Is JK Rowling ‘too big to be cancelled’?

[IwantToRetire]

When JK Rowling dared police to arrest her for challenging Scotland’s new hate crime law, one outcome was assured – the multi-billion-pound Harry Potter brand continues to be a licence to print money whatever controversy surrounds her vocal campaigns.

The author, whose provocative posts this week will not be treated as criminal by police, has become one of the few public figures who appear to be “too big to cancel”, due to the enduring appeal of her wizarding franchise for big business.

Accused of transphobia for her vocal support for sex-based rights, Rowling has faced calls for a boycott of Harry Potter, from its books and movies to the blockbuster video game Hogwarts Legacy.

Potter movie actors including Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson joined the backlash, criticising her comments.

Younger staff members at one of her publishers, Hachette, threatened to down tools and refuse to work on her book, The Ickabog, in protest at her views.

Rowling has said she is not concerned about how the backlash to her position on transgender issues – she has stated that sex is biological and that female-only spaces should be protected – will affect her legacy.

She had added that anyone who thinks she is concerned has “profoundly” misunderstood her.

Corporations which might normally distance themselves from public figures who face “cancellation” for offending minority groups are standing by her.

Hachette pulled rank on its staff, saying it was “proud to publish” The Ickabog, citing “freedom of expression” as a cornerstone of publishing.

The BBC is currently shooting season six of Strike, the detective novels published by Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
A ratings winner for the BBC, the broadcaster is expecting additional scrutiny of the new episodes which adapt The Ink Black Heart, the novel which echoes her situation with the inclusion of a character accused of transphobia.

The BBC has had to apologise twice to Rowling after guests on news shows accused her of being transphobic.

The author has seized control of her own narrative by appearing on the podcast The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, claiming that she is not concerned that the backlash will affect her legacy and that anyone who thinks she is transphobic has “profoundly” misunderstood her.

Its a much longer article than these few paragraphs, but I am surprised by the tone as it is published in the "i" paper https://inews.co.uk/news/media/jk-rowling-too-big-to-cancel-2987608

Can also be read at https://archive.ph/KavRe

She has opinions..Some people will agree, some won't.

Andrew Doyle - Cancel Culture Is Real - he covers JKR in an interesting overview.

I mean - to a large amount of people she has already been ‘cancelled’. However she continues to exist, of course. She cannot be financially ruined by being cancelled, and she doesn’t appear to GAF about reputations damage. Very vexing for the cancellers, I expect.

I suspect it’s not some sort of conspiracy aligned ‘too big to be cancelled’ type of thing.

It’s actually that the people trying to do the cancelling are neither as numerous nor as widely supported in their positions as they would like to believe.

And that’s a good thing.

She’s too huge to be ‘cancelled’ in full but it’s got to be damaging in lots of ways - projects she’s a part of trying to distance themselves. Other people she would like to support she might choose to stay quiet so as not to cause controversy over their event/product.

I suspect on the whole what it’s given her is a massive headache. Like needing to wear glasses. Lots of aspects of her life will have this additional lens/viewpoint to consider - security, social media, contracts etc.

Her enormous talent in writing gives her a shield for many things, but her vocal shining support for women’s rights is not without cost. I’m glad she can financially afford it, and I’m so grateful she chooses to bear the burdens other than financial on our behalf.

I think her viewpoint is quietly but widely popular.

I’m reminded of a small thread a couple of years back asking people what feminism has ruined that they previously enjoyed.

the thread was a great romp through some really shit but fun movies, songs, books etc. reminiscing on a time when we didn’t overthink life without our patriarchy glasses on

I dont say this lightly but I really hope she has top notch personal security (think ex SAS standard), because the only way she can be silenced is literally and some of the more bonkers TRA's seem to love the idea of murdering un believers.

I don't like her at all. She seems to be stirring up trouble for troubles sake. Not on.

