J.K. Rowling will, for most of her fans, remain the beloved author of the Harry Potter series. Her world of magic is something that raised more than one generation and we believe that she will be remembered as that kind of person by the majority of her fans, which is for the best.
But, Rowling has changed a lot in recent years and while her opinion is something she is entitled to, we doubt that her fans imagined or wanted her to lead an online crusade against trans people and, in recent months, trans athletes. Well, this has been her life for the past couple of years, more or less.
And while more Harry Potter projects are being made, Rowling herself is actually better known for her online feuds related to the transgender movement and her anti-trans comments, which is a bit sad. Most recently, she targeted legendary talk show host John Oliver in one of her remarks.
The roots of Rowling’s anti-trans crusade can be found in her early comments which, at the time, did not seem that problematic. They were rational and logical and she had some solid arguments, as we can believe that women could be afraid of a man coming into their toilet, regardless of how he identifies.
But, as the years passed, her comments became more and more erratic, her arguments less logical and rational, and she is now a crusader against trans rights.
We’ve recently reported on her comments about the boxing controversy at this year’s Summer Olympics in Paris, and – as you might have guessed – she also commented on the recent incident in the US, related to female volleyball. But while she did not address the incident directly in this comment, she did refer to something else.
Namely, in his recent HBO‘s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver took a moment to defend the rights of trans people to participate in regular sports events, claiming that there are “vanishingly few trans girls” in school sports and that there is “no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness.” Rowling, who has recently become a defender of female athletes, decided to attack Oliver:
Rowling went to X, where she openly attacked and insulted Oliver, claiming that his opinion is “absolute bullshit,” as you will be able to see:
Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video’s for you. An undoubtedly intelligent… https://t.co/3IS4onzXq0
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) November 17, 2024
The video of Oliver’s speech is also attached to the post, so you can hear what the talk show host himself said, after which you can read the very long tweet that Rowling left. Of course, she keeps arguing that Oliver’s arguments are invalid and that there is data that supports that men are simply stronger than women and, thus, better competitors in sporting disciplines, which is probably not a fact that every female would agree with.
She also argues that Oliver is saying this solely because he is a man and solely because women are “suffering” from this phenomenon, but she herself doesn’t list any sources either. Be that as it may, this is probably just another in a series of upcoming chapters of Rowling’s feud against the transgender movement, so we’ll keep you up-to-date!
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