J.K. Rowling dragged for posting upskirt photo of trans woman for 'refusing to debate'

J.K. Rowling is back in the hot seat.

The Harry Potter appears to be taking a break from X, after posting another flurry of transphobic rants against a British podcaster who is an out transgender woman.

Freda Wallace became the latest target of Rowling's ire last week, when she refused to engage with her in an online debate. That's when Rowling chose to shame Wallace for how she dressed by sharing an upskirt picture to prove her target was “a paraphiliac exhibitionist who was having the time of his life.”

It all started back on July 11, when Wallace called the Harry Potter author an "idiot" for her response to Amnesty International's report that labeled Rowling's center for women who are victims of sexual violence "anti-rights" and "gender critical." In declining the invitation, Wallace repeatedly noted Rowling was deadnaming and misgendering her.

That didn't stop Rowling from repeatedly trolling Wallace and encouraging her 13.7M followers to invite this debate, "on any subject he likes." Then, the author took a step that triggered the wave of online backlash.

Rowling shared a photo from a 2023 debate that was reportedly taken by anti-trans activist and fellow transphobe Maya Forstater, which shows Wallace sitting with one leg crossed over the other wearing a dress over fishnet stockings. It appears Forstater snapped the picture from a position slightly below where Wallace was seated on a dais, and shows some of Wallace’s upper thigh that wasn’t covered by the stockings.

“Sadly, Fred is refusing to debate me,” Rowling wrote, captioning the picture. “To prove I have no hard feelings, and that Fred does engage with some lucky women, here’s a picture of him debating @HJoyceGender [gender critical writer Helen Joyce]. I hear he left an indelible impression on the audience. And the chair.”

Rowling and her followers intimated that Wallace's genitals are visible alongside her thigh in the picture. Wallace denies this, but demanded Rowling remove the post within 24 hours, and that she apologize or face legal action.

Since the photo was snapped at a public forum, Rowling defended her post because of how Wallace "chose" to dress. Soon after, the Harry Potter author was hammered for sharing that photo.

A nurse named Harry with more than 73K followers responded to Rowling: "You’re a truly awful person. You have the world, yet still spend your days bullying people on X. Sad."

Another X user wrote: “Would you ever post a photo like this of a cis woman? What would you think of a man who posted a photo like this of any woman? So what makes you think it OK to post this photo of a trans woman?”

“Fred was at a public event that was filmed with all participants’ knowledge,” Rowling replied, again deadnaming Wallace. “Fred chose the fishnets and miniskirt. Fred boasted on stage about what he does with his female penis. You may feel squeamish about this picture, but Fred is a paraphiliac exhibitionist who was having the time of his life.”'

That user told Rowling: “You realize you’re doing exactly what men do to humiliate and demean women who they think are too vocal, or too provocative, or politically challenging, or not sufficiently demurely dressed? (See, Angela Rayner, for example).”

Still another X user commented: “You’re a gross bully. What a sad woman you must be.”

Wallace addressed the controversy on social media and on a British podcast, Lavender and Steel, on Sunday.

"Why would a woman that has so much global reach and she's respected around the world... people think of her as a national treasure. Why would she focus on somebody like me with 500 followers on Twitter? Just, I've been on telly a couple of times. I've done a bit of public speaking. Nobody's going to know who I am. So... she has the power to change the course of my life because for some people now the only thing they're going to see... when they Google that, that is the only thing they're going to see."