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J.K. Rowling is responding to the backlash she’s receiving from many on social media and beyond following a number of tweets she recently sent referencing the transgender community.
The “Harry Potter” author, 54, was met with criticism over the weekend after she issued multiple tweets in response to an article regarding "people who menstruate” and Rowling moved to have the word "woman" be used in place of the phrase, much to the dismay of fans who accused her of ignoring transgender women.
On Wednesday, Rowling explained her stance in a new blog post and discussed some of her own life experiences.
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“This isn’t an easy piece to write, for reasons that will shortly become clear, but I know it’s time to explain myself on an issue surrounded by toxicity. I write this without any desire to add to that toxicity,” Rowling kicked off a lengthy write-up shared to her website.
Rowling said she began receiving backlash following her support of Maya Forstater -- who was fired from her job after some of her tweets were deemed “transphobic.” Rowling said that after being lambasted for her own opinions on the matter, she began reading and educating herself on the subject.
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“I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then,” Rowling said of the vitriol spewed in her direction. “I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called c--t and b---h and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them.”
“What I didn’t expect in the aftermath of my cancellation was the avalanche of emails and letters that came showering down upon me,” she continued while explaining that an “overwhelming majority” of the messages were “positive, grateful and supportive.”
'Transgender women are women,' Daniel Radcliffe, right, said in response to J.K. Rowling's remarks on transgender women. (Getty)
One recent term that came as a result of people who appear to be feminists but don’t appear to support transgender women is “TERF” (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist), which Rowling said she was labeled, but in no way does it fits with her beliefs.
“Accusations of TERFery have been sufficient to intimidate many people, institutions and organizations I once admired, who’re cowering before the tactics of the playground,” Rowling wrote. “‘They’ll call us transphobic!’ ‘They’ll say I hate trans people!’ What next, they’ll say you’ve got fleas?”
She continued: “Speaking as a biological woman, a lot of people in positions of power really need to grow a pair (which is doubtless literally possible, according to the kind of people who argue that clownfish prove humans aren’t a dimorphic species).”
Furthermore, the “Lethal White” scriber detailed her reasoning for harboring her opinions, which include “five reasons for being worried about the new trans activism" that she said aided in her decision “to speak up.”
“The more of their accounts of gender dysphoria I’ve read, with their insightful descriptions of anxiety, dissociation, eating disorders, self-harm and self-hatred, the more I’ve wondered whether, if I’d been born 30 years later, I, too, might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge,” she penned.
“I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager. If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.”
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Elsewhere in the essay, Rowling went on to say that: "It’s also clear that one of the objectives of denying the importance of sex is to erode what some seem to see as the cruelly segregationist idea of women having their own biological realities or – just as threatening – unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class. The hundreds of emails I’ve received in the last few days prove this erosion concerns many others just as much. It isn’t enough for women to be trans allies. Women must accept and admit that there is no material difference between trans women and themselves."
Then, Rowling opened up about her own experiences as a “domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor,” explaining that she never came forward with her story because “they’re traumatic to revisit and remember," but Rowling also made it a point to note that in no way is she ashamed of what happened to her.
J.K. Rowling got backlash from fellow celebrities after tweeting something deemed transphobic. (Reuters)
"I’ve been in the public eye now for over twenty years and have never talked publicly about being a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor," she said. "This isn’t because I’m ashamed those things happened to me, but because they’re traumatic to revisit and remember.
"I also feel protective of my daughter from my first marriage," Rowling continued. "I didn’t want to claim sole ownership of a story that belongs to her, too. However, a short while ago, I asked her how she’d feel if I were publicly honest about that part of my life, ana she encouraged me to go ahead."
Rowling said that she isn’t coming out with her story now to garner sympathy from anyone; she simply wants to show solidarity “with the huge numbers of women who have histories like mine, who’ve been slurred as bigots for having concerns around single-sex spaces.”
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"I managed to escape my first violent marriage with some difficulty," she alleged, before stating: "But I’m now married to a truly good and principled man, safe and secure in ways I never in a million years expected to be. However, the scars left by violence and sexual assault don’t disappear, no matter how loved you are, and no matter how much money you’ve made.
"My perennial jumpiness is a family joke -- and even I know it’s funny -- but I pray my daughters never have the same reasons I do for hating sudden loud noises, or finding people behind me when I haven’t heard them approaching," Rowling added.
Rowling did not identify the man who sexually assaulted her but said that it happened in her 20s "at a time and in a space where I was vulnerable, and a man capitalized on an opportunity."
She ended her post by explaining that many people share similar stories even though they may not openly speak on them, and she hopes that by sharing hers, she will help others understand positions that are different from their own.
“I haven’t written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one,” she wrote. “I’m extraordinarily fortunate; I’m a survivor, certainly not a victim. I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions.”
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“I never forget that inner complexity when I’m creating a fictional character and I certainly never forget it when it comes to trans people," Rowling added. “All I’m asking -- all I want -- is for similar empathy, similar understanding, to be extended to the many millions of women whose sole crime is wanting their concerns to be heard without receiving threats and abuse.”
If you or someone you know is suffering from abuse, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
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