SARAH VINE: Why inspirational J.K Rowling is my woman of the year

It’s that time of year again when various media outlets reveal their inspirational person or persons of the year.

From the BBC’s achingly woke list of women to Time magazine’s more controversial choice of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, they are all in their own ways worthy recipients.

But if you ask me, only one person truly deserves that title in 2021 — J. K. Rowling.

I can’t tell you how my admiration for this woman has grown in recent years. She has gone from being just another famous author to the modern equivalent of writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft or Simone de Beauvoir; a feminist icon every bit as inspirational — and controversial.

It’s that time of year again when various media outlets reveal their inspirational person or persons of the year. But if you ask me, only one person truly deserves that title in 2021 — J. K. Rowling

Last month, she was excluded from the 20th anniversary celebration of the Harry Potter films while a bunch of woke little ingrates — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — basked in the glory of a lucrative franchise which, without her, wouldn’t exist.

And all because she has been miscast as a modern-day witch for daring to challenge the hard-line dogma of trans activists who insist — against all reason — that biological sex does not exist.

And that anyone who calls themselves a woman has a right to occupy female-only spaces, even if that threatens those who might have cause to feel vulnerable in the presence of biological males.

Last month, Rowling was excluded from the 20th anniversary celebration of the Harry Potter films while a bunch of woke little ingrates — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — basked in the glory of a lucrative franchise which, without her, wouldn’t exist

This week, Rowling was magnificent when she responded to guidance issued by Police Scotland that rapes could be recorded as carried out by a woman if the perpetrator ‘identifies as female’.

Adapting a quotation from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, she tweeted: ‘War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.’

Thus she summarised the dangers faced by women in a world that increasingly seems to believe someone’s right to self-identity trumps all other human rights.

Needless to say, her words provoked a furious response. No doubt efforts will be made to cancel her (again) and the armies of the professionally outraged will come for her. 

Just as they did last year when she tweeted an article entitled, ‘Creating a more equal post-Covid world for people who menstruate’, commenting: ‘ “People who menstruate”? I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’ 

From the BBC’s achingly woke list of women to Time magazine’s more controversial choice of SpaceX founder Elon Musk, they are all in their own ways worthy recipients

She is utterly fearless in the face of such lunacy and has brought this debate out into the open where it belongs, exposing the flaws in the arguments and underlining the injustices of a movement that, with supreme irony, prides itself on being all about tolerance.

In the face of childish petulance, and far worse, Rowling has shown herself to be a grown-up who, as she has painstakingly explained on numerous occasions and in a lengthy essay, is far from hostile to trans people but doesn’t think their rights should trump those of others.

Rowling is a woman who has known male violence herself and is determined to protect other women from sharing that fate, whatever the cost to herself.

She is a woman who stands up for what is right and reasonable in the face of aggression, paranoia, ignorance and hysteria; who has the courage to say what she believes even when she knows her words will be twisted out of all context.

All that and she writes cracking stories, too.

Here’s to you, J.K. Cheers.

Last month, Rowling was excluded from the 20th anniversary celebration of the Harry Potter films while a bunch of woke little ingrates — Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint — basked in the glory of a lucrative franchise which, without her, wouldn’t exist

 Do put a frock in it, Kate...

Kate Beckinsale’s not fooling anyone when she posts a snap of herself wearing the same Carmen Miranda costume she wore aged nine.

It’s like her complaining about her high IQ (152) being a ‘handicap’ in Hollywood.

We get the message, Kate: you’re slimmer and cleverer than the rest of us.

Kate Beckinsale’s not fooling anyone when she posts a snap of herself wearing the same Carmen Miranda costume she wore aged nine

Having a child at university used to be every parent’s dream. Now it’s more like a nightmare. 

You bring them up to be open-minded and curious, and they come back to you brainwashed or cowed by far-Left bullies determined to shut down free speech and vilify anyone who dares challenge their dogma. 

Who in their right mind would pay £9,000 a year — and the rest — for that?

Apparently, Last Christmas by Wham! (right) is the top song choice for dogs. Honestly, who dreams up this nonsense?

Is it the same people who buy their pets Christmas stockings? I love my dogs, but they haven’t a clue what day it is and don’t care what music I play — as long as it’s anything by Bow Wow Wow.

Apparently, Last Christmas by Wham! (right) is the top song choice for dogs. Honestly, who dreams up this nonsense?

 Porn is just pernicious

Billie Eilish has revealed that she began watching porn at the age of 11 and it ‘really destroyed my brain’.

It might be tempting to dismiss this as an experience of a precocious LA upbringing, but sadly it’s not. Eleven is the average age at which children first see porn; and these sites get more monthly visits than Netflix.

Unlike Netflix, they are free to view.

Billie Eilish has revealed that she began watching porn at the age of 11 and it ‘really destroyed my brain’

The new three-visitor limit for care home residents is ‘devastating’, according to a spokesperson for the campaign group Relatives & Residents Association. Seriously? 

I’ll tell you what would really be devastating: a repeat of last winter’s care home carnage. I’m no fan of Covid restrictions, but this is the one that makes most sense.

There is something really depressing about the headmaster of Malvern College — which has close links to two of our greatest writers, J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis — declaring that using pens in exams is ‘too tiring’ for pupils. 

Can they even write their own names? And they call that progress.

Betrayal of the ghost children

In contrast to care home residents, there is virtually no danger posed to children by Covid. Which is why the Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, should immediately quash any suggestion that schools might not open again in the new year.

Only last week, it emerged that 100,000 ‘ghost’ children are thought to be at risk of abuse after failing to return to school following the lockdowns. That’s children who at best will miss out on an education, and at worst will find themselves trapped in abusive homes.

Children like six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, and now also 16-month-old Star Hobson, murdered by her mother’s lover.

For youngsters like these, nursery or school is a lifeline, often their only chance of escaping the hell into which they have been born. It is quite simply morally wrong for us to abandon them to their fate. 

The Government must classify schools as essential services and keep them open at all costs — and teaching unions should urge members to get vaccinated and get on with the job. If not, we’ll be remembered as the generation that threw their children under a bus to save their own skin.

Children like six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, and now also 16-month-old Star Hobson, murdered by her mother’s lover. For youngsters like these, nursery or school is a lifeline, often their only chance of escaping the hell into which they have been bo

So jealous of the women featured in yesterday’s Mail who hire nannies-slash-assistants in December so they can spend more time ‘doing Christmassy things’.

But then you’re looking at a woman who once got the nanny to run the mothers’ race at school.

OK it was a bit naughty, but so worth it to see the look of fury on the other mothers’ faces when she left them all standing.

How is it possible that 94,000 NHS staff still aren’t vaccinated? They are either reckless fools or know something we don’t. Either way, it’s not encouraging.