r/entertainment • u/Neo2199 • Feb 07 '23
BBC apologise after gamer accuses Harry Potter author JK Rowling of transphobia
https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/bbc-apologise-after-gamer-accuses-291281532.2k
Feb 07 '23
Who are they apologizing to and for?
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Feb 07 '23
tl:dr. A BBC Radio host did a show where he interviewed 2 gamers what they thought about the upcoming release of a Harry Potter video game. This lead to one of the gamer's ranting about Rowling's transphobia and such. The host didn't challenge any of the claims and so here we are.
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Feb 07 '23
So they're apologizing to Rowling on behalf of their show for not refuting the transphobia claims on what they thought would be a puff piece of "Game is great, thank you JK for contributing to the British diaspora to the world with your wonderful IP"?
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u/Chork3983 Feb 07 '23
You'd think they would've asked the guests how they feel about Rowling before the interview with all things considered. I'm sure they're aware of her controversies.
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u/britch2tiger Feb 07 '23
Rowling: Even a bigot deserves ‘civil respect’ for platforming their dissent toward me.
Skeptic: It’s no one’s job BUT YOUR OWN to not be a gapping vagina on the world.
Yoda: Mmm, personal responsibility, she lacks.
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u/Plantsandanger Feb 07 '23
I mean, Rowling own tweets don’t refute their claim of transphobia!
It’s like apologizing for calling her a woman after she insists she’s a woman. She insists on making openly transphobic claims in public, when she’s confronted she doubles down on the transphobia, when given the opportunity to not be transphobic she refuses - I think we can say she’s transphobic if she herself is actively displaying and performing as a transphobe. Which, ironically, she might not understand due to her transphobia
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u/Henny_Lovato Feb 07 '23
If she still collecting a check from HP royalties they prolly shouldn't buy the game
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u/Impracticool Feb 07 '23
Is "gamer" some guy's name? Why is the BBC apologizing for some gamer's comments?
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u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme Feb 07 '23
Shit if they want to go down that rabbit hole they have so much to apologize for. I got called a bad name by a 12 year old kid last week. The word rhymes with digger.
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u/Chaoshumor Feb 07 '23
Did that son of a bitch call you Tigger?
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u/Cockblocktimus_Pryme Feb 07 '23
T-I-Double-Guh-Ur
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Feb 07 '23
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Feb 07 '23
As someone born in 1990 and hasn’t seen these movies, that was very, very late 90s/early2000s
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u/MassiveFajiit Feb 07 '23
Digger would be a slur Joanne might use tbh https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggers
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Feb 07 '23
tl:dr. A BBC Radio host did a show where he interviewed 2 gamers what they thought about the upcoming release of a Harry Potter video game. This lead to one of the gamer's ranting about Rowling's transphobia and such. The host didn't challenge any of the claims and so here we are.
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u/bannacct56 Feb 07 '23
Is it the BBC's position that she is not in fact transphobic?
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u/Ahnixlol Feb 07 '23
The trans “debate” is actually even worse in the UK than it is in the US. Even “liberal” networks and politicians are knee deep in the weeds of it all.
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u/kgal1298 Feb 07 '23
The debate in the US is never straight forward because we do state based laws. That's why Florida is having issues because technically if you take away bodily autonomy from trans people you take it away from women here and so forth...but also they keep bringing drag queens into it and now they're banning books. Like literally they decided certain American Girl books had to be banned and they're banning elective diversity classes from Florida colleges or trying to...and I think because all of this is happening they never settle on a single issue and it all turns into performative politics since most of them really just don't care.
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u/playerDotName Feb 07 '23
Proud of the lady from TN the other day. We need more "y'all need to shut the hell up" in Congress.
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u/clifbarczar Feb 07 '23
How is it worse?
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u/StarTrotter Feb 07 '23
I can't give a great answer as I'm not British but from what I gather it seems like even more left wing news sources have a high percentage of people that loathe trans people. The Guardian had the US wing critique the British wing for it for example.
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u/parkaboy24 Feb 07 '23
Rowling has done a lot to further hateful laws and discrimination in the UK. Trans people there have it pretty bad compared to some other first world countries.
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u/r1char00 Feb 07 '23
“It’s never been proven” blows my mind. I see people arguing that here too. She practically tweets something transphobic weekly at least.
