Despite all the power her cultural influence and financial lobbying buy her, it’s comforting to know that J.K. Rowling is powerless to social media. Even $1 billion and the complete and total financial freedom to do whatever she wants with her life isn’t enough to deter Rowling’s chronic posting habit. Like the rest of us, she has probably found herself closing an app, only to have the mortifying reflex to open the very same app one second later. Her high screen time percentage is the great equalizer, making her as much of a cartoon super villain as she is a dangerous and out-of-touch fearmonger.
This past week, Rowling gleefully put both these facets of her personality on full display. On Wednesday, the U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the definition of a “woman” in the eyes of U.K. law, according to the 2010 Equality Act, does not include transgender women. The ruling states that sex is binary, and that a “woman” is someone whose biological sex aligns with that definition. The decision was made after a long push from For Women Scotland, an anti-trans group that boasts Rowling as one of its most famous financial backers.
