twitter responses

After seeing a man on Twitter call British Prime Minister Theresa May a "whore," author J.K. Rowling unloaded on "liberal" men who engage in sexism.

"Just unfollowed a man whom I thought was smart and funny, because he called Theresa May a whore," she began as she offered an impassioned plea for people to criticize May's political opinions and actions instead of resorting to gendered slurs.

As a long-time supporter of the Labour party, Rowling doesn't have much in common with May (the leader of the U.K.'s Conservative Party) when it comes to politics. Still, Rowling knows what it's like to receive criticism based on one's identity instead of their deeds, which is what motivated her flurry of tweets.

Rowling specifically singled out the hypocrisy of liberal men "who reach immediately for crude and humiliating words associated with femaleness" and "act like old school misogynists" whenever they encounter "a woman [who] displeases them."

There are loads of ways and reasons to criticize May's politics, but sexist ad hominem attacks – especially when they come from people who identify as liberal and progressive — don't accomplish anything.

"I don’t care whether we’re talking about Theresa May or Nicola Sturgeon or Kate Hooey or Yvette Cooper or Hillary Clinton: femaleness is not a design flaw," Rowling tweeted. "If your immediate response to a woman who displeases you is to call her a synonym for her vulva, or compare her to a prostitute, then drop the pretence and own it: you’re not a liberal."

You can disagree with and vehemently oppose any other female celebrities and politicians or women in your life and around the world without resorting to sexism. If you believe in equal rights, in feminism, in respect for women, and still occasionally resort to sexist insults, you may just want to give this a try. For everyone's sake.

For now, though, this is another classic Rowling mic drop.

Mic drop. GIF from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."