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Controversy over transphobia in J.K Rowling's new book


Ser Drewy

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https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/09/14/jk-rowling-new-book-cormoran-strike-troubled-blood-killer-dresses-woman/

It almost sounds like a parody, but Rowling has written a new murder mystery book about a cisgender man who disguises himself as a woman to commit murders. It's had a huge backlash from trans activists and #RIPJKRowling has been trending in the UK with many proclaiming her career 'dead' now. It really feels like she's dived off the deep-end with this issue, especially given all the previous controversies surrounding her and this topic, and has reached a point of self-parody. 

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It probably won't impact her career that much, even acknowledging that her murder mystery books only sell a minuscule fraction of the number of copies of Harry Potter and she obviously has enough money to buy Neptune if she wants.

It will continue down the path of making her a joyless figure who ends up being much better known for crass bigotry than for bringing joy to tens of millions of children and turning many millions of kids onto reading in the first place, though. Seeing the number of her fellow writers and the actors she's worked with (even the star of her current film project) turn on her has been quite something.

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This apparently isn't even the first trans-phobic shit in this series:

Quote

 

Troubled Blood is the fifth entry in Rowling’s Cormoran Strike series, penned under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.

 

The second in the series, The Silkworm, has previously been criticised over its depiction of a trans character described as “unstable and aggressive”.

In the book, the woman, Pippa, stalks Strike before attempting to stab him.

 

After the attack the titular detective manages to trap Pippa in his office, where her trans identity and deadname are revealed. At this point, JK Rowling describes the character’s Adam’s apple and hands, with the Strike character warning her that prison “won’t be fun for you… Not pre-op”.

 

via Pink News

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It's such an absurd headline that I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it this morning.  I've seen a few people try to defend "Well the villain is a transvestite not trans, so it isn't bigoted."  I mean, no duh the villain is a transvestite and not properly trans... Rowling doesn't believe trans-women are a thing.  She thinks they're all perverted transvestites trying to invade women's 'safe spaces'...  This book is literally an articulation of her views on trans-women.

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My gut feeling based on the article you linked to would be that it is accidental. JKR's generation came of age long before trans rights gained much attention in mainstream society, but certainly after the excesses of mid twentieth century psychiatric experiments became infamous and despised through e.g. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and the background to some of the plays of Tennessee Williams. The choice of obscure (in the UK) sadist Robert Galbraith Heath seems improbable. 

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Ah yes, the obsessive Twitter mob who are writing ~1000 page detective novels as a very thinly veiled attack on a group of people they hate. I'm happy to forget her, she's the one hung up on people like me - her pals are the rabid mob.

And she's absolutely going full Glinner, and you never want to go full Glinner. I wonder if she's at the "blowing up personal and familial relationships" stage yet like he did.

I don't feel the need to try and guess if she intended the association with her nom de plume is intentional or not, her behavior in the here and now says all I need.

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never stopped the righteous Twitter mobs.

yeah, a bit frivolous.  pseudonyms have a certain license; my nom de guerre here is deliberately adopted from a character in a solzhenitsyn novel who is irredeemably rightwing, and that character is based on an actual person whose politics are as far right as it gets.  all this means nothing.

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It’s tough when an artist screws up. The anti trans thing is a big mistake, compounded with victims. I believe her dying friend hooked her with some opinions.
Why would I like Rowling at all? She taught a generation and all age groups about the Defense against the dark arts, shady stuff in politics, the Patronus, chocolate frogs, and dementors. She seems into a Dark rabbit hole on this.

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It is quite difficult to see how reading the book could alter the basic fact that after years of campaigning about how trans acceptance will lead to men invading women's spaces, putting women in physical danger, Rowling has written a book where a man dresses as a woman in order to kill women. I can't really imagine any context in which that doesn't come over pretty badly.

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