Celebrated author JK Rowling finds herself amid fresh controversy after early reviews of her new book ‘Troubled Blood’ hinted at a transphobic plot-line. The book was written by Rowling under the pseudonym ‘Robert Galbraith.’
The book revolves around a cisgender man who wears dresses and murders women. Internet is seeing it as an extension of her “controversial” comments on transgenders.
Jake Kerridge, in his review for The Telegraph, described ‘Troubled Blood’ as, "The meat of the book is the investigation into a cold case: The disappearance of GP Margot Bamborough in 1974, thought to have been a victim of Dennis Creed, a transvestite serial killer. One wonders what critics of Rowling's stance on trans issues will make of a book whose moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress."
‘Regressive’ & ‘Recycled’
After the review was widely circulated, people called the book regressive and asked her about “research” for the new novel.
‘Why Write Under Pseudonym’
Earlier, on 7 June, people saw Rowling’s tweet as ‘transphobic and uninformed.’
Twitter roared back:
Celebrities, former Harry Potter stars and readers all called the tweet insensitive, while asserting that trans and non-binary people menstruate too. Some even called Rowling a ‘TERF’, or a trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)