Black mold, or insults about it, seem to have gotten to “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling’s head.
Over the past few days, internet users have been dunking on Rowling’s X avatar after eagle-eyed posters thought they’d spotted an infestation in the background of Rowling’s profile picture.
“Sorry but is that black mould growing up the walls of her house?” posted @mushycrouton last Tuesday over Rowling’s profile picture, setting off the speculation. “Is that why she’s the way she is?”
An archived version of Rowling’s account showed the old avatar on her account over the weekend, leading many to speculate she changed it in response to the wave of insults.
Does JK Rowling’s house have black mold in it?
Users also posted other photos Rowling had uploaded over the years of herself sitting in her living room in front of cream-colored walls highlighted by dark, blooming patterns painted on the walls, which do look at least a little bit like mold.
The most common black mold strain is Stachybotrys chartarum, which feeds on cellulose-based materials like wood and drywall.
In around 25% of people, black mold can also cause depression, anxiety, brain fog, and insomnia, which can result in a variety of personality issues including mood swing, problems assimilating new information, confusion, and disorientation, though studies have disputed whether mold in homes can be actually cause adverse health reactions.
But people online didn’t need to cite a scientific study to claim that clearly the black mold on the walls of Rowling’s living room was the reason for Rowling’s full-throated tilt over the past half-decade into what she calls gender critical advocacy and others describe as straightforwardly transphobic.
“It’s like her house has been corrupted by her hate,” posted @KaskaJessica, comparing pictures of the living room from 2020 to 2024. “Slowly becoming a mould infested rot hole.”
Another post compiling pictures of Rowling in the room over the years riffed on the idea that an advancing fungal infection was behind Rowling’s views, and gave it a Harry Potter-esque title.
“J.K. Rowling and the Black Mold’s Curse,” joked @karaokecomputer.
“RIP Edgar Allan Poe. You would have loved watching a beloved children’s author slowly driven to insanity by black mold inside the walls of her castle,” said another.
Not everyone, though, was fully onboard with the idea the image was mold. Some speculated that it could actually be the result of a filter messing with the background of the photo.
“Looks like it might actually be shitty wallpaper art that’s being messed up by her aggressive skin smoothing face filter. Might have to deal with the scarier possibility that she became a fucked up evil person without any Mold Voice egging her on.”
Beyond the various explanations for why Rowling’s walls might look like they do and what it might mean about her state of mind, there were also plenty of memes just mocking the situation.
“You can now cosplay JK Rowling in Elden Ring,” posted @Saeko_Cut over an image of the Mushroom Set light armor set from the Fantasy RPG Elden Ring.
“JK Rowling in a few years,” joked the journalist Alejandra Caraballo over a photo of a person ravaged by the Cordyceps fungal infection from the video game and TV show “The Last of Us.” In the game, the airborne fungal infection attacks people’s brains in four stages, distorting their bodies and minds in horrific ways that cause them to attack other human beings.
And whatever the truth about the black mold-looking walls in Rowling’s living room is, the online furor may have gotten to Rowling, who changed her profile picture on Sunday.
“She just changed her profile picture because of this lmao,” posted @esjesjesj.
The new profile picture doesn’t have any visibile walls in it, but a flesh-colored protrusion in the background raised some eyebrows of its own.
“jk rowling ditched the black mold pic for whatever the fuck we have here,” posted @PleaseBeGneiss.
And while some posters joked that the thing might have been a dildo or a penis, other fungi fans thought they’d identified the object, joking it was another growth in her house.
“Did you see the Stinkhorn fungus?” posted @FootballReprt over photos of a pungent, phallic fungus common in the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe.
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