Opinion of J.K. Rowling

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

If you support JK Rowling, you're on the same side as the person who made this. And do you really want that?

Better that than being on the side of the person who created Assigned Male.

That is easily one of the worst webcomics I've ever seen. Got to love how the main character is supposed to be something like 10 and yet talks like a gender studies student at a private liberal arts college.

Assigned Male is transphobic in the same way that glam rap is racist: it engages in so much trans community self-stereotyping and shows so little capacity for being tongue-in-cheek about that fact that anti-trans bigots take it as "confirming" their worst impressions of trans people.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Have you ever noticed that the acronym of Harry Potter is HP? It can't be a coincidence.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

If you support JK Rowling, you're on the same side as the person who made this. And do you really want that?

Better that than being on the side of the person who created Assigned Male.

That is easily one of the worst webcomics I've ever seen. Got to love how the main character is supposed to be something like 10 and yet talks like a gender studies student at a private liberal arts college.

Assigned Male is transphobic in the same way that glam rap is racist: it engages in so much trans community self-stereotyping and shows so little capacity for being tongue-in-cheek about that fact that anti-trans bigots take it as "confirming" their worst impressions of trans people.

I recall hearing that the creator has been banned from some trans groups on Facebook and was deplatformed at a local LGBT group.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm a fan of Harry Potter, but...politically I'd now support schools banning Harry Potter books because Rowling is a TERF.

Oh come on. Rowling has some of the most repulsive views of any nominally leftist and feminist public figure in the English-speaking world (Linda Sarsour I guess would be another such example), but when your typical English curriculum includes or might include stuff by a convicted rapist (Thomas Malory), a man most of whose literary corpus revolves around someone he was stalking (Dante), multiple Stalinists (Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, others whose names I'm forgetting), and someone who supported reestablishing slavery (Charlotte Perkins Gilman), why exactly would this be where you draw the line?

I think comparing Rowling to those people or Linda Sarsour or saying she has some of the most repulsive views is a bit over the top? All she's done essentially is make some fairly insensitive comments on Twitter.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

...and that he wasn't a fan of the 60s "counterculture" that had grown around LOTR.

This is a misunderstanding. It wasn't that he didn't like it - though he did not appreciate being rung up in the early hours of the morning by Californians curious about details of the book but sadly ignorant of time zones - but that he was a bit bemused by it.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

...and that he wasn't a fan of the 60s "counterculture" that had grown around LOTR.

This is a misunderstanding. It wasn't that he didn't like it - though he did not appreciate being rung up in the early hours of the morning by Californians curious about details of the book but sadly ignorant of time zones - but that he was a bit bemused by it.

Hmmz interesting. Guess I know less about him than I thought I did. Would you say my point still holds up in general?

[Cassius]

He did, however, prevent us from seeing Gandalf played by George Harrison.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm a fan of Harry Potter, but...politically I'd now support schools banning Harry Potter books because Rowling is a TERF.

Oh come on. Rowling has some of the most repulsive views of any nominally leftist and feminist public figure in the English-speaking world (Linda Sarsour I guess would be another such example), but when your typical English curriculum includes or might include stuff by a convicted rapist (Thomas Malory), a man most of whose literary corpus revolves around someone he was stalking (Dante), multiple Stalinists (Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, others whose names I'm forgetting), and someone who supported reestablishing slavery (Charlotte Perkins Gilman), why exactly would this be where you draw the line?

I think comparing Rowling to those people or Linda Sarsour or saying she has some of the most repulsive views is a bit over the top? All she's done essentially is make some fairly insensitive comments on Twitter.

The excessive hyperbole inherent in some of the comparisons is my point--it's silly to draw the line at Rowling's awful views on trans people when the much more comprehensively horrible political worldviews of people like Hellman and Gilman go almost unremarked-on.

[Kyle Rittenhouse is a Political Prisoner]

HP for her books but FF for her opinions on transsexuality.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

As a kid I read the first few Harry Potter books but gave up the series somewhere in the middle of the Goblet of Fire, when it started getting too elaborate and teenage angsty and Rowling started to write this epic hero's journey about something or other. Didn't think she's good enough of a writer to carry that to completion, not that I ever went back and checked...

