J.K. Rowling

This is an opinion piece, not a court case. I am not going to provide supporting links to back up my impressions of a woman I've never met. I don't think my conclusions are heavily dependent on me being right about all details.

My impression is she likely married young to escape an unhappy family situation then divorced young with a child in tow to escape an unhappy marriage. She wrote the first book while on welfare instead of moving back home to family, so likely still not exactly tight with them.

Her books encouraged children's literacy globally, made it possible for children's authors to make good money and she became a self-made billionaire. That's rare for a woman. Women billionaires are much more often the wives of billionaire businessmen, not the person who earned the money in their own name. 

I see myself as a writer. I've not published any books but I blog and I have done freelance writing. 

Good women role models if you want a career are hard to come by. I've had an interest in her life because she made it on merit, not on looks or being sexy or via the casting couch nor even from being born into the right family. 

I'm aware of her reputation for transphobic comments on Twitter and saw a few live back when it was still called Twitter. Based on discussions on Reddit, my impression is this still goes on.

As explained elsewhere, my personal history helps me understand where TERFs are coming from. I think they are wrong but I also think the trans community helps create the problem.

Public figures used to have a much more curated public image. Social media makes it possible for public figures to talk to the public much more directly and that can go weird places.

I can well imagine she was having a bad day, tossed out a thought, got rabidly attacked for it, felt defensive and doubled down. Rinse and repeat and HERE we ARE with her having painted herself into a corner she doesn't know how to get out of.

I wish J.K. Rowling would go "I shall fight no more forever about this" and simply shut up about the topic. She's entitled to privately have half-baked thoughts and opinions all she wants, but since she is rich and famous she should not casually share such.

As far as I know, she has no skin in the game. It's a thought experiment for her and I don't believe it's especially well thought out and it's hurting a lot of people who do have skin in the game.

I wish the trans community would give it less attention and try to starve it of oxygen. Instead of hating on her and retroactively vilifying everything she's ever done in life, dismiss it.

She's not a government official making policy. She's an ill-mannered nouveau riche person who hasn't figured out what to not say in public.

State that obviously you don't agree, you hope no one with power is listening to this garbage and taking it seriously and she desperately needs new hobbies. And then change the subject. 

When supposedly "well meaning" cis people go on trans communities on Reddit and ask you how you feel about it, don't fall for this shit. You know they know how you feel already. In most cases, it's rage bait and virtue signaling, not good faith engagement. 

J.K. Rowling is a human being and as such not perfect. PR is never "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." 

Stop expecting her to be a paragon of virtue on every topic OR evil incarnate, nothing in between allowed.

And stop letting her derail your conversations and agenda by drawing an excess of attention merely because she's wealthy, famous and rudely and inappropriately sharing her ill-informed opinions in public.

Rebutting bad ideas is never the best way to educate people. It's sometimes possible to use it as a jumping off point to talk about reality but you have to really know the subject well AND know how to pivot the conversation effectively to a totally new framing of the problem space, which is not a common skill and social dynamics tend to not support it.