If I had a castle and a billion dollars
find something you love as much as J.K. Rowling loves transphobia
*The original version of this post appeared on Patreon on April 5, 2022.
I've been trying to figure out why J.K. Rowling enjoys transphobia so much. She must enjoy it, right? It's pretty much all she does with her time at this point. And this is a woman who has enjoyed an unimaginable amount of professional success, who owns a literal castle, and is worth close to a billion dollars. How much money and how much property would it take for you, personally, to never use social media again? If you gave me 40k a year and a small cottage I would never post for anybody (except you patrons, obviously). I would even take a vow of silence (except, again, for you guys). I can't fathom what it is that J.K. Rowling gets out of her constant public transphobia...I keep thinking about this tweet, which suggests that rich people use transphobic crusades as a kind of luxury good, "buy[ing] a simulacrum of being a freedom fighter." There are plenty of worthy causes that Rowling could fight for, and she actually does support a number of important charities, but I guess nothing gives the same emotional frisson as bullying the marginalized. Ursula Le Guin had Rowling's number years ago, when Le Guin called Harry Potter "rather ethically mean-spirited." (Many do not know this, but Le Guin was a champion literary trash-talker. I may have to do a special post about this someday...)
BUT, without further ado, here's the latest episode of Art for the End Times! I had an absolute blast chatting with Aja Romano and Jessie Earl about J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, and what we do with all of Rowling's mean-spirited bullshit. Aja and Jessie are true and noble nerds, so they approach the issue with love and compassion for the fandom. It was a great chat, please check it out.