Britain’s National Trust, a leading UK heritage and nature conservation charity, withdrew a textile display bearing the name JK Rowling, it was confirmed on Thursday, June 5th. The ‘artwork’ in question, “A Virtuous Woman”, went on display in February this year at Hardwick Hall in Doe Lea, Derbyshire.
But at some point Rowling’s name—included in the tapestry following her public nomination—was obscured with light pink, white and light blue threads, the colours of the trans activist flag. Next, feminist campaigner Jean Hatchet claimed to have “corrected” the “hateful” alterations to the display by restoring Rowling’s name.
According to the National Trust
The artwork was open to contributions for eight months and closed in November when the piece was finished and put on public display. During the participation phase, JK Rowling’s name was stitched onto the piece seven times and in two instances it was stitched over by other participants. At the time the artwork was completed and subsequently hung, JK Rowling’s name appeared five times without any overstitching.
The piece—sponsored as a “collaborative piece of art formed of participants’ views from a variety of age groups, life experiences and beliefs”—has since been withdrawn from public display. It is striking that Hatchet’s careful intervention was condemned as ‘tampering’ by the National Trust, but not the attempts to erase Rowling.
Having embraced ‘woke’ ideology, the National Trust itself is frequently embroiled in such ‘culture wars’ controversies, prompting its critical friends to set up the group ‘Restore Trust’ to tip the charity’s emphasis back towards heritage and conservation.
The kerfuffle in Derbyshire also suggests that trans activists—like the character Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter novels—dare not speak Rowling’s name, and would prefer it if nobody else did. At a recent London trans demonstration, there were also calls to ‘burn the witch.’
