J. K. Rowling’s Exclusionary Feminism
In episode 4 of “The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling” the author expressed her concerns about “male-bodied male[s].”
by Evan Urquhart
The fourth installment of “The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling” represents a turning point. In episodes one and two we learned about Rowling’s rise to fame as the author of the Harry Potter books, and about the first backlash to the books among evangelical Christians who believed they promoted witchcraft. In episode three there was a lengthy digression about Tumblr, positioning Tumblr and 4chan as two sides of one coin. But, with episode four, the series has matured into anti-trans propaganda: the podcast. Rowling herself makes some illuminating comments about her feminism and world-view, and Phelps-Roper and the production team play back-up to Rowling’s opposition to trans rights by speedrunning through a slew of misleading talking points from the anti-trans side.
This is, of course, not how the podcast presents itself, or Rowling. In the world of the podcast Rowling is a feminist righteously concerned with the rights of women. That there is a conflict between the rights of women (cis women) and trans people (trans women) is taken as a given, and the podcast presents itself as neutrally weighing that conflict, all while pressing as hard as it can on Rowling’s side. An interesting tactic, employed repeatedly, is to introduce balance by asking speakers like Helen Lewis and Michelle Goldburg who who have, until that point, been expounding on their concerns about how trans activism is going to far, to briefly summarize the opposing side. These summaries by Lewis and Goldburg are done very slightly better than you would expect, but so briefly you might miss them in a moment of inattention. Although their are brief clips of trans people yelling slogans, and one from a TikTok video by a trans person, no trans person is asked to speak for their side.
Rowling’s feminism is grounded in the biological vulnerability of women and the need for women to be protected from men. But, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s a quote:
Women, by virtue of their biology, are subjected to specific harms, specific pressures, and require certain protections, and that that is inextricably linked with our biology, and we cannot fight for our rights without naming and accurately describing what makes us different from men… My feminism must remain grounded in the sex class and the oppressions my sex class suffer. That’s the basis for our oppression. That’s my understanding of why certain things have happened to me.
A simpler statement of Rowling’s position is that you cannot fight for women’s rights without believing, and saying, that trans men are women, and trans women are men. The episode traces this line of thinking to the feminism of the 1970s, when Rowling was between the ages of 5 and 15. Rowling explains that she has been a feminist and an idealist from a young age, and mentions Germaine Greer, an Australian feminist who has become known for her transphobia and rape-apologism, as one of her early influences.
Rowling doesn’t speak about sports, but the episode pauses to raise trans women in sports as a primary example of the way cis women’s rights and trans acceptence can conflict. They present the story of Lia Thomas, incorrectly portraying Thomas as having dominated women’s swimming while she competed as a trans woman against other women for a year. It includes a clip where Thomas talks about how the natural advantages of some bodies over others is integral to all sports, but does not mention that Thomas only won one of her races in the NCAA final, the 500 free, tying for fifth place in the 200 with Riley Gaines in the second race where she placed. This treatment of Thomas as having dominated in a sport where she holds no world records and won only one major race is typical of the podcast’s approach to every question it raises around transgender rights, an approach which leaves out the kinds of facts which might tend to undermine the narrative that the questions being asked are important, urgent, and sincere.
The episode then goes back to Rowling, who speaks at length about her concerns about the safety of women in gender segregated spaces, which she connects to gender recognition reform. “I was already aware that the activism was arguing for this kind of self-identification. Therefore an entirely male-bodied male can, by self-declaration, become (in inverted commas) a woman. Conceptually, as it were. He’s now conceptually a woman,” Rowling says.
A fair summary of the controversy around gender recognition reform would have to mention that gender recognition certificates are not required for access to any women’s spaces in the UK. A gender recognition certificate’s primary purpose is to allow trans people to change the sex on their birth certificates, which is not a document that is needed for women in the UK to enter any of the spaces Rowling is concerned cis women might be vulnerable to deceptive cis men posing as trans women. This context is not provided by Witch Trials.
