JK Rowling feels ‘deeply misunderstood’ by her comments about the trans community

‘JK Rowling’s Salem Trials’, something like that would translate the title of the new podcast in which the author of ‘Harry Potter’ He will talk about all the controversies that his messages on social media have aroused years ago and this has led her former fans to also cancel products in which she is not involved, but based on her universe. It’s been more than two years since Rowling posted the first messages that began to be perceived as transphobic and trans-denigrating, and while she’s never hidden or changed her views, it’s about time she spoke out for the first time. of how he suffers criticism and even the hate he receives.

It started in June 2020, when he wrote against using expressions like “people who menstruate” instead of saying women and kept asking myself: “If the sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If the sex isn’t real, the reality experienced by women everywhere is erased. I know and love trans people, but eradicating the concept of sex eliminates the ability for many to speak meaningfully about their lives. It’s not hate to tell the truth. The idea that women like me, who have been empathetic towards trans people for decades, who feel allies because they are vulnerable in the same way women are (e.g., in the face of male violence) only hate trans people because they think sex is real and has its consequences, it makes no sense. I respect the right of all trans people to live the way they feel authentic. I will march with you if you are discriminated against. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being a woman. And I don’t think saying it spreads hate.”

In a preview of the podcast, Rowling says she finds it curious that her fans on social media are telling her that she has ruined her legacy as she thinks: “You couldn’t have misunderstood me more.” In another cut, the author assures that it was never her intention to annoy anyone, but that neither is she annoyed “to have come down from his pedestal”. We recall that Rowling’s story, that of an abused single mother who wrote the greatest saga of youth literature on napkins in an Edinburgh cafe, has become almost a legend and a source of inspiration, an example to follow and one of the very few real examples. of meritocracy. Her stories have brought magic and hope to several generations and now she is something of a Death Eater, the villain of his own making.

Shortly after posting those Tweets, Rowling wrote a lengthy essay on the subject and later published the novel ‘Troubled Blood’ (penned by her alter ego Robert Galbraith). where the bad guy is “a serial killer in disguise” and was again accused of transphobia. His answer seems to have come with the next chapter in the Cormoran Strike saga, “The Ink Black Heart”, in which a character named Edie Ledwell is the victim of a “masterfully planned and politically fueled hate campaign” Of “Social Justice Warriors” after being accused “racist and clever, as well as transphobic for a joke about a hermaphroditic worm”.

personal and profound

‘The Witch Trials of JK Rowling’ is a podcast produced by The Free Press, an independent company founded by former New York Times reporter Bari Weiss. According to its official synopsis, the podcast is a “Audio documentary examining some of the most controversial conflicts of our time through the life and career of the world’s most successful author.” Journalist Megan Phelps-Roper is in charge of interviewing Rowling, who was with her at her home in Edinburgh, and had the aim of getting the author to speak “with unprecedented candor and depth on the controversies surrounding her, from book bans to gender and sex debates”. The series, consisting of seven episodes, opens February 21st and it will also include statements from people who are both for and against Rowling. You can listen to it weekly on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other audio platforms.

“I do not pretend to have answers to the deepest questions of the heart in this series”says Phelps-Roper, “but I’m more convinced than ever that talking and listening will help us find the way forward.”