Author J.K. Rowling has fallen silent on her usually busy X (formerly Twitter) feed, after Olympic gold medalist boxer Imane Khelif filed a legal complaint in France for alleged cyber harassment over statements regarding her gender.
On August 9, lawyers for Khelif filed a lawsuit with a special unit of the public prosecutor’s office in Paris, stemming from false statements that spread online about her gender after the Algerian boxer defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in her first fight of the 2024 Olympic Games. Carini pulled out 46 seconds into the bout and told reporters afterwards that she had “never felt a punch like this.”
I think of JK Rowling the same way as Orson Scott Card. They have opinions that differ from mine, but I still like their work. Am I missing something? I get that Rowling’s opinions suck, but I don’t really understand the extent people go in the disdain for her. She’s allowed to have opinions on things we don’t agree with. She’s not out there stabbing babies.
She’s gone hard into terf land and is spreading hate and disinfo about trans people
Is that the bar for you? Anything less evil than directly and personally stabbing a baby is ok?
The bigotry is on the same level, but I think JK Rowling is actively militant on a far different level compared to Orson Scott Card. Just looking at their twitter for example, OSC tweets maybe once a month and 9/10 times it’s about a book signing or other such promotion. JK Rowling’s feed is a constant flow of hatred on trans people. She tries very hard to make sure you are reminded of her bigotry every single time you hear anything about her.
The reach is different too. OSC has some 16k followers. Rowling has 15 million. It’s natural for her to attract a much higher degree of disdain.
This is it right here. I am a trans person and I actually like both the enderverse and harry potter and I’m not a fan of either author. But I can say I like the enderverse without any shame or self loathing because Card doesn’t appear to speak about his shitty views unless directly asked.
Now with Joanne on the other hand… Well, fuck her and her IP and everything else she might ever do. She is a billionaire and like Musk just can’t be happy with that and shut the fuck up. I get it you foul bitch, you hate me and that I exist, now go buy a fucking yacht and let me struggle to pay rent, buy food, and simply live in peace. All I have ever done to that self righteous cunt is buy her books and yet she feels the need to denigrate me and my existence and espouse hate directed toward me every chance she gets. Just stfu Joanne, you’ve won the game you never have to worry about having your basic needs met ever again. You’ve won. Now go the fuck away.
Basically I can put blinders on and still enjoy the enderverse and shadows, but I can’t do that with Joanne. Harry Potter will never hold the same place in my heart as it once did. I cannot read it anymore without feeling gross and disgusted with myself for enjoying anything this foul human has produced.
To be fair, Ender Wiggin calls his black friend the N word and jokes about owning him as a slave one time. Ender’s Game still somehow manages to be less racist than Harry Potter, but it’s a close race.
Totally agree with you that I’m less ashamed to like the Ender books tho. Every time I try to understand Leibniz I just remember reading the Ender sequels.
“I don’t agree with the nazis, but they are allowed to have opinions that we don’t agree with, I don’t understand the hate”
Yeah, no problem with that logic. Wanting a minority to die/not exist is just an opinion not worth disdain, that’s all, right?
Rowling is using her considerable clout to drum up hatred of trans people. She might not be wielding the bat, but she helps embolden those who do. It’s essentially stochastic terrorism. To my knowledge, Card has not gone nearly as far off the deep end in this respect.