Billy Batson Would Continue to Be Disappointed in Zachary Levi, Who Aligned Himself with J.K. Rowling
Zachary Levi has made headlines a number of times over the past few years… and it hasn’t always been a result of his work as an actor. He’s bizarrely crashed out over his future as DC’s Shazam! on Instagram Live, thrown his support behind Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump, and other far right issues, and then crashed out again over being ostracized in Hollywood as a result of it.
Now, the Chuck and Harold and the Purple Crayon star has branched into new territory: aligning himself with the latest transphobic comments made by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling. On Wednesday, Rowling once again went viral for a string of comments she made on Twitter about the transgender community. In an exchange with user @theglassfish13, Rowling genuinely questioned whether or not (in her words) “trans women and ‘fans of Pride'” are missing any specific rights that they need to fight for… a comment that is obviously obtuse, especially amid the slew of anti-trans legislation in recent years.
Rowling ended the conversation with a lengthy post, in which she argues her most frequent talking point: that allowing transgender women into public “women-only” spaces like restrooms, sports leagues, and rape crisis centers only creates opportunity for more cisgender women and girls to be assaulted. Levi soon shared the post on his own Twitter account hours later with a simple “This” and a prayer hands emoji.
“‘Trans women are women’ is a thought-terminating cliché,” Rowling’s post reads in part. “Men are not women. That doesn’t mean they’re not allowed to present themselves however they like, call themselves whatever they like and believe whatever they like about themselves. It means they haven’t changed sex. If we replace the objective, observable characteristic of sex with the unfalsifiable concept of gender identify, women and girls lose, among other things, their right to fair and safe sport and women-only spaces, including changing rooms, prison cells and rape crisis services.”
“Women and girls are provably more vulnerable to forms of abuse including sexual assault, harassment and voyeurism in mixed-sex spaces,” Rowling continues. “There is no evidence that trans-identified men don’t have exactly the same rates of criminal offending as all other men. Trans people exist. I have no desire for them not to exist; indeed, I wish them safety, happiness and health. However, ‘existence’ does not, and should not, mean the violation of other people’s right to privacy, dignity and freedom of speech, or the reconfiguration of society to indulge a fallacy.
Are We Really Surprised?
Parts of Rowling’s statement have gone viral in the past few days: particularly, the fact that she literally admitted that transgender people exist and that she wishes them “safety, happiness and health”, which is (on the surface) a lot kinder to than the vast majority of her comments have been. But her central argument, which Levi is enthusiastically agreeing with, still remains harmful. The notion that trans women (or men who are just going to say they’re transgender) are going into “women-only spaces” with the intent to harm or abuse others has been a fallacy for decades… and if anything, forcing trans people to stay in spaces that don’t match their current gender identity has only caused more harm.”
To an extent, Rowling’s comments aren’t even that surprising, as she’s been saying a variation of them publicly ever since 2019. And in the years since, she’s expressed other talking points, as she has previously argued that young people are transitioning “too early” in attempt to avoid “sexism” and “homophobia”, that certain female athletes aren’t “feminine” enough, has shared her opposition on various pieces of anti-transgender legislation, and even opened her own trans-exclusionary crisis health center.
It’s also, honestly, unsurprising that Levi would throw himself behind such comments, given his outspoken political leanings and his feelings about things like the COVID-19 vaccine. Levi was quoted last year as saying that supporting Trump was “more important than saving [his] career,” and his behavior now that his career actually has nosedived has continued to show his true colors. Up until this point, that hadn’t included actually weighing in on trans issues, outside of following a few clearly-transphobic Twitter accounts and making weird comments about The Last of Us TV show. But wading into Rowling’s form of very public transphobia, which only continues to court more controversy in the lead up to HBO’s TV remake of Harry Potter, is a whole new ball game.
(featured image: Warner Bros.)
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