I'm seeing quite a bit of comment about this, so I want to make a couple of points.
I'm not owed eternal agreement from any actor who once played a character I created. The idea is as ludicrous as me checking with the boss I had when I was twenty-one for what opinions I should hold these days.
Emma Watson and her co-stars have every right to embrace gender identity ideology. Such beliefs are legally protected, and I wouldn't want to see any of them threatened with loss of work, or violence, or death, because of them.
However, Emma and Dan in particular have both made it clear over the last few years that they think our former professional association gives them a particular right - nay, obligation - to critique me and my views in public. Years after they finished acting in Potter, they continue to assume the role of de facto spokespeople for the world I created.
When you've known people since they were ten years old it's hard to shake a certain protectiveness. Until quite recently, I hadn't managed to throw off the memory of children who needed to be gently coaxed through their dialogue in a big scary film studio. For the past few years, I've repeatedly declined invitations from journalists to comment on Emma specifically, most notably on the Witch Trials of JK Rowling. Ironically, I told the producers that I didn't want her to be hounded as the result of anything I said.
The television presenter in the attached clip highlights Emma's 'all witches' speech, and in truth, that was a turning point for me, but it had a postscript that hurt far more than the speech itself. Emma asked someone to pass on a handwritten note from her to me, which contained the single sentence 'I'm so sorry for what you're going through' (she has my phone number). This was back when the death, rape and torture threats against me were at their peak, at a time when my personal security measures had had to be tightened considerably and I was constantly worried for my family's safety. Emma had just publicly poured more petrol on the flames, yet thought a one line expression of concern from her would reassure me of her fundamental sympathy and kindness.
Like other people who've never experienced adult life uncushioned by wealth and fame, Emma has so little experience of real life she's ignorant of how ignorant she is. She'll never need a homeless shelter. She's never going to be placed on a mixed sex public hospital ward. I'd be astounded if she's been in a high street changing room since childhood. Her 'public bathroom' is single occupancy and comes with a security man standing guard outside the door. Has she had to strip off in a newly mixed-sex changing room at a council-run swimming pool? Is she ever likely to need a state-run rape crisis centre that refuses to guarantee an all-female service? To find herself sharing a prison cell with a male rapist who's identified into the women's prison?
I wasn't a multimillionaire at fourteen. I lived in poverty while writing the book that made Emma famous. I therefore understand from my own life experience what the trashing of women's rights in which Emma has so enthusiastically participated means to women and girls without her privileges.
The greatest irony here is that, had Emma not decided in her most recent interview to declare that she loves and treasures me - a change of tack I suspect she's adopted because she's noticed full-throated condemnation of me is no longer quite as fashionable as it was - I might never have been this honest.
Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother. Emma is rightly free to disagree with me and indeed to discuss her feelings about me in public - but I have the same right, and I've finally decided to exercise it.
冯斯瑜 浙江金华人,初高中在杭州外国语学校,本科在麻省Amherst College,大学暑假江西农村小学支教。研究生在 SOAS 伦敦亚非学院,她曾经在印第安纳大学学维吾尔语,被捕前在 新疆大学的民俗研究中心任翻译,她可以讲流利的维吾尔语。来源新疆受害者资料库 https://t.co/Ph3YuO9Dw8 via @shahitbiz
Dear Li Hua, we brought back letters that were 20 years in the making! The “global village” we dreamed of as children has suddenly come to life before our eyes. Thank you to every friend who wrote back to Li Hua’s letter. We have always been connected ❤ #REDnote#globalvillage
Look at this: The police only visited the suspect’s home to identify their whereabouts in a sexual exploitation case, and they ended up dying while fleeing. This shows how weak Korean men are. We need the law. This is why international attention and pressure on South Korea are necessary!
Please stand in solidarity with us.
We need your help!💗 (🧵)
We should keep reporting misogynistic korean youtube chennels.
Like 'PPKKA', 'GAJAEMAN' ect. To suspend channel. Especically, We've been reporting 'PPKKA' for a few years, but this is the first time it's been demonetized. We guess that it seems like YouTube Korea is intentionally not suspend these channels.
In korea, anti-feminist men made a community, the name is 'New Gen Manpower'. It's a misogynistic group. They made a youtube channel, have been instances where revenue was suspended and then released.
Please do not stop reporting!! I really appreciete for your help!!
Let me make it clear again.
There are victims all over the world. Korean women are the most. Korea also responded complacently when Nth Room incident. We need a lot of attention from overseas until Korean laws and education change. Please continue to pay attention! Thank you.
🧵<Global Hashtag Campaign Against Telegram Deepfake Sex Crimes>
The purpose of this campaign is to spread this Deepfake Sex crime in South Korea to the world.
Please join us. We must protect the victims. This campaign will take place in worldwide on 9/1.
(한국거는 밑에)
@iocmedia You banned sex-verification testing in 2000, so you absolutely canNOT confirm these are “female” boxers. You don’t even require athletes to be female to compete in women’s boxing in the first place, @iocmedia.