When it comes to legendary authors, they don’t come much bigger than Stephen King who has created more iconic stories and characters than most writers could ever dream of.
Well, woe betide you disagree with JK Rowling as she continues to double down on her harmful and downright irresponsible views and depictions of trans women. Stephen King did however and, by his reckoning, he was promptly ‘cancelled’ by the Harry Potter creator and Voldemort’s new wife.
Ignorance is bliss I guess and what better way to ignore someone than to block them *eye rolls for days*
Talking to the The Daily Beast, King said: “Jo cancelled me. She sorta blocked me and all that. Here’s the thing: She is welcome to her opinion. That’s the way that the world works.”
He continued: “If she thinks that trans women are dangerous, or that trans women are somehow not women, or whatever problem she has with it – the idea that someone ‘masquerading’ as a woman is going to assault a ‘real’ woman in the toilet – if she believes all those things, she has a right to her opinion.”
King certainly wasn’t going to stop there, going on to say: “And then someone tweeted at me, ‘Do you think trans women are women?’ and I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ And that’s what she got angry about – my opinion. It’s like the old saying, ‘I don’t agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ So, nobody has ‘cancelled’ JK Rowling. She’s doing fine. I just felt that her belief was, in my opinion, wrong. We have differing opinions, but that’s life.”
Stephen went on to put things into something of a more political perspective, adding: “She was very much anti-Brexit and very much anti-Trump. She’s on the side of the angels in most respects, but she does have this one thing that she’s very vehement about. No doubt.”
We weren’t sure we could love Stephen King any more than we already did… until now. Why is it that people would rather block a person that doesn’t agree with them rather than engage in a debate that could be beneficial to both parties? Why hasn’t JK Rowling sat down with a trans woman ON CAMERA and discussed why she holds these views and if she’s willing to budge or at least listen to some actual facts? She owes her fans that much at the VERY least.
For now, we’ll be catching Apple+’s adaptation of King’s 2006 novel Lisey’s Story which drops on June 4 starring Juliane Moore rather than watching any of Rowling’s tepid output since Hogwarts became bigger than her narrow-minded views.