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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Duolingo: “JKR is mean”

137 replies

SidewaysOtter · 20/08/2025 09:35

https://x.com/seeredwoman1/status/1957902960148771303?s=46

Jesus, is nowhere safe from this shit?

I hope JKR’s lawyers are cracking our their very best “terse letter” pens this morning.

https://x.com/seeredwoman1/status/1957902960148771303?s=46

OP posts:
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7
Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 14:45

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:40

Yeah, I thought so.

The view that JK Rowling is "a repulsive human being" might be mainstream among Democrat voting Americans who don't have a Scooby Doo about anything that goes on outside their borders, but it's not the same in other countries.

In the UK it really is just people in trans activist echo chambers who consume too much American nonsense who hold that view. Most people either wholeheartedly agree with her or don't give a shit either way.

Well said MissScarlet 👏

edited to add: and @SidewaysOtter !

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 14:47

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:40

Yeah, I thought so.

The view that JK Rowling is "a repulsive human being" might be mainstream among Democrat voting Americans who don't have a Scooby Doo about anything that goes on outside their borders, but it's not the same in other countries.

In the UK it really is just people in trans activist echo chambers who consume too much American nonsense who hold that view. Most people either wholeheartedly agree with her or don't give a shit either way.

Yeah, I'm not so sure you're correct there.

From what I'm seeing online it's pretty much uniform that your heroine is seen in a bad light except by people who worship her.

But you're also kinda missing the point. This appeared in DL for a reason and that reason was that the general view of her is negative and so that got picked up. That's just the way it is.

But I am shocked this wasn't checked by a human being at any point (or, if it was, it got let through). Putting people in in a negative way is liable to get ya sued quick smart.
Sure, DL does include real people all the time. Angela Merkel appears regularly in their German course, and I think many famous sportspeople appear in other courses, but allowing a line about the awfulness of Rowling - despite it being a universal truth - is a bad move on the part of DL

SionnachRuadh · 29/08/2025 14:48

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:44

So I've now been Duolingo free for about a week with zero regrets.

For the last few months I've been getting to 10pm and reluctantly doing my Duolingo lessons after a panicked/wheedling notification from Duolingo about my bloody streak.

Now I'm winding down before bed with a bit of piano practice instead, which is a much better use of my time.

I've gone for long periods without feeling like I miss it.

I'd really only been using it to brush up my Gaelic (that course is excellent) but feel that there are other resources I can use.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 14:49

Shakethedangertree · 29/08/2025 14:41

Ugh I was just talking to someone this week and saying I wanted to pick Duolingo back up - used it extensively in the past. Not an option for me now

Babble is pretty good, if you're looking for a grown up alternative to DuoLingo. I used it when I was studying German.

Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 14:51

From what I'm seeing online it's pretty much uniform that your heroine is seen in a bad light except by people who worship her.

I think this just goes to prove you can't believe everything you see online.

SionnachRuadh · 29/08/2025 14:53

Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 14:51

From what I'm seeing online it's pretty much uniform that your heroine is seen in a bad light except by people who worship her.

I think this just goes to prove you can't believe everything you see online.

"Don't believe everything you read on the internet."
Abraham Lincoln

Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 14:54

SionnachRuadh · 29/08/2025 14:53

"Don't believe everything you read on the internet."
Abraham Lincoln

Heheh! 😂
A wise man

DarlingHoldMyHand · 29/08/2025 14:59

From what I'm seeing online it's pretty much uniform that your heroine is seen in a bad light except by people who worship her.

I'm guessing on Reddit and/or BlueSky 😂

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 15:10

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 14:47

Yeah, I'm not so sure you're correct there.

From what I'm seeing online it's pretty much uniform that your heroine is seen in a bad light except by people who worship her.

But you're also kinda missing the point. This appeared in DL for a reason and that reason was that the general view of her is negative and so that got picked up. That's just the way it is.