As for the transphobic stuff, it's obviously very disappointing. I have some empathy for her in that given her childhood/upbringing, but that doesn't excuse wilfully spreading misinformation that damages the lives of thousands of people because it reconfirms your priors. Sad to think about.

[afleitch]

I'm quite surprised that people know so little of JK's online persona which, as someone who is otherwise private, is the only way she tends to both associate and communicate. Who she follows, who she retweets, who's work she references is quite telling.

This was known in Scotland six, seven years ago (the Brian Spanner saga)

[ingemann]

As a kid I read the first few Harry Potter books but gave up the series somewhere in the middle of the Goblet of Fire, when it started getting too elaborate and teenage angsty and Rowling started to write this epic hero's journey about something or other. Didn't think she's good enough of a writer to carry that to completion, not that I ever went back and checked...

As for the transphobic stuff, it's obviously very disappointing. I have some empathy for her in that given her childhood/upbringing, but that doesn't excuse wilfully spreading misinformation that damages the lives of thousands of people because it reconfirms your priors. Sad to think about.

Seeing that transgender people who get sex reassignment are still massively more likely to commit suicide than non-transgender people, it does raise the question, whether sex reassignment is the correct treatment. In this it's a major problem that any such discussion end up being called transphobic.

On the other hand Rowling didn't help her argument about her not being a TERF by writing her latest book.

[Figueira]

The typical English curriculum includes Dante Alighieri? Lol

(which would be less strange than it including J. K. Rowling by the way)

Dante is like Shakespeare and Cervantes. He is not only an Italian medieval author, but a heritage of humanity

Of course.
However I found it a little funny as (to use your examples) I don't remember if we actually read anything by Cervantes in high school in Italian classes, and we basically skipped Shakespeare since we studied him in English classes.

"English class" in American high schools is basically "literature class with a primary but not exclusive focus on American and British lit". This also means that many Americans, even very literate ones like myself, get through their education with a pretty slipshod understanding of the technicalities of English grammar and syntax.

This is actually a good thing. Studies have shown that teaching grammar rules out of context doesn't help.

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/grammar-spelling-errors/ (Blog post/podcast episode with links to actual studies)

That said, it probably would be a good thing if some basic linguistics was taught.

[Figueira]

Anyway, J.K. Rowling is clearly part of the long list of good writers who are HPs, unfortunately.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

As a kid I read the first few Harry Potter books but gave up the series somewhere in the middle of the Goblet of Fire, when it started getting too elaborate and teenage angsty and Rowling started to write this epic hero's journey about something or other. Didn't think she's good enough of a writer to carry that to completion, not that I ever went back and checked...

As for the transphobic stuff, it's obviously very disappointing. I have some empathy for her in that given her childhood/upbringing, but that doesn't excuse wilfully spreading misinformation that damages the lives of thousands of people because it reconfirms your priors. Sad to think about.

Seeing that transgender people who get sex reassignment are still massively more likely to commit suicide than non-transgender people, it does raise the question, whether sex reassignment is the correct treatment. In this it's a major problem that any such discussion end up being called transphobic.

On the other hand Rowling didn't help her argument about her not being a TERF by writing her latest book.

For Rowling to be a TERF she'd have to be a radical feminist in the first place which she is not, she's a mainstream liberal feminist. And the controversy over her latest book is blown way out of proportion, the mention of a cis male crossdressing serial killer happens once as a reference to a cold case. It's not a main character or big role in the plot. Nor is it even trans-related as the killer is still a cis male.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Seeing that transgender people who get sex reassignment are still massively more likely to commit suicide than non-transgender people, it does raise the question, whether sex reassignment is the correct treatment. In this it's a major problem that any such discussion end up being called transphobic.

I don't know if "massively more likely" is accurate, but even granted that's simply false logic. If a given treatment reduces the rate of suicide in patients from 30x to 5x the general population that's a huge success.

