The children's author continues to sully her legacy as she blocks legendary horror novelist, Stephen King, for simply standing up for trans women
JK Rowling made a name for herself by selling one of the most popular series of children's book in history but, year after year, the woman who left such an impression of so many young kids continues to undermine that through standing by her attitudes and opinions surrounding sex and gender.
In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, horror genre Hall of Famer,
Stephen King, revealed that she had blocked him on Twitter, following a tweet where he stood up for the rights and recognition of transgender women.
The tweet in question was in regards to apparent
TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminists) content in connection to the Republican party back in June 2020. As you can see below, all King does is what any well-meaning human being does: recognise a community that has just as much right to identify themselves however they like as anybody else does. Harmless, right?
https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1277351371784818692?s=20
Well, apparently, not to everyone. Somehow, it was after this tweet that the
Harry Potter creator decided she'd had enough of King, as he stated that "Jo cancelled me. She sorta blocked me and all that".
King went on to say: "Here’s the thing: She is welcome to her opinion. That’s the way that the world works". He even caveated that he found the 55-year-old to be on the side of right in many other respects -
Brexit and
Trump being his two main examples - but accepted that this issue is something "she’s very vehement about. No doubt".
https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1269389298664701952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1269389298664701952%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk-53002557
Rowling has taken flak on numerous occasions, though she still maintains that he has stood by and been "empathetic to trans people for decades". However, the tone of her rhetoric continues to upset people both within and outside the community, with many suggesting that she
layered "transphobic bigotry under the guise of feminism".
King went on to say, "If she thinks that trans women are dangerous, or that trans women are somehow not women, or whatever problem she has with it—the idea that someone “masquerading” as a woman is going to assault a “real” woman in the toilet—if she believes all those things, she has a right to her opinion", before adding, finally:
"And that’s what she got angry about—my opinion. It’s like the old saying, 'I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'. So, nobody has “cancelled” J.K. Rowling. She’s doing fine. I just felt that her belief was, in my opinion, wrong. We have differing opinions, but that’s life".
If you can take one thing away from Rowling's continued miscalculations, it's this: sex and gender are not the same thing - your biology can be one thing and how you feel in your mind another. Not only is that completely fine but it's no skin off anyone else's nose and the onus is on them to accept that, not for those within the community to feel like have to justify themselves.
