Mark Hamill apologizes for liking JK Rowling's 'transphobic' tweet while Ricky Gervais defends his own take as 'sarcasm'
A week ago, when JK Rowling sent social media into a frenzy as she tweeted in support of 'transphobic' sentiments of Maya Forstater. The celebrity community of social media was divided with stars refuting her take, and some supporting it too. One of then was Mark Hamill who looked like he was in solidarity with the Harry Potter author as the Star Wars actor liked Rowling's tweet that carried the hashtag 'IStandWithMaya'. But now, days later, Hamill has apologized for the same, stating he didn't fully understand the entirety of the tweet, around the same time that actor-comedian Ricky Gervais is facing internet backlash for his 'transphobic' defense of Rowling - something that he now claims was pure sarcasm.
Over the weekend, the face of Luke Skywalker from the franchise took to Twitter to respond to the backlash he faced after liking Rowling's tweet that said: "Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill.” The context was Forstater getting fired from her position as a visiting fellow at the Center for Global Development, for her usage of “offensive and exclusionary” language in a 2018 Twitter thread, where she claimed that “pro-science” people don't want to acknowledge that “men cannot change into women.”
For Hamill, liking the tweet was not entirely intentional or at least not laden with sentiments resonating with Rowling's stand; “Ignorance is no excuse, but I liked the tweet without understanding what the last line or hashtags meant,” Hamill tweeted, adding: "It was the 1st 4 lines I liked & I didn’t realize it had any transphobic connotation.”
But while Hamill was able to salvage his woke-o-meter points with the apologies, Gervais hasn't had much luck trying to convince social media critics that his take on Rowling's solidarity was purely sarcastic. When Jarvis Dupont, a writer with a panache for mocking political correctness and the culture revolving it tweeted their take on the controversy, Gervais replied to it writing: "Those awful biological women can never understand what it must be like for you becoming a lovely lady so late in life. They take their girly privileges for granted. Winning at female sports and having their own toilets. Well, enough is enough."
When the imminent flak flooded his way, Gervais defended himself and the seemingly defensive tweet on Rowling, saying: "Ah, you’ve confused a joke tweet to a spoof account with my true feelings." In a later tweet, he also addressed his brand of comedy and explained his sarcastic comments saying: "I do. I also make jokes about AIDS, Cancer, Famine and The Holocaust. Those things do a bit of harm too. But jokes don't. Have a nice day."