The Harry Potter author, JK Rowling, recently was criticized for her ‘transphobic’ tweet on Twitter. Rowling on Wednesday, in a 3,600-word statement that she published on her website, revealed that she was “a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor”.
In the statement, she wrote, “I’m mentioning these things now not in an attempt to garner sympathy, but out of solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces”.
“If you could come inside my head and understand what I feel when I read about a trans woman dying at the hands of a violent man, you’d find solidarity and kinship,” she further wrote.
Talking about misogyny and sexism, she wrote, “I’ve read all the arguments about femaleness not residing in the sexed body, and the assertions that biological women don’t have common experiences, and I find them, too, deeply misogynistic and regressive. It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or – just as threatening – unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class … It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves”.
Ending the statement the Harry Potter author wrote, “I haven’t written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one. I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions.”
The statement by Rowling prompted a heated debate on Twitter. On Wednesday evening Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter films, tweeted: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.”
In a second tweet, she wrote: “I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are.”
This came after she received a severe backlash on Twitter for her anti-trans tweets. Rowling shared her reaction to an article on Twitter titled “Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate”, and wrote, “People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”.
‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?
Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate https://t.co/cVpZxG7gaA
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020
Netizens immediately called Rowling’s comments “anti-trans” and “transphobic”. Rowling followed that tweet up by criticizing the idea that someone’s biological sense isn’t real.
She further wrote, “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”