For the efficacy of transitioning: "What does the scholarly research say about the effect of gender transition on transgender well-being?" There's zero argument that transitioning is the most effective way to help people suffering from serious gender dysphoria.
 

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Wait, hold on, Аverroës wasn't joking?! Geez louise.

Wait, what? I couldn't find anything confirming it from Google, so I just assumed it was a joke. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough.

It was a joke, albeit one that seems to have spread more confusion than laughter.

GeneralMacArthur taking it seriously was what got me confused. Which I guess reinforces what I was originally saying about it!

That said, I remain convinced that you could find better textual support for Luna Lovegood being trans than exists for most of Rowling's post-hoc elaborations.  "Being different isn't a bad thing. It means you're brave enough to be yourself"

She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

[afleitch]

She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

I would agree. I certainly always read Lupin that way. There's a lot of obvious queerness to Draco and it shows up in his son in The Cursed Child.

But, and again this is telling, 'everyone got married and had babies' to me was either a unintentional or deliberate 'f-ck you' to people's head canon. Weirdly pointless. It's sadly hard to tell now.

Retconning Dumbledore as a burnt and broken desexualised celibate gay man wasn't personally a helpful step. I don't think I  believe her when she say's that was always her intention. I don't think there was malice there, it was just unfortunate.

But the sad truth is that we ended up with a series of books that ran well into the mid 00's with exclusively heterosexual characters and questionably token non white characters. And for someone with her background the 'comedic but lovable' working class parody of the Weasley's.

FWIW during my big move I gave my books away including two copies of the 'rare' UK one that goes for a few hundred a piece to charity. All that came were my old atlases and Pullman (please forever hold your peace Phillip)

[Horus]

She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

I would agree. I certainly always read Lupin that way. There's a lot of obvious queerness to Draco and it shows up in his son in The Cursed Child.

But, and again this is telling, 'everyone got married and had babies' to me was either a unintentional or deliberate 'f-ck you' to people's head canon. Weirdly pointless. It's sadly hard to tell now.

Retconning Dumbledore as a burnt and broken desexualised celibate gay man wasn't personally a helpful step. I don't think I  believe her when she say's that was always her intention. I don't think there was malice there, it was just unfortunate.

But the sad truth is that we ended up with a series of books that ran well into the mid 00's with exclusively heterosexual characters and questionably token non white characters. And for someone with her background the 'comedic but lovable' working class parody of the Weasley's.

FWIW during my big move I gave my books away including two copies of the 'rare' UK one that goes for a few hundred a piece to charity. All that came were my old atlases and Pullman (please forever hold your peace Phillip)

His Dark Materials just never took off in America. Really a shame.

[afleitch]

She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

I would agree. I certainly always read Lupin that way. There's a lot of obvious queerness to Draco and it shows up in his son in The Cursed Child.

But, and again this is telling, 'everyone got married and had babies' to me was either a unintentional or deliberate 'f-ck you' to people's head canon. Weirdly pointless. It's sadly hard to tell now.

Retconning Dumbledore as a burnt and broken desexualised celibate gay man wasn't personally a helpful step. I don't think I  believe her when she say's that was always her intention. I don't think there was malice there, it was just unfortunate.

But the sad truth is that we ended up with a series of books that ran well into the mid 00's with exclusively heterosexual characters and questionably token non white characters. And for someone with her background the 'comedic but lovable' working class parody of the Weasley's.

FWIW during my big move I gave my books away including two copies of the 'rare' UK one that goes for a few hundred a piece to charity. All that came were my old atlases and Pullman (please forever hold your peace Phillip)

His Dark Materials just never took off in America. Really a shame.

I think it would be better now, and certainly people are starting to discover the series. The TV adaptation has been good so far. I get that it's not whizzing you off to a fun world; Potter is joy with impending darkness, His Dark Materials is darkness with impending joy.

It was and remains personally the most influential series of books I have ever read. It upended my worldview at a formative age and sent me off down different philosophical paths. And it gave us Dr Mary Malone who is one of the most underrated female characters in 'young adult' literature. And devoted and loving gay angels. The first gay anything that ever made it into a book I was reading.

