Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) “can’t understand” backlash against J.K. Rowling

Oh goodie, we’re talking about this again. If you’re blessedly unaware, last year Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling made a stir when she shared her thoughts on trans people, first in a series of tweets and then in a manifesto where she misgendered trans people, implied that they’re dangerous or confused, and generally peddled in fear-mongering stereotypes that are debunked with a glance at the research or by talking to trans people about their experiences.

Predictably, that resulted in a huge amount of backlash, with some of Rowling’s colleagues from the Harry Potter movies being among the many who spoke up. Daniel Radcliffe, for instance, wrote an essay asserting his support for transgender people, while Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid) accused Rowling’s critics of hanging around “waiting to be offended.”

Now, Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) talked to The Telegraph about the issue, and came down more on the Coltrane side of things. “I can’t understand the vitriol directed at her. I can understand the heat of an argument, but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational. I find the level of hatred that people express about views that differ from theirs, and the violence of language towards others, disturbing.”

I’m sure The Telegraph asked him about the controversy, but there were probably better ways to respond. Like by offering no comment, for instance…

Ralph Fiennes is confused by the backlash against J.K. Rowling

Okay, here’s my two cents on the issue: J.K. Rowling is still getting a ton of backlash online, and I have no doubt that a lot of it is needlessly vitriolic and hyperbolic. Death threats are never okay, threats of violence are never okay, whether they’re on Twitter or to someone’s face. Looking at the intensity of a Twitter backlash can indeed be disturbing.

But J.K. Rowling will be fine. She is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. She is behind one of the most successful and beloved stories of the past quarter-century, a story that has spawned movies and theme parks and worlds of merch. She shouldn’t receive vitriolic attacks on Twitter — that’s never alright — but that vitriol can’t really touch her or her success.

On the other hand, it is well documented that trans people, as a community, are at a comparatively high risk of real-world violence and discrimination. And having someone as powerful and influential as Rowling come out and spread harmful and untrue stereotypes about them only exacerbates the situation. So for Fiennes to talk about how disturbing he finds it that members of a marginalized community are attacking his friend on Twitter just because she’s openly transphobic when those same people are at increased risk of harm in their daily lives…I think it misses the point a just a tad.

For the record, Rowling herself has been pretty quiet for a while now, I imagine on the advice of her exhausted media team.

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h/t The A.V. Club