J.K. Rowling openly mocks trans gamer who calls Hogwarts Legacy support harmful
J.K. Rowling mocks user bashing the support of Hogwarts Legacy (Image via Them)
J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter books, was involved in a spat with a Twitter user recently. J.K. Rowling mocked her for advocating against Hogwarts Legacy, the PlayStation video game inspired by Rowling’s popular franchise. It’s unlikely that Rowling’s choice to enter the discussion will make her or Hogwarts Legacy look their best.
On 17 December 2022, Youtuber and Gamer Jessie Earl tweeted that supporting the current Harry Potter franchise is “harmful to trans people.” She also clarified that past support for Harry Potter, including both movies and books is understandable. She alleged that J.K. Rowling is using her ongoing platform to target trans people and also justifying her continued targeting of trans people. She also wrote that she owns most of the movies and all the books. She even named her cat after the protagonist of the Fantastic Beast films, Newt.
Against these comments, Rowling tweeted mockingly, equating Earl’s stance to “purethink” and conjuring a hypothetical where “the truly righteous wouldn’t just burn their books and movies but the local library, anything with an owl on it and their own pet dogs.”
Rowling also disagrees with Earl’s assertion that enjoying Harry Potter media is less of an issue than financially supporting Rowling. According to Rowling, reading her books in private “won’t save you when the polices see your Hufflepuff socks.”
Earl wasn’t the first person to share their views regarding the ethics of extending support to Rowling’s work. As such, there are claims that Rowling deliberately encouraged her bigoted fans to harass Earl because she was transgender. Following Rowling’s Tweet, Earl reaffirms that “trans rights and liberation can only exist in a world that is equitable for everyone” and denounces Rowling’s attempt to “split us.”
Also read: Hogwarts Legacy has players committing murder and torture in the game
J.K. Rowling has been known to have an ongoing conflict with the trans community
On social media, there is a debate about whether endorsing the upcoming role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy amounts to indirectly endorsing Rowling’s prejudice against trans people.
Hogwarts Legacy is an officially licensed Harry Potter project. Therefore, Rowling directly benefits monetarily when you buy Hogwarts Legacy. She’s also known to personally finance organizations that explicitly discriminate against trans people. On top of that, she also funded a sexual violence support charity in Scotland that supports victims of sexual assault but would not provide service to trans women.
As for the game, developer Avalanche Software has denied any involvement of J.K. Rowling in making Hogwarts Legacy. They also stated that they are using the original story, meaning the story is not from her. It’s generally understood that Rowling will indeed benefit from Hogwart’s Legacy and the awareness it will spread regarding Harry Potter and related products. However, specific information regarding how Rowling financially benefits from the game and its success is not released.
Hogwarts Legacy will make its way to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series on February 5; April 4 on PS4 and Xbox One, and July 25 on Switch.
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