Trans activists and those who hate JK Rowling have been crowing in joy lately over the recent drop in Harry Potter book sales. JK Rowling saw massive book sales in 2021 and then a drop of 40% in 2022. Many trans activists on Twitter have hailed the drop as being the result of “young folk finding out things they liked as kids are written by bigots…. Pair this with JK’s online fans being toxic and decline is inevitable.” I mean, I have yet to experience a Harry Potter fan telling me to choke and die on “girlcock,” but okay. JK Rowling’s online fans are “toxic.” Right. The fact of the matter is that there is no indication that the 40% drop in sales in Harry Potter digital media was a result of the loud boycott campaign on Twitter. The fact is that Rowling has been critical of the misogynistic aspects of trans activism since 2019 and yet sales of her books boomed throughout 2020 and 2021. In fact, all book sales boomed though out the COVID years as lockdowns forced people to entertain themselves at home. Harry Potter sales have boomed alongside other books during lockdown, and consequently declined alongside other books as lockdowns have eased throughout 2022. The 40% decrease in Harry Potter book sales were not a result of a boycott but merely part of a larger trend involving books. People are no longer trapped at home looking for things to read. The 40% decrease is more of a return to a pre-pandemic baseline in terms of book sales. The most convincing indicator that loud Twitter voices demanding boycotts of JK Rowling’s books are not having much of an effect are the sales of the new Harry Potter video games. Hogwarts Legacy is Steam’s top-selling game right now and it hasn’t even been released yet! In the end, trans activists have to accept the fact that constantly hammering on JK Rowling is not working. Rowling is still a very lucrative investment for publishers, film studios and game developers. Frankly the constant harassment of Rowling, a woman who has made her own wealth and is currently starting a rape shelter for women, appears to be only backfiring for trans activists. Right now even very liberal nations like Switzerland are reinstating legally that there are only two genders. Sweden has blocked the prescription of puberty blockers for children under 16 for trans-affirming care. It’s time for trans activists to stop screaming at women whenever women do awful things like….. buy Harry Potter books. Or use “they” as a collective pronoun instead of a singular pronoun. Or ask to not compete against biological men in sports competitions. Or even use the word “woman” instead of “uterus-haver” or “menstruator.” When I look at articles about trans activism, it’s all about how cis women need to move over and make space and validate people with penises. Frankly, women have done that since the start of human civilization. And it’s getting a bit old.
Perhaps a better metric for trans activist success would be more employed trans people and fewer trans people suffering housing insecurity. Grabbing credit for a natural decline in Harry Potter books sales after the pandemic is not one of those rousing civil rights victories that future generations can applaud.
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