Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

JK Rowling Called Out After Sarcastically Claiming She Identifies As A 'Reclining Sofa'

JK Rowling
Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images

The 'Harry Potter' author seemed to deliberately misunderstand a post asking anti-trans activists to 'define a chair' as metaphor for how difficult it can be to accurately define things.



JK Rowling is at it again, and this time she's ranting about... furniture.

Rowling spent the better part of the weekend raging on X, aka Twitter, after misunderstanding an old internet joke about chairs, which is used to criticize transphobes' constant demands that people "define what a woman is."

As a thought exercise, internet user Avery Edison asked Irish anti-trans activist Graham Linehan to "define a chair" in a way that "includes all things which are chairs and excludes all things which aren’t.”

Screenshot of internet discussion about the definition of a chair

Reddit

Linehan responded that a chair is "a separate seat for one person, typically with a back and four legs," and another internet user immediately responded with a picture of a horse labeled "chair" to illustrate what a fool's errand this line of thought really is, whether applied to furniture or gender.

That is, if a horse can fit the definition of a chair, trans people can fit the definition of a man or woman. Case closed.

Suffice to say, JK Rowling has never heard of this discussion, let alone understood the point. Because when it was referenced on Twitter this weekend, she took it literally and soon went into full meltdown mode.

In response to someone who reference the "define a chair" argument, Rowling tweeted:

"You might think you’re progressive, but have you ever unironically compared women to chairs?"

Rowling very clearly thought this joke of hers was hilarious, because she made it multiple times in multiple ways.

To one fellow online TERF, she "joked":

"I identify as a faux-leather reclineable sofa with cup holders in the arms. Yesterday I was mistaken for a chaise longue."

In another, she "joked" about being "misfurnitured," presumably a reference to being misgendered, after saying she "identifies as a reclining sofa."

Hilarious, perhaps, but only if the chair metaphor flew over your head in the first place, as it clearly seemed to for Rowling, who as a reminder is a writer of such preeminence it has made her a literal billionaire.

Rowling immediately became an object of mockery on Twitter for somehow not understanding how metaphors work.

Others referenced Rowling's past Twitter controversies, like the time she insisted that transgender people were not targeted during the Holocaust, which is absolutely, categorically false.

Nothing like one of the greatest writers of a generation being unable to understand a basic analogy. Never change, Joanne. Never change.

More from News/lgbtq

Screenshot of Roger Marshall
Newsmax

MAGA Senator Slammed After Scolding Americans For Whining About High Gas Prices Amid Iran War—And Wow

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall chastised Americans for complaining about high gas prices and insisted they should consider that their "national security is even more important" than whatever blows are being dealt to their wallets at the gas pump.

Consumer prices are up 3.3% compared to a year ago, largely fueled by a surge in energy costs. The energy index jumped 10.9% in a single month as oil and gas prices climbed sharply. Amid the Iran war and the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, oil has risen back to around $100 a barrel, pushing gasoline prices up by a record 25%.

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo and tweet by X user @oatmilkanie
@oatmilkanie/X

Kid Goes Viral After Leaving Sweet Note On Plane For The Person Sitting In Their Seat On The Next Flight

A lot is going on in our world right now that gives us pause, and some of us might feel our hearts breaking under the weight of all of it. That makes acts of kindness, no matter how small they are, more important than ever before.

X user @oatmilkanie shouted out an unidentified child who clearly got the memo when they boarded a plane and discovered that the child had written a note for the next person to sit in their seat, directly on the paper nausea bag that's snuggled in the seat pocket in front of the passenger's knees.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @kndllleclaire's TikTok video
@kndllleclaire/TikTok

TikToker Thinks She's Met Her Dream Cowboy At A Bar—But The Internet Has Some Bad News For Her

Sometimes when you meet someone, everything goes so perfectly that you can't help but imagine that it's meant to be.

But one of the harder lessons in life is that, regardless of how perfect the match is, the person may not be as single as they might present themselves to be.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @jamar.marriott's Instagram video
@jamar.marriott/Instagram

Dad Goes Viral After Filming His Daughters' Hilariously Dramatic Reaction To Sinking In A Ball Pit

Kids truly say the darnedest things, but there's nothing quite like watching kids play together and invent stories.

33-year-old dad Jamar Marriott was out with his three daughters, Jaida (6), Olivia (8), and Maya (16) at the local trampoline park, which includes an impressively large ball pit.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @mich3113.0's TikTok video
@mich3113.0/TikTok

Woman Creeped All The Way Out After Finding Hidden Door In The Ceiling Of Her Airbnb

A lot of us already cannot sleep well when we're visiting someone else's home or staying in a hotel, because we're uncomfortable in a different bed and maybe even a little creeped out in the unusual space.

But discovering a whole other room with a creepy door would quickly transform a space from a rental to something out of a horror movie real quick for anybody.

Keep ReadingShow less