Stephen King's response to Rowling on sex and gender discussions

[ThisWildDreamer]

Stephen King was asked a simple question - are trans women women? - and when he said yes, one of the most wealthy writers in the world turned on him.

J.K. Rowling had just publicly showered him with praise. Within hours of his answer, she deleted it and, in King's words, "sorta blocked" him.

King is one of the most famous novelists alive, and he didn't walk it back or cast himself as the victim. He said plainly that nobody had cancelled Rowling - he just thought she was wrong. He turns 79 today, still saying it.

He could have kept the friend and stayed quiet. He said yes instead.

Love how they've spelt 'reproductive' wrong in the web address and just left it like that.

Also we should have known not to trust an author whose 2nd best selling novel is just a pronoun.

Did he write She. I saw the film donkey's years ago, it was rubbish.

Possibly slightly off topic, but can I just say how much I hate those sodding Facebook pages that take an old news story on a controversial, clickbaity topic, put them through ChatGPT and then post them on Facebook as if they're brand new, and wait for the comments to flood in? They're just so annoying. They're frequently on trans stuff (I recently saw one about some comments Helen Mirren made YEARS ago) because I imagine they are guaranteed to generate reaction.

Someone taking one of these posts and creating a thread on Mumsnet about it just takes the biscuit. Maybe Mumsnet could instigate a ban.

🤣

I asked a question upthread, if trans ally 🤣 had ever graced one of his books with a trans character. I'm going to assume he hasn't, unlike the 'transphobe' Rowling and Glinner did. I'm going to assume he hasn't but I'm still prepared to be wrong.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion- there is no reason why that should c hange anyone's world.

Maybe there is.

No there isn't, opinions like this are subject to fashion like anything else- they are not a fixed mark.

In the Far East every so often there is an outbreak of Koro which is a social contagion of mass hysteria where men think that their penis is shrivelling away to nothing.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koro_(disease)

Yes, I'm not much into technology. but even I can tell when this sort of thing is written by AI. I'm only surprised the posting is quite short. The AI stories are usually so long I don't bother to read to the end.

I'm a horrible person. I can't stop laughing at this.

I'm a horrible person. I can't stop laughing at this.

You would be laughing in the other side of your face if it was your penis that had disappeared.😀

If this really happened as claimed, then I have to say Stephen King is entitled to his opinion. He didn't denounce JKR in any way, and if she retaliated against him, I think it makes her look bad. Either of them could say, "This is an important issue, and I wish we could agree about it, but I'm not going to get into denouncing anyone". And if there's a push for more comments, just respond with "I've said enough."

Surely this is very old news. King came out with TWAW years ago. I don't know how JK reacted at the time - but I don't think she'd have left it a few years before speaking out.

OK, off to the AI-enabled search engine. In response to "When did Stephen King say trans women are women" it came back with this, which makes me think that although he's wrong, he behaved better than JKR:

Stephen King stated that "trans women are women" on June 28, 2020, in response to a fan's question on Twitter regarding his stance on the issue. This clarification followed his retweet of a message from J.K. Rowling, which led to a public dispute where Rowling deleted a prior tweet praising King and subsequently blocked him. King reiterated this position in subsequent interviews, such as one in July 2020, maintaining that while he disagreed with Rowling's views, he supported the principle of respectful discourse.

He didn’t behave better than jkr in the slightest.

JKR has a set of consistent beliefs. Stephen King doesn’t.

I'm reminded of the Labour councillor who said that "TWAW except for relationship purposes."

Have I got this thread right-
Man tweets in support of woman.
Woman says TY.
Man takes an opposing stance to his initial support.
Woman withdraws the Ty.
Woman deserves to be called out on this behaviour for 6+ years.
Poor man needs to be held up as a pillar of society because it's his birthday.
?

I'm sorry but that's hilarious

There's no point in an argument here about something that happened a few years ago, but it actually hurts our side of the issue if we say things that are so obviously false. Rowling took back some praise she'd made of King, and he's been nothing but generous about her. It really wouldn't hurt her much if we occasionally disagree with something she's done! The search engine's response to "has stephen king ever said anything about j k rowling?" was

Yes, Stephen King has publicly commented on J.K. Rowling on multiple occasions, most notably regarding their disagreement over transgender rights and his recent praise for her fiction.

• 2020–2021 Feud: In June 2020, Rowling deleted a tweet praising King and blocked him on Twitter after King stated, "Yes. Trans women are women." King later clarified that while he believed her opinion was wrong, he respected her right to hold it, stating, "She’s on the side of the angels in most respects, but she does have this one thing that she’s very vehement about."
• 2023 Book Praise: In October 2023, King publicly praised Rowling’s Cormoran Strike novel The Running Grave (written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), calling it "J.K. Rowling at her best" and noting it "got me through a difficult time."
• Literary Comparison: King has previously distinguished Rowling from other authors like Stephenie Meyer, describing Rowling as a "terrific writer" and a "wonderful storyteller and a gifted stylist," despite their personal and political disagreements.

Why is there a load of posts about old news suddenly popping up?

Sunday afternoon: people are bored, TRAs desperate?

I’ve heard stories of this when I lived there. The medieval European Malleus Maleficarum tells very similar tales.