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Well buying used book does not give jkr one penny, watching dvd does not give and algorithm engagement, amd any old offline game will not either.
i don’t consume any of it but mostly because they’re bad and she’s a bad writer, but being a transphobe certainly didn’t help her case either
I’ve had the first four books in the study at my mom’s house since I was a kid. My nephew and nieces will read them. We have the box set of DVDs from forever ago. Same deal. I wouldn’t consider myself a die-hard fan. I still don’t understand why die-hard fans could still be spending so much money on the franchise. Did they add to the books?
The short answer is it’s not books. It’s mostly licencing deals in the form of video games and merchandise… However HBO is about to put forward a new series that JKR will have executive control and an executive sized pay check for.
It’s the “well it already exists and licencing deals are already paid, might as well watch it/play it/own it” that keeps the whole engine rolling on. Every time there’s a little bit of advocacy to disengage from the fandom it is always spun as “too late” or focuses on the books or death of the author… But all that’s really required is ambivalence.
Inevitably the new HP thing will come out and whether or not trans people mention anything people will drag up the controversy, use the reminder to brigade the spaces trans people connect online, try and goad their trans coworker for a commentary and set off yet another flurry of right wing backlash that makes elevating the franchise a patriotic duty to “stick it to the moralizing trans people to show them who is boss”. All of this causes more cultural pressure on a population already underwater with being chased out of the public sphere but it will be framed as a just retaliation for a perceived slight.
It’s a song and dance that will continue ad infinitum as long as it’s profitable because appearantly nostalgia is worth turning a blind eye to the where the money goes.
If you wanna play the game, pirate it and then play it offline.
I wasn’t interested in playing it, but now I’m gonna do this out of spite.
The game is alright, just go to the trans person and go and see the burning JK rowling picture
I would love to understand why saying “Don’t support cunts” is such a non-controversial statement.
Until it comes to Harry Potter.
Especially considering how simple it is to do.
it is interesting how JK Rowling hasn’t had the same boycott pressure than Elon Musk and Tesla, I think trans rights are just not as motivating to most people, unfortunately
because it’s Don’t support assholes,
but what if it affects me personally?
They’re basically swifties ffs.
Same thing for nintendo
There is a huge difference between a company being very protective about their intellectual property and somebody actively working on destroying lives on humans.
Nintendo just has a weird concept of protecting their property. Rowling instead is an arsehole
I’ll never. Ever. Understand being rich enough to enjoy the rest of your life and choosing to spend that wealth harming innocent people.
Hmm so I have 51.397.624.942 dollars, lets get that to 52BN, right?
It’s so stupid.
In my humble opinion it also breaks the social contract; where money is used as a substitute for labour, no one should have hundreds(or wayore ofc) of lifetimes of labour sitting in an account, it doesn’t even make sense.
How on earth can this be changed/reformed? Having the ability to gift someone a lifetime of labour is a very powerful incentive, one that we did not vote for when it comes to the billonaires.
Am I making sense?
I think these hard line stances do more harm than good.
My wife and I are active in not supporting any new things, but to talk about how you think it’s morally wrong to even talk about the franchise is going to alienate a ton of people.
I feel fine talking about it, and the memories I had with it. Because everyone I surround myself with is completely aligned that Harry Potter was meaningful when we were kids and also JK Rowling is a complete fucking asshat.
This sort of purity testing has got to stop. If mentioning the name of Harry Potter marks someone as a transphobe who is equally as bad as politicians actively stripping them of their rights… The movement will never build a coalition.
Saying that financially supporting JK Rowling is actively harming the trans community is a reasonable argument. Saying that talking about Harry Potter, even if you note that JK Rowling sucks, makes you an outright transphobe is not reasonable to me.
If you see an oppressed people protesting against their opression, and your first instinct is to lecture them on the optics of their protest, you’re not really an ally. You’re just using “optics” as an excuse to not do anything to help out but still think of yourself as a good person. I don’t think anyone falls for it.
Sorry for the shift in tone here but this is absurd…
I will continue to show up when it matters and do things like actively promote a great documentary on the day trans people’s rights were stripped away from Iowans because of our dumbass legislature, because I cried watching friends of mine in that room being actively hurt by a government that should protect them. And continue to do the hard work to change the minds of bigoted people in my community, but yes let’s pretend I’m just virtue signaling on an anonymous forum for “optics”. I am actually doing real work and I won’t apologize for not having patience for people saying I don’t do enough because I say mentioning maybe Harry Potter in the proper context is probably fine. It’s not the thing we need people paying attention to right now.
There’s so much more hurt out there. If we boycotted Harry Potter entirely and wiped it from existence in an instant, the average trans persons life doesn’t get suddenly get better.
It’s fucking irritating. We’re wasting breath talking about one stupid fucking lady and an imaginary wizard pretending it’s a leading issue for the trans movement. You can hate me for saying it, but I’m fighting for bigger change than trying to make JK Rowling irrelevant. I would rather raise awareness about the systemic harm that I’m actively witnessing in laws being passed removing trans people’s protected status. That’s a FAR bigger issue.
it does seem extremist as a perspective, but that extremist might think talking about the franchise is akin to marketing or a more passive or subtle way of the franchise receiving funding.
