The Harry Potter author described several transgender women as men in a series of social media posts.
JK Rowling has challenged Scotland's new hate crime law in a series of social media posts - inviting police to arrest her if they believe she has committed an offence.
The Harry Potter author, who lives in Edinburgh, described several transgender women as men, including convicted prisoners, trans activists and other public figures.
She said "freedom of speech and belief" was at an end if accurate description of biological sex was outlawed.
Earlier, Scotland's first minister Humza Yousaf said the new law would deal with a "rising tide of hatred".
The Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 creates a new crime of "stirring up hatred" relating to age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or being intersex.
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Ms Rowling, who has long been a critic of some trans activism, posted on X on the day the new legislation came into force.
I am so fucking sick of these bigots pretending the science of "biological sex" is on their side.
In recent years, multiple studies of the brains of trans people have revealed areas of differentiation from those of cisgender people. And unless these bigots are prepared to argue that brains are not part of biology, they only have two choices: Deny the science somehow or accept that they're just bigots who want to hate, regardless of the science.
And because unlike bigots, I like to back my shit up:
On top of that, there's some indications of oligogenic causes resulting in various allele differences that wouldn't necessarily show up on a brain scan.
In conclusion: Fuck bigots and their attempts to co-opt science in order to support their bigotry.
I'm glad you're backing it up, but honestly, the answer to this whole "biological science" bullshit is simper- it's none of their fucking business how someone else identifies. I don't care what "science" says is a man or a woman. If someone says they're a woman, it's not my fucking business to tell them they aren't.
Absolutely agreed. I only bring it up because the bigots like to claim science is on their side (while usually rejecting science to back up some kind of religious nonsense). So it's nice to be able to throw actual science in their faces.
The issue at stake is people's own fragile identities
Let me clarify: JK Rowling's childhood learning of "boys have penises and girls have vaginas" runs so deep into her understanding of how she understands being a human that giving it up is scary and threatening.
Exactly, none of this has any bearing on their lives and odds are enormously in favor of the likelihood that these people will never even meet a trans person—and if they did it would make zero difference to them—so the real solution is to let it the fuck go.
All this talk about living rent-free in people’s minds and all that, yet here we are, you know?
Except it is important in competition where lines must be drawn if we are to enact protected classes. If we don't need to then that is a different discussion, but for now there are many segregated competitions of all types that exist, which means you're wrong.
Sure thing Bob, let me just stack that in-between "Evolution" and "climate change" on my shelf of "Things that don't fit my bigoted, hateful, and selfish worldview, so I just conveniently ignore them."
Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but why would you link to an article that mentions "biological sex" in the first sentence when trying to prove that there is no such thing as "biological sex"? I'm almost certainly missing something, so please excuse my ignorance.
You are misunderstanding. They are saying that biological sex is not the same as gender and it's clear that a trans woman's brain is much closer to their identified gender than the one assigned to them at birth.
Biological sex exists, it's just not binary, and the mental part of this has a massive psycho-social component to it that few take into consideration. Brain research on this is still in the chicken vs egg stage it seems based on those papers.
OR, and hear me out, you could just not be a total asshole? Maybe have a baseline of tolerance and respect for the people who made you a billionaire? No? Then fuck right off and accept the consequences of your hatred.
It seems billionaires have really wacked out midlife crises. Instead of buying expensive cars and cheating on their partners, they come out as terfy nazis, build hate platforms, and crash companies. I mean to be fair, at this point the sample size is only two, JKKK Rowling and Musk, but it's still surprising that it'd happen twice.
I think a factor with some of them, probably both the ones you mentioned, is that they can't handle criticism. So when they get any push back they double down. Then they get drawn into conservative nonsense that reinforces their beliefs. Then it's a downward spiral as they get radicalized far beyond their original positions.
No, not even a little bit. There is a difference between being an asshole and committing a hate crime. Hate crime laws, when properly crafted and enforced, are an important component of a functional society. They can act as a deterrent, but they are also a way for those materially harmed by a hate crime to get justice. Free speech is never a universal right, anywhere in the world. There are always legitimate restrictions to ensure the public's overall health and safety.
