![]() Rowling’s essay is paralysing and confusing With the publication of her blog, there can no longer be any doubt: according to JKR, the fight for legal, statutory and social recognition of transgender people has dire consequences for On her website, in which she not only addresses the hate her Twitter feed has sparked over the past few years, but also expresses her deep concerns about what she calls "the new trans activism". Read: ‘JK Rowling writes about her reasons for speaking out on sex and gender issues’ But this year, Rowling finally put an end to all the speculation. To refer to, well, people who menstruate.įor many people, Rowling’s own tweets already confirmed their suspicions about her alleged transphobic views. – a British tax advisor whose contract wasn’t renewed because of her transphobic posts on social media – and later, she criticised an NGO for using the term A representative released a statement blaming the "like" on what she called a "middle-aged moment" on JKR’s part – she’d held her phone incorrectly and had pressed "like" by mistake.Īccording to the ‘feminism’ JK professes in her essay, the activism that fights for my identity is a danger to hersīut in 2019, Rowling started tweeting about the subject herself. ![]() Again, she was bombarded with hate messages and death threats from angry Twitter users. That is until 2018, when Rowling "liked" a tweet that called trans women "men in dresses". But on Rowling’s end, there was only radio silence. "YOU ARE VOLDEMORT," a fan snarled at her on Twitter. I previously wrote about gender-critical feminism. "trans-exclusionary radical feminism (Terf)". Until then, had aligned herself with a movement known for its open hostility towards the transgender community – a movement which calls itself "gender-critical feminism", but is also known as Many feared this simple "like" signalled that the children’s book author, who had been almost irritatingly The immediate result: confusion, disbelief and an avalanche of criticism and negativity. Like so often these days, it all began on Twitter.īack in 2017, JK Rowling "liked" a tweet that linked to an article sharply criticising the transgender rights movement, which had been gathering steam for some years by then. Rowling’s criticism of transgender activism For a moment, I felt seen by an author who had no idea who I was but whose books had meant so much to me and millions of others. Admittedly, it was a tad dramatic, but Rowling’s dedication felt like the ultimate recognition. That last part was enough to make me blubber so loudly that several other passengers threw me sympathetic glances. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was dedicated to seven people, I read: to Rowling’s daughter, her husband, her mother, other family members or friends, and finally, to the reader, who’d stuck with Harry until the very end. Out of curiosity, I had already flipped open the book in my lap. It wasn’t until I was on the tram that this realisation fully sunk in. ![]() And now, at age 17, that journey was about to come to an end. Six times before, I had taken my seat alongside Harry on the Hogwarts Express, departing from platform 9 ¾ towards a world filled with adventure, magic and Quidditch. Like so many others, I had been enchanted by Rowling’s tale of the young wizard who takes on Voldemort, the dark sorcerer who killed his parents when he was barely a year old. Obviously, this was going to end in tears. After that, I took the tram towards the centre of The Hague by myself, intending to sit down at the first suitable outdoor café, finish the book in one sitting and leave my childhood behind me for good. I had gone to buy it with my father at a bookshop in Scheveningen, where I was on holiday with my family. The last book in JK Rowling’s seven-part Harry Potter series had come out the day before. I was on a tram in The Hague, and I was sobbing. ![]() Do you remember where you were on 22 July 2007?
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