J.K. Rowling learned nothing—not from her most recent attacks on Imane Khelif and no from fans turning on her. She is yet again attacking an athlete, and Italian women’s 100, 200 and 400 meter T12 class visually impaired sprint athlete Valentina Petrillo fired back at the author.
Petrillo is a transgender athlete who began competing after her transition in 2020 in female categories. She is legally a woman, allowed to compete in women’s categories by the rules of the Olympics. True to her transphobic ways, Rowling took to X to complain about this fact and called Petrillo a “cheater” in the process. She even went as far as to compare Petrillo to Lance Armstrong’s doping case.
“Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility! Out and proud cheats like Petrillo prove the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! I say we give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on.”
Why all the anger about the inspirational Petrillo? The cheat community has never had this kind of visibility! Out and proud cheats like Petrillo prove the era of cheat-shaming is over. What a role model! I say we give Lance Armstrong his medals back and move on. #Cheats #NoShame pic.twitter.com/bvqhs3DexI
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 2, 2024
Instead of letting Rowling continue to get away with her transphobic remarks, Petrillo shot her down in the best of ways. By simply pointing out that she never read Harry Potter, Petrillo really made Rowling’s entire empire useless.
“I’m flattered that Rowling is talking about me – I’ve never even read Harry Potter. I’m told she wrote it but I didn’t read it,” Petrillo said (as per Covered Geekly). “By the way, I was told that she in her own book wrote about a sport where there is no gender. So I was expecting different behavior from Rowling.”
Petrillo is right. Quidditch is played by students of all gender identities together. Rowling also, famously, writes under male pseudonyms. So Petrillo calling Rowling out in this way? It is kind of iconic of her.
Rowling is just miserable
Instead of, again, letting it go, Rowling doubled down. Petrillo did an exclusive interview with The Times where she talked about what Rowling was really upset about. “J.K. Rowling is only concerned about the fact that I use the female toilet, but she doesn’t know anything about me,” she said.
And that is what most transphobia boils down to. It is all about the “angry” party wanting to control what someone else does to their own body, and they parade it as a way of “protecting” people. Petrillo is a woman. Living her authentic life has zero impact on Rowling, who was, arguably, never going to run any kind of race herself! So why does she care?
Rowling went on to tweet about Petrillo’s comment, writing, “Yeah, no. That’s not the only thing I, or any of the other millions of women concerned about the destruction of female categories, boundaries and rights, are concerned about.”
She consistently hides behind this idea that she is protecting the rights of women. If she’s that concerned with women’s rights, why not write under her own name? Why not write a book series about a woman? Why was she attacking Imane Khelif? This is about hating the trans community and using her power and name to try to attack them time and time again.
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