In Megan Phelps-Roper’s new podcast series “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling,” Rowling wants to explain her point of view. The “Harry Potter” author has been accused of transphobia for some time. She is derogatorily referred to by many as “TERF”, i.e. as a trans-exclusionary radical feminist. In the fourth episode of the podcast, titled “TERF Wars”, Rowling also touches on her own youth.
Rowling takes this as evidence for her statements about trans teenagers. According to Rowling, she herself did not feel comfortable in her female body as a pubescent teenager. The reason was the misogynist home in which she grew up.
“I was very concerned about my changing body and realized that it was attracting attention that I didn’t welcome, especially from the boys at school,” she says in the episode TERF Wars.
If you had asked her at the time whether she wanted children in the future, she would have said no, according to the author. Today her children are her greatest happiness. Based on her own experiences, Rowling believes 14-year-olds are too young to decide whether to take hormones or anti-puberty drugs. At the time, they just couldn’t imagine what it was like to lose fertility, Rowling said.
Testosterone treatments for girls who may be planning sex reassignment surgery sometimes result in infertility. For Rowling, a medical consequence that young people simply cannot properly assess.
Hormone treatments are not lightly prescribed to teenagers. Patients must be adequately examined in advance. This includes psychotherapy, which aims to determine whether the patient suffers from gender dysphoria. This describes a condition in which people cannot identify with the sex assigned to them at birth.
The new podcast “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” was eagerly awaited by both sides. Both sides – once those who support Rowling and the field of her critics. In the interview series, Rowling talks to activist and journalist Megan Phelps-Roper about the – broadly defined – gender debate, among other things. Rowling has been accused of transphobia for various statements and tweets.
Sources: “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” / Ärzteblatt
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