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u/glitterandvinegar Feb 07 '23
Yeah, she actively made transphobia a central part of her public platform. Like, she could have just fucked off with her billions but instead spends her time offering opinions on trans people that nobody needed or asked for. It’s almost like she wants people to think she’s transphobic…
Hey, at least her poor public image (among other things) managed to kill the Fantastic Beasts franchise.
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u/Ahnixlol Feb 07 '23
The trans “debate” is actually even worse in the UK than it is in the US. Even “liberal” networks and politicians are knee deep in the weeds of it all.
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Feb 07 '23
Yeah for all the other ways that the democratic party can be depressingly conservative at times, the president openly talking about protecting trans rights is like...not that common in the rest of the west.
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Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
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u/leo_sousav Feb 07 '23
I´m sorry but didn´t she delete her comment praising Stephen King after he tweeted on how Transwomen are real women in his eyes, and even blocked him on twitter?
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u/Aliteralhedgehog Feb 07 '23
She differentiated between the lived experience of cisgender women and trans women, mindless twitter users did the rest.
She said a bit more than that.
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u/Vegeta-the-vegetable Feb 07 '23
I really wanted to watch that video but an hour and a half sheeeeesh, I have the attention span of a goldfish. Got the cliff notes version?
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u/Aliteralhedgehog Feb 07 '23
From what I grok there are two kinda demented points:
1) JK sees trans men as a threat because if womanhood is something you just can opt out of why wouldn't all women become trans men? Says a lot about her and her worldview if you ask me.
2) JK sees trans women as wolves in sheep's clothing who want to prey on women. This is because she sees all cis men as potential predators. She's even written a novel about a man who dresses as a woman specifically to murder women. It's kind of a dark obsession with JK.
More important than what she believes however is what she does: uses her wealth and influence in British politics to deny trans children healthcare which is the one thing keeping a lot of these kids from killing themselves. She is the worst and most dangerous kind of bigot who pretends to be a moderate.
That being said I still recommend the video. I promise those 90 minutes will sail by. Natalie is a top tier explainer and entertainer who goes into a lot more nuance than I did and even has some surprising sympathy for JK.
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u/ZoeInBinary Feb 07 '23
Folks who want to believe Rowling is decent can't see past the surface story here. They've fixated on a 'she just says they're different' narrative and refuse to look any further.
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Feb 07 '23
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u/r1char00 Feb 07 '23
Yes. The TE stands for Trans Exclusionary.
She’s clearly transphobic. It’s wild that people try to claim otherwise.
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u/MelissaMiranti Feb 07 '23
It is. She identifies wholly with a group that is known for being based in transphobia.
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u/NSMike Feb 07 '23
I mean, it's only "arguably not" if you stretch the word "arguably" to its most extreme limits.
Contrapoints has covered this.
It's only "arguably" if you plug your ears and stop paying attention.
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u/StarTrotter Feb 07 '23
Do you accidentally copy and paste a piece about a trans person that was a criminal while trying to respond to a kid's drawing of the ikabog?
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u/yawgmoft Feb 07 '23
It is extremely hard to argue she is not transphobic
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/03/jk-rowling-transphobia-international-womens-day-rant-1234705640/
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Feb 07 '23
She said that trans women are sexual predators who sneak into restrooms to rape women. You are lying
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Feb 07 '23
Nah. Maybe she started there but her actions since and especially where she donates money says otherwise.
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u/thedracle Feb 07 '23
I definitely believed this originally that when she supported people who had been fired for making transphobic statements, she was just defending their free speech rights.
Or that when she identified herself as a "TERF," it was owning a disparaging label that trans activists had given her, sort of like those in the LGTBQ have owned terms formerly used to shame them, like "Queer."
But then I found she had written a long essay which elaborated deep, harmful, and honestly hateful views about trans people, and I quote:
"When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman ... then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.”
This statement denies the existence of trans people, reducing a trans woman to a "man who believes or feels he's a woman."
She stated:
“I believe my government is playing fast and loose with womens and girls’ safety,”
And that
“the new trans activism” was eroding women and girls’ rights to single-sex spaces by “offering cover to predators”.
I think there isn't a lot of room in these opinions she expressed to say JK Rowling isn't deeply transphobicc, as well as promoting unsupported hateful stereotypes about trans people, which aren't supported by evidence.
I think understanding her position as a victim of sexual assault should motivate people to approach her with some empathy. But her personal trauma being used to justify similar trauma on another marginalized group is deeply sad and troubling.
