JK Rowling cast out again for separating fact from fiction

In the terminology of Harry Potter, JK Rowling, the fictional phenomenon’s creator, has been subjected to the Vanishing Spell. The spell, typically difficult to execute, seems to have cast Rowling as a “non-being” after she was left out of the forthcoming reunion to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Potter films.

The TV tribute will feature the Harry Potter cast, including the three main actors, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, when it airs in January.

The young stars will reflect “on a very special and personal journey,” according to a press release issued this week by HBO Max, the Warner Bros streaming service behind the show.

But Rowling, the woman who made the fiction, the films and the entire franchise possible, reportedly appears as a footnote only.

Her cancellation by the Potter community is not new. Ever since she began to defend women’s rights in the gender-critical debate, she has been labelled transphobic and ostracised by those who want to be on the fashionable side of the argument.

Currently, that means parroting the newspeak of militant transgender activists, which the Potter troupe were quick to do, and so distance themselves from the writer who launched their careers.

Last year, in the wake of Rowling’s attempt to distinguish biological sex from gender identity, Watson declared “trans people are who they say they are”, while Radcliffe said he was “learning how to be a better [trans] ally”.

Other actors jumped on the bandwagon, and the campaign against Rowling extended to Harry Potter fan sites such as the Leaky Cauldron, and even to the publishers of her non-Potter books.

Actors need to work and only the brave, or very successful (notably, in this case, Ralph Fiennes, who played evil Voldemort but has been kind to Rowling), tend to separate themselves from the herd politically.

Radcliffe, Watson and Grint, although financially secure thanks to their Potter nest eggs, have had mixed results attempting to match their childhood fame as adult thesps.

Rowling, though, can afford to be fearless. Everything she touches on a keyboard turns to gold, and her output beyond Potter has been both prodigious and profitable.

Even so, she could have opted for a quiet life, kept her opinions to herself and been invited as guest of honour to Warner’s celebration of her stories.

That she chose the more difficult path will earn her a chapter in history quite apart from the volumes dedicated to her record-breaking book sales, the transformation of children’s reading habits, and exceptional (even for a multi-millionaire) philanthropy.

One day we may well look back at her intervention as a turning point in the toxic trans war. However, we’re not there, as an interview on Thursday on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour with the CEO of the lobbying group Stonewall made clear.

Nancy Kelley, in response to questions from host Emma Barnett, tripped over her own tongue as she attempted to define “transphobic”.

Barnett: “Is JK a transphobe for the way she expresses her views?”

Kelley: “She has expressed views that can cause real harm.”

Barnett: “What has she said that can cause real harm?”

Kelley: “She reinforces stereotypes about trans women; she echoes very common forms of transphobia.”

Barnett: “What is transphobic?”

And so on. What this exchange didn’t demonstrate was Rowling’s supposed prejudice against trans people (a charge she vehemently denies), but what it did confirm is the existence of two distinct and divided worlds.

In one, let’s call it the real world, some people believe that the sex you were born with is fixed and should not be conflated with gender identity, a belief that rightly qualifies for protection under the Equality Act.

In the parallel universe, there are those, such as Kelley, who “literally” think (or say they do) that trans women are women and that anyone, like Rowling, who cannot accept fiction as fact is the enemy.

Signed up to this creed are organisations, including universities (Warwick being the latest), that have been captured by Stonewall and decided that all toilets must be gender-neutral and everyone henceforth addressed as “they”, rather than “he” or “she”.

Pronouns are more important in this world than people. “Consider wearing a badge displaying your pronouns to help normalise sharing pronouns,” said Warwick’s post-Stonewall guidance. “If you’re not sure, ask people what their pronouns are.”

Impressionable youngsters will walk into this environment and be made to feel guilty for phobias they don’t possess. As for women’s entitlement (under law) to single-sex spaces, forget it.

There have been the beginnings of a backlash against this culture of fear; the BBC, Channel 4, Ofcom, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and several government departments are among the organisations that have now quit Stonewall’s diversity programme.

Rowling should take at least some of the credit for this return to sanity, for putting herself, at some personal cost, in the eye of the storm and calling out those who want natal women exorcised.

How ironic that the inventor of the world’s most fantastical realm has been the one to deliver a dose of much-needed reality to this troubled sphere.