Harry Potter Author; JK Rowling Once Again Causes A Stir On Twitter
Harry Potter author; JK Rowling has once again come under fire for her recent transphobic tweet. Sharing a Times UK article titled — ‘Absurdity’ of police logging rapists as women — Rowling wrote, “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman”.
The article is a discussion on a recent policy that would allow Scotland Police to log rape cases against women if the accused identifies as a woman irrespective of whether the person has legally changed their sex.
War is Peace.
Freedom is Slavery.
Ignorance is Strength.
The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.https://t.co/SyxFnnboM1
“Some cis women are rapists. Worth noting that many GCs also want to record trans women rape victims as men. This is all just moral panic to justify taking away all trans people rights. It’s to bypass your rational brain,” a Twitter user wrote.
Apart from a discussion on the UK legal system and questions on whether sexual violence is “inherently male”, Rowling’s tweet once again brought forward the art vs artist debate wherein people have long contemplated whether or not it is possible to enjoy someone’s art whilst separating it from the artist as a person. If an artist does something morally reprehensible but their art is still stellar, is it ethically wrong to consume the art that would ultimately contribute towards the artist’s well-being? Many Twitter users shared that they were now unable to enjoy the Harry Potter books that they had grown up with.
One Twitter user agreed with Rowling’s comment; they wrote: “This happened to me. My rapist transitioned and now all guilt seems to be gone under the guise of others being “accepting”. Thank you for speaking out about this even though you receive awful amounts of hate. I worry for women that have to deal with these men in their spaces.”
In response, another user tweeted: “And that would be a different issue. The problem is not that your abusers gender was respected, but that the people around them ceased to hold them accountable. Those are two different things.”
