Harry Potter author JK Rowling has responded to Emma Watson’s recent remarks about their rift over transgender rights, saying the actor is “ignorant of how ignorant she is”.
Rowling’s post comes after a podcast interview with Watson, in which the latter said: “I really don’t believe that … holding the love and support and views that I have, mean[s] that I can’t and don’t treasure Jo and the person that I had personal experiences with.”
In a lengthy post, Rowling writes: “Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn’t want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.”
She adds: “However, Emma and Dan [Radcliffe] in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right – nay, obligation – to critique me and my views in public.”
Watson, along with Harry Potter co-stars Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, has previously taken issue with the author’s gender critical beliefs. She responded to Rowling’s essay about the need for single-sex spaces due to the threat of violence against women by tweeting in 2020: “Trans people are who they say they are and deserve to live their lives without being constantly questioned or told they aren’t who they say they are.” And Watson pointedly said “I’m here for all of the witches” in a speech at the 2022 Bafta film awards.
In her post, Rowling says she has “repeatedly declined invitations” to comment on Watson’s views, as she “didn’t want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said”, and describes a note she was given from Watson, following her 2022 Baftas remarks. “This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family’s safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.”
Rowling added: “Like other people who’ve never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she’s ignorant of how ignorant she is … I wasn’t a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women’s rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.”
Rowling had earlier indicated that she was unprepared to forgive Watson and Radcliffe for having “cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights”.
