Harry Potter and the Ongoing Spat

[JsmeLegie]

I see she is now claiming that she was never actually friends with Fry.

Link here: https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/jk-rowling-stephen-fry-friends-b1234360.html

In support of Fry, barrister Jo Maugham stated “Really creditable this, from Stephen Fry. I've spoken to so many of JKR's once friends who now despair at her privately but won't do so publicly, which is very much the British way and why nothing ever changes for the better. So well done Stephen.”

Now Casey Bloys, CEO of the network working on a new HP series, has felt the need to clarify on a podcast that the forthcoming series won't be infused with her controversial views, insisting that her views are entirely separate to the show they're making.

And, as one of the latest celebrities to decide to speak out, Boy George weighed in at the beginning of the month with a few observations of his own (see attached image).

So the question here, really, is just how long are certain people going to blindly insist that JKR is an infallible saint when the (increasing) evidence from multiple sources is to the contrary?

Yes, she has funded a lot of good and charitable works for women, that is not in question, but at what point do we as a society finally agree that a human being is not absolved of horrendous behaviour in one part of their life simply because they compensate for it by doing a few good works in another?

Or perhaps you disagree entirely with all her detractors and feel she is unfairly treated / misunderstood / misquoted?
I'd like to hear your views. They are guaranteed to create an interesting dialogue.

Even keeping aside Boy George’s violent and drug-fuelled behaviour in the past (!) — what makes him and Stephen Fry gay men, if there’s no such thing as biological sex? Which means there’s no such thing as sexual orientation? Why not sleep with and/or marry women?

JK Rowling has spent millions of pounds setting up Beira’s Place, a refuge for women. She has also spent millions on research into MS, plus funds Lumos, a charity for disadvantaged children. She has been a philanthropist for 25 years.

She has also used her position for good by openly supporting women and girls at a time when everyone else was scared to, when people were being cancelled for saying that men can’t be women, and for that I will always be grateful. Always.

She has a been a lone beacon of common sense and calm in a world that seems to have gone fucking mad.

And if she goes a bit further than I would sometimes, so what? I don’t agree with everything she posts. But her beliefs are very common ones, ones that most people hold but that most people have been bullied into hiding, because the trans rights lobby is so powerful.

All credibility is lost when Boy George is used as a character witness 😑

Exactly! Who else op? Prince Andrew?

The idea that someone who supports an ideology that wants to conduction medical experiments on children can accuse of JKR of 'hurting young kids' would be laughable if it weren't disturbingly sick.

And she was doing Hannibal from the A Team not Winston Churchill, Boy Moron.

assuming OP is actually a TERF double agent at this point as the idea that boy george, Fry and the fox botherer are standards by which ppl should be judged is 😆

still thanks for giving us a good laugh!

I remember the days when my Ex used to tell my family that he'd discussed my "mental condition" with my friends and they all agreed there was something fundamentally wrong with me and he was so brave to stay with me.

When challenged there was no friend he could name - obviously! Some people - like SF - have no power to gaslight so they try to lend gravitas to their theories by including 'friends who worry' to their narrative

Personally I have not read/heard anything that JK has stated that hasn't been in defence of women or herself or both. She has the right to do that.

I'm really not sure about what you want from this thread. Why would we care about minor celebs; are we not capable of free thought? Are you even asking for an opinion, or are you expecting us to say we raise our pitchforks towards the Highlands?

@JsmeLegie are you coming back to your 'discussion'?

Fry has a very young husband who I expect influences his opinion. Fry's just a pathetic old duffer trying to keep his husband happy.

https://open.substack.com/pub/malcolmrichardclark/p/stephen-fry-and-his-boy-problem?utmsource=share&utmmedium=android&r=8zuo4

Archive link http://archive.today/LOyCK

This piece by Malcolm Clark should be read before you jump to the defence of Stephen Fry. Malcolm Clark is doing brilliant investigative journalism into men who support the violation of women's boundaries.

You mean Stephen Fry who has a criminal conviction for fraud and Boy George who has a criminal conviction for chaining a gay man to a radiator and beating him? I think neither of them are in any position to judge anyone else’s character.

I must say when I have an ethical dilemma my first go to is not usually “now what would Stephen fry or Boy George think?”

No one’s saying she’s ‘an infallible saint’, but - you gotta admit - she’s pretty fucking cool?! 😎

The fact that Boy George can even show his face (metaphorically) in public blows me away.

The guilt and shame of what i had done would be corrosive. I don’t think I’d ever get over it.
So, for him to be publicly moralising about JKR is a bit fucking rich.

“…perhaps more philosophically, about whether a person's good works in one field entitle them to misbehave with impunity in another.”
After what boy George did I can not believe he is still a public figure.

Man. Expected behaviour for same. If a woman had done what Boy George did they'd be screaming about it for years, with references to Myra Hindley and Rose West.

Boy George the violent abuse , Fry the admirer of blokes who raped poor children in north Africa and southern Europe, and Maugham the grifting loser of court cases.

Vs

Rowling the massively popular best-selling writer, philanthropist, and wit?

gosh I don't know. I'd better side with her in case she has some magic way of preventing me from reading her next book.

Tell you what though, if that £1,000,000 for a verifiable quote from her saying anything bad is still on the table, Maugham should type it up - he needs the dosh.

Is Reddit closed or something?

It genuinely made me laugh out loud with incredulity. So I'm grateful to the OP because it's always nice to start the day with a laugh!

As for SF, the sanctimonious tool. I suspect the fact the JKR is a intelligent woman whose mind and imagination has put zillions in her bank account is what really riles him as he always strikes me as someone who views himself as a superior intelligent being to the rest of us.
The fact that he spent years around JKR and was probably unable to outshine her has possibly always grated on him.

I would really like someone to link up there example of her ‘attacks’ and ‘horrendous behaviour’.

Because I am finding that everyone who declares she attacks individuals cannot post examples where she had posted her reaction to abusive male people, mostly directly abusing her. Someone on a thread accused her of attacking Barbra Banda when in fact, they obviously had never read her tweet which was criticising the BBC for awarding Banda the female footballer of the year. And it could be said that Banda’a actions as a male footballer has been abusive to women. But either way, JKR did not attack Banda in the way the poster said at all.

It is coming across very much like people read commentary about JKR and believe it or see comments and don’t understand the context. Or they don’t understand that in wanting to control her reaction, they are supporting her abusers.

So please, if you are criticising her attacking individuals, link up this evidence.

This is what I find so weird about people and their obsession with celebrities. Celebrities have colleagues just like we do. They may work together on something for absolute years and then never see or speak to each again. Just like we do. What’s wrong with that? I don’t speak to most colleagues from previous jobs, even places I worked at for years.

It really irritates me when celebrities are constantly asked their thoughts on essentially ex-colleagues or people they may have had a passing link to. Because I quite frankly couldn’t care less about what Brenda the administrator from two jobs ago is doing now or her thoughts on global politics.

Yes. See also Philip Pullman. So salty about only being one of the UK's most successful children's authors and not the most successful. And being beaten to that title by a mere woman, ugh!

Bloody women!
They'll be allowed to vote next!

Sometimes I wonder whether not being married to women and not having daughters makes some gay men even less receptive to arguments about women's rights than other men.

Uni hols and a levels over.