Do you think JK knew what would happen?

[Alyssum34456]

She's hinted her views before, but this is the most clearly outspoken she has been. The backlash has been pretty awful tbh. I'm not sure I 100% agree with everything she is saying, but I do not like how she has been treated. Why the world is acting like she has made some 'Trump-like' statement I dont know. Perhaps because being trans is the most recent trending vulnerable group to gain support and influence? So it's a very risky thing to talk about? The fact it can't even be discussed is pretty sad.

I wonder if she realised this would happen. Do you think she had higher hopes that some other admirable high profile names would come to her aid, or at least have a healthy debate? Does she know people who have let her down? Perhaps they realised last minute that it was just too risky a move here's looking at you Dan Radcliffe. I can almost see him sending her a private message "Sorry Jo, really can't do this right now! I'm too young and I need the money from my next woke gig!" Or has he really truly lost touch with her and decided to break ties? Or did she really just decide throw it out there and hope for the best?

A part of me thinks she knew it all along. She is very good at standing out from the crowd. She had had incredible lows in her life. Even if she spends the foreseeable future in a downward disgrace, she has publicly planted a seed and now the initial heat is over people are starting to talk. The BBC even has an article on the Dan Rad response and links to articles about gender critical and what this means for women. I think they are being surprisingly unbiased actually.

The future starts here?

I just hope this doesn't scar her too much.

Shes a very smart woman and no doubt was expecting it. I would love to know what she thinks about Daniel Radcliffe's weaselly, cowardly, no doubt PR-written statement this morning. I hope she puts it down to him being a sad little woke bro with no skin in the game, but I wouldn't blame her if she felt extremely hurt

Sadly I’m not a bit surprised at the reaction she has had, and she won’t be either.

Only millionaires can say what we all think, the rest of us have too much to lose.

Thank you Jo.

I think if JK still keeps in contact with DR or at least kept up to date on his career, etc, at all, she won't have been surprised by his response. She'll be aware of the pressure put on HP stars by TRAs. They may have even talked discussed it privately, who knows?

I don't think she could have foreseen exactly how bad the backlash would be but I'm sure she will weather it.

Something I've found amusing is the people who have decided to erase her from Harry Potter by pretending she didn't write it. They have decided to claim it for themselves, one fool even said they would produce and an anthology of fanfic HP stories pretending they had thought up the characters.

I also dislike the fact people are saying her legacy will be hate, she has done an incredible amount of good work including for women and children. I listened to her Harvard speech yesterday and she worked for Amnesty International before she was famous so she will have an understanding of the real hardships women and children face, including girls who are banished to huts when they have their periods or can't go to school because of periods. These are not the self obsessed little twits who are screaming blue murder on Twitter.

Each famous person who speaks up makes it easier for the next, but they need to hold the line.

Right now, a couple dip their toes in the water, get scared by the criticism, apologise and retreat (Jonathan Ross just yesterday) though we know that you can never capitulate enough and once the TRAs smell blood you'll be in their sights forever.

It's easy for celebs to stand up and proclaim support for a movement that everyone (bar Nigel Farage and Katie Hopkins) supports.

It's far harder to do what JKR did. I do believe she knew what might happen, but it's brutal, and she is legendary and brave. We'll remember it forever.

At some point, we'll have turned just enough that when one well-known person speaks up, another will, and another will, and another will. That wasn't to happen now, but it will come.

And all these gobshite men who think they can tell a woman what a woman is will be hastily covering their tracks and pretending they were never on the wrong side.

Her bravery is encouraging a lot of other people to speak out. I've been pleasantly surprised at how many people have 'liked' the recent Spectator article when I shared it on Facebook.

I think her timing is brilliant. The tide is already turning and she will help to get loads more people considering these issues.

JKR knew exactly what she was getting into. This (as pointed out upthread) ain't her first rodeo. She's spent 3 years reading round it. She saw what happened to Martina. She's online friends with transwomen like Fionne Orlander and Debbie Hayton.

She will have gone into this fully prepared, she will (I hope) have a PR person monitoring the twitter storm for her rather than wading in herself, she'll also be looking at saner responses (Kirkup's in the Spectator, for instance), and hopefully be sitting relaxing with a large G&T and the wifi off till the fuss dies down a bit.

Today's news tomorrow's chip wrapping.

Except that by being today's news she's chipped away a little bit further at the conspiracy of silence the TRAs have been trying to construct round the erosion of women's rights.

I agree that she almost certainly knew what was going to happen. But I would imagine that she has a secretary to screen things for her, so she doesn't need to see any of the response if she doesn't want to.

What the previous poster said about attacks on the street is worrying, though. Some of them are horrible enough to actually try it, I suspect. The thought that she might need bodyguards is pretty horrifying.

Oops, cross-posted with Cara!

