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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

JKR Didn’t Have an Opinion. She Poisoned the Well

1000 replies

CSIRCP · 28/08/2025 14:32

This post will likely be a little too long for most, but if you can spare the time and have a cuppa handy let's sit down and have a chat, shall we?

Firstly, let’s stop calling this a debate. It’s not. This isn’t two sets of ideas clashing. This is one woman’s fear and confusion being weaponized against an entire community.

What J.K. Rowling has done is not just share an opinion. She’s poisoned the well. And that poison is spreading through politics, education, the media, and even the courts.

At the beginning, it might have looked like a tweet. Then a blog. But what she wrote in that essay was revealing: “If I’d been born thirty years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge.”
That’s not neutral. That’s projection. It was a confession, repackaged as concern. She projected her own dysphoria and personal battles onto the entire trans community and used it as the foundation for a movement built on suspicion and fear.

She said she cared about women’s rights. Then aligned herself with those who believe all trans women are predators.
She liked racist and Islamophobic tweets. She repeated antisemitic tropes. She cast activists as violent men in dresses. She accused anyone who challenged her of misogyny while branding herself the face of feminism.
All the while she built up a devoted audience that now includes some of the most extreme anti-trans voices in Britain and beyond.

This “gender critical” movement is not about safety, and it’s certainly not about truth. It’s about control.
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker), one of Rowling’s ideological allies, has welcomed neo-Nazis to her rallies. Actual Nazis. The kind of people Rowling once wrote villains about.
In one case, people connected to this movement were linked to the satanic terror group 764 — a group that has influenced teen suicides and violent attacks in UK schools. Let that sink in. This is who she’s empowering.

She didn’t just turn away when that started. She doubled down. She gave this movement a gloss of legitimacy. She used her fame to funnel people toward disinformation, fear, and cruelty—and dressed it all up as feminism. But it isn’t feminism when it excludes, vilifies, and harms other women. Especially trans women. Especially intersex people. Especially anyone who doesn’t fit into the narrow fantasy of who is acceptable.

Rowling’s language now echoes in government documents. Her phrases like “gender ideology” have been lifted from far right sources, including the Vatican and authoritarian regimes, and mainstreamed into British law. Her influence helped set the stage for the UK Supreme Court to redefine the word “woman” based on sex assigned at birth, stripping rights from trans and intersex people under the Equality Act. That’s what happens when the well is poisoned. People stop thinking. They start reacting.

Meanwhile, her cult chant her slogans as though they are scientific fact. But science says otherwise. Peer-reviewed studies show that trans people’s brain structures do not align with their sex assigned at birth. They show that gender identity forms in the womb, shaped by hormones and biology not ideology. Large-scale DNA studies have found gene variants linked to gender incongruence. And intersex people exist. That is biological fact. Not one of these truths can be erased by Rowling’s fiction.

What makes this so dangerous is how calm it all sounds. Rowling doesn’t scream. She whispers. She calls it “concern.” She says she’s “just asking questions.”
But it’s never neutral to question someone’s right to exist. It’s not a debate when one side is simply trying to live and the other is trying to strip away their legal recognition and healthcare.

This isn’t just a disagreement. This is a slow campaign of erasure, led by someone with a global platform and millions in the bank.

She’s not some deluded soul from MN; she’s a multi-millionaire author whose words shape global policy. She’s not being silenced. She’s being echoed by judges, by pundits, by politicians trying to climb the ladder by stepping on the backs of trans, non-binary, and intersex people.

And let’s not pretend it stops there. Her influence has allowed people to feel safe expressing open homophobia, biphobia, and hatred toward anyone who challenges gender norms. Some of the same people aligned with her have mocked survivors, denied racism, and claimed slavery was “fine” if it was “kind.”
This is not a group grounded in empathy. It’s a movement that thrives on exclusion and resentment. Some of them now openly identify as neo Nazis. That’s where we are.

So next time someone says “she’s just worried” or “she’s not anti-trans” or “can’t we just disagree,” consider these words. Show them what poison looks like. Not just hateful speech but the deliberate seeding of doubt, division, and cruelty, all wrapped in a soft voice and a smug smile. J.K. Rowling didn’t protect anyone. She infected people. And when she’s gone, her legacy won’t be literature it will be the damage she left behind.

You don’t need to cancel her. You just need to see her clearly.
And if you blindly follow Rowling and her ideas then you need to reflect on what you’re really endorsing.

