Even the Most Charitable Explanation of Rowling’s Hate Speech Is Terrible
You guys I swear everything is FINE. REALLY.
It doesn’t matter that JK Rowling self-identified as a TERF! It doesn’t matter that JK Rowling spread harmful misinformation about the transition process! It doesn’t matter that JK Rowling created a women’s shelter that disallowed trans women! It was all just one big misunderstanding! A hilarious kerfuffle! She didn’t actually mean any harm! She loves trans people! This is all just a silly witch hunt!
In fact, she’s the victim here, and not the thousands of trans women that she denigrated, insulted, and lied about! It’s really hard being a wealthy white woman living in a mansion in Scotland! And it’s so easy to be misunderstood on the internet! It was a total goof! A senior moment! And according to JK Rowling’s new podcast The Witch Trials she’s actually the one suffering here! She’s just a misunderstood witch! And all those mean mean muggles are trying to burn her at the stake! Poor baby! Some of you may say that she deserves it for burning the reputations of trans people at the stake, but that’s just you being a big old meanie-head!
Things we all got wrong: Her words are being misinterpreted!
J.K. Rowling doesn’t think that her words are anti-trans! Not whatsoever! After all, she “know(s) and love(s) trans people” according to her tweet that kicked off this whole big misunderstanding. It doesn’t matter that she all but stripped her “friends” of that status of “woman” because of their “sex” in the next part of the tweet! She never meant to hurt them! So that makes it okay!
Listen, it’s kind of like punching your friend in the face. They might say: “stop! you’re punching me too hard!”, but if you don’t think that you’re punching them too hard then it’s all okay! The intent is far more important than the result! Don’t believe a word of that old adage “the path to hell is paved with good intentions”!
If J.K. Rowling is on a path to hell, how is she still so rich and successful? What’s that you say? Because she emboldens other anti-trans bigots? That’s hardly her problem! If I’m punching my friend in the face and some strangers I don’t know think it looks like fun to join in, is it my responsibility to stop them? Hardly! As long as I know that I’m not hurting my friend, I can sleep peacefully on my money pile in my big old castle!
What’s unfortunate is, plenty of nasty people are joining in on the punching! One of these groups is the naughty naughty LBG alliance. Yes, it is exactly how it sounds. This group of assholes has taken off the “T” from “LGBT” in order to de-platform and denigrate trans people, even though trans people have cohabitated gay, lesbian, and bisexual spaces FOR AS LONG AS THOSE SPACES HAVE EXISTED. But J.K. Rowling, in a total senior moment, must have accidentally tweeted her support for the group and one of their members Allison Bluskye who believed that she was the target of discrimination for her “gender critical” beliefs. Luckily, all Blueskye got for her troubles was a £500,000 hole in her pocket and a reputation for being a member of a noxious hate group. But again, J.K. Rowling is still totally innocent here! Her hand must have slipped, then slipped again (and again) as she typed out her support tweet.
One would think that the backlash against Rowling would give the author some indication that her “love” of trans people is actually not love at all. And one would THINK that the wave of bigotry and violence that Rowling has emboldened against trans people would make her want to stop going down her “good intentions” path. But it doesn’t! Because again, in J.K. Rowling’s magical fairytale mind, the intention is the only thing that matters! Even if she is directly responsible for violence against trans people, it’s magically all okay!
Other things we got wrong: Her LGBTQ+ advocates!
One would think that J.K. Rowling would seek out more positive LGBTQ+ advocates in order to clear up her misunderstanding, but one would think WRONG. J.K. Rowling is SUCH an LGB(T?) advocate that she believes that ALL LGBTQ+ groups are right! Even the ones like the LGB Alliance that don’t support the T whatsoever.
As another example, Rowling supports the “radical lesbian” community so much that she has taken up the TERF mantle herself! JK Rowling is a champion of queer causes, as long as they are queer causes that she believes in! It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of the lesbian community is one of the most trans-inclusive communities in the queer alphabet! Rowling must know something that we don’t! After all, we’re the ones who have misunderstood according to her!
Now one would think that if JK Rowling really wanted to clear up this misunderstanding she would maybe take a peak at this GLAAD article that catalogs and condemns all of her transphobic views. But what does GLAAD know? What could an organization that has been at the forefront of fostering cultural change and acceptance towards queer people for over thirty years possibly know about queer issues? What could GLAAD possibly know about calling out bigotry, homophobia, and transphobia? One would think that being out of GLAAD’s good graces would be a huge red flag, but JK Rowling sure loves red! It’s the Gryffindor color after all, and Gryffindors are known for being brave. J.K. Rowling probably just thinks that she’s being brave by taking a contrary stance to one of the most well-respected queer civil rights organizations in the world. Who are we to criticize the bravery of this out-of-touch rich lady who has made it her personal crusade to bash and denigrate one of the most vulnerable communities in the world? After all, JK Rowling’s TERF friends think that she’s being brave. Again, this all just sounds like one big misunderstanding.
At the end of the day, I think we all need to realize that no matter the horrifying outcome of a person’s actions, it was their intention that matter all along. No matter who you are, everyone has good intentions. Even the most reviled people throughout history thought that they were doing the right thing! And when you look at it that way, we can excuse countless examples of bigotry and violence as just big old misunderstandings too. And doesn’t that just make the world a better place?
(featured image: Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images)
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