Don't Let JK Change The Narrative

From Daniel Radcliffe collabing with The Trevor Project to the witch trials of J.K. Rowling, 2023 saw another step by J.K. Rowling into the madness that is TERF mania. Today we will continue to look at everything J.K. Rowling has ever done that was transphobic with the year of 2023. Now as always this is part of an ongoing series where I cover everything she's ever done way back as early as 2017. So if you haven't seen the original episodes go check them out if you want to but you don't have had to to understand what I'm going to talk about today. Without further ado let's get started with today's video. Hello and welcome to Matriarchotype I will be your goddess for today because we are talking about everything transphobic J.K. has ever done. As many of you know in this series I am taking inspiration for each episode from creators that I know and love and that I know you love as well. If you can guess today's creator drop it down in the chat below. If you can't wait to get your cheeky little hands on the entire series you can check over to my Patreon and watch the full series from start to finish uncensored as well and an extended version which you deserve treat yourself and it also of course helps support my channel and my work. Let me also take this time to say if you haven't subscribed to my channel now is the time to do so. In the course of scripting and filming this series I am into the 9,200 subscriber realm and we are road mapping our way to 10,000 which is a huge milestone for any YouTube channel so if you want to be a part of that subscribe now to be one of the OG 10,000 subs and support me and my work which I really appreciate you doing. Thank you so much. So unlike 2022, 2023 didn't have as many forms of transphobia that J.K. Rowling did compared to 2022, 2024 which we will get into or we've already covered but what did happen I believe were quite prominent in their own right. We start the year with Hogwarts Legacy being released which because of the boycott before it and all of the discourse surrounding it felt in itself like such a big cultural moment. We actually start the year by talking about rather than Harry Potter for a which was a popular British super LGBTQIA plus novel turned into TV drama that captured the hearts of audiences across the world. Now why am I bringing this up? Well one of the actors in Heartstopper, Sebastian Croft, faced controversy on Twitter when it was realised after the Hogwarts Legacy was released that he played one of the voice actors to the characters. In early 2023 Hogwarts Legacy voice actor apologises for involvement in the game. Heartstopper star Sebastian Croft apologises on Twitter after it's announced that he is voicing a character in Hogwarts Legacy. I was cast in the project over three years ago back when all Harry Potter was to me was the magical world I grew up with he tweeted. This was long before I was aware of J.K. Rowling's views. I believe wholeheartedly that trans women are women and trans men are men. Amidst boycott of Hogwarts Legacy this was in itself kind of a controversy because Heartstopper was so pro-LGBTQIA plus to have one of the cast that worked on that connected to the Harry Potter IP and franchise seemed to be kind of a juxtaposition to many of the fans. Later in January on the 23rd transgender woman India Willoughby tweeted that I am more of a woman than J.K. Rowling will ever be to which J.K. Rowling replied citation needed. Next we need to talk about the New York Times. Speaking from someone that's born and raised British and lives in Japan at the moment I cannot understand the obsession with trying to make the New York Times work. To me they are just overtly anti-trans and in my opinion centrist if not right-wing and yet I find myself talking about them today. The New York Times publishes an op-ed in support of Rowling one day after being protested by anti-trans coverage. On February the 16th 2023 the Times ran an op-ed by writer Pamela Paul titled in defense of J.K. Rowling asserting that nothing the author has said over the years is transphobic. Honestly they should have watched this series then I wish I'd made it sooner. Beloved community leader organizer author and artist Cecilia Gentile called the article a slap in the face. On the 17th of February Cecilia tweeted at New York Times choosing to run an article in defense of J.K. Rowling the day after we sent a letter asking for accountability for their transphobic reporting is the hardest slap in the face I have ever received and I've been slapped. Advocates pointed out the sad reality that running a piece in defense of perhaps one of the world's most notable TERFs is in line with the paper of records past coverage of trans people. As an open letter signed by over 200 Times contributors states New York Times coverage over trans issues has been used to support anti-trans legislation limiting access to life-saving care including Paul's previous writing. But jokes aside this is exactly why I'm making the series. People to this day are still saying they don't understand what J.K. Rowling has done that's transphobic and I'm like hey why don't I make three and a half hours of footage to prove my point that she is very much far beyond transphobic she's also ableist denying intersex people exist Now another creator that I have to bring up is ContraPoints and no I'm not parodying her today maybe some of you guessed that in the comments I'm afraid you are incorrect I would not parody her because hindsight is 20 20. We now know that she had a very lukewarm opinion of the genocide in and an ill-timed statement about it. In my opinion she lost a lot of respect. However she is the topic of discussion in this video because she was asked to be on the podcast called