WOMEN ERASED: JK Rowling
Why the political elite and radical gender activists turned their backs on Britain's favourite author
In my third book, I will discuss the betrayal of women by many in the modern feminist movement. The women at the receiving end of often vicious abuse are, ironically, some of the women who do so much for other women. One such individual is JK Rowling. Below is a brief description of the chapter on Rowling that will be included in Women Erased. You can also read about Emmeline Pankhurst, Florence Nightingale, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali on these digital pages.
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When US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban quickly rose up and resumed the control they had lost two decades earlier. Some were in prison thanks to female judges’ decisions (including for domestic violence) and those judges knew they were in peril.
The Taliban had a “kill list” featuring around 500 names - including those judges. They needed to get out of Afghanistan, fast. Renowned feminist lawyer Helena Kennedy had knowledge of, and connections to, these women and their plight. She knew the fate they faced, but more importantly, she knew how to get them out of Afghanistan. It would cost money, however, and that was a significant obstacle until JK Rowling came along and her hand in her rather steep pocket.
Those judges are alive and well and safely living somewhere in the Western world, thanks to JK Rowling.
When a Scottish women’s charity for sexual assault survivors placed a male in the chief executive’s chair, JK Rowling stepped in, for the simple reason that she supports female-only charities. That means organisations run by females, not males, regardless of how they identify, or their gender dysphoria diagnoses, or their autogynephilic fetishes.
In 2021, Edinburgh’s rape crisis centre appointed a male as its leader, and if women felt uncomfortable with that, so be it.
In response, Rowling once again put her hand in her pocket and funded a sexual violence support centre in Edinburgh. She said it mattered that women’s charities focused on women (which would once have been obvious) and that care for traumatised women was delivered by other women.
Frankly, in a sane world, JK Rowling would be a feminist hero, and the media and political elite would describe her and laud her as such. Instead, the reality proved quite the opposite.
It all started with a tweet. On June 6th, 2020, Rowling tweeted this:
“‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
The backlash was immediate. Rowling was transphobic. No debate, that’s that. And what happens to transphobes? Erasure.
To clarify herself further, the smash hit author made the following thoroughly reasonable statement:
“If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth,” she tweeted. “The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women—i.e., to male violence—‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences—is a nonsense.”
She also wrote:
“I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it’s hateful to say so.”
Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the movies based on Rowling’s famous novels, subsequently expressed his view. “Transgender women are women,” he said, apparently oblivious to the fact that the word “trans” would indicate otherwise. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people,” Radcliffe continued, once again oblivious to the fact that “trans” women are using the very word “woman” to describe themselves, and in doing so, erasing the identity of 51% of the world’s population.
Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, added this statement into the mix: “Trans people are who they say they are.” How profound! The problem is, she hasn’t noticed that the same principle doesn’t apply when women insist that we are women, not “cis” women as the trans brigade insists on labelling us.
The hypocrisy of all of that is evident, but the violent threats are not so easy to roll our eyes at. “Kill JK Rowling” on signs at Pride rallies. Violent threats. Doxing. Photos taken by radical genderists outside her home. And not one politico in Parliament said a word in her defence or called out the abuse. In fact, across the public sphere, commentators hinted - if not stated outright - that Rowling was the problem. She was “transphobic” after all.
To be fair, some feminists did stick their necks out for Rowling, and in doing so, attracted vitriol for themselves. Nicola Sturgeon, however, was not among them, despite her declaration that she is a “real feminist.”
Nicola Sturgeon was the First Minister of Scotland at the height of Rowling’s early controversies, and instead of taking women’s concerns seriously, she decided to make it easier for men to identify as women, and to make it easier for them to access women’s spaces despite evidence of the dangers this posed.
Around the same time, convicted rapist Isla Bryson insisted he wanted to be jailed in a women’s prison (I bet he did), and naturally enough, the Scottish government did nothing to stop it. Public outcry eventually reversed the decision, but the government had unequivocally announced whose side it was on. Like so many self-declared “feminists,” Sturgeon and her government prioritised male feelings and desires over female safety, and turned its back on one of the country’s most famous residents; the only one among them that actually was a “real feminist.”
NEXT CHAPTER: Posie Parker, aka Kellie Jay Keen