Oops! She Did It Again, Transphobic J.K. Rowling: “No Fox Belongs In a Henhouse.”

Phaylen Fairchild
4 min readSep 15, 2018

I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so.

Remember back in march where I criticized the beloved liberal icon and Harry Potter author for repeatedly liking blatant transphobic content and articles maligning transgender women, specifically? I pointed out that once was a mistake, twice, three times, that’s a pattern. I took a lot of heat for that article, including having Harry Potter loyalists author their own articles… about me.

Now, Rowling is at it again, and this time isn’t even bothering to feign ignorance as she has in the past. Of course, a woman of her status and with a following her size would typically be more mindful of the content she supports knowing that, in the past, her choices have courted controversy.

One would presume that a woman, adored by fans for her seemingly unwavering commitment to gender equality and declarations of solidarity to the LGBT community would know that such rhetoric would deeply hurt those within that community who hold her on a pedestal. Rowling has a very large LGBT fanbase, as most of her fans who are now young adults, related to the same social resistance and ostracizing that those in her wizarding world did. The adopted her story as a sort of parable that paralleled their own experiences. Of course, we apply our own vision to the art of others, looking for ourselves in the portrayal. Rowling’s books and her subsequent evolution as a modern day social justice hero now appear to be purely optics. Nothing authentic about those clever comebacks to Trump and the routine take-downs of bigots when you realize, beneath the cloak of invisibility lies a a betrayer of her own words- which we now see as nothing more than performative. A feigning of allegiance with those who pay her buy her books and see her films.

Ms. Rowling liked the analogy that Transgender women are akin to a “Fox in the Henhouse.” Ironic that to her throngs of transgender fans and their allies, she has demonstrated once again, she is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Not an ally, not a staunch supporter of equality and progressive world views…

Phaylen Fairchild

Actor, Filmmaker, LGBTQ+ & Women’s Rights Activist All work copyright phaylens@gmail.com