Personally I am very much looking forward to the next Cormoran Strike book - due to be released in September. I'll be interested to see the sales figures because I don't believe for one second that any of this will remotely impact on the money she makes from that book. The people who buy her books won't GAF about any of this, they just want to know what Cormoran and Robin have got up to. I don't think it will affect her one jot in the long run.

*CaraDune

JKR knew exactly what she was getting into. This (as pointed out upthread) ain't her first rodeo. She's spent 3 years reading round it. She saw what happened to Martina. She's online friends with transwomen like Fionne Orlander and Debbie Hayton.

She will have gone into this fully prepared, she will (I hope) have a PR person monitoring the twitter storm for her rather than wading in herself, she'll also be looking at saner responses (Kirkup's in the Spectator, for instance), and hopefully be sitting relaxing with a large G&T and the wifi off till the fuss dies down a bit.

Today's news tomorrow's chip wrapping.

Except that by being today's news she's chipped away a little bit further at the conspiracy of silence the TRAs have been trying to construct round the erosion of women's rights.*

This.

CaraDune

JKR knew exactly what she was getting into. This (as pointed out upthread) ain't her first rodeo. She's spent 3 years reading round it. She saw what happened to Martina. She's online friends with transwomen like Fionne Orlander and Debbie Hayton.

She will have gone into this fully prepared, she will (I hope) have a PR person monitoring the twitter storm for her rather than wading in herself, she'll also be looking at saner responses (Kirkup's in the Spectator, for instance), and hopefully be sitting relaxing with a large G&T and the wifi off till the fuss dies down a bit.

Today's news tomorrow's chip wrapping.

Except that by being today's news she's chipped away a little bit further at the conspiracy of silence the TRAs have been trying to construct round the erosion of women's rights.

This.

Something I've found amusing is the people who have decided to erase her from Harry Potter by pretending she didn't write it.

It perfectly epitomises the trans movement, doesn't it? "I can't cope with reality, I'm going to flat out lie to myself because that's the only way my fragile psyche can survive."

Which is fine by me. Believe whatever gibberish you want to believe. Just don't try and force everyone else to collude in the lie. Don't start going to bookshops and Amazon and demand they change the name JK Rowling to Daniel Radcliffe's because the reality is too triggering for you.

I think that she's wonderful.

I got into a bit of a Twitter discussion with some right on Americans who just attacked her. Any time I brought up an argument that they did not have an answer for they just ignored it. It was the first time that I've experienced it first hand.

Also, I am amazed by how stupid some people are. They really don't think that there is such a thing as sex.

It's such a shame that the Olympics have been cancelled. As the world surely would be Peak transed by the sight of brilliant female athletes being beaten by mediocre men.

Oh and I've just bought another copy of the first Harry Potters, and am reading it every evening with my son.

She comes across as a very confident woman who’s not afraid to speak her mind.

Also, let’s face it, she has enough money to live for the rest of her life, so she has a freedom to speak her mind that others don’t.

The fact that she first published the Corcoran books under a different name proves that she’s not after fame or people’s adulation. She really wanted her work to be judged by its literally value.

The fact that Daniel R has felt the need to apologise just ‘by association’ make me sick to my stomach. What an idiot.

Read his statement, with statistics and all and it’s clear he probably contributed to 5 words at the most.

I think she is knowingly 'taking one for the team'.and I have nothing but gratitude and respect for her.

She’s awesome. I don’t know why I never realised it before. We need women like Jo Rowling - I hope (and think) she knows it.

Is anyone reading the Ickabog, the story J k Rowling is releasing in instalments? It’s very prescient to the twitter witchhunt.

The Ickabog is a mythical creature who, for their own reasons, the king and his closest advisors are claiming is real. In the latest chapter there has been a royal proclamation, it is now treason to question whether the Ickabog exists, there is a reward if you report someone for saying that the Ickabog isn’t real.

Isn’t it now treason to suggest sex exists?

Oh, don't worry about little man Dan, he won't come out of this well.
Little wet fart that he is.

I'll be buying some more of her books. I'll also send postcards and emails to her publishers and agents to tell them exactly why.

At the end of the day, she has nothing to lose. Even if she lost fans or deals...she's not exactly desperate for more money. So she can say what she wants as she doesn't need to be make anymore money. So good on her for standing up for what she believes in.

No idea what she said btw!

I personally dont know why she bothers with twitter. Its like going into a seedy bar and thinking you can have an intelligent conversation with drunks.

A very accurate picture of twitter.

She must have known. She's savvy and intelligent and been engaged in women's rights for a long time. Hell, she might even be here.

What's wonderful is that she didn't care about the backlash she knew was coming. It reads to me like she couldn't not say anything a minute longer. She'll be known as a trailblazer for this and I'm so greatful to her. I'm frightened of the world my kids are growing up in, but with beacons of hope like JKR, I'm hopeful that the tide will change and sanity/reason will be restored.