Part of it is that having a large captive audience hanging on to your every word really starts to amplify toxic characteristics in those with the predisposition for shittiness. Like Musk or Trump, their descend only came when they became active on social media.
I really dont think Rowling started off this shitty. From what I've heard it sounds like she has baggage regarding men she hasnt dealt with and its led her down this incredibly shitty path
If I remember correctly, it all started when she retweeted something that was a bit ignorant and was called out for it on Twitter, but then she kept doubling down until it got to this point, when she could have just stopped talking about it.
It's not that Twitter suddenly turned her into a bad person, but it definitely brought out the worst in her.
I see your point but there are about a hundred or so thoughts I have a day that I am way way cowardly to record. The position she is in with a large fanbase, lots of money, and interacting with pixels probably contributed to her lack of filter.
So right she might have been intrinsically not a very good person prior but all this stuff hasn't helped her keep a lid on it.
I think the mistake we make is thinking that people are better than they are. I probably have some hidden bigotry that I am unaware of right now but given a space to be exposed to it someone would notice and point it out. If you only know of someone from one thing they did you can form an opinion of them based on very limited information. Get to know them better and you find that hidden awful. Twitter is a tool of constant broad interaction and it preserves bad takes long enough to see them. Add a culture of never admiting to being wrong and filtering by who you agree with and you have a cycle of awful that turns perfectly boringly not great but OK people into monsters defending genocide. Maybe we shouldn't know anything about the author, replace their name with a serial number or pseudonym and let the art stand on it's own. Though the racist jewish, wait no goblin, bankers was fairly intense tbh.
I mean tbf, the books were written for children. If you don't like them, then maybe it's because they're not for you anymore. Or are you referring to something else?
My first time reading them, at the age of like, 10? 11? I was so excited for Order of the Phoenix because it was coming out soon and I'd loved the first one that I got as a birthday gift. I slammed through 2 and 3, then 4 just kept going and felt so bad that by the end I wasn't excited for Order anymore and didn't finish the series until Order was releasing as a film. They weren't even that good as a kid if you read anything else
While I am not defending Twitter by any means. I feel like what actually breaks people's brains is becoming a billionaire. You lose all empathy for other humans.
I don't like Harry Potter to begin with, but I don't really have a huge problem separating the artist from the art if the only thing they did was be hateful.
Roald Dahl was a major antisemite, but I still think he wrote great children's books and suspense/horror stories. H. P. Lovecraft was bigoted about pretty much anyone who wasn't a white man. Again, a really good writer.
Where is becomes hard to separate them is when they actually do something about their disgusting ideas. Roman Polanski and Woody Allen are pedophiles. I will never watch either of their movies. And I think both have made very good movies. I feel that I was wrong to watch the ones I did.
So yeah, Rowling is an utterly contemptible piece of shit, but if you like Harry Potter, it's okay.
There were always questionable elements from the books, like the depictions of goblins and elves. But knowing what we know now, these elements cannot be brushed off any more.
I’m very torn on this issue, like I 100% agree on Polanski and Allen(especially Woody not that Polanski isn’t incredibly shitty too but most of his work isn’t about sexualizing minors, whereas the primary and ultimate love interest for Woodys stand in character in Manhattan is a child). I might, and big emphasis on might watch Chinatown or the Ninth Gate again after he’s dead and in the cold cold ground, but I damn sure won’t pay for any of them if I decide to make that call.
And I only say this because there have been so many shitty people in Hollywood and the movie making business in general I think it’s impossible to watch most without supporting someone awful. Weinstein produced a ton of great films, Brando anally raped Maria Schneider in Last Tango and the scene we see is the one and only take if memory serves(I don’t watch that film anymore but I still watch the Godfather every few years), Kevin Spacey and Brian Singer are predators but I’m sure I’ll watch the Usual Suspects again at some point in my life.
