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

It’s extraordinary that, in a world where so many demonstrably bad people do so many demonstrably bad things, this good, talented, empathic, truthful woman is monstered by so many.

I think it might be partly because the target audience for her most famous/successful work are children so don’t know/give a shit about the argument for cancelling her.

I get that there are plenty of young (or not so young anymore) adults who grew up with her books and the films and seems to feel a certain ownership over them and that JKR somehow owes them something and should conform to their thinking, but in reality there is also a generation of kids who are discovering and in thrall to the Harry Potter stories who neither know nor care about the trans controversies.

Are you a woman, @Viviennemary?

It's so the very opposite of trouble for troubles sake. She's using her position for women.

Sure, and it’s only about one thing - money. She is a cash cow for hundreds, maybe thousands, of people (and that’s not meant pejoratively). The books, the Strike TV shows, the rumoured Harry Potter TV series…some people’s incomes depend on her, essentially.

She knows she's in a very fortunate position

"Rowling felt we were going through the most misogynistic era ever and had decided to speak up. This cannot have been easy. She told me, “It’s going to have to be me, isn’t it? Because I will always be able to feed my kids, even if everyone boycotts my books for the rest of my life. That is a phenomenally privileged position to be in. I consider myself one of the most fortunate people on Earth.”

But equally, she didn't have to do it.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2024/04/05/jk-rowling-courage-snp-scotland-hate-crime-law-humza-yousaf/

Plus, of course, there will be very few people who could do it quite so well.

If you want someone writing about your point of view, one of the world's bestselling authors is probably going be right up there !

If you read the comments under Suzanne Moore's article - 850 so far - they're all in support and full of praise for her.

She's courageous and is uncompromising in her determination to safeguard children and support women in the face of this toxic ideology.

So what I'm hearing is 'well obviously she is right but why is she using her financial weight and social credentials (traditional male levers) to drive it home instead of doing it in a feminine way '.

It's because she gives a fuck!

Ahh see when all this kicked of with JK Rowling they did try to cancel her, the hipsters and the young publishing staff and the young actors in the films and it almost seemed like they would succeed because the older people who employ them who actually recognise facts were too scared to call bullshit in case they got cancelled.
Tide's turned now.

Because we should all keep quiet and accept the erasure of women as a sex class and the demolition of our single-sex rights without complaining.

To hell with that.

I don't think she's got a great deal of interest in being "popular" which remains a way that a very wealthy person can be affected by cancel culture.

Anyway, I've been so impressed by the way she's dealt with it all. The tweet today further clarifying her position (for those at the back who don't get it yet) was a powerful piece of writing.

twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1776616861888655835?t=uMTZuuBYwVJ91I9X1BHz9w&s=19

She seems to be stirring up trouble for troubles women and girl’s sakes

Fixed that for you.

I think she's stirring up trouble but not for trouble's sake. She's fighting to protect women and girls. She's stirring up what ppl in the US call "good trouble", the kind of trouble that's usually necessary to change the status quo.

It's a term made famous by civil rights leader and US Congressman John Lewis:

"Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble."

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America [Scotland].”

For those not on twitter so cant see what JKR said:

J.K. Rowling

You’ve asked me several questions on this thread and accused me of avoiding answering, so here goes.

I believe a woman is a human being who belongs to the sex class that produces large gametes. It’s irrelevant whether or not her gametes have ever been fertilised, whether or not she’s carried a baby to term, irrelevant if she was born with a rare difference of sexual development that makes neither of the above possible, or if she’s aged beyond being able to produce viable eggs. She is a woman and just as much a woman as the others.

I don’t believe a woman is more or less of a woman for having sex with men, women, both or not wanting sex at all. I don’t think a woman is more or less of a woman for having a buzz cut and liking suits and ties, or wearing stilettos and mini dresses, for being black, white or brown, for being six feet tall or a little person, for being kind or cruel, angry or sad, loud or retiring. She isn't more of a woman for featuring in Playboy or being a surrendered wife, nor less of a woman for designing space rockets or taking up boxing. What makes her a woman is the fact of being born in a body that, assuming nothing has gone wrong in her physical development (which, as stated above, still doesn't stop her being a woman), is geared towards producing eggs as opposed to sperm, towards bearing as opposed to begetting children, and irrespective of whether she's done either of those things, or ever wants to.

