The fourth installment of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling begins with an innocent enough question-What is a TERF?

A TERF, according to this is “a person whose viewas on gender identity are considered hostile to transgender people, or who opposes social and political policies designed to be inclusive of transgender people”.

For many, after the year 2020, JK. Rowling was labeled as such. TERF used to stand for “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist”. But now, in 2023, addressing someone by the acronym, “TERF”, is synonymous with calling someone a witch. And, here we are.

This polarization and name-calling concerned JK Rowling. Rowling described herself as being very feminist, an Idealist, not an ideologue. She is for sure more left-leaning than far-right. Rowling became very interested in the plight against women at an early age. Erin Pizzey, who started the first-battered women’s shelter in 1971 in Great Britain was one of the feminists she paid attention to. The concept of domestic violence-that a woman can be beaten in her own home by a man who would get away with the crime-came to the forefront in Rowling’s youth.

Reclaim the Night inspired marches around the UK. As the Yorkshire Ripper tortured and killed 13 women with attempts to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980, Rowling became hyperly aware that women were not safe in places from predatory men. Rowling herself, became a victim of domestic violence in her first marriage.

Yet, women were still vilified for standing up for their rights even during these Reclaim the Night Protests.

Flash forward to the 2020s. The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, dies of COVID. JK Rowling, who grew up during the time of Sutcliffe’s killing spree, finds herself still questioning predatory men in women’s spaces.Things look a bit different now. Some of these predators are in women’s restrooms or locker rooms, posing as women. But women and men alike are screaming, kicking, uttering expletives and the words…

TERF go home!

This installment of The Witch trials of JK Rowling highlights three instances where men have infiltrated women’s spaces.

We first, look to the obvious-women’s sports and mediocre male-turned-“female” champion, Lia Thomas:

I’m not a medical expert but there is a lot of variation among CIS female althletes. There are CIS women who are very tall and very muscular and have more testosterone than other CIS women and…should that also disqualify them?”-Lia Thomas

No, Lia…but your penis should have. Let’s just add an “r” to the end of HIS name right now and call it good.

Host, Megan Phelps-Roper, dives into the problematic presence of men posing as and claiming to be “women” in other women’s spaces such as restrooms, locker rooms and prisons. JK Rowling sounds off:

I’ve been watching this. I’ve been interested in it, and I’ve done a lot of reading around it.”-JK Rowling

Rowling was troubled by the activism that a male who merely conceptualizes himself as a woman can be called a woman and end up in these spaces:

I was troubled by this because after a long life of dealing with certain issues, as a donor or an activist myself, being a woman, I feel I have a very realistic view on wha may happen when you lose boundaries around single sex spaces, especially for women and girls and that troubled me.”-JK Rowling

But these people are women, they say. Truly…what is a woman?

TERF go home!

“It’s just going to the bathroom”, they’ll say. Yet people like Karen White—a transgender “woman”, gets away with raping and assaulting other women. A “confused” teenager who is into gender-bending and choose whichever restroom he wants and subsequently rape a young woman. Hell, someone’s grandma gets exposed to some guy’s nutsack at a YMCA. It’s just going to the bathroom.

The Witch Trials of JK Rowling also delves into a third hot topic of discussion-the medical transitioning of young people.

We’ve seen clinicians not follow guidelines for puberty blockers-offering up the medications before having a full mental health evaluation performed on the questioning child.We’ve seen clinicians quickly accepting the young person’s self-identity. We are told that we should trust kids to know they are who they say they are.

And while Rowling herself can identify (who can’t) with her teenage years being full of angst and confusion-that a young woman-growing up has an insane amount of anxiety about her changing body, and even suffers some shaming over this, she questions the carelessness of the current social climate and the role it plays in all of this. Rowling personally feels strongly about diverse life experiences, and she feels for those who do not fit in. But in the large numbers of young people coming forward, changing their names, changing their gender identities, she has concerns. Of course, she does. She is a mom. And even though she’s read influential pro-trans authors, books, blogs, essays-all to understand the philosophy and ideology of the trans movement because she wanted to see if she was missing something. she is still concerned. Why? Because, despite being supportive, being an “ally”, any contrary opinion is met with an attempt to shut a person down.

TERF, go home!

And then we come to the famous two word slogan: No debate, no debate. We hear it all the time. That
alarms me. Really alarms me. I can’t think of a purer instance of authoritarianism than ‘no debate’. In fact, that is the attitude of the fundamentalists. You may not change my ideas. That makes you ‘evil’. I am righteous. I don’t have to explain my righteousness. And I am entitled, therefore to bully you, to harass you, to silence you, to take away your livelihood, all the way up to attacking you.”-JK Rowling

Yet, according to The Washington Post, listening to The Witch Trials of JK Rowling is exhausting work. At least, that’s what Monica Hesse has to say about it. Sounds like a bit of sour grapes to me, Monica.

So what I can say is that what comes out of her mouth, or goes onto her Twitter account, has a fuzzy aura of harmful rhetoric. Rowling might indeed believe she has transgender friends. But taken as a whole, her body of communication on the issue, such as the things she chooses to retweet and the provocative language she uses while doing so — cumulatively, it sucks.’-Monica Hesse

Debate now equals “harmful rhetoric”. Noted. Go on…

Rowling’s tweets are exhausting. They are exhausting because they require constant vigilance, because they are not screaming out obvious bigotry, a la “I hate trans people.” Rather, they are whispering a curated plausible deniability, the kind that purports to be just asking reasonable questions with simple answers.”-Monica Hesse

Like, this sucks. Monica Hess is sooo exhausted. Like, Oh, emmm geee:

Her Twitter feed does not ask its readers to think. It asks them to fear. It creates phobias. Of trans people. It creates trans phobias.

There’s plenty to see there. There’s plenty to question. The point of all of this isn’t that Rowling needs to be burned at the stake. The point is that there is heat here, and it needs to be felt.”-Monica Hesse

And, indeed there is plenty to question. And JK Rowling, a fantasy author, is questioning the very reality most individuals choose to believe is non-existent. Let’s turn up the heat, shall we? Is it okay for a man to pose as a woman and take a woman’s place in a sport? On the job? For college scholarships specifically for women? Let’s interrogate reality. Can men who claim to be women give birth to a child? Can they menstruate? And, do you want to talk about what sucks and what is harmful? Look at what is happening to some very confused children!

Dumbledore says people find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than being right.”-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Sadly, JK Rowling struck a nerve. And she’s right. Til next time.