K. Rowling’s new novel Troubled Blood takes another distasteful shot at the transgender community to bring her trans-exclusionary ideas to the bookstores.
Under Rowling’s crime-writing pseudonym Robert Galbraith, Troubled Blood features a cisgender man who dresses femininely in order to kill female victims. While this may seem like an innocent or even exciting serial killer plot, we cannot look past Rowling’s past transphobic comments and how this further allows her to demonize trans-women especially.
This was not the first time making trans-women out to be dangerous. In her 2014 novel The Silkworm, Rowling writes about an aggressive woman who later reveals she is a transgender. Readers have noted how when talking about this character, Rowling uses objectifying language and rhetoric that mimics common arguments for transphobia.
Most recently, Rowling has been called out on Twitter multiple times for transphobic comments.
In December 2019, Rowling tweeted with the hashtag “#IStandWithMaya” in support of Maya Forestar, a former tax expert working at The Central London Employment Tribunal. Forestar was fired from her job after claiming trans-women should not be considered women and believe they are just men who are trying to fit into women’s spaces.
On June 6th, 2020, she quote tweeted a post to an article titled “Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate,” taking issue with the phrase “people who menstruate.” She said in her tweet, “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” Her comments were called out for disregarding the transgender men who still have periods, non-binary people, and transgender women who do not have ovaries to menstruate.
On June 10th, Rowling released an essay claiming she would be a trans-man if she was born 30 years earlier because of the misogyny and sexism she has faced. Her comments denounced biological females who transitioned to become a man solely for the purpose to not have to deal with the misogyny. Later in her essay, she made similar comments to Forestar, saying her single-sex spaces were being intruded by men who want to be women.
Rowling preceded to tweet on July 5th in support of a woman who briefly identified as a transgender man. The woman claimed hormone treatment is similar to those with mental illness taking medication, describing it as “laziness”. Rowling continued further to compare forced gay conversion therapy to voluntary hormone treatment despite hormone treatment being known by scientists to help reduce dysphoria and saving the lives of transgender people.
These comments all encompass one idea: she does not believe trans-people should be allowed to identify as the gender they believe they are. Troubled Blood is a reflection of her statements quite literally. Her beliefs and actions of standing by those who believe trans-women are men who want to play dress-up is reflected in a character who is literally a man who plays dress-up.
By making this man the killer, Rowling is insinuating transwomen are dangerous. As seen through her comments about feeling her women-only safe spaces are being intruded by men, she is perpetuating the idea that transwomen are out to harm others. While this is really the opposite of the truth as trans-women are large targets of hate crimes, she continues to perpetuate these harmful ideologies.
K. Rowling’s continuous transphobic comments need to be taken into account when talking about Troubled Blood. Her continuous demonization of trans-woman, especially in this book, is harmful to the transgender community and should not be celebrated.