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J.K. Rowling twitter takedown of "Mr. Liberal Cool Guy" reminds us not to use female-specific insults.

Our heroine of the literary world and favorite political advocate is back at it again, taking swings at the patriarchy with eloquent sass.

On Friday, June 9, J.K. Rowling tweeted out against one of our greatest enemies: “Mr. Liberal Cool Guy.” Rowling posted that she unfollowed this specific man because he called Theresa May a whore.

In her 14-part spout, Rowling spoke out against the harmful words towards women this figure uses and explained those words’ political and social effects.

In short: Mr. Liberal Cool Guy is not liberal in the slightest, because he uses his maleness to dominate over, instill fear in and take respect from women just because he disagrees with them. He turns a dispute ugly by attacking her femaleness instead of speaking out against her as an equal with opposite opinions.

Mr. Liberal Cool Guy is destructive because he claims to be on our side. He argues: “I’m doing this for you, I’m using my privilege to bring you up, too.” Gee, thanks, you’re a real gift to womankind. I’m sure you also believe “not all men” are like that.

To Mr. Liberal Cool Guy: Turns out not all women are liberal; that’s okay. Some women are liberal, some are conservative, but universally, no women want to be harassed; and that just happens to be the part you don’t understand. You can’t pull yourself out of your gender hierarchy to see what practical, day-to-day things you need to do to actually empower the women you claim to be behind.

Rowling specifically called out Mr. Liberal Cool Guy, but he isn’t the only offender of using sexist language to tear women down in arguments. We’re not surprised when Mr. Conservative Posh Guy™ does it. But in a heartbreaking wake-up call, women do it, too.

There definitely aren’t as many rape threats commented by women as there are commented by men, but there are still plenty of differing values turned distasteful by using female-specific negative language. We hate Mr. Liberal Cool Guy because he’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but we don’t often look at how we treat our fellow sheep. Metaphor too far stretched?

It’s important to remember that gender-specific insults tear down the whole gender and, honestly, make for less compelling and less accurate arguments. A person can be described as uninformed, ignorant, corrupt, too liberal, too conservative, selfish, etc., if that’s what they really are. But calling a woman a whore just because she has different political values than you is now both rude and inaccurate. It’s not a clever comeback and it’s not an articulate defense.

So, thank you, J.K. Rowling, for reminding us that femaleness should not be a go-to attack point. Thank you for exposing Mr. Liberal Cool Guy for who he really is so he can use his new knowledge to actually become a true, liberal, defender of women.

And thank you for always providing us with relevant real-talk to kick us in the butt and make us more educated, progressive and thoughtful people. May we learn to call out sexism as we see it in order to be better advocates and truth-tellers.

J.K. Rowling twitter takedown of "Mr. Liberal Cool Guy" reminds us not to use female-specific insults.

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