'I understand where she’s coming from': Ralph Fiennes defends JK Rowling from 'disgusting' woke backlash
LONDON, ENGLAND: Harry Potter star Ralph Fiennes has defended author JK Rowling, calling the merciless abuse and death threats aimed at the author ‘disgusting’ and ‘appalling’.
The 59-year-old actor, who rose to fame for his portrayal of Lord Voldemort in the film adaptations of the author's wizard franchise, took a different stance from its younger cast and said he understands where the author "is coming from". Speaking about the backlash, Ralph said Rowling's opinions as a woman do not make her an "uber right-wing fascist."
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"The verbal abuse directed at her is disgusting, it’s appalling. I mean, I can understand a viewpoint that might be angry at what she says about women," Ralph told the New York Times, according to the Telegraph. "But it’s not some obscene, uber right-wing fascist. It’s just a woman saying: "I’m a woman and I feel I’m a woman and I want to be able to say that I’m a woman. And I understand where she’s coming from. Even though I’m not a woman."
He further noted, "JK Rowling has written these great books about empowerment, about young children finding themselves as human beings. It’s about how you become a better, stronger, more morally-centered human being."
The 57-year-old author, who has long been a critic of gender ideology, became the subject of numerous death threats as well as abuse after she publicly voiced some of her opinions. “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?” Rowling wrote on her Twitter handle while calling out an article’s use of the phrase "people of menstruate".
‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2020
Opinion: Creating a more equal post-COVID-19 world for people who menstruate https://t.co/cVpZxG7gaA
While a section of Twitter users supported the author's contentious take, a range of celebrities including Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the franchise, Emma Watson, who played Hermione Granger, and Eddie Redmayne, who stars in Rowling's 'Fantastic Beasts' films, branded her as “anti-trans” and “transphobic”, arguing that trans men and non-binary and non-gender conforming people can also menstruate.
In the wake of the growing backlash, the author also released an open letter in which she claimed to be a supporter of trans rights and revealed her experience of surviving domestic violence. She also cited a number of psychiatrists and physicians to support some of her arguments, stating that we are living “through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced”.
"From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’ to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else,” she wrote in the letter.