JK Rowling slams John Oliver for mocking right-wing outrage over trans athletes: ‘Read the f**king room’

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: JK Rowling did not mince words while slamming John Oliver after he called out the current government’s policies against transgender athletes.

During the ‘Last Week Tonight’ episode on Sunday, April 6, the British comedian said, “In our post-election show, I said there are vanishingly few trans girls competing in high school sports anywhere, and even if there were more, trans kids, like all kids, vary in athletic ability, and there is no evidence that they pose any threat to safety or fairness,” as per The Hollywood Reporter.

He then went on to attack Rowling by noting that after the airing of that episode, she shared “the single longest tweet I’ve ever seen in my life”.

John Oliver stands by his comments on trans athlete

Oliver also cited a part of the author’s tweet that read, “If you want to tell the world you're happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist post-modern ideology embraced by a minute fraction of the world's population, fair enough; you're allowed your opinion.”

On the episode, he said, “Honestly, it feels a bit weird to catch that much heat from the creator of Harry Potter, especially when I clearly look like what would have happened to him if they’d just left him in that cupboard for the rest of his life.”

“I stand by everything I said in that episode, but I will concede that this subject is more complicated,” the 47-year-old asserted.

JK Rowling lambasts John Oliver for taking ‘anti-women's rights positions’

Oliver soon faced the heat from Rowling, who retweeted a post on X, “HBO aired a 45 minute episode of Last Week Tonight, in which John Oliver argued that men have only limited or no advantage over women in sports, and men winning in women’s sports almost never happens, on the same evening that a women’s pool final was contested between two men.”

The 59-year-old also shared her own thoughts with the re-shared message.

“I understand why men like Oliver, who've consistently mocked anti-science people on the right, sold out initially. They didn't want to blow up their careers,” she wrote.

Rowling added, “Taking fashionable anti-women's rights positions was the cost of doing business. But it's time to read the f**king room.”

Netizens accuse John Oliver of enjoying ‘berating women’

She received support from many online as one X user posted, “Men like John Oliver seem willing to throw the majority of people under the bus to cater to the entitled and noisy few. That's just being smug. The only cure for vanity is a lesson in humility, one I predict and hope he may soon receive.”

“JKR has a big spot in my heart,” another user wrote.

“Why are there no trans men competing in men's sports?” a person asked.

“This is disgusting. Was a decent college sprinter. Definitely not Olympic caliber as a male. If I had competed as a woman, I would have won Olympic gold medals/set world records in: 100m 200m 400m Men who compete against women in sports are cowards. And so are their enablers,” the second one commented.

A tweet said, “From my perspective, watching his face, body language, he appears to relish berating women. ‘Trans rights’ have been a gift to a certain type of man.”

Another tweet read, “Do you think he realizes he's just arguing for the elimination of women's sports.. ?”

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online