Today, we are thrilled to announce the release of The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, an audio documentary hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper that examines some of the most contentious conflicts of our time through the life and career of the world’s most successful author.
Episode One: Plotted in Darkness
Host Megan Phelps-Roper writes a letter to J.K. Rowling—and receives a surprising invitation in reply: the opportunity for an intimate conversation in Rowling’s Scottish home.
Episode Two: Burn the Witch
As Harry Potter becomes an international phenomenon, it coincides with the culture wars of the 1990s. In the backlash from Christians across America, author J.K. Rowling is accused of mainstreaming witchcraft and poisoning children’s minds.
You can listen to the first two episodes now on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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Loved the podcasts, and enjoyed your discussion with Sam Harris. However, you told Sam that you could see letting "men" be a word for socially constructed gender and "male" for the biological concept. (I think I have that approximately correct. I apologize if I'm wrong.) Perhaps you've realized these are not comparable terms.
Male vs female refers to a biological category designating one of a pair of sexually reproducing life forms, male for those with small gametes and female for those with large gametes. Men vs women refer to a composite category, adult male human vs adult female human. Men and women are NOT social designations (except that "adult" may have different social meanings), they are biological designations. Men represent those lifeforms that have small gametes, have reached the age of sexual maturity, and belong to the homo sapien class of mammals.
If we were to abandon the traditional definition of men (women) we would need to come up with a new word for these categories. Men and women are categories of humans at the very heart of our species. For an atheist, there is no other reason for men and women to exist than that they find each other and produce children. How could we converse intelligently about humans, their prospects, weaknesses, and strengths as a species without making use of these categories?
I think those who want to appropriate the term woman as a social construct do so because they seek to obfuscate the original meaning of our laws. Transactivists seek to enhance the access of female-identifying men to spaces reserved for women and girls. So, although I believe you have argued in good faith, I don't consider those seeking to change the meaning of the word woman (man) to a gendered term to have made good faith arguments.
Rather than change the meaning of men and women, with attendant confusion to our legal system, the advocates for trans-rights should come up with new words for the socially constructed behaviors of men and women. As it happens, I think we already have pretty good terms: masculine and feminine. These are socially (and biologically) constructed adjectives that vary from culture to culture and over time. But, I haven't thought carefully about this suggestion and I think the burden falls on the trans-advocates.
Thank You Free Press! This podcast series was FANTASTIC! I'm a 57 year old Harry Potter and J K Rowling fan. Thank you for not just allowing her to speak out on such a wonderful platform, but for pretty brilliantly weaving this whole, fascinating time line of judgement, criticisms, and condemnations. J K does NOT deserve the bizarre treatment she's received, at all.