Joyce Carol Oates and JK Rowling Are Fighting. Thank God

I’m not the only person mourning the results of the 2024 Presidential election, in which a majority of the U.S. chose a racist, homophobic, sexual abuser and felon to retake an office he already failed at once. The general vibe on Al Gore’s internet is one of reflection: How did we not see this coming? But from what I can tell, the other overarching sentiment seems to be a bone-deep misery. So thank god for Pulitzer Prize-nominated and National Book Award-winning author Joyce Carol Oates, who seems to understand our feelings, and realizes that the only thing that can help Americans feel better at the moment is a good old-fashioned brawl.

Oates took to X (formerly Twitter) to comment on a now-deleted tweet discussing the racial breakdown of Trump voters and why discriminated classes like immigrants and people of color voted for him. “Evidently the ‘transgender’ issue meant a good deal to some voters. Can’t imagine why anyone feels threatened by such a small number of individuals who might otherwise be regarded sympathetically; & can only conclude that many voters were made to hate & fear by rightwing media caricaturing & demonizing them,” she wrote. “It’s called ‘scapegoating’ — we can see it happening to innocent persons but it is difficult if not impossible to combat when the media is so pervasive & determined.”

I’ve got to assume that J.K. Rowling either has Google alerts for the word “transgender” or she feels it in the air like a bat signal, but nonetheless, the Harry Potter author-turned-notorious anti-trans critic responded to the message — accusing Oates of being a rich liberal isolated from the real world. Oates’ reply was almost as good as a middle finger, reminding Rowling of the massive fortune she’s made from her work. (Rowling has long been recognized as the first billionaire author.) Oates didn’t stop there, retweeting several other creators who emphasized the need for trans rights and commented on Rowling’s considerable fortune.

This isn’t the first, or last, time Rowling has used the Elon Musk-owned social media platform to go on rants about the transgender community being a threat to women everywhere. (In fact, it’s pretty much her brand at this point.) Rowling has transformed from a writer best known for her popular young adult novels into a terminally online mouthpiece for anti-trans rhetoric. In an ironic sense, Oates herself has also emerged as an online voice over the past few years. Oates has over 250,000 followers to Rowling’s 14 million, but the Blonde author has become an unexpected character on X with her blunt and often hard-to-parse tweets about everything from politics to authors she hates, and, sometimes, just photos of her feet recovering from blisters. It’s veritable word-vomiting, but Oates has gained a cult following in the process. In fact, it’s pretty much expected Oates wouldn’t brook any foolishness coming from the woman whose best attempt at a name for a Jewish Hogwarts student was Anthony Goldstein. But in a week that already feels saturated with extreme rhetoric gone awry, it’s nice to be reminded the world is bad and even the smallest things can bring you joy. Hit her again, Joyce!