Not even JK Rowling can take the fame away from Barbra Banda

Gah! You escape one toxic billionaire on social media, only for another to emerge. JK Rowling – the author who splits her time between writing as a man under the guise of Robert Galbraith and speaking loudly about anyone who doesn’t fit her definition of “woman” – is no more the spokesperson for all women than Elon Musk is an arbiter for meaningful ways to spend your time and money. But you wouldn’t know that if you listened to her.

According to Rowling, which I largely escaped by joining Bluesky, the fast-growing social media platform where the blocking feature works and anger is not given undue importance (I’m a liberal from a long line of conservatives; I I don’t need to “experience other views” online with people who can’t even fill out their bios truthfully when I can do that in person at literally every family gathering); Women should be upset that Zambia’s Barbra Banda has won the BBC Footballer of the Year award. Why? Because Rowling seems to be suggesting that she isn’t quite feminine enough.

This kind of insult is unfortunately par for the course for the Harry Potter author and her group of vocal gender critics. But that doesn’t make it any less offensive – or dangerous. Unfortunately, there are many male followers in the GC brigade who find anything non-traditional pretty disgusting – and so take pleasure in writing supportive posts to their latest insane declarations about toilets or women’s sports, mostly because it means , that they don’t have the luxury of writing something that deals with domestic violence, murder or rape among their gender.

Gender critics charmingly refer to trans-inclusive women as “handmaidens,” so perhaps we should refer to these anti-trans male acolytes as “Andy Maidens”? And true to form, these Andy girls happily reported on Rowling’s anger over Zambian footballer and philanthropist Banda’s new title.

Banda, like so many elite female athletes — and particularly black female athletes — before her, has been the subject of accusations about her physique. These allegations were never confirmed and she has met all the requirements to compete in the 2023 World Cup and the last two Olympics.

Aren’t we repeating exactly what Rowling is – was – on X? – a popular platform, but it’s not the real world, no matter how many angry posts make headlines. The real world is Banda, her fans and the work she does to expand soccer to women and girls in need.

The real world also includes the four Kenyan runners killed by jealous men in the last three years. Additionally, this is Laken Riley, who was killed while running in February despite meeting all the criteria a woman must meet to ensure her safety. This week her killer was sentenced to life in prison. The killing of female runners is so common that it has its own Wikipedia page. This is a serious and real threat to women in sport – and to their lives – but Rowling and company only seem interested in the idea of ​​trans women (never trans men!) as monsters under the bed, as only women know Well, the real monster doesn’t need to hide.

Rowling and co may complain about the BBC, but unfortunately this isn’t even about the BBC. The price was voted for from BBC readers from a shortlist compiled by experts in women’s football – Banda’s colleagues, journalists, former professionals and coaches. In this case, “the BBC” is the general public, who polls have consistently shown to be largely supportive of the trans community and quite confused about what the Harry Potter woman is up to.

That would be all well and good if Barbra Banda were transsexual, but she isn’t – and to be clear, even if she were transsexual or intersex, she shouldn’t be dissected or discriminated against. Instead, Banda is another athlete judged as “unfeminine.”

In 1928, when women were allowed to compete in Olympic athletics for the first time, Japanese runner Kinue Hitomi was reportedly taken aside and examined to confirm that she was a woman after winning a silver medal. In the 1980s, when Martina Navratilova (now also anti-trans) was mocked for not looking “typically” female.

The same goes for Serena Williams, Brittney Griner and Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who faced horrific attacks during this summer’s Paris Olympics from Rowling, Musk and others who refused to “believe” she was female. and chose to believe something testosterone test from the International Boxing Association, an organization so corrupt that it was no longer allowed to organize Olympic boxing.

And that’s the thing about people talking online. There is no discussion because such people have no interest in facts or objective truth. They will cling to whatever supports their worldview, no matter how discredited the source from which they get their facts. You are the modern incarnation of your early 2000s relative who forwarded every chain email he received about the use of toxic perfume at gas stations.

Like Imane Khelif – who currently graces the cover of fashion Arabia by the way – I hope Barbra Banda is far, far away from X and his bot-filled rage and living her best life – the real life – knowing that she is the goat of women’s football.

There will always be people who want to tear down female athletes. But as Rowling discovered, there will always be people who want to raise her.