Top all-time · #5002
J.K. Rowling
Personal blog · jkrowling.com/opinionspoliticsculture
J.K. Rowling's personal blog at jkrowling.com covers politics and culture. Since 2008, 16 different Hacker News readers have linked it 20 times, most often “Reasons for Speaking Out on Sex and Gender Issues (2020)”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked as primary sources for J.K. Rowling's essays and statements on sex, gender identity and trans rights. Commenters cite them while debating her views on the topic.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Official website of J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books, Robert Galbraith crime novels and other works for readers worldwide.
Most-linked posts?
- Reasons for Speaking Out on Sex and Gender Issues (2020)12 people · 14 mentions · first linked 2020-07-10
What Hacker News says?
It changed my mind because what I thought was a strawman is actually what some large group turned out to be arguing. Initially, I thought people were arguing that despite biological sex, there is a subset of people that feel like they should be the opposite gender (or a lot of variance within that) and work towards making that a reality. They still recognized the biological distinction though and that the groups wer…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Heresy”Submitted Reasons for Speaking Out on Sex and Gender Issues (2020) as a story · 61 points
HN discussionDavid Shor’s firing is the common example since it’s the most egregious case (getting fired for retweeting a black professor's paper arguing riots are bad for black political movements). See: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/stop-firin... Nastiness directed at JK Rowling and Jesse Singal because of trans stuff [0][1]. I’d add Bari Weiss to this list too. [2] If the mob could destroy these people and…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Heresy”PG's essay that article is talking about: http://paulgraham.com/conformism.html (disclosure: I thought it was good). The current affairs article was extremely tedious, whatever good point they might have made was hurt by its self-assured hostile tone and personal attacks (basically an example of the kind of thing PG's essay was talking about). There are a few essays that get into the weeds and give more explicit exa…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “The Truth Is Paywalled but the Lies Are Free”She explained her purpose in a longer blog post ( https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... ). She thinks (and I tend to agree) that phrases like "people who menstruate" are terribly degrading, and emphasizes at length that "trans rights are human rights". She does also have some concerns about trans women in women-only spaces, but depending on which polls you read, either a slim majority or la…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Orthodox Privilege”I'm not here to argue the merits of JK Rowlings' statement but I do think you're vastly overestimating your group if you think "most of modern society" is on your side in this subject. I've read (one of) JK Rowlings' latest blog entries, and while I don't personally agree with her statements they seemed far, far more reasonable and debatable than what the internet made of it. The internet made it seem like she was g…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Orthodox Privilege”https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/my-article-for-the-sunday... https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/my-article-for-the-times-... I recommend reading these if you haven't already.
Comment linking /opinions/my-article-for-the-times-on-the-women-who-wouldnt-wheesht-and-labours-policies-on-womens-rights-ahead-of-the-general-election
on “Dilbert creator Scott Adams says he will die soon from same cancer as Joe Biden”> Rowling's views are not 'dated' (that's your opinion) They are. Bigotry is not static. It's a dynamic reaction to progress being made in the rest of society. Her views are not a reaction to fringe whackjobs on twitter screaming for some rights that the rest of society is not willing to give them. Her views are a reaction to changes in government policy that do not happen overnight, are themselves a result of decad…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab”Do you think it would be "illiberal" to hound someone for believing that white people are inherently superior to black people? To keep things in context, JK Rowling has stated that she believes that biologically male people are inherently a danger to biologically female people. This is fundamentally the paradox of tolerance: is it intolerant to be hostile to intolerant beliefs? JK Rowling's essay explaining her stan…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Mark in the Middle”“I believe the majority of trans-identified people not only pose zero threat to others, but are vulnerable for all the reasons I’ve outlined. Trans people need and deserve protection. Like women, they’re most likely to be killed by sexual partners. Trans women who work in the sex industry, particularly trans women of colour, are at particular risk. Like every other domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor I know,…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Blog Anonymously”The recent opinion essay she wrote: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... A rebuttal of that essay with citations: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1270787941275762689.html And an article talking about the banning of the hate subreddit r/gendercritical: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/29/reddit-bann-transphobi...
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Blog Anonymously”https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... https://medium.com/@briehanrahan/a-reasonable-persons-guide-... and a post talking about issues One of the most blatant I'd call out is "studies have consistently shown that between 60-90% of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria". That's is a horribly inaccurate statement on par with "vaccines cause autism" and someone that believes i…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “You can’t buy one square foot of land in Scotland and become a Scottish lord”Like okay, it's all public. The essay: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... The law: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/j-k-row... More the law: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/06/jk-rowling-transphobic-tra... Her support of the LBG alliance: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1518542559089512448 The LGB alliance supporting her: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/10/21/lgb…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “You can’t buy one square foot of land in Scotland and become a Scottish lord”The thing about Cocoa accessibility is that Apple does that all in-house. All the universal access tools and Voiceover (the screenreader) are theirs, plus they're the ones working on Cocoa. Almost nobody else has anything like it..there are a couple of third party tools I can think of, but nothing like what comes built in. On the other hand, Windows has the support of all the big names ( cough freedom scientific) bu…
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on “Gmail just became really good”I’m not actively following the saga, but that seems like a gross mischaracterisation in all directions. I haven’t seen anyone seriously call her a Nazi¹ and her comments aren’t harmless either. ¹ Though I wouldn’t be surprised if it has happened. But then again that’s not saying much on the internet. Doing a cursory search, I found a post² on her own website where she complains someone said she has “uphold [Nazi] id…
Comment linking /opinions/statement-from-j-k-rowling-14th-march-2024/
on “Preserving Fisher-Price Pixter”I mean, she literally is a TERF. https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-... Also, Oxfam have explicitly said that it's not Rowling. It's actually just a cartoon of a white (well, pink) woman with red hair.
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Oxfam Demonizes J. K. Rowling, Branding Her as a “terf””The rules of modern virtue and values and morals are being written by school kids in public schools funded by the adult tax payers they hate. Also women can now be called menstruators’ or ‘persons with vulvas’. (Serious..not being facetious) You could be a TERF. I just found out about it. Pasting what I posted elsewhere: [..] Apparently there is a name for her. TERF. [..] If you didn’t already know – and why should…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/
on “Ask HN: Social media disabling dissenting views”I know the subreddits you're referring to (which now exist off-site), and that wasn't my experience of them. I considered these to be a supportful space for people, mostly women, to discuss and critique this recent ideological shift towards women and men being redefined as a 'gender identity' rather than a material biological reality, and the harmful effects this belief system has when implemented in law and policy.…
Comment linking /opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues
on “She got famous on YouTube. Now it helps fund her research in quantum gravity”