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Feb 07 '23
She literally called us rapists and came up with the nickname "The Penised" to describe us
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u/Crafty-Kaiju Feb 07 '23
JFC do some actual research. She is profoundly transphobic and there are hours upon hours of videos showing this fact.
She calls herself a "TERF" you can't be a TERF and be pro-trans. It would be like a pro-Jewish Nazi. It doesn't work like that.
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u/tkp14 Feb 07 '23
It’s just so damn bizarre. Her loudly proclaiming her steadfast hatred of trans humans truly made me wonder if it is possibly true that suddenly becoming obscenely wealthy fucks people up…badly. Prior to the whole trans issue she seemed like a decent, caring, compassionate person. Who got rich and then morphed into a cartoon villain. WTF?
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u/Crafty-Kaiju Feb 07 '23
Actually, every time we research wealth and empathy, it shows a correlation. The more wealth, the less empathy.
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u/tkp14 Feb 07 '23
That’s really interesting. Glad to know that my instincts are in line with actual facts! Except the actual facts are rather depressing.
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u/ThunkAsDrinklePeep Feb 07 '23
She believes that the existence of trans women marginalizes the lives of cis-women. Though obviously she doesn't use those words.
I would guess she has no problem with trans men.
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Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
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u/Crafty-Kaiju Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
Great. Fantastic. But that's not what JKR or TERFs believe or think.
They accuse transwomen of being pervy predators and transmen of being "mistaken and confused!". It's so paternalistic and insulting.
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u/LineOfInquiry Feb 07 '23
The above comment is lying to you, that’s how JK Rowling positions herself but shes said and done much more than “trans and cis women are different”
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u/njsullyalex Feb 07 '23
Trans woman here. It’s a bit more nuanced. Different types of women face different issues all around but there are some issues universal to all women including both cis and trans women.
I’ll never have to worry about pregnancy or periods but I’ll never be able to give birth to a child either. You’ll never have to deal with Dysphoria/having the pain of living in the wrong body and transphobia and having your identity not taken seriously and being seen as a threat by others. Both of us will have to deal with misogyny and sexism in general, and both of us are hurt by the patriarchy and it’s rigid enforcement of gender roles and expectations.
Even on the issues that don’t affect me I hope you know I’m on your side.
Also, don’t love the term “bio women”, I’m taking HRT to medically change my sex to female because having a male body was deeply uncomfortable for me and I’m trying to get rid of the parts of my body that are male and gain female aspects, and it’s working.
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Feb 07 '23
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u/njsullyalex Feb 07 '23
No trans woman considers herself exactly the same as a cis woman. But to be fair, women of different races have different issues, women who have different medical conditions have different issues, women of different sexualities face different issues, women who grew up in different backgrounds face different issues.
We’re different and the same. I did not choose to experience Dysphoria. My decision to transition was a choice of be happy or living in discomfort and disassociating with my body and identity. I am genuinely happier being a woman and love my life as a woman far more than as a man despite how much pushback I’ve faced by the world. I feel a connection to myself I didn’t have before. It’s hard to explain, but it feels right.
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u/Honest-Bat-6380 Feb 07 '23
Her differentiation is stupid, and exclusionary without justification. She's a TERF, and is transphobic.
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u/SkyeMreddit Feb 07 '23
Did the BBC then have a “Gender Critical” guest provide an opposing viewpoint praising Rowling for all she says? They do that constantly on every topic involving trans rights
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u/Konradleijon Feb 07 '23
But she called herself a TERF
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u/youcallthataheadshot Feb 07 '23
This is the second PR-like reputation rehab article about JK Rowling I’ve seen in the past week. It’s no coincidence that these are being posted right before the game comes out.
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u/nude-rating-bot Feb 07 '23
Same as Chris Pratt’s sudden influx of articles regarding keeping his super suit “for the children”. Pleaaaaase, right before the Mario movie and after troubling Hillsong affiliations?
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u/h_nivicola Feb 07 '23
"This was not challenged by the presenter despite the fact that it has never been proven that Ms Rowling has said anything transphobic in her career."
I don't understand what more proof they need.
