Mick Hartley

Yes, she's getting tougher:

Labour giving the same energy as a man who's been shagging a woman from work but thinks his wife should be cool about it because he's always put the bins out.https://t.co/7xF8KpetlJ

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 23, 2024

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James Kirkup in the Spectator:

When I used to write a lot about sex and gender issues, I would frequently call for moderate and temperate debate, based on evidence rather than emotion. I haven’t changed my views on that.

I have, however, changed my view of J.K. Rowling. I used to think she was great, an admirable figure doing some good in a debate that badly needed strong, clear voices.

I no longer think that about her.

I now think she’s even better than that.

This isn’t a column about Rowling’s views on sex and gender. It’s about her anger and her refusal, her unflinching, unapologetic and utterly glorious refusal to be kind….

Surely as a famous woman known to millions she should embody the womanly virtues of warmth and generosity? What sort of example is she setting to little girls in unicorn T-shirts by telling men who disagree with her to shove off? Why can’t she just be kind instead?

‘It makes me really sad, ultimately, because I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic,’ actor Daniel Radcliffe said recently of Rowling. ‘Empathic’ (able to understand and share the feelings of others) being a posh way of saying ‘kind,’ of course.

There is powerful voodoo around ‘be kind’ because, frankly, who wants to be seen as unkind? As a man, I’m not subject to that cultural norm of niceness, but I still thought long and hard about writing this column, because it risks casting me as someone who defends nastiness and praises anger. But in the end, some things are more important than being nice. Telling the truth is one of them.

And the truth is that J.K. Rowling, in her unapologetic, sometimes sweary glory, deserves even more praise and admiration than the world has already shown her. She’s not just taking on bad arguments for bad policies, she’s fighting even bigger and badder things – the cultural and social expectations that put girls into stupid pink T-shirts and the mental shackles of being ‘kind’.