‘That’s despicable!’ Huge JK Rowling row erupts on GB News as guest says Harry Potter author has been ‘radicalised’
Author JK Rowling sparked a bitter row on GB News following Sir Stephen Fry’s claims that the Harry Potter creator has become “radicalised” in her views on trans rights.
Fry, who voiced all seven of the Harry Potter audio books, told The Show People podcast that JK Rowling is now a “lost cause” after being “radicalised by terfs”.
He stated: “It is unhelpful and only hardens her and will only continue to harden her I am afraid.”
Debating JK Rowling’s views on GB News, spokesperson for Sex Matters Fiona McAnena argued that there is “nothing radical about believing that men and women are material realities”.
In complete disagreement with McAnena, political commentator James Matthewson claimed that Rowling adopts a “very cruel manner” when speaking about trans people and agreed with Fry’s belief the author has been ‘radicalised’.
Delivering her verdict on Rowling, McAnena stated: “It’s extraordinarily patronising to suggest that a woman who’s created whole new magical worlds from her own imagination has to be radicalised by other people in order to form her own views.
“There’s nothing radical about believing that men and women are material realities. And sometimes in law, in policy, in life that matters. It’s a majority position, there’s nothing radical about it.”
Hitting back at McAnena, Matthewson argued: “In my opinion, she is radicalised. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen with JK Rowling is a pretty sad story. People of my generation were hugely impacted by the Harry Potter books and the films, and JK Rowling could have done so much more.
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“She could have been so much better for our generation I’m afraid. You say it’s the majority view, but not in my generation, because she’s completely let down everybody who supported those books and who supported her.”
Asked by host Nana Akua what specifically JK Rowling has done to the transgender community, Matthewson stated: “It’s the complete disdain in which she’s mocked and she’s come about in a very cruel manner when she talks about trans people.
“She started with what we call gender-critical views, but has just gone rapidly down this pipeline of so-called terfs, whatever you want to call them.”
Nana interjected to highlight that a ‘terf’ is “a reference to someone like me who believes in biological reality, and someone like Fiona”. Asking the political commentator if he believes a “woman can become a man”, he agreed, telling GB News: “Yes they can, because man and woman are gendered, and there is male and female, which is sex.
“This is the problem that I think a lot of you have, unfortunately. Sex is a scientific reality. You’ve got male and female, and then you’ve got gender, which are social constructs. Gender is a social construct, so that is an entirely separate issue.”
Noting the issue of women’s rights in the trans debate, Matthewson told the panel: “I believe in women’s safety, but the problem here is we are focusing on an absolute minority of people who have no threat to women.”
Nana furiously hit back at Matthewson, stating: “The threat to women isn’t necessarily that small minority, the threat to women is women losing their rights as women for single sex spaces. Because as you said yourself, that it is a biological reality. And whether a man dresses up as a woman or not, a man is still a man.”
Matthewson then exclaimed: “This is the whole problem, you say a man dressing up as a woman, That’s despicable Nana! That is not the reality. Do you have any trans friends? Do you mix with trans people?”
Nana confirmed: “I have plenty of trans friends, I have mixed with trans people, and I mix with all people.”