I obviously don’t besmirch anyone that simply can’t bring themselves to engage in art by people we know to be bastards. But I kinda look at it the same way as buying a pair of Nikes, there is certainly a lot of profit from suffering that produced those shoes but I don’t necessarily think anyone is a bad person for wanting some new Jordans
Yeah honestly if history remembering who Edison and Dahl were didn't sink GE and Wonka, Harry Potter will be fine... but fuck, she did suicide her own legacy
I don't think you can ethically separate art from artist when the artist is still alive, profiting from their work, and using those profits to further causes that you abhor. JKR doesn't limit herself to expressing her views on social media.
I possess the books and movies, and never interact with the fandom or the author. There is zero need to. Let the art exist in isolation.
NEXT POINT: the stories have their own issues regarding certain portrayals but that is aside from the context of "new developments" a la the author's modern opinions on things outside the plot of the books.
Yeah, like, I don't know what Frank Herbert or J.R.R.Tolkein's stances on trans rights would have been either, and it doesn't impact me reading their work at all.
On the other hand, I do not want to give this person any money, so there's that. I won't be spending money on her stuff.
I miss when my biggest problem with JK Rowling was her desire to keep writing new material for Harry Potter, but instead of ya know... making spinoff books, maybe do a TV Show, maybe get in touch with Archie at some point for an expanded universe comic: I mean God knows they need the money after Sonic went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back... oh right Warner Bros. owns the franchise... so I guess DC could have done the Expanded Universe comic?
No instead of doing any of that she just randomly dripped out plotpoints from the internet, and always stuff that made no fucking sense... like
"Dumbledore was gay the whole time, despite the fact that I NEVER HINTED AT THIS! Also Wizards don't have toilets! They shit themselves and magic away the poop! By the way, Hermonie was always black despite the fact I always described her as being pale skinned!"
The "Dumbledore was gay" was especially infuriating because she wrote the "Fantastic Breasts" movies, and instead of expanding upon the Dumbledore's gay thing at all, they just use the "They're just really good friends!" cover, ya know, the one that's an amazing progressive way to imply that without running afoul of the "Moral Majority".... in 1992....
But the medal ultimately goes to "Hermonie is black!", because the only reason she came up with it was to try to better canonize the "Cursed Child" play.. which wound up having a black actress play Hermonie.
Instead of doing the adult thing and admitting that most writers accepted by the mainstream are white, and therefore an overwhelming majority of characters in fiction are white, and that's... kind of not good as it shows the bias we've given in favor of one specific group over all others, and that maybe in the future we'll have more racially diverse character casts.. but until then, because we have more white characters than white actors, sometimes white characters are going to be played by non-white actors, and even if that's not how we typically envision the character... Get over it.
No instead of doing that, she just felt the need to make another fucking retcon and claimed she intended to have Hermonie be black the whole fucking time! I hope they fired the moron who cast Emma Watson for the role in the movie then.... that talentless hack who knew nothing of the books.. checks notes Joanne Kathleen Rowling
I'm sorry but it takes a special kind of narcissim to attempt to retcon, not just a fictional work, but reality itself!
Scottish lawmakers seem to have placed higher value on the feelings of men performing their idea of femaleness, however misogynistically or opportunistically, than on the rights and freedoms of actual women and girls.
It's difficult to accept that someone I used to respect could say such hateful things about people like me. I'm not gonna lie, it hurts to read. What the fuck, Joanne? Is that all I am to you... just a man "performing" my idea of femaleness? Well, fuck you, then. Should I wish for you to feel the same pain you've inflicted on others? To be honest, judging by your "performance" in the media the past several years, I don't think you're resilient enough to survive it.
It sucks when your heros let you down. There was a guy I really admired and I worked with. When his wife was in the hospital he cheated on her. Couldn't see him the same way again.
Sorry she sucks so very hard and is not only a disappointment actively hostile.
I am not sure she entirelly referes to you. It refers to people abusing transexuality to achieve other dreams or more dreams than just being themselves. At least this is how I understand her argumentations.
Fuck that shit. She doesn't make any such distinction in her hate tirades. It's very easy to find many tweets and similar quotes of her speaking about transsexual people as a whole. So yeah, she very much has spoken about OP as well. And she's a freaking author, she doesn't get any excuses for not knowing how to write more specifically. She knows very well what she says and who it will affect when she generalises all transsexual people. And it for damn sure isn't some imaginary group or predators willing to go through all the hassle of being trans to prey on women but the trans community as a whole.
