If you come at J.K. Rowling, you best not miss.
Scottish parliament member Natalie McGarry called out the Harry Potter author via Twitter on Thursday, accusing Rowling of defending "abusive misogynist trolls."
Wow @jk_rowling vanity searches her name & then defends abusive misogynist trolls. Extraordinary. Almost makes me regret queuing for books.— Natalie McGarry (@NatalieMcGarry) January 28, 2016
[seealso slug="/j-k-rowling-procrastination-tweets"]
Rowling saw the tweet, since she is Queen of Twitter, and asked for an explanation.
.@NatalieMcGarry I'd love an explanation of this accusation, Natalie. pic.twitter.com/Yh6VvLz285— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
When that didn't work, she got a little more firm with her request.
.@NatalieMcGarry Show me where I have defended misogyny and abuse, please.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
Then she got impatient.
.@NatalieMcGarry I'm waiting to hear where I've defended misogyny and abuse.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
Then she got demanding.
.@NatalieMcGarry You are a politician making a public accusation. Show me where I have defended abusive, misogynist trolling.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
McGarry finally responded in the most British and vague way possible:
@jk_rowling it's quite simple, flee with craws... You tweet supportive tweets of a misogynist Twitter troll.— Natalie McGarry (@NatalieMcGarry) January 28, 2016
The politician was referring specifically to Rowling's Twitter interactions with user BrianSpanner1, who donated money to Lumos in 2015.
Spanner also happens to spend a lot of his time on Twitter criticizing McGarry's policies and person, as well as sending her pictures of disturbingly misshapen fruit, so she saw Rowling's support of him as misogynistic.
.@NatalieMcGarry You aren't some random hater, Natalie. You're an elected politician and you've accused me of supporting abuse and misogyny.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
.@NatalieMcGarry OK, Natalie. Guess we'll have to take this offline.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
Instead of letting that hang in the air for an hour, McGarry finally offered Rowling the apology she asked for.
Dear @jk_rowling. On reflection, I do apologise for any misguided inference that you support misogyny or abuse instead of the folk you tweet— Natalie McGarry (@NatalieMcGarry) January 28, 2016
Thank you very much, Natalie, and I'd like to ask anyone following me who is being less than polite to you to stop. https://t.co/U1XSkmbNoI— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
Update: McGarry's plane apparently has WiFi, because she sent Rowling "proof" -- cut-and-pasted screenshots -- of supporting misogyny and abuse. In light of that, the apology may be redacted...
It is your view that if person A interacts with person B on Twitter, they must be "supportive" of B's every tweet? https://t.co/0FXcH4oDgb— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
...and the gloves are off.
.@NatalieMcGarry You don't appear to understand how Twitter or defamation works. I'm going to help you out with the latter.— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 28, 2016
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