Away from the scenes in eastern Europe, a very different terf war was playing out on Twitter yesterday between JK Rowling and former New Statesman journalist Laurie Penny. The latter is a consistent and very public critic of Rowling’s views on sex and gender, having previously suggested the Harry Potter author is a transphobe for whom the label ‘terf’ – ‘trans exclusionary radical feminist’ – seems applicable.
Penny, one of Tatler’s top 100 ‘people who matter’ in 2012, has been complaining bitterly that her latest literary offering has been panned by the critics. It was in this spirit that longtime provocateur Julie Bindel chose to poke fun at Penny’s activities, tweeting:
Rowling’s response – ‘thoughts and prayers Julie’ – prompted a furious rejoinder from public school girl Penny. Declaring that ‘I’m the person whose mental health history is being mocked in this tweet’ she said ‘I hope you don’t think it’s ok to shame people like this’ adding ‘I know [you] wrote about your own experience of violence and abuse, and nobody should ever shame or attack you for that.’
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