RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Jinkx Monsoon roasts JK Rowling for ‘identifying’ as a male author
Jinkx Monsoon (L) took aim at JK Rowling (Getty Images)
Jinkx Monsoon (L) took aim at JK Rowling (Getty Images)
Jinkx Monsoon has taken aim at Harry Potter creator JK Rowling over what she says is the hypocrisy of her “identifying” as a male author early in her career.
During a new interview with comedian and writer Ziwe, the RuPaul’s Drag Race two-time champion was asked whether the Harry Potter writer would “make a good Roxy Hart in Chicago”, the Broadway musical.
To this end, the fellow Broadway star made a point of using the wrong pronouns for the author. “Who is Jake? Who is he? Jake Hay Rowling?,” Monsoon said.
When Ziwe noted that Rowling uses “she”/her pronouns, the icon joked: “Oh dear. That is not a feminine name in the slightest.”
The Doctor Who star, who opened up last year about her gender-affirmation journey, also emphasised that Rowling initially “identified” as a male author at the start of her career. Some may even say her decision to mislead readers with her name is a hypocritical one, given Rowling’s controversial views about the trans community.
“I know that oftentimes, female authors use initials so that people assume it’s a male writer,” Monsoon said, smirking. “I have to presume that JK Rowling was unsatisfied with the way that the world saw her, and then she transitioned herself into a new personality so that the world would perceive her the way she wanted to be perceived.”
Rowling has previously revealed that she wrote under the alias “JK Rowling” (real name, Joanne Kathleen Rowling) to “disguise” her gender so the wizard series would “appeal to boys and girls”.
The writer also pens the ongoing Cormoran Strike crime series under the pseudonym “Robert Galbraith”, as Rowling said via the series’ website that she “wanted to take my writing persona as far away as possible from me”.
Last month, the writer suggested that women’s toilets in the UK should be policed by taking and sharing photos of people using them. It comes after she celebrated the UK Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of a woman and confirmed that she donated money to the gender-critical group, which brought the case forward.
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