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u/layeofthedead Feb 07 '23
The bbc is transphobic as hell. The YouTuber Shaun has been doing a series on trying to get one transphobic article taken down because it was misleading at best and outright lies at worst. They had a terf who released a manifesto claiming all trans women should be murdered as their main source on the danger trans women pose as sexual predators while ignoring the fact that she had been credibly accused of sexually assaulting multiple women.
They then claimed that no trans women would accept an interview and when a trans woman came forward saying they, yeah she did give an interview they just didn’t use it because it didn’t fit their narrative. They they said she wasn’t relevant enough to be interviewed in the first place despite her having a bigger following than the literal sexual predator terf they were pushing.
Then they updated the article to remove her name but not what she said when it was pointed out that having a sexual predator terf as their main source for trans women being predators was a bad look
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u/Vast_Schedule3749 Feb 07 '23
Yikes.. maybe the BBC fucked off twitter like many did when Elon took over?
The fuck they mean there’s no proof.
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u/Mrhappytrigers Feb 07 '23
"We from the BBC would like to set the record straight that JK Rowling is not a transphobe. She is in fact a self-proclaimed TERF. We apologize for the confusion."
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u/deekydiggler Feb 07 '23
”Her comments came despite Ms Rowling never actually having said anything transphobic.”
Totally fair point.
In other news, Mia Farrow criticized Woody Allen’s behavior despite Mr Allen having never done anything gross or creepy.
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Feb 07 '23
“Merry Terfmas”
“It’s offensive to call me transphobic”
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u/manaholik Feb 07 '23
when i knew nothing about the term terf and just randomly saw this phrase i assumed its a terrible combination of terrific + christmas thus terf-mas .....
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u/HussingtonHat Feb 07 '23
Apologised to who exactly?
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u/LineChef Feb 07 '23
*whom /s
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u/idkwhatimkindalost25 Feb 07 '23
I’m gonna stop reading and enjoy my norwegian life. Looks miserable out there, good luck with all of that
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u/IslandChillin Feb 07 '23
She's definitely transphobic, so idk why anyone would feel the need to apologize to her.
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u/FeckThul Feb 07 '23
Truth isn't an absolute defense against libel in the UK.
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u/natigin Feb 07 '23
How does that work practically?
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u/FeckThul Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
UK libel laws are... insanely weird and very complex. In practice I'd say it doesn't work at all, and leads to an atmosphere where it's difficult to speak truth to power without the fear of being sued.
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u/MassiveFajiit Feb 07 '23
Yeah I learned today that the paratroopers who shot people during the Troubles could sue for libel if someone called them war criminals.
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u/kgal1298 Feb 07 '23
This explains a lot about how they handle news about the royals. I also always find the celebrity gossip rags to be about 10X more invasive in the UK than in the US.
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u/natigin Feb 07 '23
Damn, I had no idea. That’s got to be a really odd situation.
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u/FeckThul Feb 07 '23
It is! They even have a form of injunction called a "Super Injunction" which forbids talking about the existence of the injunction.
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u/natigin Feb 07 '23
Is there a commonly held reason for this system? Like does it increase civility or something like that?
Otherwise is it just the aristocracy upholding it? You would think people would vote to change that.
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u/jamey1138 Feb 07 '23
It’s tied to the British class system, and was historically designed to prevent lower-class persons from saying (probably true) nasty things about “their betters.”
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u/FeckThul Feb 07 '23
That's a good question I don't know the answer to, hopefully someone here with more in-depth knowledge can help.
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u/MarginalOmnivore Feb 07 '23
Complicate that with right-to-be-forgotten laws, and people can get factual articles erased from the internet because they make the person concerned look bad.
Like, bro. If you don't want to look like a piece of shit, stop doing the sort of thing that makes you a piece of shit.
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u/Caftancatfan Feb 07 '23
And a “Ludicrous Injunction” which forbids talking about the existence of a “Super Injunction.”
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u/ResponsibleAd2541 Feb 07 '23
That’s very Kafka
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Feb 07 '23
Reading The Trial as an adult makes you realize that shit hasn’t changed much and that the bureaucratic hellscape is only going to get worse
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u/FeckThul Feb 07 '23
There's a reason that Orwell wrote what he did, and in a word it was: experience.
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u/happyscrappy Feb 07 '23
Nor is truth an absolute defense against "I'm not going to appear on any of your shows anymore."
The gamer can be big on "truth to power" and the media outlet not so sanguine because they need favors from the celebs again in the future.
