J.K. Rowling goes to Twitter to criticize aggressive messages to women
by Ana Carolina Aguiar[borda1]http://cdn.potterish.com/wp-content/2016/04/21110533/rowling-robert-not%C3%ADcias-capa.jpg[meio]It is not unusual for J.K. Rowling to use her account on Twitter not only to talk about her work and to reply fans, but also to discuss politics, economics and social issues. This Friday, the 9th, Rowling was again on the spot when she opposed the words that are generally used to criticize women, specially those who are public figures.
Followed by a tweet made by a man she used to follow, in which he calls British Prime Minister Theresa May a “whore”, Rowling wrote a series of fourteen tweets, to discuss the matter.
To read the Tweets the author wrote, keep reading this post.
Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore. 1/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
If you can’t disagree with a woman without reaching for all those filthy old insults, screw you and your politics. 2/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
I’m sick of ‘liberal’ men whose mask slips every time a woman displeases them, who reach immediately for crude and humiliating words 3/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
associated with femaleness, act like old-school misogynists and then preen themselves as though they’ve been brave. 4/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
When you do this, Mr Liberal Cool Guy, you ally yourself, wittingly or not, with the men who send women violent pornographic images 5/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
and rape threats, who try by every means possible to intimidate women out of politics and public spaces, both real and digital. 6/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
‘Cunt’, ‘whore’ and, naturally, rape. We’re too ugly to rape, or we need raping, or we need raping and killing. 7/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
Every woman I know who has dared express an opinion publically has endured this kind of abuse at least once, 8/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
rooted in an apparent determination to humiliate or intimidate her on the basis that she is female. 9/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
If you want to know how much fouler it gets if you also happen to be black or gay, ask Diane Abbot or Ruth Davidson. 10/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
I don’t care whether we’re talking about Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon or Kate Hooey or Yvette Cooper or Hillary Clinton: 11/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
femaleness is not a design flaw. If your immediate response to a woman who displeases you 12/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
is to call her a synonym for her vulva, or compare her to a prostitute, then drop the pretence and own it: you’re not a liberal. 13/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
You’re a few short steps away from some guy hiding behind a cartoon frog. 14/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) 9 de junho de 2017
Many people joined the discussion by sharing stories about personal experiences with the kind of men she described, or situations of prejudice against minorities.
Rowling’s speech reminds us that a real politic debate is based on good arguments and respect, and are not related with gender, race, religion or sexual orientation. After all, quoting Albus Dumbledore: “Words are, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.”. It is then imperative that we choose them very carefully.
