JK Rowling podcast – latest: Author dismisses concerns trans backlash will harm her legacy
The Harry Potter author shrugged off concerns about her legacy saying ‘Whatever. I’ll be dead’
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JK Rowling has dismissed concerns that her views on transgender people will damage her legacy.
The first two episodes of a new podcast featuring JK Rowling have aired where she addresses her traumatic miscarriage, Harry Potter and her controversial remarks on transgender issues.
When asked by interviewer Megan Phelps-Roper about her legacy in the podcast titled The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, the Harry Potter author said she doesn’t think about it.
“I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly. I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy, what a pompous way to live your life thinking about what my legacy will be. Whatever! I’ll be dead, I care about now, the living.”
Phelps-Roper is the granddaughter of Fred Phelps – pastor of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church. After leaving the church in 2012, Phelps-Roper became a prominent critic of its philosophy and practices.
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ContraPoints ‘regrets’ participating in the podcast
Trans YouTuber Natalie Wynn, who is known as ContraPoints, has apologised for agreeing to be interviewed for the podcast. “I agreed,” she wrote on Twitter. “This was a serious lapse in judgement.”
In a lengthy thread, ContraPoints detailed her original intentions for doing the podcast, before concluding: “I regret my participation and would not have participated had I fully understood the nature of the project.
“I feel that I have been used, and I share the sentiments of other trans people who are speaking out against it.”
Mark Hamill recently defended himself for liking a post by JK Rowling
The Star Wars actor defended himself after he became the centre of fan ire for liking a tweet from JK Rowling that some users deemed “transphobic”.
Read more:
‘Twitter is, unfortunately, no place for nuance,’ Star Wars actor said
JK Rowling says her mother’s death ‘took a wrecking ball to my life’
JK Rowling has opened up about losing her mother in her mid-twenties in the new podcast, The Witch Trials of JK Rowling.
The author of the famous Harry Potter books said the “early Nineties” were a bad period of time for her and “infused with loss” due to her mother dying of illness and a miscarriage over a year later.
Read more:
Author says family didn’t realise that her death was ‘imminent’
Who is podcast host Megan Phelps-Roper?
For the podcast, Megan Phelps-Roper travelled to JK Rowling’s Edinburgh castle and, for six days in May and August, conducted intimate interviews with the author.
But who is she, and how did she land such a big interview with Rowling?
Megan Phelps-Roper is 37 and she lives in rural South Dakota. She is best known for escaping what Louis Theroux called “the most hated family in America” in his 2007 documentary on the extremist Westboro Baptist Church, led by Phelps-Roper’s grandfather Fred Phelps.
The hate group, founded in Topeka, Kansas, picketed the funerals of soldiers and Aids victims. It is known for its hate speech against atheists, Jews, Muslims, transgender people, and numerous Christian denominations. Their theology and practises have been rejected almost universally by Christian churches.
Phelps-Roper distanced herself from the group in 2012, largely thanks to discovering other points of view on Twitter, which she had joined three years earlier to spread the church’s message.
She has written a book about her experience, Unfollow, and she is now a speaker and activist.
JK Rowling warns against ‘black-and-white thinking’ in podcast
JK Rowling has criticised “black-and-white thinking” in her new podcast, The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, which is partly intended to address the backlash over her comments about the transgender community.
Read the full story below:
‘We should mistrust ourselves most when we are certain,’ Harry Potter author says
Emma Watson stands in solidarity with trans people
Emma Watson, who famously starred as Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter film franchise, also shared her support with the trans community.
In 2020, she tweeted: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.
“I want my trans followers to know that I and so many other people around the world see you, respect you and love you for who you are,” Watson added in a subsequent post.
Why did JK Rowling agree to the podcast?
JK Rowling spoke to Megan Phelps-Roper in a wide-ranging seven-part podcast titled The Witch Trials of JK Rowling.
The interview covered numerous topics, including of course, the controversy surrounding the British authors comments on transgender people.
A week before the podcast’s release, JK Rowling tweeted her reasoning, writing: “I agreed to sit down with Megan because, having read her wonderful book, Unfollow, I thought the two of us could have a real, interesting, two-sided conversation that might prove constructive.”
Speaking to The Times in a new interview, Phelps-Roper explained that her intentions for the podcast “was never a defence of JK Rowling. It was never intended to vindicate her”.
“It’s an attempt to understand what’s happening, and to do that you need the perspectives of many other people – on all sides – because these issues are so complex,” she said.
JK Rowling brushes off concerns over legacy in light of trans views
JK Rowling shrugged off concerns that she may have destroyed her legacy over her views on transgender rights.
Asked by Megan Phelps-Roper if she thought about her legacy and how things she said impacted how she’d be viewed in years to come, the author said: “Whatever. I’ll be dead.”
She added: “I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly. I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy, what a pompous way to live your life thinking about what my legacy will be. Whatever! I’ll be dead, I care about now, the living.”
Daniel Radcliffe addresses JK Rowling controversy
In 2020, Daniel Radcliffe, the face of the Harry Potter film franchise, wrote an essay for The Trevor Project in support of trans people.
“Transgender women are women,” he wrote at the time. “Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either [Rowling] or I.
“It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.”
Is Hogwarts Legacy connected to JK Rowling?
With the highly anticipated release of the video game Hogwarts Legacy on 10 February, there has been some hestitancy among a number of gamers as to whether or not buying the game supports JK Rowling and her anti-trans sentiments.
However, according to the game’s official website: “JK Rowling is not involved in the creation of the game.”
In fact, Hogwarts Legacy introduced the first transgender character to the iconic wizarding world.
Read more here:
‘Hogwarts Legacy’ takes players on ‘an epic journey’, allowing them to wander free around Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest and surrounding areas.
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