Womanhood isn't a mystical state of being, nor is it measured by how well one apes sex stereotypes. We are not the creatures either porn or the Bible tell you we are. Femaleness is not, as trans woman Andrea Chu Long wrote, ‘an open mouth, an expectant asshole, blank, blank eyes,’ nor are we God’s afterthought, sprung from Adam’s rib.

Women are provably subject to certain experiences because of our female bodies, including different forms of oppression, depending on the cultures in which we live. When trans activists say 'I thought you didn't want to be defined by your biology,' it’s a feeble and transparent attempt at linguistic sleight of hand. Women don't want to be limited, exploited, punished, or subject to other unjust treatment because of their biology, but our being female is indeed defined by our biology. It's one material fact about us, like having freckles or disliking beetroot, neither of which are representative of our entire beings, either. Women have billions of different personalities and life stories, which have nothing to do with our bodies, although we are likely to have had experiences men don't and can't, because we belong to our sex class.

Some people feel strongly that they should have been, or wish to be seen as, the sex class into which they weren't born. Gender dysphoria is a real and very painful condition and I feel nothing but sympathy for anyone who suffers from it. I want them to be free to dress and present themselves however they like and I want them to have exactly the same rights as every other citizen regarding housing, employment and personal safety. I do not, however, believe that surgeries and cross-sex hormones literally turn a person into the opposite sex, nor do I believe in the idea that each of us has a nebulous ‘gender identity’ that may or might not match our sexed bodies. I believe the ideology that preaches those tenets has caused, and continues to cause, very real harm to vulnerable people.

I am strongly against women's and girls' rights and protections being dismantled to accommodate trans-identified men, for the very simple reason that no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men don't have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men, and because, however they identify, men retain their advantages of speed and strength. In other words, I think the safety and rights of girls and women are more important than those men's desire for validation. I sincerely hope that answers your questions.

You may still disagree, but as I hope this shows, I’m more than happy to have this debate.

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1776616861888655835?t=uMTZuuBYwVJ91I9X1BHz9w&s=19

Well I think that summed it all up perfectly.

And she’s punny, humour is very human.

Thanks and credit to Latticed-Kestrel on Ovarit.

https://ovarit.com/o/Radfemmery/547929/i-love-this-new-timeline/0a2d2cc1-e38d-4717-a41b-ff1219c56e5f#comment-0a2d2cc1-e38d-4717-a41b-ff1219c56e5f

Here are a few more for your entertainment:

1. There’s no real importance of biological sex since most people haven’t karotyped their chromosomes.

JKR Reply (the original tweet that starts the series): Yep. I'm still amazed all three of our kids chose to gestate inside me, because I thought it was 50/50 they'd come to term inside one of Neil's testicles. By coincidence, my father never gave birth out of his balls, either. Random luck or ancestral curse? I doubt we'll ever know.

1. So weird. All three of my kids chose my uterus as well. Crazy

JKR Reply: What are the odds?! I can't believe we haven't been asked to make a Netflix documentary together!

1. One of my testicles is larger than the other and I fear I might be pregnant.

JKR Reply: OK, don't panic. It might just be bloated because your period's due.

1. The amazing coincidence of everyone gestating inside a womb since the beginning of time. What're the odds, huh?

JKR Reply: Whatever the odds are, they'll be a social construct.

1. So even though we have all girl parts, and have monthly cycles, get pregnant, give birth, go through menopause, we should still get tested to see if we’re really chicks? (GIF of confused person)

JKR Reply: None of that gross biological stuff matters. The only true test of a woman is whether she has magical lady feelings that make her submissive and cute and frilly and pink. Where's your anime avatar? Do you even take selfies while pouting and wearing kitten ears? I despair.

1. My wife kindly carried and gave birth to our 2 children. I feel guilty for not offering. Must do better I guess 😳

JKR Reply: Let us know how you get on. We're all rooting for you.

