Beware, men who call themselves liberal and say they support women—J.K. Rowling is not here for any of your double standard bullshit.
On Friday, the Harry Potter author and Twitter queen unleashed a powerful thread explaining why sexist insults used on women are 2,000 percent not OK. Which you’d think would be something that liberal men would already be on board with.
Unless that woman is conservative, that would seem.
According to Rowling, she unfollowed someone on Twitter earlier today, “a man whom [she] thought was smart and funny,” after seeing a tweet he posted in which he called British Prime Minister Theresa May, a conservative, a whore.
“If you can’t disagree with a woman without reaching for all those filthy old insults, screw you and your politics,” Rowling explained pointedly.
Rowling went on to express her tiredness of seemingly-liberal men who turn to “crude and humiliating words associated with femaleness” when upset with a woman. These men hurl sexist insults at women they disagree with and act as “Mr. Liberal Cool Guys,” but ultimately align themselves with men who harass and threaten women, who intimidate them into hiding online and in real life.
She also emphasized how the abuse is much worse for queer women and women of color. Ultimately, any woman, liberal or conservative, who dares share her opinion is ultimately shamed for doing so with insults and threats meant to debase her. And Rowling is fucking over it.
“If your immediate response to a woman who displeases you is to call her a synonym for her vulva, or compare her to a prostitute, then drop the pretense and own it: you’re not a liberal,” Rowling concluded, winding up for the final Pepe-loaded blow. “You’re a few short steps away from some guy hiding behind a cartoon frog.”
Please, liberal men. Write it down. Text it to your friends. Tattoo it backwards across your forehead. Unless you walk the walk, your talk means nothing.
Read Rowling’s full Twitter thread below:
Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore. 1/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
If you can’t disagree with a woman without reaching for all those filthy old insults, screw you and your politics. 2/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
I’m sick of ‘liberal’ men whose mask slips every time a woman displeases them, who reach immediately for crude and humiliating words 3/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
associated with femaleness, act like old-school misogynists and then preen themselves as though they’ve been brave. 4/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
When you do this, Mr Liberal Cool Guy, you ally yourself, wittingly or not, with the men who send women violent pornographic images 5/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
and rape threats, who try by every means possible to intimidate women out of politics and public spaces, both real and digital. 6/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
‘Cunt’, ‘whore’ and, naturally, rape. We’re too ugly to rape, or we need raping, or we need raping and killing. 7/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
Every woman I know who has dared express an opinion publically has endured this kind of abuse at least once, 8/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
rooted in an apparent determination to humiliate or intimidate her on the basis that she is female. 9/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
If you want to know how much fouler it gets if you also happen to be black or gay, ask Diane Abbot or Ruth Davidson. 10/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
I don’t care whether we’re talking about Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon or Kate Hooey or Yvette Cooper or Hillary Clinton: 11/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
femaleness is not a design flaw. If your immediate response to a woman who displeases you 12/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
is to call her a synonym for her vulva, or compare her to a prostitute, then drop the pretence and own it: you’re not a liberal. 13/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017
You’re a few short steps away from some guy hiding behind a cartoon frog. 14/14
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 9, 2017