the times | Friday April 8 2022 5cover story
families, it’s important to understand
that this is not a gladiatorial sport to
be won or lost with a tweet, a forum
post, a weekly radio debate followed
by an opinion article or a well-timed
blog post preceding a parliamentary
decision.
“This isn’t about a ‘woke’ majority
enforcing politically correct beliefs
on others. This is about people’s lives.
Trans young people should not be
used to amplify separate issues such
as male violence, bodily autonomy
or patriarchy.”
There was, Mermaids said, a mental
health crisis among the trans
community: 54 per cent of young transFantastic Beasts: The
Secrets of Dumbledore
is in cinemas. See
review, page 7people suffer depression; 72 per cent
self-harm. “Those who seek to use
their considerable platforms to try
and create division, spark ‘debate’ and
spread harmful views are actively
seeking to cause harm.”
It is a sobering riposte to those of
us who rather enjoy the sound of
Rowling crashing through the ever
narrowing Overton window of liberal
thought. It makes us pause to ponder
other people’s feelings. And, ironically
enough, most would say that the
underlying aim of the Harry Potter
oeuvre is also that. Indeed, an Italian
university once found that children’s
“empathy levels” went up after reading
Harry Potter.
In other ways too, trans is an
unexpected battle for Rowling to fight.
She uses genderless initials rather than
her first name on her children’s books
— she has said she feels sexless while
writing them — and transitions to
“Robert Galbraith” for her adult work.
She is certainly not homophobic: oneof Dumbledore’s secrets in the new
film is his homosexual love for a
fellow wizard.
Also, while the sea-green charm on
her finger reminds her not to be
ground down, she is quick to the
defence of those who also find
themselves in the social media mill.
This week’s beardsplainer intervention
was in the support of a Jewish writer,
Nicole Lampert, who was being
excoriated for methodically
investigating the claim that trans
people had been killed in the
Holocaust and finding it wanting.
(Rowling may or may not have read
Lampert’s earlier exoneration of her
from the charge that the Gringotts
bank goblins in the Harry Potter films
were antisemitic tropes.)
Treneman believes Rowling,
more than many of the rich and
famous, is “a real world person”.
She engages with the Muggle
world. Yet, as Treneman also
suggests, Harry Potter is
a beast that exists in its
own universe, and
there is really no
stopping it. I ask Tom
Tivnan, managing
editor of The
Bookseller, what the
tarring of Rowling’s
name has done to
her sales.
“It hasn’t affected
her one bit,” he
replies. “There have
been a few holes in
the data owing to
lockdowns over the
last couple of years,
but she (including
her Robert
Galbraith books) sold
£12.7 million last year,
second only to Julia
Donaldson (there were
ten weeks of missing
data in 2021, so it
would probably be
about £2 millionmore). It was the same in 2020 when
she was the third bestselling author.
So all during this furore, her sales
have remained steadfast. She had one
of the big hits in Christmas 2021, The
Christmas Pig with illustrator Jim
Field, which sold around 300,000
copies, the ninth biggest seller of 2021.”
One of the most interesting
comments we heard in our researches
came from 23-year-old Hannah Lee,
who writes Harry Potter fan fiction
but because of Rowling’s trans views
is boycotting the new movie. “When
I was a child,” she said, “I kind of
thought the books were just books. I
didn’t think about how they came to
be. I didn’t think about who wrote
them very much.
“I wouldn’t have called myself a fan
of JK Rowling. I would have called
myself a fan of Harry Potter,
just because I was a child.
So for me, when I started
hearing her comments and
knowing that I disagreed,
it didn’t feel like a
betrayal.”
The second trailer
for The Secrets of
Dumbledore came out
a month ago and its
creator’s name was
back, “from JK
Rowling” exploding
full screen, a minute in.
So Putin is wrong: he
may believe Mariupol
cancelled; JK Rowling
has not been. And even
if she had been, it would
take the darkest wizardry to
cancel her boy magician.
Here’s another, final thing.
Twenty-one years ago the
trailer for Harry Potter
and the Philosopher’s Stone
didn’t mention her at all.
It didn’t need to. The magic
was always bigger than
JK Rowling.
Additional reporting
by Georgina RobertsTrans is an
unexpected
battle for
Rowling to fight
o f f h g d t Tbecame the face of the culture war
Rowling with Rupert Grint, Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson in 2001.
Left: with her OBE in the same year. Below: with her husband, Neil MurrayCOVER AND BELOW: TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE; SAMIR HUSSEIN, GARETH DAVIES/GETTY IMAGES; MATTHEW FEARN/PA