The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling. Then in February Barry Weiss's The Free Press releases the podcast titled The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling. Megan Phelps Roper a writer and activist known for rebelling against and leaving the notoriously virulently anti-LGBTQ plus Westborough Baptist Church launched a podcast series titled The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling in January 2023 to explore the author's fall from grace. The podcast is a project of conservative journalist Barry Weiss's The Free Press which Weiss later sold to Paramount Skydance for 115 million dollars before becoming the editor in chief of CBS News. Now I'm obviously not going to sit through this podcast unless you want me to let me know in the comments I can do a retrospective I guess. Does J.K. Rowling deserve to be defended? Of course not. I mean even at this point in the series she has done an apt amount against the trans community. She goes on to do way worse and we know this but at this point anyone defending her again the reason why I made this whole series is because they seem to not understand that what she is saying is overtly transphobic and dangerous to minorities of people. Anyone that still has that mindset to me are just falling for the same transphobia and maybe they don't want to admit it themselves maybe they want to claim ignorance but you can't see what she's done so far and say well that's not transphobic that's just stating facts. It's actually not. She's gone against science and data and ignoring other forms of the same minorities that suit her and benefit her, platforming right wing people, working with right wing people to get her points across. So it is harmful to more than just the trans community which we will go on to see innately. If you also want to know more about what ContraPoints did with regards to the statement of Palestine and the Kabanakal and Hasan Piker I did a video about that a few months ago and I cover everything there so check that out if you want to know more. So this is basically the entire thing that the podcast called The Witch Trails of J.K. Rowling was about. This was the podcast with Megan Phelps Roper of West Row Baptist Church fame and J.K. Rowling where a lot of the argument was like oh what we really hate about the trans movement is that they use like illiberal methods and it's so unlike all past movements like gay rights wasn't like this and women's rights wasn't like this and the civil rights movement they never did anything violent and they were always polite and they never raised their voices and they never called people names and it's just like well I'm sorry that historically is not true. Then around trans day of visibility Daniel Radcliffe worked again with the Trevor Project to do a sit down talking to trans people and hearing their side of things directly from their perspective. On the 29th of March Daniel Radcliffe hosted a roundtable for clear and trans youth fans say his allyship is making Rowling shatter her wine glass. He continued his work to support LGBTQ plus youth in collaboration with the Trevor Project by hosting a roundtable It was an absolute privilege to get to meet and listen to this incredible group of young people Radcliffe said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. At the end of the day if you're going to talk about trans kids it might be useful to actually listen to trans kids. One could say that a certain young adult fiction author should be listening closely and taking Radcliffe's advice to heart. Unfortunately Rowling's track record doesn't exactly scream listening to trans kids talk about their own experiences that's why people quickly rush to social media to praise Radcliffe while also poking fun at Rowling. Daniel Radcliffe has already worked with various organisations including the Trevor Project before right from t-day when JK Rowling first announced to the world that she was a TERF and he continues to do that work to kind of counteract and battle against what JK Rowling is putting into the atmosphere and I just think this is so admirable for an ally. I mean this really is true allyship in my opinion but I think one thing that's so apparent by this is just how much trans voices are missing from the anti-trans movement I mean obviously there's a reason for that it doesn't take two and two to put together why they only platform de-transitioners but Daniel Radcliffe is doing so much more than he realises just by actually sitting down and humanising trans people which is something that we're gonna need so much more going forward. Seeing yourself as yourself for the first time is such a transformative experience. I have a whole identity I'm not just trans. I'm a person you're a person I treat you with respect so I deserve it back. There are some people in the world who are just like not trying to engage with this conversation in any kind of good faith. I think a lot of the time it's just because people don't know a young trans person so there's just this like theoretical idea about this in their heads. Even if you may think you don't know someone who's queer trans or you really don't because no matter how I identify or who I am in this world we all experience these things that are a part of life. Looking back at how important this was like we needed more of this you know with the cast review we see so little of trans people getting an opinion in the upcoming years with debates on talk shows and mainstream media it's so often cis people sitting around and discussing about trans people without including trans voices and the reason is is because if we did that we would be humanizing ourselves and giving an opinion to what's happening to us that mainstream media didn't want a