1. It’s just science. (Educational diagram of male genitalia with addition of a fetus labeled “Baby”)

JKR Reply: That's EXACTLY what I thought was going on. I spent nearly nine months talking to his genitals so the baby would recognise my voice.

1. J.K. are you able to insert yourself in the perspective of these people? I can’t make sense of it. I try to imagine the perspective of speakers, as to relate, and I can’t here. It seems like they jumped off in the deep end.

JKR Reply: My direct experience to date is that the people saying this kind of thing sincerely believe they're far cleverer and more sophisticated than the rest of us.

(I can’t make the numbers work 🤷🏻)

Incisive and articulate argument - full of points of evidence and no recourse to personal feeling or cliche.

As others have said, come back when you've done some reading. And thinking. About little things like free speech, the safeguarding of children and women's rights. "trouble for troubles sake" Sheesh.

Well, I do like her. And I agree with her. I also happily enjoy her writing. So I have made it a point to purchase more of her work and to pay for and watch the Strike series he in Australia, I also recommend her, and her work to my network. The Strike stuff obviously not the Potter stuff, we are all well past that.

I also make a point of speaking to the young people in my life about her reasonable position on things. They are often surprised to hear she isn't some mad transphobile, and I encourage them to look up her words directly.

She may be uncancellable, but that is because "we", the normal people, who actually think about things are making her so, and are making a point with small actions.

It helps that she speaks Truth. Reality WILL reassert itself. The gender idealogy position is so bloody absurd it cannot possibly withstand widespread public scrutiny. Most people when confronted with it know it is complete bullshit. Which is why it has been pushed so secretively and importantly why it must be pushed at children. Because a functioning adult with half a brain, and no agenda won't swallow it.

Thank fuck for her ‘stirring up trouble’!

What needs to be cancelled? She’s an amazing talented author whose talent has had worldwide recognition and produced millions and millions of fans. She has voiced her opinions on a subject that is extremely emotive and those opinions are 100% true and what many people believe but are afraid to speak about. She is not saying someone who believes they were born in the wrong body/sex/gender is wrong, she’s saying the subject needs to be carefully managed and that no one party or part of society should be ignored to fit another.

As for the other actors who went against her, seriously they are pathetic crown pleasers with no balls! Pardon the pun 😬

Of course her money is a significant factor, without it she wouldn’t be a target her fame and money go hand in hand.

Last night I met a new group of people. I went to a 40th birthday party on my own and didn’t know anyone but the birthday girl. After a few drinks people opened up and as I’m not afraid to speak my mind ( I do read the room first) but literally everyone there (age 40 & up) were so relived they felt they could speak their minds on the subject. Initially they were worried as I’m a parent at one of the school a couple of them work at. All of them were afraid to really speak their minds because the majority of the group work in some form of school/childcare role. The key fact when I was asked my opinion was “ADULT” I have absolutely no issue with an “adult” who chooses or feels the need to become a member of the other sex, if someone goes through hormone therapy, operations, lived a long life as a man or woman and applied for official documentation to become that person. Then I’m all for supporting them as long as they know that they were born Y and became a Faux X and willing to accept formal acknowledgment of that. Go for it. Self ID is completely fucking wrong, forcing a 4yo child to have pronouns and sending them to preschool dressed as a girl when they are a boy and making everyone else tiptoe around them is wrong. This was the exact situation one of the ladies who manages a preschool was dealing with. What fucking 4yo knows what the fuck they want gggrrrr

I’ve always had a huge respect for her, her talent is amazing and I could not understand anyone who dose not appreciate that, whether you like her books or not.

Is she too big for cancel culture, I honestly don’t know, I hope she is. I think the difference is that most people who have been cancelled absolutely deserve it, JK 100% dose not!

It's for women's sake.

I love this. Thanks for posting.

poor men
they had forgotten
that if you
punch a woman
6 more grow
from the wound. [Joelle Taylor, The Battle of Maryville]

https://poetryarchive.org/poem/the-battle-of-maryville/

Just read this poem on another thread and it made me think of JKR and her determination to help women and sustain women's rights.

Just makes me think I will never understand poetry, I like jk tho.(not the serialisation of the strike books though, boring)