FUCK FUCK YOU, YOU,
JOANNE. JOANNE. JK ROWLING AND THE DOWNFALL OF THE FEMALE ROLE MODEL.
Words by Louise Jackson Trigger warnings: transphobia, domestic violence
THE ORIGINAL ORIGINAL SINS SINS THE
At the tender age of eight, I took my first step into the wizarding world. I was hooked. Like so many before me, I was swept away by friendship and found family and flubberworms. The magic was never really the literal magic. JK Rowling was my hero, a woman who defied the odds to tell a story of good triumphing over evil. However, over the last twelve years, I’ve come to hate her. I admit that for many years, the original sins went right over my cis-white head. Cho Chang, one of the few characters of colour, has a thoughtless and ambiguous Asian name. The goblins are an antisemitic stereotype. Werewolves were allegedly an allegory for the AIDS epidemic. Houselves are willing slaves and Hermione’s crusade for their rights is made the butt of the joke. Female characters experience, and don’t question, a deeply patriarchal world. Even before the transphobia, Rowling’s Twitter 81