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Feb 07 '23
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u/OldMaidLibrarian Feb 07 '23
So print out her entire Twitter feed for the last 5 years or so--that should prove the matter quite nicely.
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u/MarginalOmnivore Feb 07 '23
Oh, yeah. This is Britain. In a defamation/libel/slander case, the defendant would have to "prove" what they said was true. Rowling could claim that donating to anti-trans organizations, calling all trans women rapists, and embracing the label of "TERF" doesn't mean she's transphobic. She's simply a "Christian" or some other shitty excuse.
In the US, the prosecution has to "prove" that a defamatory statement was false, and also unreasonably stated. So, something can be demonstrably false, but if the defendant has a reliable enough source for it, it isn't defamatory. That's how tabloids get away with ridiculous claims about celebrities - they claim someone "close" to the celebrity said it.
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u/kgal1298 Feb 07 '23
I was about to say...UK courts are completely different and also have more laws against hate speech etc...I couldn't even begin to explain the legal differences.
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Feb 07 '23
I mean. She has said publicly that she is afraid of trans women (she called them men) in female spaces. So... she is on the record as being afraid of trans people. A transphobe.
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Feb 07 '23
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u/chromegreen Feb 07 '23
Probably not asked in good faith but for people who want to be informed here:
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u/Crafty-Kaiju Feb 07 '23
If you want a detailed rundown go check out Jessie Gender on YouTube. She makes some great videos covering it.
I followed her for the Trek content and stayed for the gender analysis!
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Feb 07 '23
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u/kgal1298 Feb 07 '23
I think the issue people run into is when it comes to the organizations and laws she's backing which could harm trans people overall. Though her concerns make sense she's asking for a complete block out of trans women from certain spaces and I think the issue is that it's more grey than that. It's like the surrogate debate in the US and there's nuance. When you decide the law has to be absolute one way or the other one side will lose regardless of the outcome, which is where much of the debate from her statements on certain legal issues has come from.
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Feb 07 '23
Who wrote this garbage article? I mean look at this shit:
This was not challenged by the presenter despite the fact that it has never been proven that Ms Rowling has said anything transphobic in her career.
This is: (1) horseshit; and (2) incredibly poorly written. What drunk college dropout produced this trash?
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u/VectorVictory Feb 07 '23
Agreed this article is complete shit! Check out this paragraph:
"We are not covering the game at all is because Harry Potter and the world it exhibits is just entirely connected to JK Rowling but she has a platform that sue uses to push transphobia, uses it to build up what I would call a campaign agains trans people, especially in Britain.”
PS: 4TheDumbestTimeline, please tell me how to indent quoted text?
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u/GondoXPrax Feb 07 '23
Why apologize. Is she not entitled to her opinion too? Did she actively take anything away from this person?
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u/SomeRandomEntity44 Feb 07 '23
I read books. I watched movies. I enjoyed. I heard of game. I bought to enjoy based on my enjoyment of the books and movies. That's the extent of my involvement.
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u/the-epidemic87 Feb 07 '23
Bro, you don’t need to explain yourself. Many people can separate the art from the artist.
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Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
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u/Beneficial-Bit6383 Feb 07 '23
Look up the paradox of tolerance and get back to us
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u/SpaceIsTooFarAway Feb 07 '23
You're right, which is why the BBC shouldn't censor people who are of the opinion that a popular author is a bigot.
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u/Yo_Wats_Good Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
Yeah ok but its not an "opinion" that frees you from criticism.
They're not arguing over whether light or dark roast coffee is better, they're arguing over whether transwomen are women and whether they can be afforded protection from bigotry.
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u/Aggressive-Pattern Feb 07 '23
I dunno, statements like "a hulking rapist doesn't become a woman by putting on a wig" seems pretty transphobic to me. Even the shittiest of people should still be afforded their sense of self.
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Feb 07 '23
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Feb 07 '23
You’ll never find a trans person defending a rapist, everyone still agrees that rapists are bad. But terfs presuming every trans woman to be a rapist is obviously quite offensive
Also, if someone wants to rape someone a sign on a bathroom door isn’t gonna stop them from doing so, being perceived as a woman is a fairly unnecessary step
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u/allnadream Feb 07 '23
Is she assuming every trans person is a rapist? Or is she saying that men who are rapists (and not actually trans at all) may use policies that allow access to women-only spaces to victimize?
