Products You May Like
Ralph Fiennes, the actor who played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter films, claims that the recent fan backlash against J.K. Rowling is disturbing. His comments refer to criticism that Rowling faced following tweets from mid-2020, when the author made some controversial claims about the relationship between biological sex and gender identity. The tweets sparked an outcry among her followers, causing her, and by affiliation, the series, to lose fans.
Rowling’s transphobic controversy began with a liked tweet in 2018 that referred to trans women as “men in dresses“. However, the author received much more backlash in June of 2020, when she posted a series of tweets criticizing an article headline for using the trans-inclusive term ”people who menstruate” instead of “women“. She followed up the tweet with a thread defending her claims, saying that the conversation surrounding gender identity erases the shared reality of women. The transphobic implications of these statements, that trans women and men are not “real” women and men on a matter of biology, were the driving force behind the outcry.
Click the button below to start this article in quick view.
According to IndieWire, Fiennes claims that fan backlash against Rowling in the wake of her statements was irrational. He also makes allusions to cancel culture in his statement, claiming that we are in an “age of accusation.” See his full statement below:
I can’t understand the vitriol directed at her. I can understand the heat of an argument, but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational. I find the level of hatred that people express about views that differ from theirs, and the violence of language towards others, disturbing.
Fiennes’ defensive statement stands in opposition to several of the Harry Potter actors’ opinions on the matter, many of whom took to their own social medias to stand up for the trans community. In the wake of controversy, Daniel Radcliffe published an open letter led with “transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people“. Other stars including Emma Watson (Hermione), Rupert Grint (Ron), and Katie Leung (Cho Chang) voiced similar sentiments in defense of the trans community.
Despite taking a stance against “the need to condemn” in his statement, Fiennes was quick to label the outcry against Rowling as being a product of cancel culture, indicating there is a lack of understanding on his end about why fans are so upset by the tweets. Many simply wish that Rowling would apologize to the trans community for the statements, yet she instead continued to defend them after the outcry. Ultimately, by defending Rowling in his statement and accusing those upset of being irrational, Fiennes may see similar backlash from Harry Potter fans.
Source: IndieWire
Key Release Dates
- Fantastic Beasts 3 (2022)Release date: Jul 15, 2022
About The Author