The author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, on Tuesday posted a tweet saying that she has been relentlessly subjected to threats of death, rape and assassination after she highlighted the dangers women could face in toilets and changing rooms by men who characterised themselves as self-identified women.
Rowling shared a screenshot of a tweet posted by one of the nasty internet trolls, who apparently wished her “a very nice pipebomb in mailbox”.
To be fair, when you can’t get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there’s really only one place to go. pic.twitter.com/MsNWXhWlyc
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 19, 2021
Responding to the threat, Rowling tweeted: “To be fair, when you can’t get a woman sacked, arrested or dropped by her publisher, and cancelling her only made her book sales go up, there’s really only one place to go.”
Following her tweet, one of her followers asked if the hate message she had received was in connection with the comment she had made about women facing dangers in toilets/changing rooms from men who claim to identify themselves as women.
Yes, but now hundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me I’ve realised that this movement poses no risk to women whatsoever. pic.twitter.com/qb1RrCFqy0
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) July 19, 2021
The Harry Potter author responded in the affirmative, adding that hundreds of “trans activists” had threatened to beat, kill, bomb and rape her because of her stance.
JK Rowling’s essay and comments on sex categorisation irks transgender activists
Rowling had drawn the ire of LGBTQ community last year after she linked her experience of sexual assault with her concern over transgender access to women only spaces in a 3,600 words long essay.
In her article, Rowling, a domestic violence survivor, said she was perturbed that “the new trans activism” was undermining women and girls’ rights to single-sex spaces by “offering cover to predators”.
“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,” she wrote.
The article did not sit well with the trans activists online, who immediately called for the “cancellation” of the author.
Even before her article raised the hackles of the transgender community, she had rattled them with her derisive comment on the Devex article about difficulties faced by “people who menstruate” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” she sarcastically noted on Twitter to immediately get slammed for “transphobia” for ignoring the fact that many transgender men can still menstruate,” Rowling had said.
The Harry Potter author was accused of transphobia for mocking “people who menstruate” headline. She later defended her remarks saying it was important to not conflate gender categorisation so as not to downplay the problems women face in a world ruled by ‘patriarchy’.
