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?

Conversations about JKR's 'transphobia' always follow a predicable, tiresome path -

'JKR is soooo transphobic!'
'Oh, OK. What has she said?'
She's written loads about how she hates trans people!'
Do you mean her essay in which she described her experience as a domestic and sexual abuse survivor and the need for single sex spaces? Have you read it?'
'I don't need to! She's sooo transphobic!'

No debate, no evidence just tiresome repetition of mantras.

I was just on Buzzfeed (don't judge!) reading a Harry Potter post and there is still a disclaimer at the end of every post even tangentially linked with Harry Potter or JKR which basically says that Buzzfeed supports trans rights and the right for people to still like the world which JKR created, while absolutely hating her. As pp posters have said, are there similar disclaimers for other public figures which are 'problematic'? There might be a mention of such behaviour but there's no link to support groups or fundraising.

@Blankspace101

I think she’s pretty much burned here bridges with the younger generation. We can challenge them and even if they can’t explain what she has done wrong, it doesn’t seem to change their mind.

Not with my teens

They think she's fab for her work and especially so for her stance on women's rights.

Whatever happened to that daft story about how she'd named Robert Galbraith after a doctor who carried out gay conversion therapy experiments.

It was nonsense, was there any grain of truth to it? How did it come about?

@Blankspace101

I think she’s pretty much burned here bridges with the younger generation. We can challenge them and even if they can’t explain what she has done wrong, it doesn’t seem to change their mind.

I wonder how many will still turn up this time next year to watch the next Fantastic Beasts film? I know I will be.

@lazylinguist

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.

That's the best approach with teenagers. They hate the idea that you may be right and will say "I told you so" so they dig their heels in. By giving her nothing to go on the defensive about, she can come in to the light in her own time.

@Pudmyboy i was thinking of the later books as I think they get progressively worse in terms of racism and sexism. In the lion the witch and the wardrobe the girls have been told it's not proper to fight unless in defence.
By book seven (spoilers)

Susan has been cast out for committing the cardinal sin of wanting to go to dances and marry. The rest of book seven is a white supremacists' wet dream.

Despite that they're still good books (they just need to come with a parental guidance sticker !)

Blankspace101

I think she’s pretty much burned here bridges with the younger generation. We can challenge them and even if they can’t explain what she has done wrong, it doesn’t seem to change their mind.

Yeah. Well that's an absolutely fucking bollocks statement around here.

I can't have beef with jk because I don't eat meat.
But she'd be welcome to come for tofu for my fantasy dinner party.

Dd isn't remotely interested in Harry Potter, and never has been.
She loves JKR, and it was her that brought it up with me for a discussion.
I'm v proud.

@rabbitwoman

Whatever happened to that daft story about how she'd named Robert Galbraith after a doctor who carried out gay conversion therapy experiments.

It was nonsense, was there any grain of truth to it? How did it come about?

Even some haters admitted it was nonsense. If you look at the wikipedia page for Robert Galbraith Heath, you can see from the article history that there was no mention on there of the experiments at the time JKR first published a book under the RG name, so would've been unlikely to have ever heard of it. It's not an uncommon name.

From other sources he tended to be referred to as Robert Heath anyway.

Not RTFT

She's a very successful, lefty, feminist woman who speaks out about stuff.

Of course loads of people are keen to hate her.

I wonder if these people take such s firm ethical stance around all artists authors musicians etc who have done something they think is bad.

Guessing not.

The movies are in trouble; Hollywood types are sick of dealing with the fallout.

www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/06/11/box-office-fantastic-beasts-doomed-ezra-miller-johnny-depp-jk-rowling-x-men-divergent-terminator/amp/

Sorry but JKR is by no stretch of the imagination 'Lefty'.

You just need to look at who some of the characters she mutually backslaps on twitter are to realise that.

There are a million and one reasons to find her utterly objectionable that are nothing whatsoever to do with any perceived 'transphobia'.

Ah yes, Twitter likes. An excellent way to assess someone's character.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

Sorry but JKR is by no stretch of the imagination 'Lefty'.

You just need to look at who some of the characters she mutually backslaps on twitter are to realise that.

There are a million and one reasons to find her utterly objectionable that are nothing whatsoever to do with any perceived 'transphobia'.

I'm guessing you're one of those people who calls Keir Starmer 'Keith' and rants about him being a 'closet Tory' & claims the right-wing in Labour 'worked to deliver a Labour defeat'.

For the majority of people, Rowling meets the criteria for being 'of the Left'.

She donated to the Labour Party.

Indeed, behind the outrage about her being a 'transphobe' is a history of attacks on her because she openly questioned Corbyn's electability as a Leader. And I think she also raised the issue of antisemitism in the Labour Party under Corbyn.

That enraged a certain section of Twitter. (I suspect you would see that section as being 'true' Left ...)

There followed an onslaught, accusing Rowling of being anti-Semitic.

It was horrible. I suspect it was co-ordinated, too. Many of the Corbyn outriders (who we know were linked on social media accounts, sharing the message they wanted to get out) all tweeted remarkably similar messages.

And following that, there was just a constant attack on her for not being supportive of Corbyn.

The charge of anti-semitism against Rowling was particularly heinous, since it was used to essentially cover for the terrible problem Corbyn's Labour had.

And it grieved me to witness it.

It's worth remembering that this predated the 'furore' over her remarks on the trans issue. And I think it is an issue underlying the response to those remarks.

But, yes, she has 'lefty' credentials.

And you'd have to be quite daft not to pick up on the general progressive liberalism in her books, along with the satirical references to education policy under Thatcher in the later books.

But, hey, crack-on with claiming anyone and everyone isn't Lefty and pure enough. S great strategy for electoral success ...

Very much still a thing. I actually think being highly intelligent is not a barrier but an aid to the cognitive dissonance required. The more intelligent you are, the more able you are to tie your mind into knots. That's why universities are in such a dire state.

a couple of months ago, DS1 said something about JK which I questioned, he said but I only know you who thinks like that, everyone I know on line has said she has written some awful things......

I just asked "have you actually read her statement? or any of her other posts?"

DS "well err no"

me "I have........."

"go and read them, then you can make your mind up for yourself, and then we can talk about it" "until then you should reserve judgement and not just parrot what others say, who probably haven't read it either. ever heard of Chinese whisperers?"

he just looked embarrassed.

There are a million and one reasons to find her utterly objectionable that are nothing whatsoever to do with any perceived 'transphobia'.

Like what?

Like what?

Being female and highly successful, perhaps? Those are biggies!

[quote Lisz]The movies are in trouble; Hollywood types are sick of dealing with the fallout.

www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2020/06/11/box-office-fantastic-beasts-doomed-ezra-miller-johnny-depp-jk-rowling-x-men-divergent-terminator/amp/[/quote]
Thanks for reminding me. I haven't seen "Grindelwald" yet. Just ordered the DVD.

@XDownwiththissortofthingX

Sorry but JKR is by no stretch of the imagination 'Lefty'.

You just need to look at who some of the characters she mutually backslaps on twitter are to realise that.

There are a million and one reasons to find her utterly objectionable that are nothing whatsoever to do with any perceived 'transphobia'.

Such as?

[quote Pudmyboy]@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'.[/quote]
Timely: www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/enid-blyton-racist-english-heritage-20838522

Of course Blyton was racist and xenophobic in the 1950s. The whole of society (as a whole) was racist, sexist and xenophobic!

Whitewashing history is wrong. It's a shame, because some of those books could be used to teach children how far we've come as a society and how different it used to be for women and racial minorities.