Rowling’s own views on single sex spaces are quite extreme. At one point she asks herself, rhetorically, what proof she would need to conclude that her fears are baseless, and trans women could be safely allowed access to women’s spaces. She answers herself that the only proof she’d accept would be if no trans woman had ever once committed an assault on a cisgender woman (she also claims that this is something trans activists have told her is true). This is, of course, not a bar cis women could clear.
After the discussion of women’s spaces, the podcast moves on to Rowling’s concerns about transgender youth. Rowling is fairly cryptic about exactly what those concerns are, but in the past she’s written over a thousand words explaining that she believes many trans boys are really girls, and need to be prevented from transitioning by mistake. Rowling talks around that topic without directly addressing it, saying:
I looked very androgynous at 11 and 12. I had short hair. And I can certainly remember in adolescence feeling acutely anxious- I think this is so common, I, in fact, I think I know more women who have felt it than not- I felt very, very anxious about my changing body. Because, you become aware, it’s attracting scrutiny that you don’t welcome.
The implication, which she has stated more clearly in the past, is that what she’s describing is the same thing as the gender dysphoria experienced by young transmascs, or that the two could easily be confused. There is no evidence of this. The podcast brings on psychologist Erica Anderson to explain that she believes many trans youth are being rushed into medical treatment, and mentions detransitioners, but does not provide anything new or acknowledge any of the evidence that would tend to cast doubt on these claims.
According to Rowling, “Gender dysphoria exists. It causes massive distress. I know it’s real, and I know there will be, I believe, a minority of people for whom this will be a solution. But, in the numbers we’re currently seeing, particularly of young people coming forward, I find cause for doubt. And cause for concern.”
After this speedrun through the misleading claims of centrist reactionaries, the podcast wraps up by explaining at length how terribly trans people treat feminists online. Here, at last, the episode really gets into some details, mentioning the exact meeting where a trans woman assaulted an anti-trans speaker, describing a trans woman who posted a picture of herself with a knife on social media, and really diving in to the nitty-gritty of gender critical grievances of the past 5-10 years. At one point it is briefly mentioned that transgender people also routinely face harassment and abuse online, but this behavior is attributed to the right wing. There is no hint that Rowling might follow people who harass trans women online, or that people harass trans people in Rowling’s mentions and on her behalf, or that Rowling has ever brought a wave of such harassment down on any individual trans woman, or anything like that.
The reality of Witch Trials is one where not only is Rowling never asked to account for online harassment of trans people who have mildly critized her, but that the entire online presence of anti-trans feminism is held blameless and pure. They are “women” speaking their minds, and transgender people are something else. Despite the brief mention of the harassment trans people face, there’s no suggestion that trans people’s speech might be suppressed through this sort of harassment as much (or more) than anyone else’s is. Meanwhile, the actions of trans people online, and only trans people online, are described as “authoritarian” and stifling free speech.
This threat to free speech lies seems to be where this episode’s heart is. It accounts for the lengthiest comments by Rowling, the most detail provided by the host, and even supplemental material from Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times. This is striking because, even with a very anti-trans slant, the part of the podcast where the supposed harms to women are laid out aren’t nearly as lengthy or detailed. The spectre that a man who obtained a gender recognition certificate could assault someone in a bathroom, but there’s no explanation of why such a man would ever bother getting such a certificate before walking right in. There’s the topic of women’s sports, but it only brings up one trans woman swimmer without even going into detail about how many records she broke or which races she won. The question of youth transition is batted around, but by definition that’s nothing to do cis women at all.
In the end, it seems, the biggest threat Rowling believes trans people pose is to speech. And so a large amount of time is spent on the idea that women like Rowling can’t speak, and that Rowling felt she needed to speak up for their sake. Still, somehow, despite finally featuring a ton of the author’s own words, the podcast never really explains what is so desperately important about the things she has to say, unless it’s the part about how “an entirely male-bodied male” can become a woman. Debates are most useful when both sides have something to say. Merely “having the debate” seems like less of a virtue when, on a podcast devoted to airing Rowling’s side at length, there’s so little there.