Today’s quote comes to us from author/Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling
Ms. Rowling has taken extreme offense to comedian/HBO show host John Oliver for his on-air claims that there is no problem with “trans” males competing in women’s sporting events, and his unhappiness with the Kamala Harris campaign not standing strongly for their right to do so.
Said Oliver:
“…it was frustrating to see the Harris campaign fail to formulate a response especially because it’s pretty easy to do. Watch, I’ll do it for you right now. As we’ve discussed before, there are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high schools anywhere, even if there were more trans kids, like all kids, vary in athletic ability and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness…”
And here, via her twitter/X account, is Ms. Rowling’s response:
Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video’s for you. An undoubtedly intelligent person spouts absolute bullshit to support something he wants to be true, but isn’t. According to the UN, female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to trans-identified men competing against them in women’s sporting categories. Girls have been ousted from teams to make way for boys. Women have suffered serious injury playing against trans-identified men (see Payton McNabb, mentioned below).
Again and again I’ve come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points. With a straight face, the ‘believe the science’ guys will say ‘actually, we don’t yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls’. The ‘be kind’ crew can’t see what the issue is. ‘Why are you bothered, it only affects a tiny minority of females?’
To prove to their progressive credentials – and (coincidentally, I’m sure) indemnify themselves against repercussions from cultural elites in the media, academia and publishing who’ve showed themselves more than ready to kick people to the kerb for failing to mouth the approved mantras – people with a lot to lose are currently prepared to make idiots of themselves. They’ll stare unabashedly into a camera and insist that their audiences’ eyeballs are incapable of seeing what’s plain as day, and that there’s something wrong with the great unwashed for believing that girls are being robbed of opportunities and put at physical risk.
If you want to tell the world you’re happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist post-modern ideology embraced by a minute fraction of the world’s population, fair enough; you’re allowed your opinion. But if you’ve just told girls they don’t deserve fair sport, maybe rethink using all too real and common sexual predation against young women as a punchline for your ‘edgy’ closing joke.
J. K. Rowling wins Quote Of The Day honors for telling John Oliver what, I strongly suspect, he already knows full well, but is too fearful of offending the hard-left “woke” crowd he relies on for what ratings he has to admit it.
Oh, one other thing. Oliver has two children. Two sons. I wonder how he’d feel if, instead, he had two daughters – maybe of high school age – who were involved in athletics. Don’t you?