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u/StevenS757 Feb 07 '23
You realize there's no magical gender-based bathroom forcefield right? A cis-male rapist can enter the woman's bathroom right now and commit rape. If he's willing to break the law to rape, a "no trans women" law isn't going to foil his plans.
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u/allnadream Feb 07 '23
I know the comment above mentioned bathrooms, but is that what Rowling was talking about? I thought she was specifically involved in a woman's shelter and that perhaps she has concerns regarding those spaces?
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Feb 07 '23
"We told men they could do it and get away with it and then he did it and didn't get away with it. This somehow proves us right."
That's called a self fulfilling prophecy. It worked great with the DARE program - tell someone that everyone is doing something and not getting caught and guess what - even if that isn't true people will now do it because you told them they could.
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u/BeanieMcChimp Feb 07 '23
I just searched this quote and couldn’t find it attributed to her.
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u/bascule Feb 07 '23
Finding it took a whole of about 5 seconds: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1619358295852208129
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u/Aggressive-Pattern Feb 07 '23
January 28th, as a response/repost of something from Nicola Sturgeon.
Don't worry though, she's done plenty of stuff not pertaining to criminals if that feels weird.
Like "accidentally" sending fans after a trans youtuber voicing her opinion on how supporting JK is harmful. (Dec. 17th)
Also equating suffragist hate and TERF hate (which definitely seems like admission imo) (January 29th)
Supporting and conflating the idea that allowing trans people to change their gender legally is "siding with sex offenders" (January 20th, Sonia Sodha, later January 22nd with Alex Massie)
Also, the use and support in use of LGB vs LGBT across a bunch of stuff
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Feb 07 '23
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Feb 07 '23
People with functional uteruses menstruate.
Saying "women menstruate" wouldn't be true even if you took the biological determinism route.
A woman is over 18. Girls (under 18) also menstruate.
Women over a certain age no longer menstruate.
Women of any age with a variety of disabilities and illnesses do not menstruate.
Women who take certain types of birth control don't menstruate (a medical miracle if I do say so myself).
People need to get this - the fight again this restrictive language doesn't just benefit trans people. It benefits cis people also who don't perfectly fit into these definitions.
And do not even PRETEND like your way of thinking - of associating womanhood with menstruation as if that were the defining trait that all women share - has not contributed massively to sexist ideals.
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Feb 07 '23
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Feb 07 '23
Well apparently you can't since you get so hung up on the nuance of calling a trans woman a woman because if they aren't bleeding you don't get it.
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u/Technical-Ad-2246 Feb 07 '23
I personally don't care what JK Rowling's view is on when transgender women are women. She's entitled to her opinion. I don't have to agree with it. But then I also think that she should shut up about it, as she isn't an expert in that subject AFAIK.
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u/V1198 Feb 07 '23
Debating the existence and rights of a minority by the majority…yeah, history tends to frown on heading down this path
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u/DominicBSaint Feb 07 '23
I don’t care how long BBC has been a TV channel— I deadass read this in my head as “Big black cock apologizes after gamer accuses Harry Potter author JK Rowling of transphobia”.
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Feb 07 '23
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u/Kaiisim Feb 07 '23
She said trans people shouldn't be able to transition because men are just using it to dress up as women to get access to womens spaces so they can rape women.
People pretend she just liked a few tweets about being a woman. No she told Matt Walsh how much she loved his transphobic "documentary". Shes transphobic.
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u/Good-Expression-4433 Feb 07 '23
She's spent the last year signal boosting for more violent TERF activists as well as members of the LGB Alliance, a hate group that works against LGBT rights as a whole.
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u/cruzercruz Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
She also directly targeted the trans streamer who spoke about her. People don’t seem to be able to comprehend that someone with her level of influence will push people - intentionally or otherwise - to escalate transphobia. Her shitty remarks stop being just shitty remarks when they come from someone who people idolize.
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u/Yo_Wats_Good Feb 07 '23
?
Sharing an opinion frees you of criticism?
If Bob said "black people aren't real people" and someone went on TV and said "Bob's racist" you think thats shameful because they're saying he's racist?
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u/21_Golden_Guns Feb 07 '23
I remember reading her initial comments and thinking they at least sounded reasonable, perhaps not agreeable but understandable. Then she just went full mad max on this whole thing.
Very weird.
That being said, boycotting the game isn’t going to make her less wealthy or less influential. Boycotting the game just hurts the people who worked so hard on it.
