J.K. Rowling’s definition of ‘woman,’ explained

J.K. Rowling used to be someone everybody could look up to, but ever since she started posting to X (formerly Twitter) she’s become more and more unhinged.

At this point it seems that Rowling is one of the most controversial figures on posting to X, she’s second only to Donald Trump. It’s been known for a few years now that the Harry Potter author was a TERF, but the last few months it seems she’s only doubled down on her views, getting into numerous online altercations with trans journalists and even getting the police called on her at one point. On Saturday April 6th she made a lengthy post to X in which she went into a great amount of detail on her stance on the subject as well as her definition of a woman.

J.K. Rowling’s definition of a woman

One of the major points Rowling makes is that she believes that a woman is defined by biological traits like producing “large gametes” (egg cells). She goes on to clarify that a woman isn’t defined by how she dresses, how many sexual partners she’s had or how she styles her hair. It’s all down to the experiences in life which she believes are linked to biology and as such, trans women are, per Rowling’s view, unable to share those experiences.

Rowling also speaks about her concerns that the rights and protections of women and girls are being dismantled. She sees trans women as a potential danger, claiming “no study has ever demonstrated that trans-identified men [sic] don’t have exactly the same pattern of criminality as other men.” However, she doesn’t mention any studies that do prove that trans women have the same pattern of criminality as cis men, so it just sounds like there’s a lack of knowledge in this particular field.

What was the response to this post?

Many of the responses to her post on X agreed with Rowling’s statement — that’s no surprise, though, as most people who are tired of hearing what she has to say have long since stopped engaging. While we’re on the subject of definitions, does anybody have the definition for the phrase “echo chamber?” Naturally, the whole thing has been pretty divisive, and there were plenty of people speaking out against the author on the sane side of X as well.

Anyway, that’s the cliff notes version of the whole situation; there’s a lot more to what she says, and a lot of mental gymnastics in order to exclude trans women, but you can read the whole thing for yourself, and make up your own mind. What’s important to remember is that this is J.K. Rowling’s definition of a woman, it’s just her opinion, and thankfully most people on the internet decided to stop listening to her opinion a long time ago.