Behold: a witch
CNN outdoes even the Guardian. It’s breathtaking how malicious and ugly this is:
For years, J.K. Rowling, one of the best-selling authors of all time, has made inflammatory comments about transgender people, particularly trans women, using dehumanizing language and baselessly accusing them of harming cisgender women. Her words have disappointed legions of “Harry Potter” fans and even the stars who brought Rowling’s books to life.
It’s “for years” only in the most literal sense, i.e. more than one year. The comments are “inflammatory” only in the sense that easily incensed people like “Scottie Andrew,” the author of this inflammatory piece, urge each other to be inflamed about them. “Dehumanizing language” is a straight-up lie. It’s also a lie to say she “accuses trans people of harming cisgender women.” This is plausible deniability at its most punchable. “I didn’t say she accused all trans people of harming cisgender women…I merely implied it. Neener neener.”
The very title of this bowl of sick is disgusting, and indeed “inflammatory”:
What to know about the new J.K. Rowling podcast and her history of harmful anti-trans comments
What to know, as if it were a set of facts instead of a piece of hate-mail from one bratty CNN reporter. “Her history” – he sounds like J. Edgar Hoover. Her comments are not harmful and they’re not anti-trans. Is CNN written by and for teenagers now?
Now, a podcast called “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” indicates she’ll discuss the reaction to those anti-trans comments – in addition to discussing her journey as an author – with host Megan Phelps-Roper, a high-profile former member of the anti-LGBTQ Westboro Baptist Church. Even before its release, the podcast was met with criticism by LGBTQ advocates for seemingly siding with Rowling based on the title alone.
Thanks to people like Scottie Andrew who do their best to convince everyone she’s an evil witch.
H/t a reader who may or may not want to be named.
IMO, this CNN Entertainment piece isn’t even a review of the podcast, it’s just an anti-Rowling screed. I recall Roger Ebert’s take on reviewing a work: (1) What is it trying to do? (2) Does it do it? (3) If so, how well? Let’s apply that to Andrew’s piece. It’s trying to tell us that Rowling is a witch. It doesn’t show us she is. So both of my thumbs are turned down.
Thankfully I’ve read other takes on this podcast that do actually review it and it does sound interesting. Here’s a good one:
Witch trials, TERF wars and the voice of conscience in a new podcast about J.K. Rowling – (The Conversation)
It’s not even labeled an opinion piece. Is there a way to contact CNN in order to object to this?
Well, she turned me into a newt.
Lady M, I’m kind of hoping JKR’s lawyers are looking into that.
He who shall not be named ;) has been pretty disappointed in CNN of late. I hope they can get it straightened out, but I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for the link J.A.@1, I wanted to read rather than listen, but had trouble finding it.
Who is he who shall not be named?
AKA – a reader who may or may not…
JKR’s antagonist in the Harry Potter series is also referred to as “he who shall not be named,” so I thought it was intentional. OK either way. :)
Ah. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know these things!
It’s a trope, I think. It was a running joke on Rumpole that his wife was “she who must be obeyed.” I think it was a play on some other version, which was probably also a play on etc etc. I think it stems from the Latin gerundive which says the whole thing in one word.
One thing I’m happy about, a bit of good-ish news if you will, is that Hogwarts Legacy is a smash hit.
Now the game itself, has problems. It most certainly isn’t a “terf” title, but the usual suspects did start calling for a boycott, and when that failed, they started harassing streamers and reviewers who dared cover what was probably going to be the best selling game of 2023.
This has, I think, exposed a whole new generation to just how utterly vile the TRA movement is.
And I think the game being a hit has also exposed something else:
“Her words have disappointed legions of “Harry Potter” fans and even the stars who brought Rowling’s books to life.”
Legions is perhaps the right word. Legions number around 3 to 6 thousand individuals. Maybe Rowling’s relatively mild assertion of women’s rights mattering, and that maybe people without penises shouldn’t be undermining them might have annoyed those thousands.
Her books sold more than 600 million copies. Her enemies may be legion, but they are not that many.
Which is also interesting @9, and I have found many references (mostly in names and magic things, spells and the like) that are plays on mostly obsolete words in JKR’s work. She’s clever that way, and no doubt an accomplished reader.
Just as background, my daughter was 9 and one of my stepsons was 5 or so when the first Harry Potter book came out, so I’ve been exposed to almost all of it, including the movies, as well as the Fantastic Beasts film series. I found all of it enjoyable if I’m being honest.
Bruce @11, I hope you’re right, that malicious propaganda piece on CNN was galling.
Oops, now @10 I guess?
I read that piece at The Conversation (thank you, J.A.) and wasn’t one bit impressed by the writer assuming that JKR’s detractors had a point, and then speculating about her motives, despite admitting that the podcast hasn’t reached that part of her story yet (there have only been two episodes so far) and not quoting a single ‘transphobic’ thing she is alleged to have said.
It’s infuriating the way people keep on doing that. I wish they would just stop, and go and read what she has actually written on the ‘trans’ issue, and then write about that instead of writing about the gossip and lies as if they were accurate reporting.
The last paragraph in that piece in The Conversation has so many false assumptions, I barely know where to start.
1. Had she kept silent, she would have betrayed all the people, especially children, who are being massively harmed by the cult of gender identity.
2. She not only has remained beloved, she has gained a whole new following of women who would never have read her books (or read them and didn’t like them) but are immensely impressed at her kindness towards women and children.
3. Keeping silent is siding with ‘wrong’, and encouraging ‘wrong’, and dismaying the victims of ‘wrong’ who need the vociferous support of people like Joanne Rowling, because of misogynists like Hugh Breakey who are so up their own arses they think that they are qualified to pontificate on her non-existent errors and ignore half the human race in the process.
I tweeted an angry response to @CNN about this, and I removed cnn.com from my bookmarks.
Assholes.
Assholes would be a step UP for CNN.
Ophelia #9
Wikipedia confirms my vague recollection
“The phrase She Who Must Be Obeyed originally derives from the lead character of Henry Rider Haggard’s 1886 novel She: A History of Adventure.”
Aha! I thought Rumpole had lifted it from somewhere but didn’t remember where.
I listened to the two currently available episodes. Absolutely marvelous work. Lots of strands tied together, many details I had not heard before. Excellent job by Phelps-Roper et al. I look forward to the rest of the series.