The world would be a very different place without Twitter, there’s no denying it. Without it, perhaps we would live in blissful ignorance of the bad opinions harbored by those we admire. But alas, we do not live in that world. Twitter exists, and J.K. Rowling uses it to frequently get herself into trouble with fans.
Over the past few months, Rowling has caused much upset amongst her fanbase with her defense of Johnny Depp’s casting in the titular role of the Fantastic Beasts film The Crimes of Grindelwald. Depp was accused by his ex-wife Amber Heard of abuse and fans were not happy about Rowling defending the alleged domestic-abuser. She blocked a Twitter user who questioned this and appeared to grow exasperated with the outrage surrounding the same film’s decision not to explicitly touch on Dumbledore’s sexuality, tweeting:
Being sent abuse about an interview that didn’t involve me, about a screenplay I wrote but which none of the angry people have read, which is part of a five-movie series that’s only one instalment in, is obviously tons of fun, but you know what’s even *more* fun? pic.twitter.com/Rj6Zr8aKUk
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 31, 2018
But that’s all last month’s news. This week, the author favorited a tweet referring to transwomen as ‘men in dresses.’ Seriously.
Via Pinterest
According to Pink News, the blatantly transphobic comment was made in relation to an ongoing debate surrounding transwomen standing on the Labour Party’s women-only shortlists for Parliament. “A fringe group of campaigners have led calls for transgender women to be banned from standing [on the shortlists] and have threatened to resign from the party if it does not agree to their demands.”
Rowling, who is an outspoken supporter of the Labour party, liked the following tweet:
Image Via Pink News
Journalist Shon Faye, who is herself transgender, tweeted: “Trans culture is seeing the beloved author of your generation like a transphobic tweet from a troll account which has repeatedly called you a man.”
Trans culture is seeing the beloved author of your generation like a transphobic tweet from a troll account which has repeatedly called you a man pic.twitter.com/LWceAoVTOC
— S H O N (@shonfaye) March 21, 2018
Anti-trans* activists on the forum Mumsnet have expressed their joy at seeing the influential author supposedly supporting the exclusion of transwomen, with Pink News reporting that comments such as “Excellent news, hopefully young female Harry Potter fans might be taking note of her views on this,” and “Ooh. Have thought she might be for a while. Fingers crossed!” were made in relation to the news.
Reps for the author have blamed a ‘clumsy and middle-aged moment’ on the liking of the offending Tweet, however Rowling herself has yet to comment or reconfirm her support of the trans* community. What a freakin’ mess.
Via MakeaGif
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