British author JK Rowling, who scored stellar success along with her collection concerning the boy wizard Harry Potter, has courted controversy on-line and even dying threats due to her outspoken views on gender identification.
Her place that organic intercourse is immutable has made her a darling of some feminists through the years, however incurred the wrath of transgender rights activists, who’ve referred to as for her to be “cancelled”.
Rowling, 58, denies costs of transphobia which have tarnished the worldwide success of the Harry Potter books, which have bought a staggering 600 million copies worldwide.
The newest row on social media blew up final week after the Scottish authorities in Edinburgh, the place Rowling lives, handed a legislation criminalising hate speech, together with towards transgender folks.
Rowling, who lives within the metropolis along with her second husband, on April 1 revealed a volley of messages about transgender girls on the social media platform X, previously Twitter, together with a number of convicted of sexual offences.
“Obviously, the folks talked about within the above tweets aren’t girls in any respect, however males, each final considered one of them,” she wrote.
The new laws, she added, was “large open” to abuse these eager to silence advocates of ladies and women’ single-sex areas, and predatory males figuring out as girls.
“Freedom of speech and perception are at an finish in Scotland if the correct description of organic intercourse is deemed felony,” she added, saying she welcomed arrest.
Police stated complaints concerning the publish weren’t felony because the feedback predictably triggered a firestorm, together with from these for whom gender identification has turn out to be a “tradition battle” problem, equivalent to Britain’s right-wing media and politicians.
The right-wing Daily Mail newspaper referred to as Rowling a “hero”.
Criticism
Rowling’s transformation from virtually universally in style youngsters’s author to a hate determine for supporters of gender identification started again in 2018.
The author favored a publish on Twitter – the forerunner to X – by a girl who described transgender girls as “males in attire”.
She apologised after attracting criticism. Then in 2019, she publicly defended a girl who was sacked from her job after posting what have been deemed to be transphobic tweets.
In 2020, Rowling additionally sarcastically replied to an outline of “individuals who menstruate”, writing: “I’m positive there was a phrase for these folks.
“Someone assist me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
The remark earned her the rebuke of her Harry Potter prodigies, together with Daniel Radcliffe who performed the boy wizard within the movie franchise of the books, who publicly disassociated himself from her.
Two years later, Rowling spoke out once more when Scotland, which has some devolved legislative powers, proposed making it easier for folks to vary their authorized gender.
The British authorities stepped in to dam the invoice going by means of on the devolved Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Rowling calls herself a militant feminist, and has revealed how she had been a sufferer of home violence.
Women’s rights, she argued, could possibly be threatened by some supporters of transgender rights and has spoken out about permitting transgender girls to make use of altering rooms, bathrooms or prisons designated for girls solely.
Outspoken
Born on July 31, 1965 within the city of Chipping Sodbury in western England, Joanne Rowling started writing at an early age, telling tales she had dreamt up in her creativeness.
After finding out French, she turned a translator at Amnesty International in London, then on a practice journey to Manchester got here up with the story of Harry Potter and his adventures on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
She taught English in Portugal the place she married her first husband and had a daughter.
She labored on the Potter books each morning earlier than work, persevering with after she returned dwelling in 1995, and moved to Scotland following her divorce.
Rowling struggled and was receiving welfare funds when the publishing home Bloomsbury lastly accepted her fantastical creation.
Within a number of years she and Harry Potter have been a world phenomenon, shifting greater than 600 million copies in over 80 languages.
The eight movies based mostly on the books have raked in some US$8bil (RM38bil), making Rowling a millionaire a number of instances over.
Despite the furore about her views on gender identification, she admitted within the podcast “The Witch Trials of JK Rowling” that she was “not uncomfortable about getting off (her) pedestal” and talking her thoughts. – AFP
