J.K Rowling Reveals She Is A Survivor Of Domestic Abuse And Sexual Assault
J.K Rowling | Evening Standard
J.K Rowling, the author of “Harry Potter” yesterday revealed that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault.
She made this known in a blog post to give context to her controversial past comments about transgender women.
Last weekend, Rowling faced backlash for her tweet about “people who menstruate.” She wrote:
“I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”
This is not the first time she is facing backlash for “transphobia” as last December, Rowling expressed support for a woman who had lost her job over what her employer deemed to be “transphobic” tweets.
Addressing the recent backlash, the British writer talked about her troubled past in a 3,95-word essay on gender identity.
She wrote:
“This isn’t an easy piece to write. I’ve been in the public eye now for over twenty years and have never talked publicly about being a domestic abuse and sexual assault survivor. This isn’t because I’m ashamed those things happened to me, but because they’re traumatic to revisit and remember.”
Rowling went on to allege that she has received threats and accusations from trans activists on her Twitter timeline.
“Huge numbers of women are justifiably terrified by the trans activists; I know this because so many have got in touch with me to tell their stories,” she wrote.
The 54-year-old billionaire also said she had spent many years thinking about trans issues because of her own troubles with gender identity when she was young.
“When I read about the theory of gender identity, I remember how mentally sexless I felt in youth. As I didn’t have a realistic possibility of becoming a man back in the 1980s, it had to be books and music that got me through both my mental health issues and the sexualised scrutiny and judgement that sets so many girls to war against their bodies in their teens.”
Rowlings also said she spent a period feeling “ambivalence about being a woman” before learning that “it’s OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are”.
She also argued that “the current explosion of trans activism” has resulted in too many people undergoing gender reassignment surgery without giving it sufficient thought.
“I want to be very clear here: I know transition will be a solution for some gender dysphoric people, although I’m also aware through extensive research that studies have consistently shown that between 60-90 percent of gender dysphoric teens will grow out of their dysphoria.
So I want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make… girls and women less safe. But she also stood up for her right to speak freely about an issue that she said has been with her throughout life. As a much-banned author, I’m interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it, even unto Donald Trump,” she wrote.
Rowling ended her post by affirming that she was “a survivor (and) certainly not a victim”.
“I haven’t written this essay in the hope that anybody will get out a violin for me, not even a teeny-weeny one. I’ve only mentioned my past because, like every other human being on this planet, I have a complex backstory, which shapes my fears, my interests and my opinions.”
Rowling’s books have been banned in parts of the world because of their association in some cultures with witchcraft and the occult.
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