I’ve written before about my frustration with J.K. Rowling’s white-washed, cishet-centric world view, and her performative allyship to the disenfranchised. The self-congratulatory liberal politics she’s expressed have always faded when her billionaire’s bottom line was in question, or when one actually looks at the texts-as-written, rather than her Tweeted footnotes.
As much as we might want it, if Hermione were meant to be a woman of color, we’d know about it. She’d be as stereotypically written as Kingsley Shacklebolt or she’d have a Completely Obvious But Inauthentic name like ‘Cho Chang’. In the text, there’s nothing that clearly gives us gay Dumbledore; the more explicitly queer-coded characters (such as Remus ‘lycanthropy-as-AIDS-metaphor’ Lupin, and Don’t-call-me-Nymphadora ‘my physical presentation is literally fluid’ Tonks) are shoehorned into relationships as traditionally straight as cramming the kids into happily-ever-afters with their secondary-school sweethearts. And don’t get me started on how she absolutely gutted her anti-racist metaphor of purebloods versus ‘mudbloods’ by insisting that anyone with magical powers must’ve had some Wizarding blood in their lineage; or basically anything to do with The Cursed Child or the Fantastic Beasts spinoff.
The Wizarding World and the Harry Potter stories are incredibly dear to me. I met my other half through the fandom and we were both delighted to be able to get our Houses as throw pillows from Penney’s this winter. So it’s not because I’m a hater that I’m saying this: due to her recent behaviors, as far as I’m concerned, J. K. R. is cancelled.
Hand-waving concerns about abusers cast in the movies (notably Johnny Depp, because no one has ever bothered to Time’s Up Gary Oldman) was absolutely gross enough, but this week there’s been a new controversy. Trigger warning for my fellow queers: J. K. R. has been liking TERFs on Twitter, again.
On Twitter, if someone you follow likes something, you’ll often see it in your timeline, and Rowling’s followers were ‘treated’ to her liking a tweet referring to transwomen as ‘men in dresses’.
Her representative reached out to concerned LGBT media, stating: “I’m afraid JK Rowling had a clumsy and middle-aged moment and this is not the first time she has favourited by holding her phone incorrectly.”
Barf.
But even if we let her have that one — despite the apology coming from her people rather than herself — there’s other receipts to pull. Previously, she’s liked the following tweet around the transpeople in bathrooms panic:
Once could be a ‘clumsy and middle-aged moment’ but twice is a pattern, and having her people speak for her when she’s notoriously chatty on Twitter is too much. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat fits and calls you out as a snake, it’s time to break out the green-and-grey. I’m just done enough that I won’t bother to see it.
