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J.K. Rowling Has Transcended Into A Living Meme

Scrolling through J.K. Rowling’s Twitter page is a surreal experience. 

The Harry Potter author is currently celebrating the success of her new children’s book, The Ickabog, engaging her young fans by retweeting and praising their artwork. 

In between these adorable, enthusiastic retweets, Rowling will, randomly, offer her opinion about trans people. Much of it can be described as “politely worded bigotry,” rhetoric that recklessly harms the trans community, seemingly innocuous on the surface. 

It’s easy to read Rowling’s statements as reasonable – reading what trans people are saying in response highlights the insidious nature of her talking points. 

Despite constant, vocal pushback from trans activists and medical experts, Rowling continues to post her strange screeds, nestled right next to the artwork of young children, who will likely be exposed to her opinions while exploring her Twitter page, searching for fan art.  

Is Rowling’s Twitter page a place where her young, impressionable fans can browse artwork, or is it a place to debate trans rights? Because this bizarre blend of trans-exclusionary talking points and children’s fanart is deeply, almost hilariously, inappropriate.

Indeed, J.K. Rowling’s sudden lack of self-awareness brings to mind the meme she inspired, the idea of her blurting out random, poorly thought-out facts about the Harry Potter universe, always in the wrong setting. 

“Nobody asked for this” was the joke behind the meme, and considering how Rowling now spends an embarrassing amount of her time passionately engaged in a debate that doesn’t even concern her, it’s as though the meme has manifested itself into reality. 

Except, instead of whimsical wizard facts, it’s trans-exclusionary feminism. 

It’s genuinely sad to see a beloved author, whose story brought joy to millions of childhoods (including my own), turn into this strange caricature of a TERF, seemingly infuriated by the phrase, “trans women are women.”

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but when you’re an obscenely wealthy and influential author, constantly using your massive platform to punch down on the marginalized isn’t just stating an opinion – it’s pure entitlement.

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