Just when you thought there were no more depths to plumb, today JK Rowling seemingly decided to join in on a cruel "joke" mocking victims of Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Full story & context below:

The tweet in question appears to be an attempt to mock the mental health of feminist writer Laurie Penny, who recently revealed that she had experienced CPTSD after undergoing an extensive harassment campaign following the publication of her trans-positive book.

Julie Bindel, infamous for her extensive transphobia and toxic social media presence, then posted a lie on her Twitter page that Penny had claimed her review "caused her Complex PTSD".

Despite Penny pointing this fiction out, the post has not been corrected.

Laurie Penny replied to Rowling's apparently endorsement of the bullying against her and other victims of PTSD with eloquence, compassion, and - quite frankly - unearned deference, given Rowling's consistent behaviour

That decency was absolutely not reciprocated...

We have been trying to find any way to read this other than "If you call me a transphobe then it's fine to mock your mental illness" but we honestly can't.

This feels like a full masks off moment for JK Rowling. Those who criticise her bigotry are apparently not worth compassion

It's genuinely hard to find words for this.

Rowling's position appears to be that victims of discrimination, bullying, and harassment must show "empathy" to people who are angry that trans folk are allowed to use the toilets they want, or mocking their mental health is fine.

It's a nastily familiar echo of abuser-logic.

Victims must be nice to their abusers before they can "earn" the right to not be bullied and harassed.
A victim's reaction to abuse is retroactive justification for abuse.
Victim standing up for themselves is the *real* abuse.

Rowling finishes with some victim blaming and mental health shaming.

PTSD is not exclusively caused by living through warzones, and the stigma that those who develop it from different traumatic events are somehow "lesser", "fakes", or unworthy of compassion is a harmful fiction.

After everything Rowling has done in the last few years, this behaviour probably shouldn't surprise us.

But it's still shocking to see such venom and cruelty promoted by such a powerful figure. Especially one who at least claims that her own bigotry is really "concern for women"

It is probably worth noting that this is not the first time JK Rowling's support for transphobia has involved her apparently also endorsing ableism.

In 2020, Rowling Liked a tweet attacking medical care for trans folk which described people who took antidepressants as "lazy".