The Uneducation of J.K. Rowling

 In late December, 2019, I became aware of J.K. Rowling's bizarre "Sleep with any consenting adult who'll have you" Tweet, which marked, for me at least, the beginning of the Harry Potter author's rebranding as an irrational transphobe and hatemonger. In the annals of fandom, there had never been a case of an author so completely contradicting the core ethos and popular appeal of her work (i.e., don't listen to the grown-ups who want you to conform and tell you that you are a freak and should be ashamed; what is special about you is the source of your power, a power that just might save the world) in such few words.

At the time, I remarked on Facebook that the author had just lost as much support as would make ten other authors into bestsellers. While others have tried to view these events through the prism of "cancel culture," I continue to see the phenomenon as one occurring between an author and the fandom that made her who she is.

In the intervening three and a half years, Rowling has gone from the most beloved author anyone could name to absolutely reviled by her fiercest and earliest adopters. I worked at a Borders in the early 2000s, and I can't imagine any of my coworkers -- nearly all Potterheads who pushed the book out of the kids section, turning it into a literary juggernaut read by all literate customers of any age -- supporting her now.

In fact, everyone I know who admired Rowling prior to 2020 feels personally betrayed by her, embarrassed by her uneducated ignorance and ingrateful arrogance, and desirous to change the subject at all costs to anything but Harry Potter. Admittedly, I don't know the grandmas who may still buy Harry Potter as gifts for her grandchildren -- in fact, because of my own professional engagement as a professional cartoonist and later an academic, I know mostly high-end fans -- superspreaders of Harry Potter in the past, but now silent or passive-aggressive when it comes to the IP now.

 Indeed, I only know scholars and academics who wrote papers on Harry Potter and taught YA lit or creative writing classes involving the books; aspiring creative writers and professionals in the book trade who read tons of fantasy, SF, and YA; fans who organize HP gatherings, publishing professionals, and the like. All of these that I've polled since 2020 have emphatically turned against Rowling, only to be replaced by a parade of right-wing kooks that would embarrass H.P. Lovecraft to have on his side.

Again, because of my lifelong involvement in cartooning, I've been long familiar with the fandoms of Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, numerous SF and fantasy authors, and the like. No fandom anywhere at any time has ever experienced anything like what has befallen poor Harry Potter. Rowling has moved from a much-admired icon of the left to fully a right-wing icon; her most vocal, best-educated, most articulated supporters have fled her entirely; her only defenders are inarticulate right-wingers who show little indication of having read her books.

Reportedly, Rowling claims 90% of Harry Potter fans still support her. A 10% drop may be true in the UK, although that seems doubtful; in America, I hardly think a 40% drop an exaggeration. Whatever the number of fans who have forsaken the author, it most assuredly comes off the top: her best and brightest fans have disappeared.

In America, that is catastrophic for an IP the author herself has purposefully starved of new material, and one wonders how much of her stance -- both her transphobic views as well as her arrogant pronouncement concerning royalty checks, champagne, and the like -- are a kind of adolescent rebellion against an IP and a fandom to whom she owes too much.

There is little doubt that her forays into "serious literature" and BBC detective boilerplate have had little impact in the American market. And she has not yet reached that moment, like Arthur Conan Doyle, who recanted concerning the death of Sherlock Holmes, or Leonard Nimoy, who wrote a book entitled I Am Not Spock before going on to portray the character in no less that eight major motion pictures, in which she must humbly admit that Harry Potter is bigger --and more important -- than Jo Rowling.

She may never reach that moment. Or, if she does, it will come too late. All available evidence is that her reputation is permanently tarnished -- despite an unprecedented damage control campaign coordinated by her licensing partners, as well as the "E.J. Rossetta" stunt and Megan Phelps-Roper podcast -- widely viewed with tremendous cynicism if not outright inside jobs that are part-and-parcel with those damage control efforts.

What you will never hear anyone claim is that the author elected to make her views known in the smartest way possible. She could have easily composed a non-fiction book on her gender views -- if she had been educated in the mysteries of research and documenting your sources, composing footnotes, and the like. Instead, she elected to shoot from the hip an endless profusion of scattershot, snarky, Trumpian Tweets that have made it impossible for any of her most educated and thoughtful fans I alluded to above to remain on her side. She is just a colossal embarrassment, and at best, an object of pity -- a damaged person who has neglected her mental well-being and had nobody to tell her "no" for far too long.

A J.K. Rowling Transphobia Primer.

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