JK Rowling has every right to call a man a man
No, the Harry Potter author didn’t ‘bully’ that wig-wearing football manager.
Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter.
Want to read spiked ad-free? Become a spiked supporter.
Once again, it has fallen to the bestselling author of children’s fantasy novels to give the rest of the adult world a reality check. JK Rowling is back in the news because she dared to refer to a man as a man.
At the weekend, LGBT organisation Pride posted on X to celebrate 51-year-old Lucy Clark becoming ‘the first trans manager in the top five division of English women’s football’. Clark also holds the somewhat niche accomplishment of being the world’s first openly trans football referee. Attached to the post was a picture of Clark. It showed a bulky man in a costume-shop wig and padded bra.
Responding to the X post, Rowling, the Harry Potter author and bête noire of the trans movement, sarcastically quipped: ‘When I was young all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it’s fantastic to see how much things have changed.’
Pride then swiftly deleted not only the tweet in question, but also its entire account on X, presumably out of embarrassment.
PrideUKOrg has DELETED the viral post of stunning & brave ‘lesbian’ referee ‘Lucy Clark’.
It’s archived here:https://t.co/6b05qyAXpo pic.twitter.com/UbyoHyvhxk
— Gender Receipts (@GenderReceipts) May 12, 2024
Trans activists online were quick to denounce Rowling for her supposed ‘cruelty’ and ‘bullying’ of Clark. Even some anti-PC liberals got involved. New York magazine writer Jonathan Chait chimed in to scold her. ‘Just call people what they want to be called’, he said. ‘It’s basic decency.’ Clark himself even responded, complaining of ‘another day of hate-fuelled transphobia against me’.
But was Rowling really being a bully? After all, she was simply telling the truth. Clark, who has a wife and child and who began his transition in 2018, is simply not a woman. As his photo clearly shows.
As Rowling has rightly pointed out, ‘Crossdressing straight men are currently one of the most pandered-to demographics in existence, and women are under no obligation to applaud the people caricaturing us’. We must all have the right to call a man a man.
Lauren Smith is a staff writer at spiked.
Picture by: Getty.
To enquire about republishing spiked’s content, a right to reply or to request a correction, please contact the managing editor, Viv Regan.
Comments
Want to join the conversation?
Only spiked supporters and patrons, who donate regularly to us, can comment on our articles.