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'Harry Potter' has been excluded from the list of the 70 most relevant books published during the reinstatement of Elizabeth II, registered on the occasion of the celebration of the Monarch's Platinum Jubilee. Despite sales data and undisputed international success, JK Rowling's saga has been left out of the ranking drawn up by BBC Arts and The Reading Agency, amid controversy over the writer's views on transsexuals. "There was a big discussion about her," acknowledged one of the judges, university professor Susheila Nasta, in an interview with The Times of London.
If the list with the titles of History is consulted, the number of J.
K. Rowling crowds among the highest positions. 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone', the first of the famous saga about the young wizard, is the third best-selling novel of all time, only behind 'A Tale of Two Cities', by Charles Dickens, and 'The Little Prince', by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In the top 20, but in all this third position, the other six titles of the collection appear, the English being the only aura that repeats among the first positions.
The data, of course, support that Rowling could be considered one of the most relevant British novelists -and also worldwide- in recent decades, and in fact, she was among the initial proposals of the readers. The Big Jubilee Read has proposed to publish a list highlighting 70 titles that have been written since Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1952, but have found a difficult stone to get around: JK Rowling.
The writer, born in England in 1965, has reaped one of the sweetest and multimillion-dollar successes in the history of literature, thanks to the golden goose that 'Harry Potter' has meant. seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, spoke of one of the most widely read people on the planet, but also someone very dear. She was so good she was famous that when she was decorated for the Prince of Asturias Awards in 2003, she was in the category of Concord, and not of Letters. However, her views on transgender people have placed her in the public eye.
A trial, a tweet and the loss of public support
This affection that the whole world professed towards her began to evaporate in December 2019, when she publicly endorsed Maya Forstater. This woman, a 45-year-old British citizen, had lost a lawsuit against her former employer after her contract was not renewed due to her allegedly “harmful” comments about transgender people.
According to the court, his views - “men and boys are men. Women and girls are women. It is impossible to change sex”, he stated, they were “absolutist, intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating and offensive”, in the eyes of the 2010 Equality Law.
Rowling, as well as many feminist activists, supported Forstater, leading to a debate that continues to this day. “Dress what you want, call yourself what you want, have consensual relationships with any adult you want, live your life as long as you can, in peace and security, but kicking women out of their jobs for saying sex is real? I'm with Maya," Rowling wrote on Twitter.
Dress how you want.
Call yourself what you want.
Sleep with any adult who accepts you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But forcing women out of their jobs for claiming sex is real? #ImWithMaya#ThisIsNotAHole
— JK Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
Rowling's words opened a ban between those who supported her and those who did not. For some, her comment was a matter of common sense, but for others it was a jug of cold water, with the intention that the author did not support or recognize transsexual people, and labeling her as TERF (trans-radical feminist). exclusive). The controversy has been so strong that Rowling denounced three "transactivists" a few months ago for publishing her home address on the internet.
“Sex is real. Telling the truth is not hate
Since then, Rowling has not avoided this thorny issue, but has continued to give her opinion on it. A few months after that, on June 6, 2020, she criticized that in an article the expression “people who menstruate” is used instead of “women”, initially to include transsexual men. “I'm sure there's a word for that,” she stated wryly.
Later, he wrote several tweets explaining: “If the sex is not real, then there is no same-sex attraction. If it is not real, the reality lived by women globally is eliminated. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex kills our ability to meaningfully discuss our lives. Telling the truth is not hate”, she defended herself. The author went on to state that she has always been supportive of transgender people and that she respected “the right of anyone to live their life in the way that is most authentic and comfortable for them”.
However, many associations in support of transsexual people have singled her out for her words, such as the American NGO Glaad, which described her as "anti-trans" and "cruel", assuring that Rowling "continues to align herself with an ideology that voluntarily distorts the facts about gender identity and trans people.” In fact, such has been the commotion that some Americans tried to reinvent, without Rowling's consent, the universe of 'Harry Potter' in an alternative version with transsexual, nigenas and black characters.
This repercussion has caused Rowling to be excluded from the documentary 'Return to Hogwarts', in the anniversary line of 'Harry Potter', despite the fact that the saga would not exist without her. In fact, several actors in the saga -among them, the three protagonists of it- have publicly disfigured the words of the writer, as well as some fan websites of the saga, such as MuggleNet or The Leaky.
