Speaking on the latest episode of JK Rowling’s podcast The Witch Trials, the author said there were “a ton of Potter fans who were grateful I said what I said” despite the overwhelming backlash to one of her 2019 tweets.
Wednesday 15 March 2023 05:43 UK
JK Rowling has said she was “fully aware” that her comments and views on transgender issues would make some Harry Potter fans “deeply saddened”.
Author Said that despite the heavy backlash over a 2019 tweet “there were a ton of Potter fans who were grateful that I said what I said”.
Speaking on the latest episode of the podcast JK Rowling’s witch trialHe discussed the tweet in which he expressed support for tax expert Maya Forstetter, and the subsequent fallout.
Ms Forstetter lost her work contract over her own tweets about transgender people and later took the matter to an employment tribunal, as her dismissal constituted discrimination against her beliefs.
At the time, Rowling tweeted: “Dress how you want. Call yourself whatever you want. Sleep with any consenting adult you’ll have. Live your best life in peace and safety.”
“But put women out of their jobs to make the sex real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.”
Speaking on the podcast, the 57-year-old admitted it would have been “easier” not to enter the debate.
“When I first became interested and then deeply troubled by what I saw as a cultural movement that was liberal in its methods and deeply questionable in its views, I was acutely aware that if I spoke out, So a lot of people would be very unhappy with me,” she said.
“I knew this because I knew … that they believed they were living the values that I espoused in those books. I could tell they believed they were working for the underdog and the difference and the fairness.” were fighting for.
“And I thought it wasn’t going to be easy, you know, that it might get really bad. And honestly, it’s been bad personally, it hasn’t been fun.
“I have feared for my safety at times, and more so for the safety of my family.”
‘Time will tell if I’ve done it wrong’
He said: “Time will tell if I’ve got it wrong. All I can say is that I’ve thought about it deeply and hard and long. And I’ve heard the other side, I promise.”
“And I believe, absolutely, that there is something dangerous about this movement, and it must be challenged.”
Rowling said she was “considerate enough” to inform her management team that she was about to post her initial tweet “because I knew it was going to cause a huge storm”.
The author received thousands of replies to her tweet from fans expressing their disappointment and hatred towards her.
‘My position is that I fully adhere to the position I took on Potter’
The franchise’s stars, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, have also publicly spoken out against their views on gender.
Rowling said, “I am constantly told that I have betrayed my books, but my position is that I firmly stand by the position I took in Potter.”
“My position is that this activist movement in the form it is currently taking echoes the very thing I was warning against in Harry Potter.”
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‘A ton of Potter fans are grateful I said what I said’
She added: “But at the same time, I have to tell you, a ton of Potter fans were still with me.
“Actually, a ton of Potter fans are grateful that I said what I said.”
She said that the lack of willingness of many people to join her on this issue was “incredibly cowardly intellectually”.
“I am fighting what I see as a powerful, insidious misogynist movement that I think has become very popular in very influential sectors of society. I do not characterize this particular movement as benign or powerless. I don’t see it that way,” she said.
“So I’m afraid I stand with women who are fighting to be heard against loss of livelihood and threats to their personal safety.”