OThis is the air sent to J.K. Rowling throughout J.K. Rowling’s The Witch Trials when asked to respond to her detractors. The author often sighs. and sometimes She will lightly laugh. It’s a nod to the three years she’s spent on Twitter pronouns and tweeting anti-transgender messages. Over the course of seven episodes, however, the writers have eliminated every imaginable anti-transgender theme—each “question” and every “concern.”
During last week’s podcast finale, Witch Trials host Megan Phelps-Roper The former reformed spokeswoman for Westboro Baptist Church joked that Tuesday’s finale will ask Rowling the big question: What if you’re wrong? Of course the question arises. But Rowling’s answer (Towards this question and many others) feels more like rhetorical than pure soul searching. It’s common for a course in a podcast to seem more interested in supporting the main topic and laundering her inappropriate talking points than in fostering any type of informed discussion.
“If I’m wrong, to be honest, Hallelujah,” Rowling said at the end, “if I’m wrong, great! The people were not harmed.” With the thought that her words could be truly dangerous. Rowling calls this concept “Hyperbolic”
in the end This podcast was not designed to challenge Rowling. Instead, it seems designed to create the illusion of dialogue—hints fragile enough to allow professional writers to turn them into narratives. From an interviewer whose passion for “conversation” seems to outpace her talent. It is the desire (or perhaps more precisely, the desire) to engage meaningfully with the questionable “issue”.
For example, consider swapping during this week’s episode. Phelps-Roper presented Rowling with the idea of “Indirect mania,” as YouTuber Natalie Wynn described last week (Win refuse podcast before it aired and called her contributions “a In a viral YouTube video criticizing Rowling, Wynn indirectly referred to the frenzy as a “serious misjudgment”. “Concerns or controversies about agent issues… The desired liberation movement has gone too far.”
When asked if she could understand the concepts Wynn described, Rowling replied, “I keep seeing this. And the most common example is ‘They’re pretending to be worried about the kids’ … Now, if you’re saying indirect insults are asking questions that you believe there is serious harm done. If you’re saying that indirect humiliation is standing up for women’s rights. You know what is the alleged guilt.”
Of course no one used to be say those things; Rowling simply took Wynn’s specific statement out of context to answer a completely different question.
Maybe that’s why Phelps-Roper is back on track. when pressured to say whether she understands that someone might dishonestly ask such a “question” Rowling replied, “Almost everyone in the world Literal psychopaths and fearsome predators. There is concern about harm to children. … The problem is that we may use concerns about children to justify other actions.” She cited QAnon as an example of rampant concerns and predatory sex offender Jimmy. Savile is an example of a predator evading responsibility due to his status before saying, “I’m not sure it’s as simple as saying ‘People are using it.’ ”
The conversation continued from there. Once again, Rowling implicitly said the last word after she had chosen her own terms of engagement.
This rhetorical profanity has plagued JK Rowling’s The Witch Trials from the very beginning. If the title assumption is that Rowling is on trial That means anyone who disagrees with her position will be the one who should burn her at stake. Although the podcast has quite a few trans guests, But only two were given significant airtime to disagree with Rowling—and most of their group was relegated to the finale of the pod. uprightly The rhetorical landscape was never like that. Even if the creators hope their listeners will believe them.
Rowling, who sat down for numerous interviews. There is a lot of space to justify it all. (predictable and in some cases disproved) for her point of view in seven episodes. meanwhile A few less prominent guests were given the impossible task of speaking on behalf of anyone who might disagree with the author. Although the podcast gives Transgender people and their allies aren’t the only ones, though. Rowling occasionally argued over messages and posts from random, nonspecific Twitter users. which the listener should believe represents the large scale of her objection—often while wailing in a weary voice that what they are expressing. such as “Bad Faith” (as opposed to being an immensely successful writer and using a seven-hour podcast arguing with random people’s tweets).
and all the time Phelps-Roper bombarded listeners with a ton of supplementary information that would only be relevant if one believed the title’s premise that Rowling was chained to a pole and a transgender “activist.” burning torches all around
People who are fortunate enough not to listen to this podcast may argue that the request The “witch test” is figurative. But the podcast directly referenced Salem’s witch’s panic several times. including at the finale where author and essayist Stacy Schiff talks about her research into experiments and the ominous idea that in times of moral panic one One can “become the thing you fear the most” if the podcast has a different title. It could be argued that this statement applies to both sides of the gender “debate.” It’s hard to believe that the fictional roles of Rowling and transgender people in this historical reference have yet to be determined.
