“Heated Rivalry” author Rachel Reid on J. K. Rowling - “the bar is pretty high in how evil you have to be,” “ I’m extremely the opposite of everything she believes”

JKR's actions here are no different to stereotyping muslims as terrorists because a minuscule number are. Weaponising isolated instances is a manipulative tactic where a rare, atypical, or singular event is highlighted and misrepresented as representative of a general trend, behaviour, or group characteristic. It's a common political strategy particularly used to influence public opinion, justify abusive behaviour, or create fear and stigma.

Why the hell are you writing sexual fantasies about children?!

Jesus actual. That is happening nowhere but inside your own head.

Trans kids are a tiny minority, and are given separate places to change at school. Writing paedophilic filth - humiliation fantasies - about children is not activism.

In stereotyping trans people as dangerous predators she does

Men. She is talking about men, This is not stereotyping. It is just an unavoidable conclusion if you look at any crime statistics.

The belief that gender identity is a phase, a choice, or something that is influenced by other people is a stereotype that minimizes the struggles of anyone who experiences gender dysphoria. Transitioning isn’t easy but Rowling seems to be saying people can choose to transition on a whim simply because they think it’s more convenient to be one gender than another.

I refer you to the man who wrote an article in the Guardian describing how he is affected by the recent Supreme Court because he likes to wear a dress and use women's toilets when he is in London. Blame him for the assumption that people identify as trans on a whim. Blame Eddie Izzard for talking about 'boy mode' and 'girl mode'.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/15/trans-australian-uk-britain-tolerance

I also invite you to consider the massive increase in referrals to the Tavistock in the 2000s and the co-morbidities and trauma that were ignored as soon as a children claimed a trans identity. You don't have to listen JK Rowling to be concerned about this. Just read why the clinic was shut down.

“When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman—and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones—then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.”

How is she wrong about this? Why can you not see that she is talking about men?

Throughout her essay, Rowling talks about how easy it is for a biological man to become a woman in the eyes of the law and how potentially dangerous that could be for cis women. The fear that a large number of transgender women are just men who want to be able to use women-only spaces unchecked is a harmful stereotype that paints trans people as predators instead of just human beings who want to live their lives."

No, it paints men as predators.

Again, why is she wrong?

In stereotyping trans people as dangerous predators she does.

"In an attempt to demonstrate her understanding of where transgender people are coming from, Rowling even says she too might have considered transitioning had the option been available to her as a teenager. “The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge, “ she writes. “If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.”

The belief that gender identity is a phase, a choice, or something that is influenced by other people is a stereotype that minimizes the struggles of anyone who experiences gender dysphoria. Transitioning isn’t easy but Rowling seems to be saying people can choose to transition on a whim simply because they think it’s more convenient to be one gender than another.

In her essay, Rowling goes on to reveal that she is a domestic and sexual abuse survivor and those experiences have made her even more focused on biology, “out of solidarity with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces.”

Referring to the debate around public washrooms in particular, Rowling claims she’s concerned for the safety of cis women and girls. “When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman—and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones—then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.”

Throughout her essay, Rowling talks about how easy it is for a biological man to become a woman in the eyes of the law and how potentially dangerous that could be for cis women. The fear that a large number of transgender women are just men who want to be able to use women-only spaces unchecked is a harmful stereotype that paints trans people as predators instead of just human beings who want to live their lives."

https://inmagazine.ca/2020/06/j-k-rowlings-history-of-transphobia/

She hasn't demonised trans people.

If anything India Willoughby has done far more to push back trans rights.

Evil can be a proxy for inhumane & after all its objectively true JK Rowling is responsible for the demonisation of trans people on a mass scale given her following.

In 10 years time everyone will have forgotten this person and they’ll be rebooting the HP films or opening a new theme park and people will still want to interview JKR. But well done for using your 15 minutes to polish your halo and stick the knife in.

I've never heard of her either.
I'm a bit at a loss to understand how a woman married to a man is queer? Also, isn't it a bit appropriative of her to write about gay men? Not much of the essential 'lived experience' eh?

Outside of BBC employees, I don't know anyone who's watched Heated Rivalry.

In particular, JKR really tries to understand a subject before expressing an opinion.

Honestly I don't think that would be unpopular with her target audience.

It has been asked many times what exactly JKR said or did that was evil & transphobic.

Occasionally someone checks & realises actually: nothing.

Other answers range from “set up a rape crisis centre just so she could exclude TW” and (my personal favourite) “nothing, but she went on writing & tweeting after trans people told her to stop”.

A man and a transman on the same hockey team would be even more interesting 🤔

OP, how about writing to her saying how much you enjoy her work and asking when she'll be writing a novel about a relationship between a man and a transman?

Self-centred virtue signalling woman who I've never heard of.

What the heck does she mean by calling JKR evil? Can these twits hear themselves?
Have these people read what JKR said anyway?
If she is the opposite of everything JKR related then she doesn't believe in philanthropy, biological sex, single sex spaces for women, standing for women's rights!! Handmaid strikes again

Well - if 'evil' is standing up for women and girls then many of us fit that description.

No idea who she is, but very disappointing to come across yet another woman happy to thrown more vulnerable women under the bus to appease male demands.

I suppose the handmaids will always be with us 🙄

Never heard of her. She sounds tiresome. JK is the Queen.

A trans man who used to play professional women's hockey plays one of the male characters in Heated Rivalry.

Reid has probably read the Hockey Canada gender expression/gender identity policy and faq, which would support any sized trans woman to play women's hockey. https://cdn.hockeycanada.ca/hockey-canada/Hockey-Programs/Safety/Downloads/gender-expression-and-identity-policy-faq-e.pdf

It's amazing how many folk have been tripping over each other in their rush to condemn JKR over the past few years...but then what's not to like when you can use her fame to bolster your profile and virtue signal at the same time.

It's a win-win for the unimaginative and the tedious.

What an ignorant idiot. Whatever your views on trans issues, no one can deny the enormous good that JKR has done for charity and others. What has this woman done?!