Journalist Jessie Earl Attacked by TERF JK Rowling

When JK Rowling started peddling transphobic rhetoric in 2019, it left many of her fans feeling disappointed and betrayed. Harry Potter was a series that spoke to the hearts of misfits. It looked victims of bullying and abuse in the eyes and said, “You are destined for greater things.” This series embedded itself so deeply into readers’ psyches that, even despite distancing themselves from the franchise and the fandom, many former fans still know their Hogwarts houses, their Patronuses, the makeup of their wands, and recall such to mind as easily as one does their zodiac sign.

Because of this, it has been difficult for many former fans to decide whether to continue financially supporting Rowling through the purchases of books, movies, games, and other merchandise. Trans journalist Jessie Earl drew her own line in the sand on Twitter on December 17 in a Tweet reading, “I will not begrudge anyone their love of past works or thing they already own that they take comfort in. I own the first nine movies and all seven books myself. But any support of something like Hogwarts Legacy is harmful.”

Many online creators know that responding to criticism in front of their audience often leads said audience to attack and belittle the person making said criticism. As such, responsible creators will either avoid responding to criticism, or tread lightly doing so, instructing their followers not to attack the person they are responding to. This is fairly standard Internet etiquette. Rowling, however, does no such thing. Most of the author’s Twitter is filled with hate directed at trans people, disguising it, as so many do, as “feminism.” And, when any trans person speaks out against her transphobia, she sends her army of Twitter followers to harass and bully them.

Jessie Earl was the latest victim of Rowling’s power trip. She responded to the above Tweet with mockery and sarcasm, suggesting that wearing Hufflepuff socks would get someone arrested in the straw man-fallacy “purethink” world she imagines is the journalist’s ideal. The whole response seemed out of place for such a level-headed take on Rowling’s bigotry. Many trans fans have been far harsher, engaging in bullying toward Rowling in response to her transphobia.

In a response video posted to YouTube, Earl said that her Tweet was “Probably one of the kindest Tweets that I could have ever done about JK Rowling.”

There doesn’t appear to be any room for nuance in Rowling’s mind. Either you are with her, support her financially through more purchases of Harry Potter merchandise, and support her transphobic ideology, or you are against her, and must cleave yourself away from anything she creates. It seems, in fact, that she is the one engaging in “purethink.”