"Harry Potter" author Rowling has been absent from social media for several days, after erroneously calling female Olympic boxer Khelif a "man."

Author J.K. Rowling has fallen silent on her usually busy X (formerly Twitter) feed, after Olympic gold medalist boxer Imane Khelif filed a legal complaint in France for alleged cyber harassment over statements regarding her gender.

On August 9, lawyers for Khelif filed a lawsuit with a special unit of the public prosecutor’s office in Paris, stemming from false statements that spread online about her gender after the Algerian boxer defeated Italy’s Angela Carini in her first fight of the 2024 Olympic Games. Carini pulled out 46 seconds into the bout and told reporters afterwards that she had “never felt a punch like this.”

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
        1218·
        3 months ago

        Sure there is. That mouth breather is refusing to use a woman’s feminine pronouns over an unsubstantiated rumour about a minor medical abnormality. They’re being ten times as rude as I am.

            • SLfgb@feddit.nl
              62·
              3 months ago

              I’m sorry but no. Using gender-neutral language does not describe gender; using ‘they’ isn’t to misgender, it just leaves the gender unspecified.

              You can correctly use ‘they’ for anyone. If they’d said ‘he’, now that would’ve been different…

              (Edit: typo)

              • Lemminary@lemmy.world
                42·
                3 months ago

                Yeah, it’s so minor. I think that commenter is only looking for a reason to be upset on behalf of someone else and use that as an excuse to blow up.

              • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
                711·
                3 months ago

                I didn’t say they were misgendering her, I said they refused to use her preferred pronouns. Surely you can agree with the factual accuracy of that statement.

                • SLfgb@feddit.nl
                  31·
                  3 months ago

                  Also, how do you even know her preferred pronouns in English? Did you ask her?

                  • MindTraveller@lemmy.caEnglish
                    35·
                    3 months ago

                    I am a woman, like any other woman. I was born a woman. I have lived as a woman. I compete as a woman. There is no doubt about that.

                    Imane is a Muslim from a country where being trans is illegal. I think she’s said enough words to the effect of preferring she/her despite the language barrier. If you expect her to be familiar enough with English to describe her preferences with regard to the specific grammatical rules of it, I find your demand xenophobic and racist. Her preferences can easily be inferred from the translations of what she says in her own language, in the context of her own country’s and religion’s social norms.

                • SLfgb@feddit.nl
                  31·
                  3 months ago

                  yea, nah.

                  Edit: Using a word is not the same as refusing to use another word in its place.

    • minyakcurry@monyet.cc
      714·
      3 months ago

      The bullshit about XY chromosomes is pretty stupid, which is why the other replier provided an article and a few key points in refutation.

      The OP’s comment didn’t read to me as particularly incendiary, but thanks for labelling them as transphobic and mouth breathing with no precedent! Really appreciate good contributions to discourse like yours.

      EDIT: not sure what the downvotes are for. XY chromosomes are not exactly valid for determining sex, much less gender. Women might have Y chromosomes, or even three copies of X. Gender has nothing to do with this at all, in fact.

      Using XY as an argument is therefore bullshit.

      Even if it’s bullshit, there’s no need to call someone a mouth breather unprovoked. The other thread seems to be a shitshow anyway, so I’m glad the replier is being called out.