Harry Potter author JK Rowling, 57, has urged people to “think more deeply” about her comments on the transgender community. The writer has warned against “black-and-white thinking” following the backlash she received on social media in a new podcast.
Rowling has appeared in a new podcast series The Witch Trials Of JK Rowling, the first two episodes of which were released today.
The star has previously been slammed for her outspoken views on gender identity after her initial tweet about the subject caused controversy back in June 2020.
She has since explained she was partly motivated to speak out because of her experience of sexual assault and domestic abuse, but has strongly denied accusations of transphobia.
The first episode, titled Chapter One: Plotted In Darkness, opened with Rowling discussing the negative reaction she has received for her views on gender identity.
“I never set out to upset anyone. However, I was not uncomfortable with getting off my pedestal,” she said.
“And what has interested me in the last 10 years and certainly in the last few years, particularly on social media – ‘You’ve ruined your legacy, oh you could have been beloved forever but you chose to say this’ – and I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly.
“I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy – what a pompous way to live your life, walking around thinking about what my legacy will be.
“Whatever. I’ll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.”
In the second episode activist Megan Phelps-Roper, who hosts the podcast, explored the impact Harry Potter has had on the world and suggested there was a “clear presence” of good and evil in the franchise.
“How do you discern when a behaviour falls on one side of that line or the other?” she asked Rowling.
“That is such a deep question and it goes to the heart of Potter and it goes to the heart of much of my world view,” she replied.
“There’s a huge appeal, and I try to show this in the Potter books, to black-and-white thinking.
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“It’s the easiest place to be and in many ways, it’s the safest place to be.
“If you take an all-or-nothing position on anything, you will definitely find comrades, you will easily find a community – ‘I’ve sworn allegiance to this one simple idea’.
“What I tried to show in the Potter books, and what I feel very strongly myself, [is that] we should mistrust ourselves the most when we are certain.
“And we should question ourselves most when we receive a rush of adrenaline by doing or saying something.
“Many people mistake that rush of adrenaline for the voice of conscience.
“In my world view, conscience speaks in a very small and inconvenient voice, and it’s normally saying to you: ‘Think again, look more deeply, consider this’.”
Many people have condemned Rowling’s comments on Twitter, while others have stood behind the author – and it seems the topic is just as contentious as it was three years ago.
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling is available on streaming services now.
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