JK Rowling recently came under fire for her transphobic comments on Twitter, but this isn’t the first time she has received flak by the internet-world. After Donald Trump, if there’s anyone famous for tweeting unnecessarily, it’s JK Rowling. For years, she has been tweeting a revisionist version of the series, trying to make her characters as dynamic and inclusive as possible. When she’s not doing this, she’s trying to expand her Harry Potter universe unconditionally. I honestly can’t tell who is more obsessed with Harry Potter - the fandom or JK Rowling herself?
But despite all these efforts, it’s interesting that the author has only managed to lose the appreciation and respect of her fans. Whether it’s the Harry Potter canon or Rowling’s problematic politics, we’ve all been disappointed by the woman at some point.
Rowling’s Transphobia 1.0
This isn’t the first time that JK Rowling has made transphobic statements in public. In December 2019, the author put out a tweet supporting Maya Forstater, a researcher who had lost her job following transphobic comments on social media. Forstater then was of the opinion that it was not possible for men to change their sex and identify as women.
Here’s what JK Rowling had tweeted in the aftermath of this:
When Rowling Gave Albus Dumbledore’s Sexuality a Miss - Again!
If you’re familiar with post-Harry Potter JK Rowling, you must know that she’s famous for retrospectively adding representation to her book. In 2007, after the publication of the final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling declared that our favourite Albus Dumbledore was gay! And as a teenager he had a relationship with his friend-turned-foe Gellert Grindelwald.
Of course, this went both ways. Some were happy to get that kind of representation but others were furious that there was absolutely no canon subtext actually implying Dumbledore’s sexuality.
Anyway, that debate was put to rest until years later, in 2018, when Rowling said that the spin-off, Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald, would not be exploring the apparent homosexual connection between Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) and Dumbledore (Jude Law). This enraged fans from the community who couldn’t help but wonder - does Rowling’s attempt at pseudo-representation mean anything at all?
JK Rowling And The Curious Case of Queerbaiting
The queer community has more than one reason to be furious with JK Rowling. After the release of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, a two-part spin-off play, Rowling was accused of queerbaiting.
Queerbaiting is when creators of fiction hint at potential queer romance or representation without explicitly depicting/stating it.
The queer community does not like this...for obvious reasons. Many fans have accused Rowling of using the characters Scorpius Malfoy and Albus Potter (which the fandom has termed ‘Scorbus’) for queerbaiting. They insist that the friendship between the two has traces of homoeroticism and intimacy that goes beyond friendship.
Rowling’s Defence Against The...
In 2016, after the big reveal at the end of Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them featuring Johnny Depp as Gilbert Grindelwald, fans took to social media to slam Rowling. Depp had recently been accused of sexual abuse by his ex-wife Amber Heard and this did not go well with many. Later, it was also revealed that Depp would have a titular role in the second instalment of the spin-off series. Around the same time, Rowling had defended the filmmakers’ decision of casting Depp in the film. In a blog post, she said that the filmmakers and she had almost considered recasting for the role but chosen not to.
“The filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies.”JK Rowling,
Woke Points > Quidditch Points
JK Rowling’s internet behaviour just proves one thing - that the woman is hell-bent on collecting woke points and will not stop tweeting till she’s got them all. Sure, she is the creator of one of the most popular youth fantasy series of the 21st century but that doesn’t mean the series is one without flaws. And that’s okay, or at least would have been if Rowling wasn’t so adamant of hiding her own shortcomings.
Over the years, Rowling has received flak for trying to forcefully undo her damage by adding retrospective representation and appropriating cultures for her benefit. This happened when South Korean actor Claudio Kim was cast as ‘Nagini’ in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Fans were furious because they felt like it would propagate the woman-turned-snake myth. Some also slammed her for trying to make up for the evident lack of representation in her work.
Around the same time, Rowling fell for the bait on Twitter when someone asked her if there was a Jewish character in Harry Potter and she instantly replied, “Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard.” Anthony Goldstein is barely present in the series; his role is pretty insignificant.
In 2016, Rowling was criticised by many belonging to North American communities for appropriating and wrongfully representing the North American culture in her four-part Pottermore series called The History of Magic in North America.
I know it’s a long shot but I hope JK Rowling gets the message and leaves her fans alone...
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