It shouldn’t be news to anyone that JK Rowling—author of the Harry Potter series—is controversial. BIPOC called out Rowling for her racist stereotypes when her first Potter books were published.
Over the past several years her very vocal transphobia has been the focus.
Many have said her parroting and endorsing trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) rhetoric—expressed loudly and often on her Twitter and in long-form on her own website—is just another example of Rowling's deep-seated bigotry.
Lately The Onion—a satirical publication—has been on a roll in satirizing her swerve from wizard books to woman-espousing-transphobia-online. The newspaper wrote several articles lampooning the author, to much celebration online.
An example of one such article is below.
\u201cEvangelical Leaders Announce J.K. Rowling Finally Bigoted Enough That It\u2019s Okay For Kids To Read About Witchcraft https://t.co/TWWHHXcugt\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1676916017
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Jordan LaFlure—Senior Managing Editor of The Onion—talked about why they chose Rowling as a target for ridicule.
“[Transphobia] comes from a place of fear and willful ignorance."
"It makes it easy to pick apart, even if it is horrifying to watch in real time…"
"J.K. Rowling, a billionaire with a penchant for spreading misery, has long been a worthy target."
"I regret only that it took this long for us to find a pointed manner to highlight her unthinking hatred.”
They also a wrote a parody interview with Rowling.
\u201cThe Onion\u2019s Exclusive Interview With J.K. Rowling https://t.co/rdubXSuUAI\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1677086111
Reactions to The Onion's continued mockery of Rowling has been mostly joyful.
\u201c@honestamerican0 @TheOnion JK Rowling is definitely a bigot and the onion has done more for truth than Tucker Carlson and Faux News ever did.\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1676916017
\u201c@TheOnion @billybragg The Onion has been hitting it out of the park lately.\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1676916017
\u201cStraight for the jugular\u201d— The Lore By Night Podcast Guy (@The Lore By Night Podcast Guy) 1676968634
\u201c@TheOnion The best Onion articles are the ones with a crumb of truth in them.\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1676916017
However Rowling's fellow transphobes were not amused.
This was the point, some astute commenters pointed out.
\u201c@TheOnion The article is funny enough. The replies here just make it even funnier. Seasoned to perfection. Good job, Onion.\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1677086111
Another reason The Onion satirized Rowling is most publications in the United Kingdom—her home country—are unable to do so due to legal liability concerns.
The libel laws in the UK are much more stringent than in the United States where The Onion is headquartered.
\u201c@TheOnion On fire this week! As someone who\u2019s trans from the UK - where criticism of JK Rowling is banned in the mainstream media - this is soooooooo refreshing \ud83d\udc4d\ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\u26a7\ufe0f\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1677276010
\u201c@TheOnion Funny af. We could NEVER even dream of saying anything like that in the UK.\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1677086111
\u201c"Hi, we're The Onion. We live in America where it's much harder to use defamation laws to bully people into silence and we're based in Illinois which has strong anti-SLAPP laws meaning you'll be paying for our lawyers."\u201d— Darryl Mott (@Darryl Mott) 1677112742
One commentator summarized the public's feelings about The Onion rather succinctly.
\u201c@TheOnion I stan one vegetable (the onion)\u201d— The Onion (@The Onion) 1676916017
Keep on fighting the good fight!
@PreetBharara/X
@RepBrendanBoyle/X
@twesq/Bluesky
@christopherharris/Bluesky
@evangelinewarren/X
@FrankC164/X
AMC