Yeah it is understandable that you would understand it that way. Unfortunately, that's not really what her whole stance is.
She goes beyond that and tells the people that protections for all trans people (trans women in particular) should be rolled back.
Take, for instance, her stance on trans women in prisons. She says all trans women should be put in mens' prisons. However, many trans women who are put in mens' prisons are often sexually abused (source will come if I remember)
All in all, she is a raging transphobe and is buddies with even homophobic figures. I personally find this list of her transphobia quite damning.
Absolutely nobody is doing that. Grow the fuck up, it's so obviously a completely invented problem they use to demonize people trying to be themselves.
And if any person ends up being a sexual criminal, then they will be dealt with according to the law.
This is mental illness by now! Seriously wtf? Why is this so important for her that she can't stop talking about it? If I had some irrational hate for trans woman, I would not go on about it in public all the time.
Don't we have more important problems then to bash people that are so unhappy with their body that they are willing to take hormones and let people operate on their genitals?
This is such a simple thought, everybody should be able to think it, right?
But on the other hand, she is not the only one hating transgender women or men.
I mean it is not right to hate people for that. But if I would hate trans people then I would just not invite them for dinner and would stop talking about them all the time.
It must be some form of mental illness I have no other explanation.
After enough time has passed since the initial conflict, it becomes less about the subject of the conflict and more about the conflict in itself.
The reason becomes secondary and instead the goal becomes winning against the other side or at least making it hurt.
Yes I think you are right. And I think this is borderline a mental illness if you can't stop lashing out.
As I understand it, she somehow thinks by bashing trans women she is doing something good for women.
Trans women are somehow taking away her womanhood or something like that. I have read something like this several times from Rowling but I have no clue how trans woman could do that. But Rowling is obsessed with that, for what ever reason.
No, but it seems like “stirring up hate” is a crime. And, as a public figure who is publicly hateful, she potentially fits that description
According to the article the law doesn't apply in a general sense.
It appears its written (along with another law) to only apply to an aggressor's interaction with a specific person. So the law wouldn't apply to Rowling's comments from twitter about the group in general. No specifically named person is targeted.
Also, something I just learned from this about Rowling's Transphobia that was strange to me. She doesn't appear to have any problem with FtM, but only problems with MtF. I have never run across someone who has such specific bigotry in this case.
It truly makes me think most "martyrs" in history must have been insufferable pieces of shit, as well.
Because it's only these people who want to make a "martyr" of themselves, endlessly playing the fucking victim while having enough money to make Solomon blush.
Because its the only way they know how to relate to others or have any concept of themselves, being wealthy makes you a vicious sadistic piece if shit¹, and picking on the weak gives a slight emotional high, especially if you've got an audience.
The freedom of one person ends where it starts limiting the freedom of another person
Unlimited freedom of speech just means that it's possible to verbally deny a group of people a place in society either by lying about them or by just ignoring their existence - and both are limiting that person's freedom - not just their freedom of speech.
I really don't understand how Americans don't seem to understand that one person's freedom should end when it limits the freedom of another person - and if it doesn't then it's just the stronger/more forceful one pushing the weaker/more defensive one into a corner.
I'm in Canada. The number of people who think we have free speech laws similar to our neighbours (and what they think they can get away with) is staggering.
It's a "freedom to" vs "freedom from" issue. The US is much more on the "freedom to" side. For example, freedom to own firearms overrules freedom from gun violence. In this case, it's freedom to say nasty shit overrules freedom from hearing nasty shit. This is also why libertarianism is so popular here (they're all about having the "freedom to," even when it's at others' expense). This isn't always the case of course (our strict zoning laws and development codes are a great example of "freedom from" overruling "freedom to").
If only they would get over it and agree that trans people have the right to exist or believe they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.
Unfortunately, they don't seem to have an issue with there being (at least) two classes of homo sapiens, one lesser than the other and thus not deserving of any dignity or respect.
There is, of course, homo superior, but I don’t foresee Professor X swooping in to settle this argument, what with the whole “saving the world” shtick.
Although, to be honest, the world could use a bit of saving right now.
