma is wrong.
Like, my earliest introduction to a male guardian included him emotionally, financially, and then physically abusing me. I wasn’t even an adult, I was a minor. But I understand it’s not okay to demonize all men because of that. You take people on a case by case basis.
I also understand quite clearly that men don’t NEED to put on a skirt to gain access to women to abuse. In fact, being trans punts you right to the bottom of the social pole, and puts you in danger. Identifying as trans to gain access to women is socially stupid and NOT NEEDED to gain access to victims. It’s already very easy for an abuser to abuse without taking the social hit of being trans. How do we know this? ::gestures at 100s of years of history where abusers abused without changing social status to do it::
Also, on the JKR front…the fact that I can get over my trauma–which honestly is much worse than hers and started younger if we’re playing Oppression Olympics–while living in poverty while she rolls in money is like…what the fuck. WHY. Why is she rolling in the mud and the mold and the hate and spite? WHY?
I could do SO MUCH to improve myself and my health if I had her resources…and she just takes what she has and rolls in mud and hurts others…I mean, why don’t more people act like Dolly Parton when they get rich? We need more Dolly Partons and less J. K. Rowlings.
Yeah, I guess I’m grumpy on the internet again.
I often wonder this same thing. I wouldn’t want nineteen cars and a ginormous house. I know that nothing I could buy would be as emotionally fulfilling as helping others.
People who feel like this rarely end up super rich
JK Rowling, 2009
JK Rowling 2019
It took 10 years to turn her.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling