The J.K. Rowling Index

List of all J.K. Rowling's writings.

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This line is utterly ridiculous.

Index ID: TLIUR — Publication date: February 6th, 2025

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1887472120541679690

This ‘why do you care about a tiny fraction of the population?’ line is, and always was, utterly ridiculous.

Gender ideology has undermined freedom of speech, scientific truth, gay rights, and women’s and girls’ safety, privacy and dignity. It’s also caused irreparable physical damage to vulnerable kids.

Nobody voted for it, the vast majority of people disagree with it, yet it has been imposed, top down, by politicians, healthcare bodies, academia, sections of the media, celebrities and even the police. Its activists have threatened and enacted violence on those who’ve dared oppose it. People have been defamed and discriminated against for questioning it. Jobs have been lost and lives have been ruined, all for the crime of knowing that sex is real and matters.

When the smoke clears, it will be only too evident that this was never about a so-called vulnerable minority, notwithstanding the fact that some very vulnerable people have been harmed. The power dynamics underpinning our society have been reinforced, not dismantled. The loudest voices throughout this entire fiasco have been people insulated from consequences by their wealth and/or status. They aren’t likely to find themselves locked in a prison cell with a 6’4″ rapist who’s decided his name’s now Dolores. They don’t need state-funded rape crisis centres, nor do they ever frequent high street changing rooms. They simper from talk show sofas about those nasty far-right bigots who don’t want penises swinging around the girls’ showers, secure in the knowledge that their private pool remains the safe place it always was.

Those who’ve benefited most from gender identity ideology are men, both trans-identified and not. Some have been rewarded for having a cross-dressing kink by access to all spaces previously reserved for women. Others have parlayed their delicious new victim status into an excuse to threaten, assault and harass women. Non-trans-identified leftybros have found a magnificent platform from which to display their own impeccably progressive credentials, by jeering and sneering at the needs of women and girls, all while patting themselves on the back for giving away rights that aren’t theirs.

The actual victims in this mess have been women and children, especially the most vulnerable, gay people who’ve resisted the movement and paid a horrible price, and regular people working in environments where one misplaced pronoun could see you vilified or constructively dismissed. Do not tell me this is about a tiny minority. This movement has impacted society in disastrous ways, and if you had any sense, you’d be quietly deleting every trace of activist mantras, ad hominem attacks, false equivalence and circular arguments from your X feeds, because the day is fast approaching when you’ll want to pretend you always saw through the craziness and never believed it for a second.


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This astounding paper reminds me of Hannah Arendt’s The Banality of Evil

Index ID: TAPHA — Publication date: December 28th, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1873048335193653387

This astounding paper reminds me of Hannah Arendt’s The Banality of Evil: ‘The net effect of this language system was not to keep these people ignorant of what they were doing, but to prevent them from equating it with their old, ‘normal’ knowledge.’

[Link: https://bmcmedethics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12910-024-01143-8]

We’re all used to the obfuscatory language gender activist medics and their cheerleader, insist upon. ‘Gender affirming care/treatment’ is so much nicer sounding than ‘sterilisation, surgical mutilation and provision of toxic drugs to troubled minors’.

But this paper breaks new ground. It acknowledges that by the usual medical standards (‘old normal knowledge’) transitioning minors has not been found to be the unqualified success many have claimed. The proposed solution? Jettison the old knowledge. Redefine success.

‘Yes, some young people given irreversible surgeries and hormone regimes regret it. Yes, some have complex problems that transition doesn’t fix and may worsen. But hey, they wanted it and were given it. That should be the new metric of success!’

I’m not sure I’ve ever read a better example of what Arendt described when analysing those determined not to break ranks, yet who felt the need to justify their participation in atrocities: ‘self-deception, concealing a ruthless desire for conformity at any price.’


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GC movement hasn’t ever been a monolith

Index ID: GCMVMNT — Publication date: December 19th, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1869699557660975482

What you call the GC movement hasn’t ever been a monolith, but a loose collection of separate political movements and individuals, some of whom have literally nothing in common but the belief that sex is real and matters. This has been both blessing and curse.

On the positive side, real, lasting solidarity has been forged between women in different political parties who’ve worked collaboratively to fight back against the massive assault on their rights. On the negative, left-wing feminists are being lumped together with people whose attitude towards gender expression is as regressive as that of hardened trans activists (‘if you want to wear lipstick and a dress, you’re a woman’/‘dresses and lipstick are only for women’).

I will say this, though. Many, many women who wouldn’t have thought twice ten years ago about asking for help from a gorgeous young man in lipstick working at the MAC counter have now been on the receiving end of so much aggression and so many direct threats from men in lipstick that they’ve developed a conditioned response, an instinctive wariness, where formerly there was complete indifference.

I’ve experienced this personally. I was approached in the street by a pink-haired young man with what I’ll call very exuberant dress sense and my adrenaline shot through the roof. For a second I thought, ‘this is where I finally get punched.’ And he couldn’t have been sweeter, wanted to talk Harry Potter and get a selfie.

Ten years ago my immediate response to somebody with his style would have been purely appreciative, but no longer, sadly, and the change in me, and in a lot of other women, has been brought on by a tsunami of threats and rage, not because we think there’s anything innately wrong with men wearing make up.


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The rewriting of history begins

Index ID: RHB — Publication date: December 2nd, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1863577731767685597

Opponents of gender ideology haven’t merely ‘endured unsparing criticism’. I haven’t simply had been told I ‘betrayed real feminism’ or received a few book-burning videos.

I’ve been sent thousands of threats of murder, rape and violence. A trans woman posted my family’s home address with a bomb-making guide. My eldest child was targeted by a prominent trans activist who attempted to doxx her and ended up doxxing the wrong young woman. I could write a twenty thousand word essay on what the consequences have been to me and my family, and what we’ve endured is NOTHING compared to the harm done to others.

By standing up to a movement that relies on threats of violence, ostracisation and guilt-by-association, all of us have been smeared and defamed, but many have lost their livelihoods. Some have been physically assaulted by trans activists. Female politicians have been forced to hire personal security on the advice of police. The news that one of the UK’s leading endocrinologists, Dr Hillary Cass, was advised not to travel by public transport for her own safety should shame everyone who let this insanity run amok.

Lest we forget, gender apostates have been targeted for crimes such as doubting the evidential basis for transitioning children, for arguing for fair sport for women and girls, for wanting to retain single sex spaces and services, especially for the most vulnerable, and for thinking it barbaric to lock in female prisoners with convicted male sex offenders.

Now the political landscape has shifted, and some who’ve been riding high on their own supply are waking up with a hell of a hangover. They’ve started wondering whether calling left-wing feminists who wanted all-female rape centres ‘Nazis’ was such a smart strategy. Maybe parents arguing that boys ought not to be robbing their daughters of sporting opportunities might, sort of, have a point? Possibly letting any man who says ‘I’m a woman’ into the locker room with twelve-year-old girls could have a downside, after all?

Mealy-mouthed retconning of what has actually happened over the past ten years is predictable but will not stand. I don’t doubt those who’ve turned a blind eye to the purges of non-believers, or even applauded and encouraged them, would rather minimise what the true cost of speaking out was, but ‘yes, maybe trans activists went a little over the top at times’ takes are frankly insulting. A full reckoning on the effects of gender ideology on individuals, society and politics is still a long way off, but I know this: the receipts will make very ugly reading when that time comes, and there are far too many of them to sweep politely under the carpet.


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John Oliver

Index ID: JOHNO — Publication date: November 17th, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1858258478629847149

Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video’s for you. An undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bullshit to support something he wants to be true, but isn’t.

According to the UN, female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to trans-identified men competing against them in women’s sporting categories. Girls have been ousted from teams to make way for boys. Women have suffered serious injury playing against trans-identified men (see Payton McNabb, mentioned below).

Again and again I’ve come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points. With a straight face, the ‘believe the science’ guys will say ‘actually, we don’t yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls’. The ‘be kind’ crew can’t see what the issue is. ‘Why are you bothered, it only affects a tiny minority of females?’

To prove to their progressive credentials – and (coincidentally, I’m sure) indemnify themselves against repercussions from cultural elites in the media, academia and publishing who’ve showed themselves more than ready to kick people to the kerb for failing to mouth the approved mantras – people with a lot to lose are currently prepared to make idiots of themselves. They’ll stare unabashedly into a camera and insist that their audiences’ eyeballs are incapable of seeing what’s plain as day, and that there’s something wrong with the great unwashed for believing that girls are being robbed of opportunities and put at physical risk.

If you want to tell the world you’re happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist post-modern ideology embraced by a minute fraction of the world’s population, fair enough; you’re allowed your opinion. But if you’ve just told girls they don’t deserve fair sport, maybe rethink using all too real and common sexual predation against young women as a punchline for your ‘edgy’ closing joke.


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I’m a left-leaning liberal

Index ID: ILLL — Publication date: November 10th, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1855725172378198034

 

You can keep telling yourself this, but you’re simply wrong. I’m a left-leaning liberal who’s fiercely anti-authoritarian, and if you couldn’t deduce that from my work you haven’t understood a word of it.