PS: I hope you’re doing well, and getting through Sophie‘s Choice. I’ve heard it’s a tough read, especially after surviving a game of Presidential Election Scrabble…💋💋💋
It's more complicated than that.
Like saying there is a fire in a theatre when there is none, saying transgender are undercover perverts and a danger to society when it's not supported by evidence will get people killed.
Freedom of speech is great and all but when your lie and put people in danger there should be consequences.
So who is deciding what opinions are puting people in danger. US government for example thinks that whistleblowers Manning and journalist like Assange are puting people in danger.
Have as many opinions as you want, but if you spread shit like "we should exterminate the lesser races" and "trans people are rapists" you earn a vacation at the greybar hotel for abusing your right of free speech to infringe on other people's rights.
The question is where the line is drawn and how to make sure the state is not abusing those powers to suppress opinions that it sees dangerous. A good example are cases when protecting the children is used as argument for more surveillance. This seems foelr me to go along the same lines.
She grossly misinterprets what the law is meant to achieve. It's not for somebody who dead names a trans person or calls a trans woman he or him. It's when someone Tweets out "Who will rid me of this troublesome trans person?" and then their one or more of their followers goes out and beats or murders that person.
I swear every single person arguing against this bill hasn't read it.
The gist of it is consolidating existing hate crime laws, adding sexual orientation and gender to the protected classes, repealing the law of blasphemy, and then the main one people are on about, outlawing "inciting hate" and spending several entire pages defining exactly what that means and how its still covered by freedom of expression.
As you said, you can use the slurs. You can be a shit person.
What this seems to be addressing is the fact that ANYBODY can have a platform nowadays and some of those people use their platform to harm other people, whether indirectly or not.
Part 2 Section 3, 32: [...]
It provides that it is an offence for a person to behave in a threatening,
abusive or insulting manner, or communicate threatening, abusive or
insulting material to another person, with either the intention to stir up
hatred against a group of persons based on the group being defined by
reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or
national origins, or where it is a likely consequence that hatred will be
stirred up against such a group.
It's talking about likely consequence not after a crime has been committed. Also:
Part 2 Section 5, 47:
Section 5(1) creates an offence of possession of racially inflammatory
material. It provides that it is an offence for a person to have in their
possession threatening, abusive or insulting material with a view to
communicating the material to another person, with either the intention to
stir up hatred against a group of persons based on the group being defined
by reference to race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), or ethnic or
national origins, or where it is likely that, if the material were
communicated, hatred will be stirred up against such a group.
Which makes possession of inflammatory material an offence. Which is rather murky on it's own, but even more so in digital age.
Later it quite literally defines on which terms it's permissive to discuss sexual orientation or religion.
To be fair, maybe I missed something so feel free to correct me:
Lots of people just don't know what freedom is speech actually means. Speech isn't a crime, but crimes can be committed by speaking.
If you kill someone with a hammer, you aren't charged with possession of hammer - you're charged with murder. If you hire a hitman to do the killing instead, you aren't charged with "using speech."
When that theoretical person is arrested for "shouting fire in a crowded theatre" they aren't actually being arrested for their speech or their words, but for a separate crime that uses speech as a mechanism.
Speech is a marvelous thing that should be protected, but freedom of speech is not freedom from the consequences of using speech to commit other crimes.
I, for one, get angry at big gubment limiting my free spech to call people slurs at home depot just like how I get angry at big government for limiting my god given right to come and go as I please when I break into people's houses and watch them sleep.
Can you explain to me then, what exactly is freedom of speech? Yelling fire in a crowded theater isn't using speech then, it's assault on other persons by threatening harm. Criticize the government? That's not freedom of speech, that's just unlicensed protest. Sing a song protesting a war? You go to jail for treason.
Freedom of speech absolutely means being free from the government imposing consequences for speech. Yelling fire in a crowded theater comes from Schenck v United States which found that speech must pose a clear and present danger to be able to be held criminally liable for it. And Brandenburg v Ohio narrowed the definition even further, that speech must be "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action".
Despite our views on JK's abhorrent rhetoric, you cannot say that mis-gendering trans people is inciting imminent lawlessness.
