Overheard on the train: I have beef with JK Rowling

[orangejuicer]

"Everyone does. She is not a nice human being"

Is this still going on?

I think you can just dismiss anything that comes out of the mouth of someone who uses the phrase 'I have a beef'

Not one of them has a bloody clue about what she actually does for charity either.

Thick as mince.

Very bright 15yo dd thinks JKR is an awful transphobe (but still loves Harry Potter ). I'm convinced she'll come around eventually, which is why I largely bite my tongue, or occasionally very calmly state the most toned-down version of my opinion on the matter.

I laugh a lot to myself about the mental gymnastics which are now required by those idiots who call out JKR yet desperately want to remain in the fandom...
It must surely give them sleepless night?
And I'm also pretty sure those fan sites haven't suddenly emptied themselves...

@Datun

It didn't affect her book sales though. In fact, didn't they break records?

I bought the full set of harry potter for ds1 boyfriend

The ichabod for the small children i know

The cuckoos calling for 3 people

Expensive christmas 😀

I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a couple of highly educated, intelligent women in their 40s - I'll call them Sally and Mable - that went thusly:

Sally: did you know J K Rowling is a transphobe now?
Mable: oh yeah, I'd heard that. Some article she wrote, right? Did you read it?
Sally: no, I didn't.
Mable: me neither, but I heard it was really transphobic.
Me, exploding: NO SHE ISN'T! NO IT WASN"T!!!

Thankfully, I managed to calm down enough to explain what JK had actually said, and they agreed that no, it wasn't at all transphobic, and yes, of course, women should be entitled to same-sex spaces, and what do I mean, those sorts of things at risk now? But the kneejerk "Goodie Wemper is a witch!" reaction infuriates me.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude

LiftWanted

That trigger warning may be discriminatory after the Maya Forstater judgement. Requiring a trigger warning because someone holds a protected belief could be discriminatory unless holders of other protected beliefs are similarly targeted.

I say all protected speech should come with a trigger warning.

Infuriating, isn't it! I just asked for reciepts from educated people who should bloody well know better. Crickets, of course.

Someone said in a work presentation the other day how awful it was what JKR had said.
Something like "denying the existence of trans people" or some utter bollocks. I could not speak up because I am not brave enough. (Super woke employer, NHS trust)
But I have been brave on a couple of other issues relating to gender ideology more recently.

I recently overheard my dd age 19 saying something very similar about JKR to her older brother and telling him JK Rowling had written a terribly transphobic book (obviously she hasn't read it). I already stated quite clearly to my daughters that I agree with everything JKR wrote. I couldn't be bothered weighing in - from experience it has no effect and only upsets me. My daughters admire my feminism in every other way but this is like an article of faith. I will point out at another time that if one wants to critisize a book, it would be very relevant to have read it.

I wonder how people who merely parrot this guff exist on the real world. Didn’t trump kill them off by suggesting people could ingest Lysol?

Unfortunately it is still going on. Some people are very attached to the idea. They can't defend it, but they won't let it go.

I left a book group because of all the nonsense about her latest book being a 900 + page attack on trans people (it isn't) with the plot revolving entirely around trans people being murderers (that's not the plot) just because she hates trans people so much (she doesn't).

The person I disagreed with was using the RIP hash tag and says that's fine, it's not a death threat, it's a way of saying "your books are dead to me now." Fuck off. If you use RIP in relation to a living person then you are a bullying piece of shit. How is JK Rowling or any other person that gets used on meant to take it, if not a threat? Maybe the majority using it wouldn't follow through on the threat but there's always that risk that one person will see all those RIPs and go further. And if they do, anyone whose used that hashtag is just as guilty. My opinion was not well received.

That group was filled with the Be Kind Mafia, virtue signalling how lovely they all are while being absolutely vile themselves. Not a critically thinking brain cell between them. I'm quite angry about the way she's been treated, if you can't tell.