platform and by definition neither did JK Rowling. Now did the billionaire make enough money from the Hogwarts legacy game? Apparently not. This was when the HBO reboot of Harry Potter was announced and the fandom reacted accordingly. On the 3rd of April Rowling announces she may be developing a Harry Potter TV series with HBO Max then mocked people who would boycott it. Deadline reported that Rowling was in conversation with HBO Max to develop a TV series based on her wizard school book which would include the author as an executive producer on the project. People pointed out the hypocrisy of the decision by HBO Max another supposedly LGBTQ plus friendly platform and across social media they expressed their discontent with the streamer for As more people online committed to boycotting the new series Rowling responded by mocking them on X rather than taking their fair criticism into account. Activists in my mentions are trying to organize yet another boycott of my work this time of the Harry Potter TV show. As forewarned is forearmed I've taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne. On the 4th of April someone tweeted Now we also know looking back from where we are with more updates to the HBO reboot which again I covered before on my channel this is going to fund her and it's going to be a large-scale project which will give another generation access to this franchise and as she already has done by putting money into policy against trans people for the for women organization and the £70,000 to the Scottish anti-trans side of the legal battle and everything like that we know that money is going to go more towards this she's overtly said so herself so even with everything we know if you're not quite convinced she's transphobic yet or you have a member of your family that doesn't believe it or anything we now know with hindsight that the money she gains from all of these franchises has been spent taking away the rights of the trans community so there's no reason to believe that that won't go on to do so 2026 and above so not only is she verbalizing is that a word not only is she speaking out her transphobic vitriol but she's putting her money where her mouth is and paying for policies to change there's a reason I left the UK with my husband and I now live in Japan we feel safer here in still quite a right-leaning country because of how the UK is right now speaking of the rise of fascism because later on in the series she goes on to outright holocaust denial by saying that trans people were not one of the first targeted by the Nazis and that's just wrong so we will get to that I think that's 2024 I'm not sure but keep an eye out because it it develops quite ironically from this point on the 30th of May a tweet said the Nazis aligned themselves with TERF because they had the same values Posey Parker has friends in far-right hate groups is anti-abortion and is a complete bigot we all know the Nazis were there for her to which JK Rowling responded you lie and smear assuming you'll live out your days as a hanging judge and never find yourself in the dock no cultural moment lasts forever yesterday's fanatics realized they joined the wrong mob populist movements shrivel and fall apart Robespierre ended on the guillotine I may not be pronouncing that right Robespierre Robespierre Robespierre I don't know and the reddit post explains this as JK Rowling compares trans activists to the architects of the reign of terror during the french revolution which I'm glad they did because I didn't get it myself and as a lover of his app it's no surprise that she also agrees with several of Elon Musk's opinions JK Rowling went on to say on the 21st of June that cis is ideological language signifying belief in the unfalsifiable concept of gender identity you have a perfect right to believe in unproven essences that may or may not match the sexed body but the rest of us have a right to disagree and to refuse to adopt your jargon to me again I mentioned this earlier in the series but this really gives a victim mentality to be so anti-trans and so against a minority of people that are just trying to live their lives to choose to look away from the science and the peer review based studies and to deny people their existence and then claim that cis is a slur I feel like it's projection it's like so what you're doing is fine but we can't call you cisgender like be so for real like chat is this real and then to round off the year somewhat poetically there was this now a little less eloquently put on the 17th of October to a picture that says repeat after us trans women are women JK Rowling just very much eloquently put no she's a writer ladies and gents this small tweet alone is evidence of her being transphobic but hey if this wasn't enough there's always next year stick around for next week to maybe let me convince anyone else that doesn't yet believe JK Rowling has done anything transphobic okay chat I'm getting tired I'm gonna wrap it up there thank you so much for joining me for this deep dive into what JK Rowling did that was transphobic in 2023 you will be able to access the rest of the series as I say on my patreon otherwise wait till next week and we will be covering 2024 which is a huge year actually so get excited about that guess in the comments who you think I'm going to be if you haven't worked out already and please do let me know who you think I am this week I think this one is a little bit harder actually um we're rocking a ponytail for the first time in a long time and oh we're trying to be goth how how is the goth is it is it coming across goth or is it failing you let me know let me know how I did and thank you for watching the end I love you all so much take care of yourselves and I will see you in the next one