Your comment demonstrates a pretty fundamental misunderstanding of the concept of free speech.
Speech is a marvelous thing that should be protected, but freedom of speech is not freedom from the consequences of using speech to commit other crimes.
Agreed. It just becomes problematic when speech itself is redefined as crime, that is what I'm arguing against. And the the line with the consequences is not that clear either. Someone could read a book and go an kill someone. I personally think it's a hard thing to really understand consequences of words.
Where you draw the line? And who is drawing it? Will you be equally happy when conservatives will use the same tools against opinions they see as dangerous?
Hateful ideas can be dangerous things. This is why insulting people in Germany can turn into a criminal offense. They know where that goes if left unchecked.
Also, remember, not every country is the USA where breaking the law = going to jail. It can just be a fine the first few times and jail only when you show no intent on ceasing what you're doing.
JKR is being hyperbolic with this "arrest me" thing. She's playing the victim for her TERF followers.
What she’s saying here probably doesn’t rise to the level of criminality under their law. She’s just doing performative nonsense while proving yet again that she doesn’t understand the difference between sex and gender.
People who use biology as an excuse to hate on people have no grasp on how biology even works. You should know that gender disphoria, gender transitions and other genders as well come in fact with small noticeable differences, such as the way the brain is wired and even the many mechanisms inside your body. Unfortunately, such differences are not noticeable right off the bat. But they exist. Also FFS, she could have just enjoyed her harry potter money, maybe she could go silent after the first tweet but come on! There'se no reason to go any further, no reason. She now dwells with the likes of her conservative friends - She's no victim. There's more money there than many of us could see in a lifetime. She actually has too much -
People who use biology as an excuse to hate on people have no grasp on how biology even works.
"There's only two sexes, that's biology 101", yes, it's literally 101, it's what you get taught before you learn the specifics, the exceptions to the rules and the finer details of the multi-dimensional spectrum that is the impact of our biology on sex and gender.
To be honest, justice sometimes DOES happen, but I think it tends to happen to B. Cosby & K. Spacey more than H. Weinstein
Miss Not A Straight White Guy here thinks she won’t be made an example, & she probably won’t ever. But she will never be part of the truly protected class.
I live in Canada where we have hate crime laws, they don't affect 99% of us in any way, because 99% of us aren't walking around calling for the death of groups of people, based on race, gender, etc. Hate crime laws only affect the people who are truly beyond hateful. Nobody is gonna arrest you for being an anti trans asshole, but that will if you start inciting violence or calling for blood
I learned this one the hard way while being the victim of hate. but it wasn't until my harasser slipped and threatened physical harm that the police finally did something.
Yeah, I've seen people criticize Germany's freedom of speech laws because we are not allowed to show the Hitler salute or wave the Nazi flag. Like why would I care?
Because the BBC is also a "critic of some trans activism". They actually have a Mastodon instance that immediately got defederated by a few other instances due to their transphobia.
The British media in general seem to be fillled with TERFs, like the UK Guardian (the Australian paper doesn't seem to have the issue that I've noticed).
Tank? Harry Potter games are still selling incredibly well. The Fantastic Beasts movies have grossed $1.8 billion dollars. The Wizarding World at Universal Orlando continues to be a major attraction.
She could have, and should have, fucked off to her own private tropical island after that but no she had nothing better to do than be an insufferable asshole to trans people.
Actually Fantastic Beasts had the be shelved because no one likes the ones after the first one.. Grindelwald's Crime that made him "Literally worse than Voldemort!" was.... Wanting to stand up to the Nazis... That one was especially problematic
And given that JK Rowling is officioally recognized by the German Government as a holocaust denier, we can go ahead and assume the worst, that she's one of those "Our grandparents fought on the wrong side!" nutters
I'm glad that Harry Potter wasn't my favourite series growing up, knowing how bad of a person she is. With that said, it's still possible to separate the art from the artist, so it's okay either way but personally I just feel better knowing it wasn't my number one favourite series growing up.
I think the general argument against separating the art from the artist is that shes still alive and when we buy HP products, she gets that money and uses it to harm trans people.