@toffeebutterpopcorn

I wonder how people who merely parrot this guff exist on the real world. Didn’t trump kill them off by suggesting people could ingest Lysol?

the people who parrot this guff are by and large left-leaning, liberal young people - nothing like the Trump base who are generally anti-trans for non-feminist reasons - it is in Trump-leaning states that the legislation stopping transgender sports participation is happening. My dd is a feminist who is a strong analytical thinker and writer - acing philosophy and systems of government in university (and of course is highly unlikely to end up in a women's prison or homeless shelter). This is like a huge blind spot for most of this generation - and a significant majority of my generation. No discussion of how it impacts women is allowed. That women might be affected negatively is almost never mentioned in the news here in the US and when it is it is mostly along the lines of "well of course transwomen in sports does require a compromise from someone - it should be women who compromise"

(The trump nonsense was merely as an example of the type of lie that travels halfway around the world before truth gets its boots on - to steal a phrase).

Massive dumplings sound fabulous!

I was really disappointed but actually more surprised that this kind of view was being expressed in public (on a train to Cardiff of all places) rather than just online.

It makes me really sad. I've always recommend Harry Potter to parents as I teach year 4 and the first one is a great independent or parent supported read.

I've had barely literate kids have a reading passion due to her books.
One girl with autism it changed her life and no doubt set her on a path to becoming a literature professor (reading Hobbit at eight)
I've had kids absolutely desperate to read the next one and begging their parents for permission as the content got gradually darker.

Her books are such a wonderful gateway into reading and the generation currently slagging her off benefitted a great deal from what they did for literacy levels as a whole.
I will continue to recommend them as she's a brilliant writer.
She's also a good and kind person, but even if she was terribly transphobic her books aren't.
I mean Cs Lewis is in virtually every school library in the land and his actual books have racist and sexist themes running through them. But we recognise the power in his writing for young people and it'd be unfair to deny them the key to a magical world for virtue signalling.
Lewis Carroll was also dodgy but I don't see anyone boycotting Alice in Wonderland.
Utterly pathetic.

I wonder what the ‘ingredient X’ is that gets you banned...?

'How can you have beef with J.K. Rowling when she's never even heard of you, you inconsequential little shitbag?' is what I'd be thinking but would be too Hazarika-ed to say. God, the egocentrism of these people.

@MouseyTheVampireSlayer interesting that you mention CSLewis, I was a child in the '60s where in most books girls had rubbish roles: thinking of the Famous 5 where Anne just kept house and George wanted to be a boy to have adventures. In the Narnia books one of the strongest character is the youngest girl. I still remember the thrill aged about 8, of reading her retort to her brother when he said 'girls can't carry maps in their heads': she responded by saying 'that's because our heads have something in them'.

And just to stay on topic: when the Body Shop lost my custom forever last year, over their vile treatment of JKR, I told a friend why and though she is a very apolitical 'quiet life' person, she was horrified and said she wouldn't shop there again, despite it's perfume being her favourite.

(Or maybe that's off topic as it isn't about idiots who deliberately or otherwise diss JKR...bedtime beckons!)

Dumplings here too. And I’m totally using that in future. And now oddly hungry.

I think in the main people either don't know or don't care about what JK has supposedly done. It's mostly randoms on the internet.

I didn't put it in my OP but the two young women were probably mid 20s and I was fairly certain I heard one say she was a single mum (therefore the betrayal/discretion/beef was somehow worse?)

@Liftwantedaroundtheworld

I'm in a FB group that requires all posts about Harry Potter to come with a trigger warning 🙄

This is priceless 😂😂😂

One ray of sunshine to share on this:
I was taking a public speaking exercise at work this week- 20 14 years olds in the room talking (and challenging each other’s views) on the topic ‘the person who most inspires me is…’

One of the brightest girls spoke brilliantly about how amazing she thinks JKR is and all of her achievements.

I held my breath. None of the other kids objected.

I had to observe professional nonchalance but I was so happy inside