J.K. Rowling and the trans community: an author with the ‘emotional range of a teaspoon’?
J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans comments are a colossal disappointment for a generation that grew up on Harry Potter preaching acceptance and love, and an even graver threat to a community that needs more allies than ever.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Coming out of the closet in a rainbow of anti-trans sentiment; J.K. Rowling appears to have positioned herself as a direct antagonist of the trans community. The author of the much-adored Harry Potter series has taken to Twitter several times to express her controversial opinions. However, in the context of what appears to be a global theme of backslides in the protection of trans rights, her outspoken opposition to this community is particularly poignant, considering the current political climate. As a writer with a young, and, by nature, impressionable audience, her attitudes have the potential to cause a lot of harm. With children and teens going through their own qualms about growing up, discovering their own identities and their place in the world, Rowling’s public intolerance could be especially destructive to her main demographic.
In June this year, notably during Pride Month, Rowling tweeted; “people who menstruate. I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”. Her comment had the potential to be very damaging to any one of her 14.2 million followers who saw it. Not only did it serve to further goad intolerance of the trans community in the Twittersphere, it also confirmed her prejudiced views, previously blamed on “a clumsy and middle-aged moment”. And with this, the weird and wonderful world of Harry Potter has been tainted for many, by the disappointing revelation that its author seems to have, in her own words, “the emotional range of a teaspoon”.
This is not the first time Rowling has vocalised her anti-trans views. Last year the writer came forward in support of Maya Forstater, a former think tank expert turned “feminist” blogger. Forstater came under fire for a number of tweets she posted in 2018, condemning the British government’s plans to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), arguing that it would “undermine the rights of women”. When these tweets were discovered by her employers, Forstater lost her job, and proceeded to take her case to the London Employment Tribunal. While presenting her side to the court, she argued that allowing men into women’s spaces would be “like forcing Jewish people to eat pork”. Judge James Taylor deemed her views “absolutist” and “incompatible with human dignity”, yet she is still working to appeal the ruling.
These comments could have otherwise been cast aside as rogue opinions, held by a handful of people, but then Rowling pitched in. The author offered her support to Forstater in a sympathetic tweet, followed by the hashtag; IStandWithMaya.
Since then, Rowling has become increasingly vocal about her views, particularly over recent months. On July 8 this year, she signed the Cancel Culture Letter, which condemns “the steadily narrow[ing] boundaries of what can be said without the threat of reprisal”. The letter has been signed by 150 public figures including famed political scientists and thinkers Francis Fukuyama, Noam Chomsky, as well as J.K. Rowling. It criticises what it views as “the intolerance of opposing views”, and “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism.”
However, Rowling appears to have hijacked this movement, driving it in a direction that other signatories had not consented to when they first signed, and leading them to distance themselves from the movement altogether. For example, Jennifer Boylan, herself a trans-activist, was among those who had signed the letter in its initial stages, unaware that Rowling would also participate. On the day it was reported that Rowling had signed, her reasons for signing clearly linked to the criticism she received for publicly expressing anti-trans views, Boylan tweeted “I did not know who else had signed the letter...I am so sorry”. Intentional or not, due to Rowling’s clout, the Cancel Culture Letter has become somewhat synonymous with anti-trans sentiment. Having effectively hijacked this letter, which originally had nothing to say about trans rights, with the motive of pushing her own agenda against the trans community, Rowling has added fuel to the fire surrounding the freedom of speech versus hate speech debate.
In addition to her participation in the cancel culture movement, the author released a 3,700-word essay in June, writing on the subjects of trans-exclusionary radical feminism, domestic abuse, and single-sex spaces. On the topic of single-sex spaces, she writes that allowing “any man who believes or feels that he’s a woman…into bathrooms and changing rooms [allows] any and all men who wish to come inside”. This article paints a perverse picture of the trans community, and helps to instil fear in its readers. A fear that is misplaced, ill-informed, and damaging.
In spite of heavy criticism from colleagues and long-term friends, including Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, Rowling shows no signs of relenting in her views, much less keeping them out of the public eye. In her latest stunt, she published a photo of herself wearing merchandise from Wild Womyn Workshop. The brand promotes a gender critical category, where you can buy badges adorned with slogans such as “f*ck your pronouns” and “repeal the gender recognition act”. Boris Johnson’s recent decision to scrap reforms to the GRA, that would have enabled trans people to self-identify without obtaining a medical diagnosis, gives license to the views of organisations like Womyn, and to the opinions of individuals such as Rowling and Forstater.
Across the pond, the Trump administration announced earlier this year that it would reverse the legislation currently in place to protect trans patients from medical discrimination. In a global context in which the protection of trans rights appears to be in retreat, high-profile figures such as J.K. Rowling inciting opposition to this community could be detrimental.
With the accumulation of her huge Twitter following and fame, Rowling should acknowledge her responsibility to assess the consequences of her words, before they are made public. With 14.2 million followers she has a vast platform, and with it, the influence to affect public opinion. Her bigoted tweets encourage other antagonists of the trans community to feel justified in their views - if someone with millions of followers thinks it – surely there’s some truth in it, right? Trans rights are undergoing increasing scrutiny in the political sphere, and the community is suffering the consequences of being made the centre of attention of inimical reform. The trans community needs more allies, not vocal opposition from people with influence. For a generation that grew up with Harry Potter; novels preaching tolerance, kindness, and compassion, Rowling’s affiliation with trans-exclusionary radical feminism, is a colossal disappointment.
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