J.K. Rowling calls Emma Watson ignorant amid trans rights debate
Emma Watson recently said she still loves Harry Potter author JK Rowling and refuses to "cancel her out", despite Rowling's controversial gender identity statements. The Harry Potter author had a lot to say about Emma, saying people shouldn't be "cosying up" to a political movement "that regularly calls for a friend's assassination," before asserting their right to the former friend's love.
J.K. Rowling criticises Emma Watson after actress says she still “loves” her despite gender identity row
In a recent X post, JK Rowling said that even though she does not expect any actor who played her character to agree with her forever, but she is ready to exercise her right to disagree with Emma and discuss her feelings.
This comes after a new interview, where Emma Watson said that she hopes to keep loving people who I don't necessarily share the same opinion with.
"Emma and Dan 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. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created," Rowling wrote, and added that its tough to shake off her protectiveness for those she knew for so long.
J.K. Rowling said that when threats against her were at their worst and she was deeply concerned for her family’s safety, Emma Watson had made public remarks that she felt only added fuel to the fire. Rowling explained that, despite this, Emma sent her a handwritten note saying she was sorry for what Rowling was going through.
She believed the gesture was undermined by the fact that Emma had just contributed to intensifying the hostility against her. She suggested that Emma’s privileged background meant she lacked an understanding of the real-life consequences such positions could have on women without similar advantages.
"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," JK Rowling wrote, adding that the Hermoine star would likely never need a homeless shelter or use a public bathroom.
"Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison? I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous," she added.