The Witch Trials of JK Rowling

[CrossPurposes]

An in-depth intervietw with JK Rowling by Megan Phelps-Roper coming next week: twitter.com/meganphelps/status/1625465141046247425?s=20

If you want to read about the interaction between JK Rowling and the media and social media, you can read this:

theweek.com/feature/1020838/jk-rowlings-transphobia-controversy-a-complete-timeline

That’s a baldly incorrect and misogynist article; really shocked you had the ovaries to post such drivel.

Or rather, I should say, that they had the ovaries to publish it.

What a ridiculous article. As usual, it fails to list anything JKR has said that is at all hateful towards trans people, or untrue. The reason people say that there are two sexes and that you can't change sex is that it's a fact.

What a smart woman JKR is, to choose this project. I’m wondering how many other approaches she’s had and turned down- too many to count, I’d assume.

You’re right @NoSquirrels. I think it says a lot about her character that she didn’t choose to give over so much of her time to a podcast proposal that was all about her and her side of the debate.

You're right @Sunnava, I should have found an article that was far less biased. That's a lesson for me: don't assume that a middle-of-the-road periodical like The Week will make an effort to show journalistic balance when the subject is contentious.

My apologies as well — I did t realise initially that you had posted it in good faith!

Isn't it sad that journalism has become so biased and awful that we can't even assume any more that anything stated is true?

Today’s episode was good but I was also infuriated that neither Helen Lewis - or anyone - hammered home the point that most trans women keep their male anatomy. That is one of the most central points here when talking about women’s spaces. When people hear the word “transition” or GRC they think it means no penises. It very much does not mean that.

Also JK came across as an absolute hero today (when talking about how she felt compelled to speak up) and incredibly intelligent. I was always a huge fan of the books (hated the films, dreadful actors) and this has clarified why exactly they are so brilliant. She’s so clever and has such an intrinsic understanding of human nature.

New episode released today.

I've been trying to find the episode where Contrapoints appears. I must keep zoning out at the crucial moment or something! Can anyone advise which episode it's in? Thanks!

3rd episode. But it’s very brief. I’m assuming CP will appear again in later episodes.

Great, thanks @Signalbox

No Sorry the 4th episode (last week’s episode) I think 🤔

Honestly a bit annoyed by them ending the episode with a crying trans person who is "fighting for basic access to participate in society". Even so, JK cannot come across as other than fair and compassionate.

Just listened to new episode - and they are trying to balance things. Honestly some young women are their own worst enemies

The ending is usually a bit of a teaser for next week, so I wonder if next week will be about people's hurt and reaction by the non-violent trans community and JKR's response to those arguments.

Then the seventh - a kind of rounding up of all the threads so far? A what-happens-next? A call to arms?

That was a good listen. The previous episodes have largely been providing the context for this one, the one in which the big stuff that made the news happened. It provides an account from JKR about what led her to stand up and to make her first explicit gender critical tweet.

This is the the episode the critics were waiting for, JKR giving the condensed version of what happened. But had the series started here I think much would have been missing and in particular the useful context of why when JKR did decide to intervene it was into a atmosphere that was ready to explode.

What was especially satisfying to listen to is that in response to JKR setting out some reasonable fears, the incredibly misogynist and threatening tsunami of abuse made very clear that her fears were actually understated to a significant degree.

Was CP crying? I thought they had a cold!

It was a good one this week. Worth listening to all the other fantastic episodes for. 🥳

Excellent episode this week. I thought the juxtapositioning of JKR reading from her essay with the verbal reactions was very well done, and highlighted exactly where the issue is.
You have a woman speaking politely about how she wants both women and trans women to be safe, followed by someone shrieking "What the fuck did I just read?" and furious male-voiced denunciations.
It makes it so incredibly clear that what she is being accused of bears no relation to reality.

It also makes it clear that the panicked and angry respondees had not actually read JKR's essay. OR if they had, they were reading through the red mist of bigotry and intolerance, or their comprehension skills were very compromised, or non-existent.

It is an excellent series. I don't know enough about the various websites they talk about to know how accurate the whole narrative is, but it does give good context for what has happened. JKR is wonderfully calm and comes across incredibly well.

Finished off episode 5 in the car this morning. It's one of those rare podcasts that I'll listen to again I think.

I'm finding it fascinating. I was very much not an early adopter of the Internet or social media (or indeed a Harry Potter fan), so the content in episode 3 about fandoms and tumblr was mainly new to me and helped me make sense of so many of the things that have happened since. Onto episode 4 now....