I’m not an ideologue. I mistrust ideologies. I’ve never met an ideologue who wasn’t prepared to deny a bit of inconvenient truth to keep their world view intact and I include ideologies with which I find myself in broad sympathy. On the other hand, I am an idealist. I believe in human beings. We are undeniably capable of terrible acts, but the evidence is that we are astoundingly collaborative and mutually supportive, especially when times are hard.

My values haven’t changed; what’s changed is the political landscape. What was once my natural home (a pragmatic centre-left party focused on dealing with economic disparity, championing social liberalism and equal rights) is now dominated by an illiberal, identity-based strain of politics I consider elitist, harmful and out of touch with the day-to-day concerns of regular people, particularly women (and I’ve still lived more than half of my life as a non-wealthy woman, and some of that time was spent in poverty).

There are women with whom I make common cause in the TERF wars I disagree with on other things. Within obvious limits (sucking up to literal Nazis) I don’t particularly care about their personal politics. The reality is that there’s currently an assault on women’s rights unparalleled in my lifetime, and it’s coming from both left and right. If ever there was a time for women across the political spectrum to come together, it is now.


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Words from April

Index ID: WFA — Publication date: November 8th, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1854854517293998488

I wrote the words below in April, about the UK left, and I’m retweeting them today for the benefit of some of the numbskulls in my mentions.

Women like me, and there are a lot of us, aren’t and never have been far-right. We simply want the left to wake the hell up, because we’re watching it do its utmost to alienate people it used to represent.

I’m not saying Trump’s win was down to the gender stuff – I’m not an American voter, so can’t judge. In any case, the Labour Party won the last UK election and they’ve embraced gender identity ideology whole-heartedly (although they won against a Tory government so enfeebled and unpopular it would have been miraculous if they hadn’t, and their popularity since gaining office has plummeted.)

What I do know is that millions of women in the UK and across the developed world are extremely angry about men in women’s sport, men in women’s jails and the erosion of single-sex spaces. Parents are angry at being demonised because they don’t want their troubled kids to undergo irreversible medical treatments of extremely questionable benefit. People are sick to the back teeth of being bullied and threatened for refusing to embrace an elitist, academia-generated ideology that’s having severe real world consequences.

Large swathes of the left continue to be threatening and abusive to anybody who resists their attempts to impose ideological language or bully them out of wrongthink. Leftist activists jeer and sneer at erstwhile female allies for the crime of believing biological sex is real and matters. And leftist leaders still appear more interested in sucking up to gender activists than – to take a topical example in the UK – female nurses whose crime is not wanting to undress in front of a fully intact male.

So to those screaming ‘bigot’ and ‘fascist’ at me, you should know two things. Firstly, I’m completely indifferent to your disapproval, as I’d have thought you’d have realised by now. Secondly, and far more importantly, the only thing more harmful to your cause than your pseudo-religious belief in gender identities is your astounding, self-righteous arrogance.

[Screenshot of tweet from April that reads: “The truth is that the left has fucked up monumentally on gender identity ideology and until it owns the mistake, it will continue to hand the right valid talking points”]


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This is big…

Index ID: TIB — Publication date: October 23rd, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1849240600052105403

This is big. The UK Charity Commission has directed that Mermaids – the single most influential activist group regarding child transition in the UK – must “have regard to the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the Cass Review.”
[https://www.gov.uk/government/news/poor-governance-at-mermaids-amounted-to-mismanagement-inquiry-reveals]

Cass found “the rationale for early puberty suppression remains unclear, with weak evidence regarding the impact on gender dysphoria, mental or psychosocial health. The effect on cognitive and psychosexual development remains unknown.” Mermaids disagreed:

 

Mermaids also sent out breast binders without parental consent. A 2015 study found that 97% of female users “reported at least one of 28 negative outcomes attributed to binding.” Mermaids has now been told to follow Cass Review findings re: binders.
[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13691058.2016.1191675?journalCode=tchs20&]

The commission found that Mermaids failed to carry out sufficient due diligence checks when recruiting trustees. One of the trustees was Jacob Breslaw, who resigned it was revealed he’d participated in a conference for a paedophile support group.
[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/06/celebrity-supporters-controversial-trans-charity-mermaids-gave/]

Then there was Darren Mew, Mermaids’ digital engagement officer, who dressed up as a schoolgirl and posted pictures of his genitals on social media.
[https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/trans-charity-worker-posed-as-schoolgirl-in-explicit-pictures-fd6s37f96]

It’s too soon to tell whether sanity is returning re: protection of vulnerable minors in the UK, but the reining in of Mermaids, which I believe to be one of the most dangerous organisations ever to receive celebrity, corporate and government backing, is a bloody good start.