But I am shocked this wasn't checked by a human being at any point (or, if it was, it got let through). Putting people in in a negative way is liable to get ya sued quick smart.
Sure, DL does include real people all the time. Angela Merkel appears regularly in their German course, and I think many famous sportspeople appear in other courses, but allowing a line about the awfulness of Rowling - despite it being a universal truth - is a bad move on the part of DL

What you see online does not reflect reality.

First of all, the entirety of what is online only reflects the views of the sort of people who post their opinions online. Vast swathes of the population do not do this, preferring to live in the physical world.

And secondly, you aren't even seeing a broad picture of the range of views that are online. On whatever platforms you use, the algorithm will show you whatever it has worked out you want to see and are likely to engage with. In this case, it's showing you other people repeating the same old, uninformed, misogynistic crap about JK Rowling, encouraging you all to pat each other on the back for all sharing the same, "correct" views.

Obviously I understand the point you are making about AI reproducing content that it finds online. But this means that the kind of content it picks up is skewed towards the kind of content posted by the terminally online.

I used to be part of an online parenting community where I was the only Brit and almost all the others were American. Over a period of a few months I started to find them increasingly tiresome and was trying to think of a way of politely leaving the group without fanfare. Then one day they all started slagging off JK Rowling and I politely said I disagreed and attempted to "educate" them about a few things. For example, they all kept saying she was far right. Only someone who literally does not have a single clue about British politics and where JK Rowling is positioned on the British political spectrum could be capable of saying something so stupid, but they all actually appeared to believe this. So I politely explained a few things to them and was unceremoniously booted out of the group. Which at least resolved my dilemma of how to leave without offending anyone.

My time among them was an interesting social experiment for me. 50 educated women who feel so threatened by different points of view that they will literally expel a woman who agrees with them about many things but has a different opinion about one thing, but somehow believe that they are the ones NOT living in an echo chamber. I find that astounding. I mean, if you refuse to even talk to someone who doesn't already agree with you about everything, how on earth do you think you are ever going to bring people round to your way of thinking, or ever effect any kind of political change? And then you act so surprised when Trump gets re-elected, like you didn't see it coming? Well, maybe you would have seen it coming if you spent any time at all talking to people who aren't exactly like you.

The funniest part was that they were all piling on to tell me that I don't know anything about feminism. I mean, you live in a country where women are struggling to access contraception and safe and legal abortions, the only country in the entire developed world where women don't have a legal right to paid maternity leave, and you're telling me I'm not feministing correctly? Kindly, ma'am, go fuck yourself. If "feminists" in America were a little more JK Rowling and a lot less Judith Butler, perhaps women in America wouldn't lack basic rights that women in most of the rest of the world take for granted. Just a thought.

I came away with the lasting impression that the reason America is so utterly fucked is because it is a country where the supposedly educated and intelligent people who vote Democrat are in many ways even more stupid, bigoted and narrow-minded than the obviously stupid, bigoted and narrow-minded ones who vote Trump and love their guns more than they love their children not getting shot at school.

Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 15:13

That poster appears to have joined MN today simply to slag off JKR @MissScarletInTheBallroom

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 15:15

Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 15:13

That poster appears to have joined MN today simply to slag off JKR @MissScarletInTheBallroom

Which is great because it gives me an excuse to slag off ignorant Americans.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:22

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:24

Greyskybluesky · 29/08/2025 15:13

That poster appears to have joined MN today simply to slag off JKR @MissScarletInTheBallroom

Just telling it like it is, honey 😁😅

Merrymouse · 29/08/2025 15:25

MissScarletInTheBallroom · 29/08/2025 14:40

Yeah, I thought so.

The view that JK Rowling is "a repulsive human being" might be mainstream among Democrat voting Americans who don't have a Scooby Doo about anything that goes on outside their borders, but it's not the same in other countries.

In the UK it really is just people in trans activist echo chambers who consume too much American nonsense who hold that view. Most people either wholeheartedly agree with her or don't give a shit either way.

