Now it's pretty much a full house of Harry Potter stars anxious to make it clear how much they disagree with JK Rowling - despite owing their careers to her:
The three principal cast members of the Harry Potter films were united yesterday against JK Rowling after the author became embroiled in a war with transgender activists following remarks that she made on Twitter.
Rupert Grint, 31, who starred as Harry’s sidekick Ron Weasley, joined his fellow actors Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in support of trans people offended by Rowling’s comments....
Grint issued a statement to say that he did not believe in distinctions between people born as women and those who had transitioned. “I firmly stand with the trans community and echo the sentiments expressed by many of my peers. Trans women are women. Trans men are men,” he said. “We should all be entitled to live with love and without judgment.”
Grint’s intervention follows similar statements by Radcliffe and Watson, both 30, who played the other leading roles in the adaptations of Rowling’s novels. Radcliffe said: “We need to do more to support transgender people and non-binary people, not invalidate their identities and cause further harm.”
It would be nice if one of the many many luvvies who accepted highly lucrative parts in the Harry Potter films would step up and offer some support for Rowling, but I'm not holding my breath.
On the other hand there's this comment, in a Times piece on the abuse directed at Rowling, from "British Kashmiri Girl":
I experienced sexism every day until I came to this country. Was told I wasn't good enough, not as good as a boy, didn't need as good an education as a boy...everytime I had a tantrum, I was told that I was a girl and as a result didn't know how to express my opinions without a tantrum, ...I am glad JK Rowling is speaking up for girls.
One of my schoolmates in Pakistan was taken out of school at the age of 13 because she was seen talking to a boy. I knew one girl who was brought to Pakistan (born in UK) because her parents wanted her to have an education in Pakistan and not the "corrupt" western education. They wanted to be able to "control" the girls. I was told I needed to be "controlled" so many times. I am lucky, I got out. But girls all over the world and including here in this country suffer and I thank JK Rowling for voicing her opinion. Don't be bullied JK!
The Sun, meanwhile, leads today with a front page splash on Rowling's ex-husband - "I Slapped JK and I'm Not Sorry". With much Twitter fury - "The only reason to publish this sh** is because you know some people are having a go at JK Rowling right now, so when you make a headline like that, you're intentionally inviting some people to agree with the statement. The Sun & its editors are garbage."
Well OK - this is what the Sun often does: publish prurient shit, ostensibly condemning something while smirkingly inviting us to share the sentiments expressed. Though I'm not sure that's what's happening here:
JK Rowling’s abusive first husband last night admitted slapping her — but said: “I’m not sorry.”
Jorge Arantes, 52, said he had not bothered to read the accusations of domestic abuse by the Harry Potter author — and he did not care.
But he said on his mum’s doorstep in Porto: “I slapped Joanne — but there was not sustained abuse. I’m not sorry for slapping her.”
The ex-drug addict, dad to Rowling’s daughter Jessica, said of the writer’s claims: “If she says that, that’s up to her. It’s not true I hit her.”
But he was then quizzed about his own admission ten years ago that he had hit her on the night she left him.
The former TV journalist said: “Yes. It is true I slapped her. But I didn’t abuse her.”
Make of that what you will, but it seems to me that they've done what you'd expect a paper like The Sun to do: door-stepping a man in the news. And they got him to admit that he was indeed the nasty piece of work that Rowling described, as well as dropping in the "ex-drug addict" line. That's not bad. I don't agree that all Sun readers, having read that, will be salivating at the prospect of Rowling being slapped.
Update: more on that Sun headline here.
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