Unkind Thoughts about that Author

[pennswoods]

I want to write this down somewhere and I'm not putting it on Twitter. Things I am seeing online now suggest that Rowling is embracing and sharing talking points from Holocaust deniers particularly as relates to queer and trans victims and the destruction of texts and research.

I wonder what her children think of her. They are all adults now. I wonder if any of them are embarrassed or disgusted or hurt by her bigotry. I wonder if there is any conflict at home because of this, and I wonder if this underlies in any way her fervency.

Comments

[mundungus42]

Oh I was thinking both familial estrangement (e.g., M*sk's daughter) as well as financial loss. There's nothing happy about family estrangement for anybody, of course. But seeing her take a financial hit would be particularly sweet because her responses to people who say things like "how can you live with yourself?" or "you've lost so many fans because of this!" has literally been bragging about how much money she gets from her IPs, implying that she considers the money she makes to be a clear sign that most people share her views or don't really care about trans people. It's why I've done my best to ensure that she'll never get a penny of my money until she sees the light as well as donating what little I make from my wizard rock tracks to orgs that support queer youth.

I fear she's too far gone to listen to any actual trans people or activists at this point, but my hope is that the Holocaust denial incident will lead her to seek out actual experts, like those who know the difference between Shoah (the persecution/murder of Jews by the Nazis) and the Holocaust (everyone the Nazis persecuted/murdered, including queer/trans folks), instead of relying on her toxic peer group. Specifically, I hope she educates herself or reaches out to scientists who study biological sex and the associated spectrum of anatomy, genetics, gene expression, hormonal variances. Basically to finally learn that sex is NOT binary and that gender essentialism is both unscientific and harmful. I think that could be a good first step away from the fascists. But I also acknowledge that it's wishful thinking at this point.

[pennswoods]

It is hard for me to imagine that those who are close to her are comfortable with this open embracing of bigotry and clear history denial and the intellectual company she is now in bed with. Maybe they can ignore it as long as she does not bring it up in conversation, but she comes across as a zealot now, so I cannot imagine that she keeps these thought to only online spaces.

I think, but have no evidence to support this, that she is so convinced of her righteousness that there is no data, no story, no correction that will change her course. Confirmation bias and her own personal feelings of pride and anger toward people trying to control will guide her understanding of things. I expect she will only get worse.

[mundungus42]

Yeah. My dad swallowed the old white dude grievance narrative hook, line, and sinker, and even when he was dying, he occasionally still tried to bait me and my sister with culture war BS, though he eventually got too tired to bother with it. We largely sidestepped his traps (it helped that it was all asinine and ill-informed) and managed to stay on task with making sure he knew he was loved and trying to share the joyful parts of my life with him. But yeah, there was no convincing him and it really, really sucked.

At least with him it was mostly chain emails and RL kvetching sessions with his brother (a huge Rush Limbaugh fan) and not, y'know having an enormous social media platform, fortune, and outsize influence on the broader culture. I really feel for her kids, especially if any of them are queer. Especially since, well, they're human, but they were also raised in considerable privilege an probably don't want to be disinherited.

I know it's probably wishful thinking to hope that she can drag herself out of this abyss because I see the way that Graham Linehan completely torpedoed his career and all the goodwill that came from it because he's so obsessed with and claims to be disgusted by trans people.

My pet theory is that JKR is actually trans and hates trans people so much because they're living authentically and she refuses to. JKR's screeds, e.g., "if girls are told they can become boys ALL girls will want to become boys because it's so much harder to be a girl!" make my gaydar ping decisively.