HBO publicly stands by J.K. Rowling

Are corporations finally getting the message?

In 2023, HBO announced it would be revisiting the world of Harry Potter in the form of a live action TV show. Just how much involvement its celebrated creator would have became the topic of much online ‘discussion’.

You see, as well as writing best-sellers, J.K Rowling has spent a significant amount of her time vocally defending women's rights too. This wouldn't usually be a problem, except that she did something many people who pay lip-service to women's rights won't: she refused to spare gender ideology and highlighted the consequences for women's safety, dignity and rights if we allow society and law to be reordered around the falsehood that humans can change sex.

As has come to be expected whenever it's noticed someone is speaking too honestly about this problem, a campaign of defamation, threats and attempts at financial ruin got underway.

Well, I bring what I believe could be considered progress. An official statement was finally squeezed out of HBO chief Casey Bloys about J.K. Rowling's involvement in the upcoming TV show:

“J.K. Rowling has a right to express her personal views. We will remain focused on the development of the new series, which will only benefit from her involvement.”

What immediately struck me was how refreshingly adult this statement is. Not only did Bloys assert the right of a woman to think out loud, but the standard disavowal of ‘problematic views’ followed by an appeasing commitment to ‘protecting the trans community’ were nowhere to be seen.

I've long argued that huge corporations should respond to online mobs this way, or simply refuse to engage with them altogether.

Some of you may be forgiven for thinking this isn't a big deal. And furthermore, the least HBO can do is stand by the creative force behind the IP they hope to have success with, right? But I'm not convinced big corporations would have been brave enough to make statements of this kind as recently as 3 years ago.

Of course we should not be so naive as to assume huge corporations have suddenly developed a keen commitment to free expression and biological reality. No, it is more likely that corporations have realised it is not a winning business strategy to submit to a vocal minority of activists whose beliefs and behaviours are deeply unpopular with the general public.

We actually had a test run of Rowling’s popularity Vs consumer opinion back in February 2023 when the pronoun mafia attempted to organise a boycott of the Harry Potter videogame ‘Hogwarts Legacy’. The outcome? It became the best-selling game of the year in ‘the entire industry, worldwide’.

It's worth noting that every article I could find reporting on HBO's statement also described Rowling as "anti-trans", “transphobic” or accused her of "attacking the trans community".

This false framing reflects either a failure on the part of mainstream reporters to engage with this issue honestly or a deliberate intent to misrepresent it for ideological purposes.

They will of course catch up with the rest of us eventually. The only question is whether or not they will apologise for their complicity in one of the biggest scandals of our age or simply pivot to pretending they had never participated.