Why was #RIPJKRowling trending?

J.K. Rowling’s new book involves a cis male serial killer who dresses up like a woman to kill cis women. That went over about as well as you’d think…

The hashtag #RIPJKRowling started trending earlier today and just will not quit. First off, no, J.K. Rowling is not dead. But she’s dead to a lot of fans.

The trouble started when The Telegraph put up an early review of Rowling’s new book, Troubled Blood, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. It’s out tomorrow.

Troubled Blood is the fifth book in Rowling’s Comoran Strike series of crime novels. The “meat” of the latest book, according to The Telegraph, is an investigation into a cis male serial killer whose modus operandi is dressing up as a woman to kill cis women.

That’s a dicey plot under the best of circumstances, but given what Rowling has been in the news for lately, it’s especially problematic. To recap, Rowling got in hot water a few months back for a series of transphobic tweets, with everyone from GLAAD to Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe speaking out against her. Instead of taking a beat and reconsidering, Rowling doubled down, writing what I can only describe as a manifesto detailing her reasons for why excluding trans people from public life is a fine and just thing to do, on account of how scary and confused they are. Among her arguments was that “throw[ing] open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman” will put cis women at increased risk.

That’s a pretty common talking point amongst transphobes. Sure, the research has not identified “any evidence supporting a link between women-only spaces being inclusive of transgender women, and cisgender men falsely claiming a trans identity to access these spaces and commit sexual violence.” And sure, it ignores the staggeringly high rates of violence directed against transgender people, but why let the facts get in the way of some good fear-mongering?

Anyway, in that context, it’s easy to see why a book from Rowling about a cis male serial killer who dresses up like a woman to commit his crimes might seem a little…backwards. The #RIPJKRowling hashtag is a jokey way to separate Rowling’s hugely popular work from the woman who wrote it.

And there are other points being made, too:

The revelations about the book also explain some other things, like why some employees at Hatchette, Rowling’s publisher, resolved to stop working on the book a few months back in solidarity with the trans community. It’s nice when a puzzle comes together, right?

I’m really hoping this is the last thing we write about this subject for a while. Or never again would be good.

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