From Leftist Icon To Pariah: The Journey Of J.K. Rowling

The Harry Potter series is one of the biggest franchises in the world. There’s a good chance you’ve probably either read the books, seen the movies, played the video games, or even visited Hogwarts in “real life”. In fact, with over 500 million copies sold, the Harry Potter franchise is the best-selling fiction book series in history. But if there’s one thing we know, in 2022, nothing is safe or sacred from the Left. And no one learned that harder than the famed writer of the beloved series, J.K. Rowling.

Originally, perhaps no one was more surprised by the franchise’s popularity than the author herself. Rowling’s early life as an author didn’t reap much success; while writing the first Harry Potter book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, she lived off government welfare in a tiny apartment in London. When sent to publishers in 1995, Rowling’s work was widely rejected, until one small publisher picked up her book in 1997. Almost overnight, her books were a colossal success. 

Over the years that followed, Rowling was almost as active politically as she was artistically. She became well known for her Leftist views, donated millions to Britain’s Labour Party and spoke regularly about the role that government should play in expanding welfare and other traditionally liberal policies. She became vocal about being a self-proclaimed feminist, LGBT advocate, and regularly spoke out about “systemic racism”. You can probably guess how she feels about Trump. She has referred to him as a fascist, a bigot, a giant orange egg, even as the main antagonist of her book series, Voldemort himself (or as the characters refer to him — he who’s name shall not be spoken). Conversely, she praised Hillary Clinton during the election as “a highly intelligent, experienced woman” and spent the entirety of Trump’s presidency decrying his every move, wishing for a “Clinton” or “Obama” in the White House. 

Her political views have certainly carried over to her books. Rowling has been infamous for retroactively changing certain parts of the Harry Potter books months or even years after they were published. Apparently, Dumbledore was gay this entire time – how could we have missed that? And Hermione? She was actually black, despite virtually no reference to her skin color or race in the books. Thankfully, according to Rowling, you won’t have to worry about tuition fees at Hogwarts – because the Ministry of Magic is happy to pay off your student loans for you. It sounds like Rowling’s reworked wizarding world was actually quite the progressive paradise. 

So why then, if Rowling is such a die-hard Leftist, would the Left try and cancel her? It would seem obvious that they would want someone with such influence on their side, but remember; to be a true Leftist you can’t commit halfway; it’s all or nothing. If you do not fully commit – if you’re even missing 1% of the Leftist ideology in your playbook – then not only are you not with the Left, but actively against it. And J.K. Rowling made the unforgivable mistake of disagreeing with the Left on one of their most hallowed issues: transgenderism.

In December of 2019, Rowling took to Twitter to support a researcher who had been recently fired for “transphobic” comments. Well, that’s the word the media is using; in reality, the researcher had opposed legislation that would allow people to choose their gender legally without undergoing a medical procedure. Rowling expressed disdain over the firing while trying to appeal to the Left in the process, but it was futile. The second she showed even an ounce of disapproval to the Left – especially to the trans community – she became a target. At the time, the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD “heroically” condemned Rowling’s hateful, “anti-science” tweet, and have since accused her of “distorting the facts.”

But where you might expect her to cower before the mob — like so many before her — Rowling refused. She didn’t apologize for the tweet. In fact, she doubled down on her statements in June 2020 when devex.com released a headline titled “Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate”. Rowling was not a fan of the headline. “‘People who menstruate?’ You mean, a human female? A woman?” Shortly after, she tweeted that pretending sex and gender are fluid will lead to the erasure of women; she expressed dispirit with the trans community, a community she said she had allied herself with for decades. In the same tweet thread, she said she respects “every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them” but that she wasn’t willing to conceive the truth fully. She took to her website to describe the “toxicity” she was receiving from the LGBT community, wishing only to be left alone. 

Of course, that wasn’t going to stop the Left from showing up at Rowling’s door with pitchforks. Fans and the media alike were outraged. Many were pressing people to stop reading Rowling’s comments altogether to avoid the “far-right language” and “pure hate”. The media began running headlines bashing Rowling over her remarks while conveniently leaving out that she agrees with the other 99% of their views. 

The stars of the Harry Potter movies were quick to virtue signal from their ivory towers as well. Daniel Radcliffe, a man who’s amassed a fortune thanks to Rowling’s creative endeavors, bravely proclaimed “transgender women are women” and apologized to the poor souls who felt their book reading experience was “tarnished”. Emma Watson, likewise a household name thanks to Rowling, told her trans followers that she respects them and sees them before issuing a #PRIDE2020 hashtag. Eddie Redmayne, who plays the main protagonist in the spinoff Fantastic Beats franchise, wanted to make it “absolutely clear where he stands”, which is that Rowling is wrong, and trans women are women, trans men are men – you get the idea. 

Warner Bro’s jumped on the dogpile too. In July of 2020, they released a statement promising that diversity and inclusion had never been more important to them, and gave the usual talking points about “fostering empathy and advocating understanding”. 

But Rowling never backed down. She never apologized for her statements. She still today talks about protecting real women’s rights and drawing the line between trans women and women. 

It’s fairly ironic that Rowling, by any standard, is a Leftist. Most of her tweets read like they were written by DNC operatives, and she still regularly advocates for Democrats and against Republicans. But this isn’t enough for the Left. 

No matter how far Left you are — or have been your entire professional career — intersectionality demands total adherence to the whims of the outrage mob. 

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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