I don't think it can be that mainstream - otherwise HBO wouldn't be investing so much money in the HP reboot.

I suspect most people are only vaguely aware of what she has said.

Similarly, I keep seeing a picture of Angela Rayner in an inflatable dinghy, but I just don't have the interest to find out why.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:27

Merrymouse · 29/08/2025 15:25

I don't think it can be that mainstream - otherwise HBO wouldn't be investing so much money in the HP reboot.

I suspect most people are only vaguely aware of what she has said.

Similarly, I keep seeing a picture of Angela Rayner in an inflatable dinghy, but I just don't have the interest to find out why.

"I suspect most people are only vaguely aware of what she has said."

DuoLingo seems pretty sure, given this thread topic!

DarlingHoldMyHand · 29/08/2025 15:29

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:27

"I suspect most people are only vaguely aware of what she has said."

DuoLingo seems pretty sure, given this thread topic!

Yeah right. If they were that sure why are they apologising and removing that content 🤷‍♀️

lcakethereforeIam · 29/08/2025 15:32

Duolingo keeps telling me there's a bear trying on a dress and a duck in my shower. I think it's regurgitating rubbish. If it's 'educating' itself off the Web it will be skewed tra. Many places; reddit, the Guardian, don't allow GC voices to be heard. You'd have to be an imbecile to take a green owl as an authoritative voice on anything.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:34

DarlingHoldMyHand · 29/08/2025 15:29

Yeah right. If they were that sure why are they apologising and removing that content 🤷‍♀️

Because it was/is the prevailing attitude online - whether rightly or wrongly - and DL's bots just scooped that up and dumped it into their app without any human invention then they removed it in a panic when called out.

Seriously, don'tcha actually read?

Or, maybe, DL staff did include it themselves? Who knows? Don't change facts though, does it?

Merrymouse · 29/08/2025 15:36

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:27

"I suspect most people are only vaguely aware of what she has said."

DuoLingo seems pretty sure, given this thread topic!

Somebody at DuoLingo clearly doesn't like JKR, but I don't think their action risked much money, and I doubt that many people are even aware of what they did.

On the other hand HBO are investing billions into a multi year project that is very clearly tied to JKR.

SionnachRuadh · 29/08/2025 15:37

honey

The gents is over there mate. Nobody will challenge you.

Merrymouse · 29/08/2025 15:37

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:34

Because it was/is the prevailing attitude online - whether rightly or wrongly - and DL's bots just scooped that up and dumped it into their app without any human invention then they removed it in a panic when called out.

Seriously, don'tcha actually read?

Or, maybe, DL staff did include it themselves? Who knows? Don't change facts though, does it?

prevailing attitude online

I think that might be the difference - online vs offline.

nocoolnamesleft · 29/08/2025 15:37

JKR is a leading left wing feminist and noted philanthropist. Idiot Americans claiming her to be a right wing bigot are only displaying their utter ignorance.

lcakethereforeIam · 29/08/2025 15:40

Probably why the guy in charge of Duo is laying off the staff and moving to AI. Cba with all the trantrums.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:43

nocoolnamesleft · 29/08/2025 15:37

JKR is a leading left wing feminist and noted philanthropist. Idiot Americans claiming her to be a right wing bigot are only displaying their utter ignorance.

Whoever said your queen was right-wing?
I think you might be getting confused again.

Mind you, she ain't exactly a Democrat either, so there's that. Personally, I could care less about her. Just going by what's online about her and boy is there a lot of 💩she's doing.

SeinfeldsMom · 29/08/2025 15:43

lcakethereforeIam · 29/08/2025 15:40

Probably why the guy in charge of Duo is laying off the staff and moving to AI. Cba with all the trantrums.

AI reliance is a real bad move, IMO. Have you chatted to Grok recently? Seriously, stay away from that stuff!