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Nont Horoscope

Index ID: NONTHOR — Publication date: October 23rd, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1849206653335294443

Aries: your forthright nature, blunt speech and hot temper mean people are scared to tell you you smell funny. But you do. Thursday is a good time to buy a towel rail or a gecko. Lucky cheese: Brie.

Taurus: people call you lazy, but if you really want something you’re more than capable of whining listlessly from your bed until someone fetches it for you. Taureans in relationships should count themselves lucky. Your ruler, Venus, is a bitch.

Gemini: intellectually curious and easily bored, you’ll have to engage in slow, tedious and repetitive work this week, but stick with it, because when you’re busy you’ve got less time to be an arsehole. Lucky dog: dachshund.

Cancer: always sensitive and emotional, you’ll feel especially weepy on Sunday, when Uranus moves into your opposing sign. Try and stop clinging to people like a bloated tick. Tuesday is a good day to find your backbone.

Leo: this week’s Jupiter transit means your unshakeable conviction that you’re the most gorgeous and charismatic person in existence will reach new and nauseating heights. You are likeliest to suffer death by erotic auto-asphyxiation on Monday.

Virgo: this weekend sees Saturn square to your ruler, Mercury, causing your irritable bowel syndrome to flare up. Correct someone’s grammar to restore your usual state of twitchy self-satisfaction. Lucky fraction: ⅔.

Libra: indecisive and superficial, you’re currently toying with the idea of a new venture, but will ultimately decide to pass. Wise. You’d have been crap. A chance encounter will leave you with elbow burns and a well-deserved sense of self-loathing.

Scorpio: Machiavellian, vengeful and twisted, you’re at constant risk of tipping over into full-blown psychopathy. Get someone to handcuff you to a radiator through Saturday night’s Pluto-Venus sextile unless you want to make your first kill.

Sagittarius: your hedonistic tendencies, total lack of tact and this week’s retrograde Mars make it likely you will be beaten into unconsciousness in a bar on Friday. Lucky fish: pilchard.

Capricorn: venal and calculating, you’ll enjoy embezzling cash/sabotaging an office colleague this week. Warning: Shirley in accounts knows what you’re up to. Capitalise on the upcoming moon-Saturn conjunction to falsify your expense report.

Aquarius: you see yourself as a quirky individualist, but in fact you’re an unpopular oddball whose acquaintances turn off the lights and lie on the floor if they suspect you’re outside. Sunday’s auspiciously placed Jupiter offers a fleeting chance to make a friend, but you won’t.

Pisces: unfocused, unrealistic, unreliable: these are your better qualities. With ruler Neptune moving into Virgo, Wednesday will see you either dropping your stash in front of your parole officer or waking up to find yourself participating in a porn shoot. Lucky condiment: Piccalilli.


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Nont

Index ID: NONT — Publication date: October 23rd, 2024

Note: J.K. Rowling published this on Twitter. Original post: https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1848639699474387438

It’s clear to me you haven’t done the work, Adam. Let me explain the correct jargon. Unless you use this language when describing me, any other Nont or yourself, you want me to die horribly in a gas explosion and it will be your fault if I do. To start with the basics: those whose innate astrological identity matches the star sign assigned to them at birth are what we call ‘astro-synchronised’ – ‘ass’ for short. An ass-man assigned Aries at birth would identify as Aries throughout his life. He’d most likely dress head-to-toe in red, enjoy sports and might look a bit like a sheep. An ass-woman assigned Libra at birth would identify as Libra. She’d be a lover of beauty, a graceful dancer and probably really like weighing things. The term ‘ass’ derives from the Latin for star, ‘astra’. Some groups consider the prefix ‘ass’ offensive, but of course that isn’t so. Words derived from Latin are always proper science, which proves that ‘ass’ isn’t a slur. Just because some people are offended by a term doesn’t mean it’s actually offensive! What’s important to understand is that when the astro-synchronised community use the prefix ‘ass’, they help normalise Nont identities and experiences, which makes for a more inclusive and welcoming workplace – and world. However, should you not identify as ass, there are many other exciting possibilities to choose from, including astro-fluid, non-astro and, of course, the “thirteeners”, who consider themselves to be part of a mysterious thirteenth sign. This is an exciting new field of research. So far, the only characteristic of Sign Thirteen we’ve identified is pathological narcissism. Stand by for more Nont information the next time I’m trying to get enough caffeine into myself to start work.


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