Hp lovecraft iirc is known as a racist, but we can still purchase his books without funding him cause he's dead.
I believe that it's not as simple as that. I think that derivatives of "Harry Potter" and the characters within result in her giving a hefty cut, but I believe that the "Wizarding World" doesn't, as it is owned by WB and fully owns the rights.
I personally completely disassociate my harry potter experience from her, I'm not gonna let her ruin my happy childhood memories. But I also don't go out of my way to spend money that goes to the franchise either, didn't get the game, don't buy goodies etc. We might visit the UK park some day if the chance arises just because my wife loves these kinds of parks and I'd rather that than Disney.
I look forward to the pending arrest video, where she is suddenly all apologetic and saying sorry, and not understanding why they won't let her go because she just said sorry to them.
There's a lot of gray area in the whole Young Adult Fantasy Wizard space. Case in point:
In June 2009, the estate of Adrian Jacobs, a children's author who died in 1997, sued Rowling's publishers, Bloomsbury, for £500 million, accusing her of having plagiarised "substantial parts" of his work in writing the novel Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In a statement, Jacobs's family claimed that a scene in Goblet of Fire was substantially similar to Jacobs's book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard: Livid Land.
Both Willy and Harry are required to work out the exact nature of the main task of the contest which they both achieve in a bathroom assisted by clues from helpers, in order to discover how to rescue human hostages imprisoned by a community of half-human, half-animal fantasy creatures
Is it possible that Rowling (or one of her ghostwriters) lifted passages from another Wizard Adventure novel with a similar theme of deadly puzzle games? Certainly. Is it possible that there's simply some overlap in how a couple of authors with relatively limited creativity can compose a cliche of the genre? Also certainly.
There's not any material evidence to suggest Rowling straight copypasta'd text from a prior copywritten work. But that would be devilishly hard to come by. As it stands, I'm open to the theory that Rowling's writing team cut corners by pulling a bunch of low-circulation published works and mining them for ideas. But I have relatively little confidence in their ability to prove any of it.
I may not have the whole facts and information, but to me, it is beginning to sound more like a witch-hunt. Just let her have her opinions and move forward
How's telling her that she has shitty opinion a witch hunt, but her using her fame and wealth to spread her shitty opinion way beyond what a normal random person could ever do, isn't?
She was poor at some point. She lived in poverty off of government welfare. Chances are there are a good amount of children who grew up with her works that transitioned later on. They are part of the same fanbase that lifted her from poverty.
How can you genuinely turn out that unsympathetic for your fellow human beings like that?
I know one trans person who's a big Harry Potter Adult. They just also happen to be dumb and selfish, just like JK. Being Trans or being Poor doesn't automatically make someone empathetic.
I don't know whether their law against "stirring up hatred" is any good or not, but either way it takes a very special kind of person to respond to it by playing the game of stirring up as much hatred as possible without getting arrested.
this is very insightful. if she hates trans people, so be it, hard to change people's opinions. if she spreads that hate all over the internet, that's exactly what this law is intended to prevent. I have a trans friend, I don't understand why they would want to be the opposite sex, but if they do, why not? they are a friend. Doesn't cost me anything to let them dress/behave how they wish. live and let live. I would love to see Ms Rowling arrested. She should keep her hate to herself.
No, you all have to pretend that corporations are people and that political donations, specifically made to subvert your democracy, is freeze-peach and their aint no limit on freedom, baby!
Nope, no abuse of the law there.....
Hate, in British law here, would be things said to insight violence against people. The best thing to ask people with views such as yours is "what exactly is it that you want to say, that you're being stopped from saying?"
The same law that prohibits hatred towards transgenders transgender people also prohibits it towards age discriination. (“stirring up hatred” relating to age, disability etc).
Does this mean you can't call me a boomer any longer?
FYI, you shouldn't use the term "transgenders". Transgender is an adjective, so you would say "transgender people". Using that word makes you sound similar to a grandpa who refers to his black neighbors as "coloreds".
Thank you. I must admit that I don't always get this right, but this is entirely due to English not being my main language. That said, I did think about using it in the same way as people with disabilities, but thought that sexuality(gender?) is more defining than what disability one may have and would not be perceived negatively. Actually, thinking about it, why is it any different than calling someone a man or a woman?
