JK Rowling's new book features a psychotic male killer who wears dresses to dupe his female victims

• JK Rowling's new book features a male serial killer that wears dresses as he murders his victims, who are all cis women.
• The first review of "Troubled Blood" published in The Telegraph said, the book's "moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress."
• Rowling's new villain builds on a decades-old transphobic trope in media — transwomen are just deranged, serial-killer men in dresses.
• "Troubled Blood" comes after Rowling released a statement and series of tweets many people deemed transphobic.

JK Rowling rose to fame after penning one of the most notable villains in youth literature, Lord Voldemort.

But in her latest novel, "Troubled Blood," Rowling's new antagonist has fans calling her a villain.

—Art (@_artsartsarts) September 14, 2020

—J.K. Rowling (@JRowlingparody) September 10, 2020

According to the first review of the new mystery novel, the story's antagonist is a male serial killer who wears dresses as he hunts and dupes his victims, who are women.

Jake Kerridge of The Telegraph wrote the novel's "moral seems to be: never trust a man in a dress."

The archetype is built on a decades-old trope that frames gender-nonconformity, and transgender women in particular, as violent murderers.

The release of the novel comes after Rowling published an essay in June restating her views transgender people, which many Harry Potter fans said was transphobic. The essay includes a false argument that an "explosion" of young women are de-transitioning after accessing transitionary care like hormone replacement therapy.

"There is absolutely no way jk rowling wrote a trans character as the villain in her new book either she's a complete idiot or clearly has no shame or remorse for her blatant transphobia," one Twitter user wrote.

"The villain in JK Rowling's latest novel being trans though," another user wrote. "The people standing with her, as they put it, are gonna eat it up. Deary me."

Rowling's new villain builds on a decades-old transphobic trope in media — transwomen are just deranged serial-killers in dresses

Novels and films like "Silence of the Lambs" and "Dressed to Kill" frame transgender women and femmes as violent killers.

"For decades, Hollywood has taught audiences how to react to trans people," Nick Adams, GLAAD director of trans media & representation, said in the Netflix documentary "Disclosure."

"And sometimes they're being taught that the way to react to us is fear, that we're dangerous, that we're psychopaths, that we're serial killers that we must be deviants or perverts. 'Why else would you wear a dress if you're a man.'"

Critics say Rowling's "Troubled Blood" is no different.

"Gee, she spent months fanning the flames of trans-panic right before releasing a book w/ a murderous pseudo-trans villain? If you're going to make dots this easy to connect, JK, could you at least make them form, like, a picture of a cat when we're done?" one Twitter user wrote.

Though they feature men dressed as women as the killers, they still promote the myth that trans-feminine gender variance leads to a murder.

Similarly to when Rowling released a series of transphobic tweets in June, some fans are far beyond disappointment.

"Your legacy was set. You inspired legions of readers to be better people," one user wrote. "Then you decided you were going to become the worst kind of villain. The kind that would make Voldemort shudder."

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