Of course, Rowling remained adamant that the content of her speech mattered. During a recent Twitter conversation, she called for an “example” of her behavior that views trans people as aggressors—and when one user mentioned the Witch Trials title, she simply respond during the podcast “I never once said that I was a victim of a transgender witch hunt.” Her publicist seems to be working overtime to ensure that the line between Transgender “activists” with Harry PotterThe Death Eaters are being discussed in very precise contexts.
Ultimately, however, the Witch Trials spent seven episodes framing transgender inclusion as a threat to women and children, the same “indirect fanaticism” that Wynn describes and that Rowling hardly admits. at all for seven episodes Phelps-Roper allows one of the world’s most read authors to say nonsense like “My knowledge is that women are the only group to be asked to accept members of the oppressive class without question. without any condition.”
(As a right person I can only guess But transgender people seem to be asked every day to accept their oppressors and the systems they create as well. (And there are a few official safe areas for consolation.) Messages may not be hostile. But the subtext is a completely different story.
It is remarkable that Rowling’s thoughts seemed to spring to a particular point when Phelps-Roper asked her about such comprehensive language as the Associated Press’ advice given. Describing transgender people with proper pronouns instead of “Specified as” those pronouns “That’s the reptile I’m talking about,” Rowling replied. “We’re using language to make accurate definitions of gender differences unspeakable.” Suddenly, her thoughts made headlines, like: “Woman convicted of revealing genitals on the street” and “Woman convicted of raping a small boy”
“There is a group of feminists who will say ‘This was not our crime,’ Rowling finally told her host. “This is not a woman’s crime.”
Phelps-Roper never asked Rowling how the police should classify perpetrators. She didn’t ask whether crimes committed by transgender women should be considered a “serious crime.” “Women’s crimes,” she asked only in comprehensive language. This can be used to tell a story about a transgender group going through a lot, be it the news or anything else. Once again, Rowling took the question to a very specific place.
“At what point do we stop listening to Rowling’s views on the matter, given that she doesn’t have a degree or experience in life as a transgender person?”
When she publicly released a line that affirmed her point of view, Rowling described her as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual abuse. That profile adds color and complexity to her broad discussion of the talking points. Especially when she talks about the supposed (and refute) threat of hard-bodied men using transgender inclusion policies to gain access to private spaces like the bathroom. Rowling’s life experiences deserve respect. But the narratives she concocted still demand fact-checking. regardless of origin The arguments Rowling has had in recent years have been conservative. They serve the purpose of preserving the status quo—and by doing so, to maintain the power of one group while another group has to be at a disadvantage some of her concerns This includes bathroom safety. affect research
J.K. Rowling’s The Witch Trials connects too much with the story’s perspective to explore the discrepancy between what Rowling says and the words she actually uses. what does it mean episode after episode Rowling was allowed to use words like “authority” to describe her opposition. But Phelps-Roper never challenged her to name an institution that empowers transgender people and their allies to enforce their supposed agenda.
Phelps-Roper indulges Rowling as she argues that the left—once aggressive and dedicated to defying power—is now the rightful one. “Making bad jokes and breaking social norms”—now becoming This analogy only applies if one believes that protecting transgender rights is a conservative priority. Despite government agencies on both sides of the Atlantic attacking transgender rights But in this podcast Rowling was able to identify things as facts.
However, the greatest danger of the Witch Trials has nothing to do with what Rowling says and more to do with her placement in What is the “controversy” about gender and transgender people? Treating Rowling as the leader of this conversation. Instead of the loud, predictable voices within it, Witch Trials grants powers she’s never been given. At what point do we stop listening to Rowling’s views on the matter, given that she doesn’t have a degree or experience in life as a transgender person? After listening to all podcasts It seems that her attitude can be summed up in a single word.
When asked what she would say to a trans audience who just wanted to know why she was born. thisAmong her passion projects Rowling let out her weary voice again. “I will tell them that. ‘You as a human being—who you are—I have the utmost respect for you,’ she said. I want you to be safe I will always treat you with respect. And I’ll say I’m worried I was worried that you yourself might eventually get caught up in something that could harm you.”
“… Now, if you identify as transgender If that’s the answer for you, then I’m with you 100 per cent,” Rowling added. “But we are seeing growing evidence that this is not the answer for everyone. And we may live through cultural moments that we will never look back on with pride. But in bewilderment we let it happen.”
With such “partners”…