Because ignorance is not an excuse. Not anymore.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
34
EsmeWeatherwaxHatpin · 28/08/2025 20:04

Oh another one appeared to tell us what to think. Jolly good. Must be running scared, the last baying howls at a setting moon

Thelnebriati · 28/08/2025 20:04

There's a 1984 Ministry of Truth somewhere and its pumping out propaganda and lies under the banner of Educate Yourself. Saying JKR poisoned the well is another example of the DARVO we have to deal with.

Waitwhat23 · 28/08/2025 20:04

DworkinWasRight · 28/08/2025 19:32

I came straight to the end hoping that by now we’d moved onto recipes for coffee and walnut cake.

I’m disappointed in you, vipers. Bitterly disappointed.

I've sort of gone off coffee and walnut cake and am now a big fan of coffee and chocolate cake (Nigella).

MistyGreenAndBlue · 28/08/2025 20:13

BackToLurk · 28/08/2025 18:08

I’m assuming @Sammybabes16 is asking for her own posts to be deleted as soon as she realises how batshit contradictory they are

MN is on to that one. They usually state when a post has been deleted at the posters request.

And I don't think sammy has that kind of self awareness

Ereshkigalangcleg · 28/08/2025 20:13

MrsOvertonsWindow · 28/08/2025 18:22

There seems to be a stuttering stream of bitter, seething men appearing on this board. All using long words they don't really understand, sneering and patronising like the saddest incels and displaying an inbuilt contempt for women and girls having boundaries. Along with completely failing to understand JKR's words which weren't that difficult to comprehend.

Although some of them are evidently posting from Australian / American basements funded by Mom and Pop, some seem to be our own home grown conspiracy theorists.

Sad times.

Yes. More coping, less seething, lads. It’s the healthy way.

JohnnyRememberMe · 28/08/2025 20:18

My post was deleted. Perhaps I hit a nerve?

Bore off, OP. You're neither interesting or original.

TheKeatingFive · 28/08/2025 20:20

EsmeWeatherwaxHatpin · 28/08/2025 20:04

Oh another one appeared to tell us what to think. Jolly good. Must be running scared, the last baying howls at a setting moon

That was my thought

The howls of anguish as they know the game is up

Bannedontherun · 28/08/2025 20:32

@Boiledbeetle Yacht! Keys! What yacht what keys <waddles off to meet JKR>

Me double agent !!!

nah.

MrsOvertonsWindow · 28/08/2025 20:38

Ereshkigalangcleg · 28/08/2025 20:13

Yes. More coping, less seething, lads. It’s the healthy way.

What it comes down to is that these men have finally been told they can't have access to girls and women undressing, toileting, sleeping on hospital wards etc.
Their tantrums are tedious. Even the 2 year old I had to prise out of the local park today eventually calmed down after being told "no more swings now". Yet these adult men have raged and wailed for months.

More coping indeed.

Boiledbeetle · 28/08/2025 20:39

Bannedontherun · 28/08/2025 20:32

@Boiledbeetle Yacht! Keys! What yacht what keys <waddles off to meet JKR>

Me double agent !!!

nah.

Traitor.

<moves Tunnocks stash so Banned can't find it>

SnugPeach · 28/08/2025 20:39

CSIRCP · 28/08/2025 14:32

This post will likely be a little too long for most, but if you can spare the time and have a cuppa handy let's sit down and have a chat, shall we?

Firstly, let’s stop calling this a debate. It’s not. This isn’t two sets of ideas clashing. This is one woman’s fear and confusion being weaponized against an entire community.

What J.K. Rowling has done is not just share an opinion. She’s poisoned the well. And that poison is spreading through politics, education, the media, and even the courts.

At the beginning, it might have looked like a tweet. Then a blog. But what she wrote in that essay was revealing: “If I’d been born thirty years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge.”
That’s not neutral. That’s projection. It was a confession, repackaged as concern. She projected her own dysphoria and personal battles onto the entire trans community and used it as the foundation for a movement built on suspicion and fear.

She said she cared about women’s rights. Then aligned herself with those who believe all trans women are predators.
She liked racist and Islamophobic tweets. She repeated antisemitic tropes. She cast activists as violent men in dresses. She accused anyone who challenged her of misogyny while branding herself the face of feminism.
All the while she built up a devoted audience that now includes some of the most extreme anti-trans voices in Britain and beyond.

