Does JK Rowling truly not realise the impact it can have when she tweets these deeply insulting and cruel things about trans people?
If there’s one thing you can say about JK Rowling, it’s that she certainly is a committed tweeter.
This week, the Harry Potter author once again decided to share her thoughts on trans people to her 14.2million followers on X, formerly Twitter.
This time the target was a specific trans person – a football referee called Lucy Clark – who was appointed as the new manager of Sutton United’s women’s team in January.
In her original tweet Rowling quoted a post from an LGBT+ charity praising Lucy’s achievements and compared the trailblazing coach to a ‘middle aged bloke’.
In several follow-up tweets where she repeatedly misgendered Lucy, she said it was ‘not bullying to call a man a man’, and that ‘crossdressing straight men’ were one of the most ‘pandered-to demographic[s] in existence’, and followed by implying trans women were simply ‘caricaturing’ women.
My immediate thoughts were ‘here we go again,’ followed by concern for Lucy and how it would impact her and her family. A tweet like that from someone so influential was only ever going to unleash a torrent of abuse.
It was only a few years ago that JK Rowling claimed she’d march with trans people if they were discriminated against and only last year she told a podcast she would use the pronouns of a trans woman if they had gone through full sex reassignment surgery.
As she has spoken more and more, myself and others have doubted her sincerity in claiming to ‘respect’ people, and believe that a lot of what she has written is coated in insidious and veiled transphobia.
It appears we were right.
It almost goes without saying that Rowling’s latest comments are deeply offensive, and it goes to show not only how deeply delusional JK Rowling is about trans people, but the venom with which she targets those of us who are simply living our lives in peace.
To say that people like me are simply ‘caricaturing women’ ignores the fact that I can’t simply ‘put on’ or ‘take off’ who I am – just like Lucy Clark, I am myself all the time, everywhere.
Calling trans women ‘crossdressing straight men’ is also ignoring the fact trans people can have any sexual orientation, and, ironically, reduces the concept of womanhood to clothing and outdated stereotypes, something feminists have railed against for decades.
It is worth mentioning that Lucy Clark has done nothing wrong, or anything to warrant this attention, and there have been no issues with her being appointed into her position.
In fact, she has the support from her family and team, who she helped avoid relegation this season, so all she appears to have done to offend anti-trans voices is have a good life.
So what is JK Rowling’s purpose here? Does she truly not realise the impact it can have when she tweets these deeply insulting and cruel things about trans people? I find it especially upsetting when she targets private individuals and shares photos of them. She must know full well that they will be torn apart and humiliated by her followers.
This has had a very real, very human impact on Clark, as her and her family have experienced a considerable amount of harassment and stress following Rowling’s tweets.
Either the Harry Potter author doesn’t understand the power of her X account or simply doesn’t care about the impact it can have when she targets someone in this way.
Frankly, she seems like a lost cause, and her tweets have only gotten more vitriolic and cruel.
In the replies to her original post, Rowling even asked, ‘Do I get to be black if I like Motown and fancy myself in cornrows? What if I claim the authentic me has always been black and that you’re being racist to me?’
The obvious answer to this inflammatory – and in my view racially insensitive – comparison is that skin colour is inherited, while gender identity is not. Those cheap jabs therefore do her no favours, and only show how radicalised she truly has become.
This isn’t the first time – and undoubtedly isn’t the last time – that JK Rowling has targeted individuals in a malicious manner. In April, just after Scotland’s new Hate Crime Act came posting a series of tweets where she taunted the police to arrest her for misgendering a number of prominent trans women.
The intent here was obvious, but what was Rowling’s purpose? Because nothing was gained by it, and it only caused harm and upset.
This particular incident has made her look like a cruel schoolground bully. The only difference is that her words carry considerably more weight, being one of the richest and most influential writers in the world.
And it’s innocent trans people like Lucy Clark who are suffering because of it.
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