Out of all the people who buy HP books, watch the films or pay money towards the franchise in any other way the number who will stop due to their dislike of her opinion is tiny.

Yes some people will boycott her but HP is far too big. I imagine that the percentage who even know she has said something is small.

She cannot be financially ruined by being cancelled.
This. She has the protection that $1 billion brings.
Which makes her teflon.

If you honestly feel this to be the case then you really haven’t understood the issue. You’ve taken the trouble to actually post on this thread so it must have piqued your interest - stick around, read a few threads and you might begin to realise why someone might want to put their head above the parapet like JKR has. I hope you come to understand that her motivation is not to ‘stir up trouble’!

Yep. Pesky woman fighting for safe spaces for other women. Why can't she just #bekind?

But it’s not for trouble’s sake. It’s for the safety and opportunity of women and girls .. sake.

This. I think it’s a small proportion of people who are very vocal who’d like to cancel her. A bunch of vocal terfs who are on here who would like to support her. Then there is the other 90% of the population who don’t give a shit about the issue.

Judging by the reaction on Twitter, JK has a huge amount of support and her opinions are very widely shared. She could be the one to bring down the ideology.

What if she said something you agree with? Would you think she was stirring up trouble then?

Oh no! You dont like her! I sure JKR will be devastated, devastated I tell you to hear that. Meanwhile, the trouble as you put it (by which most on here regard as. lets see-male rapists in women prisons, the sterilising of kids with experimental drugs, women athletes being cheated out of records and prizes by men and a few other things) remains true whether or not you think any of that matters. if you do think that stuff matters, what are we supposed to do? Shut up in case some people regard us as "troublemakers"? Fuck that for a lark.

Don’t forget the number of people who support her but fear for their jobs if they say something out loud.

Hasn't she said before that she speaks up because not everyone who wants to can. Because most women can't afford to potentially lose their jobs/have a court case etc. But she can afford to.

I think she's great and am pleased that she has a voice that can't easily be silenced.

I hope she is. She's magnificent.

What I took from the article is cynical capitalism.

As we know many other people, mostly women but some like Glinner, have been cancelled. And it has been at great cost to their employment, family live, reputation etc.. And this isn't because a huge number of people have objected to them, but a small minority of very persistents TRAs.

And those with the money or ability to make sure they aren't cancelled have weighed up the financial cost to themselves and thought these people aren't that important, and even though we previously published them (or whatever) because we want to ingratiate ourselves with what seems like the new vogue ie trans we will take a gamble on backing them.

Initially it seemed like even the film companies were going to ditch, and did indeed sideline JKR, and tried to exploit her work without having her involved.

But what happened is that the creative powerhouse of her work just kept on being produced, and importantly for those who could have pulled the plug, kept on bringing in zillions of ££££s.

I very much doubt these companies or producers care either way. They just care which way the money is flowing.

So in no way disrespectful to JKR, she hasn't been cancelled because of her huge earning power.

Which is great for her and for us as she uses her status to promote women's sex based rights.

But for those on the fringes without the same income generating power, being cancelled can and does still happen.

So the power of the trans zealots only becomes real when employers, financiers, film makers, theatres heed the zealots rather than the paying public.

In a way that makes the whole scenario even worse.

But then most TRAs are bullies, and as we know bullies like to pick on those less able to help themselves and / or have the means to do it.

Would have been interesting if the writer of the article had stopped for a moment to reflect on the role of the MSM in terms of amplifying the voices of TRAs.

Something that the "i" has been very active in.

@Viviennemary "Stirring up trouble"? No, telling the truth and fighting for the rights and safety of women and girls. The "trouble" is being "stirred up" by misogynistic/predatory men and their inexplicable allies amongst impressionable and sometimes mentally disordered young people.

I am very glad that 'she is stirring up trouble' as somebody put it above. Many, many of us agree with every word she says but can't risk saying it ourselves and also we won't get the important news coverage which lays it all out plainly and hopefully helps the scales fall from more eyes.