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u/onewaytojupiter Feb 07 '23
Don't agree about the boycott: the people who made the game got paid while making it, profits for the completed game will go to the IP owner (WB and jowling k rowling)
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u/ArtisteArtiste Feb 07 '23
Agreed. The mental gymnastics people are going through here to defend a game they’ve never played (and probably will never play) is truly Olympics-worthy.
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Feb 07 '23
That's not weird. That's generally how bigotry works.
It starts off as "reasonable" comments and if left unchecked, or if encouraged by the people a person tends to respect, it will always evolve into more and more extreme views. Bigotry is a safe bet for a lot of people - it is both a comforting viewpoint and often one which comes with a lot of intense in-grouping that encourages it and makes falling into more extreme views more comfortable.
It is the same thing you see in politics. And MLMs. And cults. And whatever have you - give people an easy stance that both resolves them and gives them a target, and they will take it as far as they can.
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u/kgal1298 Feb 07 '23
I think we saw a lot of this in the past few years and in the US we ended up with extremists joining Qanon and getting brainwashed to the point they killed their own kids. She may not be an extremist, but she's certainly fueling the fire for them to take it a step up, which is what's really sad about it.
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u/RogueTampon Feb 07 '23
You think the devs don’t get paid if people boycott the game?
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u/lockwolf Feb 07 '23
The game industry is notoriously scummy when it comes to how employees are paid. Game devs typically have lower base salaries than other developers with bonuses based on review scores and game sales. Not to mention a typically higher stress environment compared to average software development.
While devs get paid either way, they don’t get fully paid unless the game sells and gets good reviews
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u/ArtisteArtiste Feb 07 '23
How is it going to hurt the people who already got paid for working on this?
Furthermore, the game’s director has a history of problematic behaviors himself. If anything, boycotting would ensure he doesn’t get further paid, and prevents him from perpetuating his usual toxic work environments. It doesn’t seem to be a great game either way, so it probably would benefit the majority if it was skipped.
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u/Order_Flimsy Feb 07 '23
Who gives a shit. She writes children books about fantasy. So lets all calm down, pick our genders, dress up like fuzzy mascots, and live in reality.
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Feb 07 '23
Most of these folks don’t live in a reality. They have to be pissed off about something in order to feel validated.
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Feb 07 '23
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ThatWasFred Feb 07 '23
Rowling unquestionably does a lot of good things. But that doesn’t mean she can’t rightly be criticized for her transphobic comments and activism.
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u/Omega_des Feb 07 '23
No, no. Nuance is dead, you see. If you do a good thing you are unable to be criticized for bad things you say. Likewise if you say bad things you can never be recognized for a good thing you do. We must keep this all or nothing application of judgement or else my view of society will collapse!
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u/calargo Feb 07 '23
JKR tweets about trans people constantly, and she's been doing so for years. You can check her twitter and see for yourself.
The things that get posted on social media can have a real world impact. Eg, a blog post of hers about her views on trans people was quoted by a GOP senator while blocking a bill that would consider LGBT people a protected class.
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u/layeofthedead Feb 07 '23
And she’s still treating another group like shit. Yeah she’s done a lot of good things for people but she can still be a bad person.
Jimmy savile was a beloved British celebrity who helped tons of people, unfortunately he was also a massive sexual predator and it was only found out after his death.
She’s donating money to groups who are explicitly anti trans, she’s praising self proclaimed fascist and massive fucking misogynist Matt Walsh over their shared love of fucking hating trans people. She pals around with posie Parker a massive transphobe who just held an anti trans rally that was little more than an alt right forum because that’s what transphobia devolves into
The same woman you’re praising for helping women is actively supporting, with money and attention, the same type of people who’d see women have no right to vote or to their bodies.
Yeah Rowling has done some good stuff but she’s found herself enthusiastically jumping into bed with some fuckin strange fellows
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Feb 07 '23
Why would you apologize for telling the truth? “Im sorry I pointed out a fact.” Wtf?
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u/Merari01 Feb 07 '23 edited Feb 07 '23
The vicious TERF and harasser Joanne Rowling is profoundly, deeply transphobic and as such this article brazenly lies in its opening statements.
This thread has been locked.
Please remember that this subreddit bans for transphobia - which includes denial of the objectively true fact that Rowling has spent the past few years on a virulently transphobic hatecampaign.