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JK Rowling's gloriously serene putdown of Serena Williams Twitter troll

Technically Incorrect: A man opines that Wimbledon champion Serena Williams looks like a man. The Harry Potter author decides to sock him. And tens of thousands approve.

Chris Matyszczyk
2 min read

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.


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Should a celebrity bother with trolls? Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET

On Saturday, Serena Williams won Wimbledon.

Sadly, Twitter has a championship every day, one in which people try to outdo each other for (what they see as) wit.

One example of this was offered by a tweeter called Rob. He appears to be a Manchester United fan, so he may have experienced troubled times of late.

When it came to Williams, he offered: "ironic then that main reason for her success is that she is built like a man."

I'm one of the delusional people who believes she wins with talent.

Still, Rob's deep thought was offered in reply to "Harry Potter" author JK Rowling musing: "#SerenaSlam! I love her. What an athlete, what a role model, what a woman!"

Some might think Rob's grasp of irony imperfect. Rowling clearly thought it worth commenting on this.

She replied with a rather fetching image of Williams wearing a red dress and the words: "'she is built like a man.' Yeah, my husband looks just like this in a dress. You're an idiot."

Replying to those who are -- as the English say -- off their trolly (spelling deliberate) is sometimes a dangerous thing. It tends to embolden those whose voice is rarely heard.

Still, at the time of writing, Rowling's neat riposte has enjoyed almost 80,000 retweets and has been favorited more than 100,000 times.

Don't think for a moment that it has stopped Rob, though. On Sunday, he continued to express his opinions about the female form. Or, rather, his definition of it.

He was busy retweeting all sorts of similar (if not worse) comments from fellow body-shaming travelers. He also explained that he was not for turning: "Listen twitter sheeple I think she has manly features I couldn't care less if you find her attractive, you are not gonna change my opinion."

I suspect, though, that there's something else that bothers Rob a touch.

Indeed, he rather expressed it himself on Sunday: "Btw if jk rowling is so fierce and amazing why post one tweet block me and then hide, doesn't sound fierce to me lol." (Since I noted these tweets, Rob has made his Twitter account private.)

I fancy Rob doesn't understand women very well. Rowling isn't hiding. She, like Serena Williams, knows when she's won.