This “gender critical” movement is not about safety, and it’s certainly not about truth. It’s about control.
Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker), one of Rowling’s ideological allies, has welcomed neo-Nazis to her rallies. Actual Nazis. The kind of people Rowling once wrote villains about.
In one case, people connected to this movement were linked to the satanic terror group 764 — a group that has influenced teen suicides and violent attacks in UK schools. Let that sink in. This is who she’s empowering.

She didn’t just turn away when that started. She doubled down. She gave this movement a gloss of legitimacy. She used her fame to funnel people toward disinformation, fear, and cruelty—and dressed it all up as feminism. But it isn’t feminism when it excludes, vilifies, and harms other women. Especially trans women. Especially intersex people. Especially anyone who doesn’t fit into the narrow fantasy of who is acceptable.

Rowling’s language now echoes in government documents. Her phrases like “gender ideology” have been lifted from far right sources, including the Vatican and authoritarian regimes, and mainstreamed into British law. Her influence helped set the stage for the UK Supreme Court to redefine the word “woman” based on sex assigned at birth, stripping rights from trans and intersex people under the Equality Act. That’s what happens when the well is poisoned. People stop thinking. They start reacting.

Meanwhile, her cult chant her slogans as though they are scientific fact. But science says otherwise. Peer-reviewed studies show that trans people’s brain structures do not align with their sex assigned at birth. They show that gender identity forms in the womb, shaped by hormones and biology not ideology. Large-scale DNA studies have found gene variants linked to gender incongruence. And intersex people exist. That is biological fact. Not one of these truths can be erased by Rowling’s fiction.

What makes this so dangerous is how calm it all sounds. Rowling doesn’t scream. She whispers. She calls it “concern.” She says she’s “just asking questions.”
But it’s never neutral to question someone’s right to exist. It’s not a debate when one side is simply trying to live and the other is trying to strip away their legal recognition and healthcare.

This isn’t just a disagreement. This is a slow campaign of erasure, led by someone with a global platform and millions in the bank.

She’s not some deluded soul from MN; she’s a multi-millionaire author whose words shape global policy. She’s not being silenced. She’s being echoed by judges, by pundits, by politicians trying to climb the ladder by stepping on the backs of trans, non-binary, and intersex people.

And let’s not pretend it stops there. Her influence has allowed people to feel safe expressing open homophobia, biphobia, and hatred toward anyone who challenges gender norms. Some of the same people aligned with her have mocked survivors, denied racism, and claimed slavery was “fine” if it was “kind.”
This is not a group grounded in empathy. It’s a movement that thrives on exclusion and resentment. Some of them now openly identify as neo Nazis. That’s where we are.

So next time someone says “she’s just worried” or “she’s not anti-trans” or “can’t we just disagree,” consider these words. Show them what poison looks like. Not just hateful speech but the deliberate seeding of doubt, division, and cruelty, all wrapped in a soft voice and a smug smile. J.K. Rowling didn’t protect anyone. She infected people. And when she’s gone, her legacy won’t be literature it will be the damage she left behind.

You don’t need to cancel her. You just need to see her clearly.
And if you blindly follow Rowling and her ideas then you need to reflect on what you’re really endorsing.

Because ignorance is not an excuse. Not anymore.

Well said couldn’t agree more.

Boiledbeetle · 28/08/2025 20:40

SnugPeach · 28/08/2025 20:39

Well said couldn’t agree more.

What a surprise.

SinnerBoy · 28/08/2025 20:44

ArabellaScott · 28/08/2025 15:06

My song for today is: 'You're so vain, you probably think this board is about you'.

I was thinking of Pennetration's Don't Dictate. Pauline Murray has a great voice and I can confirm that she's lovely.

BeLemonNow · 28/08/2025 20:45

I keep misreading as "SmugPeach".

Helleofabore · 28/08/2025 20:47

Igneococcus · 28/08/2025 14:53

I think we need a roll call of the posters who've been here before JKR got involved in this debate. I mean I was here since the legendary langcleg (albeit under a different name).

I remember being very surprised when she posted that first time. I think by the time she did the essay, I wrote her an email saying thank you.

So many women were there before her. But I think I will be in yours and many others good company being very glad she spoke up at the time she did.

Helleofabore · 28/08/2025 20:50

EsmeWeatherwaxHatpin · 28/08/2025 20:04

Oh another one appeared to tell us what to think. Jolly good. Must be running scared, the last baying howls at a setting moon

I think the bat signal went out.

