How ironic for JK Rowling to use Emma Watson’s privilege against her

Rowling weaponising Watson’s wealth as a reason for why she shouldn’t be supporting trans people is baffling (Picture: Getty Images)

JK Rowling has long-made her feelings about the trans community crystal clear – and today has been no different. 

This time, however, she has focused on Emma Watson’s views about trans inclusivity.

And she’s decided to slate Watson for showing love for the trans community when she has grown up with extreme wealth, as if having money means you can’t have a heart or empathy for anyone without it. 

Last week, Watson offered something of an olive branch to the author on Jay Shetty’s podcast, On Purpose.

More than a year after Rowling suggested she wouldn’t accept any potential apologies from Watson and Daniel Radcliffe after they publicly disagreed with her views on gender identity, the Hermione Granger actor, 35, shared: ‘The thing I’m most upset about is that a conversation was never made possible,’ adding that she’s ‘always open’ to one.

‘I think it’s my deepest wish that I hope people who don’t agree with my opinion will love me, and I hope I can keep loving people who I don’t necessarily share the same opinion with,’ she said.

After sharing a video mocking Watson over the weekend, Rowling has now revealed her disdain for the actor’s comments in great detail in a lengthy post on X.

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… https://t.co/c0pz19P7jc

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 29, 2025

In it, she conceded that the former child stars she made famous had ‘every right to embrace gender ideology,’ but went on to imply that publicly disagreeing with her crosses a line.

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Always one to stress that she’s not the aggressor – despite her incessant attacks on trans people – Rowling also claimed she had rejected media requests for comment about Watson because she didn’t want the star to be ‘hounded.’

But the strangest part of her post bizarrely claims that Watson has the luxury of supporting trans people because of the immense privilege she grew up with as a child millionaire.

Watson can recognise – even from a distance – that trans people are not the threat they’ve been painted to be (Picture: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

‘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,’ said Rowling.

‘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?’

Watson is estimated to have earned around £49 million from the Harry Potter franchise. She was a regular on the Sunday Times Rich List for Britons under 30 until she aged out. And yes, it’s of course true that she and her co-stars have lived a life so vastly different from the rest of us that their privilege is undeniable.

Rowling claims Watson has the luxury of supporting trans people because of the immense privilege she grew up with as a child millionaire (Picture: Alan Davidson/Shutterstock)

But Rowling weaponising Watson’s wealth is utterly baffling.

Rowling specifically claims Watson is unlikely to have used a high street changing room since childhood – a statement that is, frankly, irrelevant. 

Even if Watson hasn’t recently used a high street changing room, I’m sure she’s aware of the concept and I can imagine wouldn’t be scared to use one out of fear she might encounter a trans person.

The writer went on to list various other scenarios Watson is unlikely to encounter: a homeless shelter, a mixed-space hospital ward.

I will never see £1 million in my lifetime – or anything close. Nor will the majority of people I know who also support the trans community.

I'm already missing @intel_lady's Angela Rayner,but I'm here for ALL the spoofs???? https://t.co/2jdtD9MYw7

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) September 26, 2025

But support for the trans community – or for any marginalised group – doesn’t come from a place of privilege. It comes from a fundamental belief that trans people exist and deserve to be treated with the same decency and respect we all want in this world.

Many of us mere mortals who cherish the trans community happily share our mixed-gender spaces with them, in the knowledge that they are not the threat to our lives or safety that Rowling so often suggests them to be.

I won’t pretend to know how Rowling lives her life or the spaces she now finds herself in – because I would, and could, never make that assessment without following her every move.

But if the logic is that Watson isn’t using mixed-gender spaces because she’s a millionaire, I imagine Rowling hasn’t used many herself for a very long time either.

Rowling’s is a platform which in itself has come from great privilege, says Adam (Picture: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images for Warner Bros.)

Admittedly, I’m not without privilege. Rowling has famously experienced poverty – a kind I have never experienced. Her rags-to-riches story is remarkable, and if there’s anything I admire about her, it’s that.

She also revealed in 2020 that she is a survivor of domestic abuse and sexual assault. While I don’t agree with Rowling’s views on gender identity, I respect that her perspective comes from an entirely different place than mine.

But that doesn’t give her the right to shut down another woman with a different belief just because they’ve lived most of their life sitting on a huge fortune.

It also doesn’t mean she can put herself in the shoes of many of us who live in a very different world than the one she remembers, before she became one of the wealthiest people in the UK.

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I disagree with Rowling on every single level when it comes to the rights of trans people. There has been a visible shift in the treatment of trans people – particularly in the UK – over the last decade.

It’s become increasingly difficult to watch their rights gradually stripped away, based on a fanciful narrative that they pose a threat to women.

Rowling fans the flames of fear toward the trans community on a platform so influential and powerful that it’s hard to argue that her views haven’t made life significantly harder for many trans people.

In fact, hers is a platform which in itself has come from great privilege.

Watson, Radcliffe, and many other millionaires can support trans men and women without shopping at H&M, using public hospitals, or relying on council-run swimming pools where they might share changing rooms.

They can recognise – even from a distance – that trans people are not the threat they’ve been painted to be. Trans people have existed since the dawn of time – for every single day Rowling, and everyone else on this planet, has been alive – without being the danger to women she believes them to be.

I, too, can recognise that – even without millions in the bank. Hopefully, one day Rowling will as well. Though that feels more impossible by the day.

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