Stephen King vs J.K. Rowling

Much like what I’ve said about hot button issues with well-known people, everything I have to say here is my own personal opinion based on information available online. I don’t know any of the parties mentioned, nor do I have any first-hand knowledge about this situation.

I’ll be the first to say I am very late in writing about this issue. This is for multiple reasons. The main reason being how heart breaking writing my piece “I’m Divorcing J.K. Rowling, And I’m Keeping the Kids” was at the time I wrote it. I’ve been a fan of the Harry Potter books and movies for many years. I’m also, as a cis woman, an ally to the Trans community, so for many reasons revisiting this issue is difficult. This being said, in order to educate others, to create positive changes in the world, we have to confront things that are difficult to face.

Not long after J.K. Rowling made much of her harmful comments through her essay, she posted a tweet which praised Stephen King. At some point in the twitter thread, King was asked by someone in the comments if he believed Trans women were women, to which Stephen King responded: “Yes. Trans Women are Women.”

After King posted this comment, Rowling deleted his comment and stopped following him on twitter.

In a recent interview for the Daily Beast, Stephen King spoke about J.K. Rowling.

“Jo cancelled me. She sort of blocked me and all of that. Here’s the thing: She is welcome to her opinion. That’s the way the world works. If she thinks that trans women are dangerous, or that trans women are somehow not women, or whatever problem she has with it-the idea that someone ‘masquerading’ as a woman is going to assault a ‘real’ woman in the toilet-is she believes those things, she has a right to her opinion.” King also said in the same interview: “Nobody has ‘cancelled’ J.K. Rowling. She’s doing fine. I just felt that her belief was, in my opinion, wrong. We have differing opinions, but that’s life.”

Do I think Stephen King could have maybe been a little harder about J.K. Rowling’s statements? Sure, especially when you consider Rowling’s essay, where much of the transphobic comments were made, has since won an award with the BBC and has been referenced by transphobic legislators to implement anti-Trans laws. He could have very easily pointed out how all of these statements are potentially harmful to the Trans community.

However, the fact that Stephen King, a rich, famous, cis, white, straight man in his seventies, came to the Trans community at all is a huge deal. He could have easily ignored the issue, the way many others in his place in life might have. But he didn’t, instead he said something and did so in a very diplomatic way. Stephen King is an example of a celebrity, an icon to literature and pop culture in general, who used his status in a way that was helpful, even if it was done in a way that for some might have been diplomatic almost to a fault. Someone like Stephen King saying anything in support of the Trans community at all, in my opinion, is meaningful when you also consider the possible blow back it could have on him. If he has any readers who are even a little transphobic, they definitely won’t be reading his books now. To which I say, it’s no one’s loss but their own, and Stephen King will do just fine without those numbers.

It’s impossible to say whether or J.K. Rowling will ever have a change of heard about everything she has said about the Trans community and the harm it has caused, at least in the emotional sense. I’d like to think she will realize the pain she has caused with her words. However, given she deleted Stephen King’s comment and unfollowed him simply for disagreeing with her, says a great deal about her character, and how dedicated she is to her new found “cause” she really is at this point. In short, J.K. Rowling is too far gone. In a short amount of time she has managed to alienate a whole marginalized community, create a number of pieces of recently fiction that has more than failed to impress the way the original Harry Potter series use to, and prove to the world she is the bitter old bigot she claims to despise in the world.

All the while, Stephen King has evolved with the times. He has made corrections in his recent work with marginalized communities whom he might have previously written as stereotypes. Stephen King is more than aware of the changes happening in the world and is willing to write what he wants, with still connecting with millions, the way he has since the 70s. On top of this, with a wife life Tabby, and with a daughter like Naomi, he knows better than to fail when it comes to the representation of women and the LGBTQ+ community. All while speaking up beyond the pages of his stories to speak up for those who don’t get the attention they deserve.