I will note this for the future though, because although it does not necessarily make sense to me, it doesn't hurt me to use it the way it is prefered. Thank you again.
This is stupid. People often say things like "the gays" or "the straights" to refer to the group of individuals who identify as such. Drawing the line at "transgenders" feels silly.
Not only some people. The German law book is very clear about what constitutes holocaust denying and what now. Diminishing parts of the holocausts, such as claiming one group wasn't targeted or wasn't targeted as much is holocaust denial under that law.
I didn't find anything in regards to that but, I did find an interesting timeline article of the more controversial actions done here Granted it's a commercial site and doesn't contain sources, but everything is dated so could be fact checked if someone wanted to.
I loved that part where she tried to set the record straight and explain it was a misunderstanding..... on a podcast that claimed to be impartial, but had a title referencing her "cancellation" as a Witch Burning, basically pre-dispositioning you to her being a martyr
Tbh, it's a badly thought out "law" that seems to be just a case of letting the police decide whether to act on it or not, letting them deal with things based on their own prejudices (e.g. weed is illegal in the UK, but if you were a racist copper you could arrest some black youths for smoking it and not some white kids). It's cowardly politics, and avoids actually defining anything or drawing any lines in the sand.
Also, it's not a crime to be a moron on Twitter. One might argue it's where they belong.
Yes. Now if you expand this thought process you'll find that the majority of laws are exactly this. Pretty much everything you do is both legal and illegal according to different laws. Which means you can be arrested, detained, etc for basically any reason at any time. It's all down to if "they" (the cop you interact with, the DA, the judge, the high ranking official who just doesn't like you, the media rallying against you, etc) want something to happen.
It's a hallmark of fear based authoritarian governments.
I’m utterly befuddled by this woman; somehow she hates the idea of trans women so much that she’s now closely allied with Posie Parker, a woman who hates women, hates suffrage, has advocated for the removal of women’s rights for years, and shares closely held opinions from just right of Goebbels.
Somehow Jo has become so utterly single-minded, she’s paired with the antithesis of all the other things she believes in (and still claims to believe as justification of her anti-trans nonsense).
Nah. She wrote her own book, is less rapey, abd was moderately cute when she was younger. Plus, she's a bigot because she hates herself, was less tacky about her house, and isn't ever funny.
They arguably deserve to end at the same gallows, but are not the same shit head.
I am not completely sure where I stand on her substantive opinions in relation to trans issues. I think it's a debate where both sides make some good points.
But she is definitely right about the decline of free speech.
In the nicest possible way, what do you mean by "both sides" in this context? One side says that trans people either don't or shouldn't exist and the other side says they should exist. I know that may sound extreme or combative but that's fundamentally "the debate" so I genuinely want to understand how you reached this "both sides have merit" stance that some people close to me also take but I've never understood.
The only merit that I can see is that some people feel that gender should be nothing more than a description of biological or, at least, physiological sex.
It confuses me to no end that my very girly oldest child identifies male, especially since hearing them talk about it, it seems more a rejection of being seen as a sexual object than any desire to be a man.
If my kid wants to identify male while being born a girl and being super into makeup, dresses, and sparkle, and that helps them deal with their sexual abuse, more power to them. Even if it breaks my old person brain a little.
Nothing excuses hating someone or being angry because they disagree with you about the definition of gender. I mean, if a woman assaults another female person, the punishment should be the same, right? It's not like men can't go into women's bathrooms anyways if their mind is set on it.
I don't think this is an accurate description of the debate.
My understanding of the "TERF" position is that they say that if it is excessively easy to declare oneself as trans, this can be misused by men wanting to get access to spaces reserved for women. Whether one agrees with that point or not, I do not think it is completely illegitimate.
I usually don't say anything about this topic at all on the Internet and I am right now reminded of why. I am already starting to regret stating even my relative neutrality on it.
She's actually not the real author of Harry Potter. JK lent her name because the real author didn't want a public facing persona. Unfortunately the identity of the real author remains unknown.