DworkinWasRight · 28/08/2025 20:55

Waitwhat23 · 28/08/2025 20:04

I've sort of gone off coffee and walnut cake and am now a big fan of coffee and chocolate cake (Nigella).

That DOES sound nice.

Justwrong68 · 28/08/2025 20:57

Man tells women they can't think for themselves, how progressive

Helleofabore · 28/08/2025 20:58

MrsOvertonsWindow · 28/08/2025 18:22

There seems to be a stuttering stream of bitter, seething men appearing on this board. All using long words they don't really understand, sneering and patronising like the saddest incels and displaying an inbuilt contempt for women and girls having boundaries. Along with completely failing to understand JKR's words which weren't that difficult to comprehend.

Although some of them are evidently posting from Australian / American basements funded by Mom and Pop, some seem to be our own home grown conspiracy theorists.

Sad times.

Yes. It is remarkable how we have a group of new posters so determined to demonise women for wanting single sex spaces or for not wanting to take the role of mummy for them or both.

because with the new male posters also comes new censuring posters.

It has provided readers with some very excellent live demonstrations on the lack of evidence based discussion and dishonest and emotionally manipulative tactics. Well done to all of them.

Operation: Let them speak!

PennyAnnLane · 28/08/2025 20:59

SnugPeach · 28/08/2025 20:39

Well said couldn’t agree more.

@SnugPeach As your thread has filled up perhaps you can enlighten us here on what a woman is, I’m afraid saying ‘anyone who identifies as such’ isn't really going to cut the mustard, it’s what is commonly referred to as circular logic. Is it an idea? A feeling? A way of dressing? The outward appearance of a body? Or could it just be, hmmm, I don’t know, an adult human female who has a body designed to make large gametes?

Helleofabore · 28/08/2025 21:04

nutmeg7 · 28/08/2025 18:45

Where's your stats for this statement?

You are making stuff up, or regurgitating things you have found online without engaging any sort of critical thinking skills at all

Oh oh oh!!! I bet it is the Williams institute. Please let it be that Williams institute with the amazingly respondent numbers of 369 trans people vs 435 061 people who who didn’t identify as transgender. Yet recent posters keep declaring that the conclusions were statistically significant! They posted it repeatedly because they never once looked at the data.

What do you reckon?

OuterSpaceCadet · 28/08/2025 21:08

Dude I have work to do and people to care for.

Men aren't women. Sorry.

LeftieRightsHoarder · 28/08/2025 21:10

Sorry I didn’t read it all. My eyes were already rolling out of my head at all the testerical nonsense, when I got as far as She projected her own dysphoria and personal battles onto the entire trans community and used it as the foundation for a movement built on suspicion and fear.

So we just imagined all the feminist action of the preceding years? None of us did or said a thing to oppose the male takeover of our rights until JK made a joke on Twitter in 2020?

It’s pointless trying to inform someone so belligerently resistant to reality.

RedToothBrush · 28/08/2025 21:11

Waitwhat23 · 28/08/2025 19:47

Does anyone remember the discussion we had on a thread a couple of months ago where we theorised that somewhere a Professor in a Department of Gender Studies at a University (whose graduates are now a bit embarrassed to admit they ever attended) is setting assignments along the lines of 'Join in a discussion on an 'anti trans' discussion board using the following discussion points (insert bingo card here) and report on your findings. Bonus points for the use of far right, Nazi, JKR or moral panic'.

The OP in this case is pretty poor. A little more work required to meet the required standard for a passing grade.

Said Professor also perhaps needs to consider producing a 'how to use the quote button on Mumsnet' how to guide as there's been so many who seem unable to do so.

As much as that's a nice idea, it's just bloody Reddit innit?

SnugPeach · 28/08/2025 21:14

PennyAnnLane · 28/08/2025 20:59

@SnugPeach As your thread has filled up perhaps you can enlighten us here on what a woman is, I’m afraid saying ‘anyone who identifies as such’ isn't really going to cut the mustard, it’s what is commonly referred to as circular logic. Is it an idea? A feeling? A way of dressing? The outward appearance of a body? Or could it just be, hmmm, I don’t know, an adult human female who has a body designed to make large gametes?

I have my answer before. The only thing I could elaborate on beyond that is nobody chooses to be trans as much as people don’t choose to be gay you either are or aren’t. Surely in the complex scientific understanding we have of our own bodies and that of other animals, so who do in fact change sex. It’s not an alien concept to acknowledge that maybe some people are like this too. Some Brains are different.

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