[Horus]

She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

I would agree. I certainly always read Lupin that way. There's a lot of obvious queerness to Draco and it shows up in his son in The Cursed Child.

But, and again this is telling, 'everyone got married and had babies' to me was either a unintentional or deliberate 'f-ck you' to people's head canon. Weirdly pointless. It's sadly hard to tell now.

Retconning Dumbledore as a burnt and broken desexualised celibate gay man wasn't personally a helpful step. I don't think I  believe her when she say's that was always her intention. I don't think there was malice there, it was just unfortunate.

But the sad truth is that we ended up with a series of books that ran well into the mid 00's with exclusively heterosexual characters and questionably token non white characters. And for someone with her background the 'comedic but lovable' working class parody of the Weasley's.

FWIW during my big move I gave my books away including two copies of the 'rare' UK one that goes for a few hundred a piece to charity. All that came were my old atlases and Pullman (please forever hold your peace Phillip)

His Dark Materials just never took off in America. Really a shame.

I think it would be better now, and certainly people are starting to discover the series. The TV adaptation has been good so far. I get that it's not whizzing you off to a fun world; Potter is joy with impending darkness, His Dark Materials is darkness with impending joy.

It was and remains personally the most influential series of books I have ever read. It upended my worldview at a formative age and sent me off down different philosophical paths. And it gave us Dr Mary Malone who is one of the most underrated female characters in 'young adult' literature. And devoted and loving gay angels. The first gay anything that ever made it into a book I was reading.

The tv series is great, only qualm is I just don't think McAvoy makes a good Asriel. Ruth Wilson otoh is perfect.

[Figueira]

As a kid I read the first few Harry Potter books but gave up the series somewhere in the middle of the Goblet of Fire, when it started getting too elaborate and teenage angsty and Rowling started to write this epic hero's journey about something or other. Didn't think she's good enough of a writer to carry that to completion, not that I ever went back and checked...

As for the transphobic stuff, it's obviously very disappointing. I have some empathy for her in that given her childhood/upbringing, but that doesn't excuse wilfully spreading misinformation that damages the lives of thousands of people because it reconfirms your priors. Sad to think about.

Seeing that transgender people who get sex reassignment are still massively more likely to commit suicide than non-transgender people, it does raise the question, whether sex reassignment is the correct treatment. In this it's a major problem that any such discussion end up being called transphobic.

On the other hand Rowling didn't help her argument about her not being a TERF by writing her latest book.

For Rowling to be a TERF she'd have to be a radical feminist in the first place which she is not, she's a mainstream liberal feminist. And the controversy over her latest book is blown way out of proportion, the mention of a cis male crossdressing serial killer happens once as a reference to a cold case. It's not a main character or big role in the plot. Nor is it even trans-related as the killer is still a cis male.

The thing about whether she's a TERF is semantics. Who cares whether or not she's a radical feminist? The main problem with TERFs is not that they're radical feminists, and she's certainly not a "mainstream liberal feminist" given her views on trans people.

As for the book, "scary man dresses up as a woman" is a common transphobic talking point. Its inclusion in the book is not terrible on its own, but this book does not exist in a vacuum.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The main problem with TERFs is not that they're radical feminists...

It absolutely is. Nasty pathological cult. It's where the real insane viciousness of the full-on 'TERF' position on these issues comes from.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The main problem with TERFs is not that they're radical feminists...

It absolutely is. Nasty pathological cult. It's where the real insane viciousness of the full-on 'TERF' position on these issues comes from.

Can you elaborate on this? I've had much more benign experiences with self-described radical feminists than a lot of people in my life seem to have had, and I'm wondering if it's maybe a particularly toxic milieu in Britain, or among relatively-older people, or among straight women, etc.

However, I read one of Rowling's longer public utterances on this for myself and she actually mentions radical feminism in so many words as an influence on her thought, so BRTD's "but technically"-ing the definition of "TERF" is simply inaccurate in her case.

[Mr. Smith]

Cringey.

But then, HP lost a ton of steam after Sirius Black died [6 was okay, 7 was clearly ready for the movie first] and most of her works since have been crap.