Probably a better argument is that JK Rowling is not as influential as some anti-trans activists, and our behavior and norms should ideally be rational and reflect those priorities.
I agree with you that coalition building is important, and in this particular case probably more important to trans rights than strict adherence to rules like never speaking of Harry Potter.
JK Rowling is probably the most influential anti-trans activist.
Yeah I’ve got to firmly agree on that one. Her fame, and the fact that she created such a beloved franchise, gives her a lot of influence. Most people haven’t heard of the likes of say, Posie Parker, especially outside of the UK.
ah, perhaps “influential” is not the best word choice on my part - I guess what I meant by that was not most famous or reaching the most people, but rather the most successful in their anti-trans advocacy, i.e. Rowling hasn’t had the same kind of influence on trans rights as other anti-trans activists like Matt Walsh, and even Posie Parker I would argue has been more successful at achieving goals of the anti-trans movement than Rowling. Rowling is more famous as a transphobe and in that sense I agree with you she has a bigger platform and can bring more people into the anti-trans movement.
I don’t know, I still don’t agree with that simply by the fact she’s donated such large sums of money to the cause…
The president of the United States is a pretty open anti trans activist and has made deliberate efforts to use being anti trans as a way to whip up his base
I don’t think he’s as influential though. He has a wide-ranging influence over his base, but they already are full of hatred. She’s able to say the quiet parts quietly a lot better, and I think is more likely to radicalise new people to her cause.
I personally haven’t heard anyone go from being neutral to anti trans from jk Rowling bringing up a new perspective but instead have heard people from both the right and the left criticize her. Trump on the other hand radicalized the average bush era Republican into the MAGA cult we see today that is unafraid to openly show hate
I guess if you’re not up to date with the politics of the UK that it would seem like he had a much larger influence than her. We are talking about trans politics only here, don’t forget.
To put it in a different perspective, look at how many people that don’t agree with Trump’s politics that interact with his businesses, compared to the same for JK.
I think she’s the most famous anti-trans activist, but that’s not the same as being the most influential. You might watch ContraPoints’ videos on JK Rowling, she discusses the analogy of JK Rowling to Anita Bryant (a famous homophobe)
here is her first video on JK Rowling establishing that she is indeed a transphobe, there was a time when a lot of people wouldn’t accept that Rowling was actually transphobic
and then her second video covering the “witch trials” of Rowling as a transphobe.
In the end I agree with ContraPoints that JK Rowling has outsized hate directed at her relative to the harm she actually does, and that there is a misogynist tendency for people to target a woman to take out their frustrations on. Marie Antoinette is another example of this - the perceptions of her as a villain exceeded her actual crimes so to speak.
My point isn’t to say Rowling is not a transphobe or not dangerous to trans folks, etc. - I just believe there are plenty of anti-trans activists who are more successful as activists and are more influential than JK Rowling, even if they don’t end up in the headlines as much. That is, they are getting more done to strip trans folks of their rights than JK Rowling, and that’s what I meant by “influential” - as in having power and influence to achieve the political goals of the anti-trans movement.
Matt Walsh for example has basically made a career of advocating against trans folks - creating anti-trans propaganda like What is a Woman?, and going to state legislatures to help pass laws against trans rights. I think he is less famous than JK Rowling, and has a smaller platform - but I would argue he has been more successful at advancing the anti-trans movement than Rowling, and the tangible harms from him are greater.
As far as I can tell, JK Rowling has primarily tweeted her support for the anti-trans movement, then she started funding women-only spaces that are trans-exclusionary, and only recently (as in since last year) has started a fund to help anti-trans legal cases. None of those activities are anywhere as “influential” or effective as the anti-trans activism by others who have actually influenced legislatures and had laws passed to deny healthcare and legal rights.
I would even say Chloe Cole has done more to advance the anti-trans movement than Rowling, for example. She is flown across the U.S. and now across the world to speak on the news and in legislative sessions to help anti-trans laws to be passed.
It’s obvious Rowling is transphobic and is now using her influence to advance the anti-trans movement, I just think the perception of her influence is greater than her actual accomplishments as an anti-trans advocate.
Trump alone has done more to undo trans rights recently than anyone else, people I know personally have lost access to HRT as an adult because of his executive orders. Rowling has never accomplished anything that significant AFAIK.
ContaPoints does a better job evaluating some of this in her videos, I know they are long but I think they’re worth watching and considering.
These are good points. Fair enough, I would retract my statement to her being perhaps the most famous instead of most influential. Fame of course has its own influence though, so it’s still a big problem. A win against JK rowling could possibly be better than a win against Matt Walsh.
I disagree that it’s misognyistic to have such an opinion of JK Rowling. In fact, I think it is misogynistic to suggest that because she’s a woman, we shouldn’t take her at her word for fear that our hatred of her might be motivated by misogyny instead of rationality.
I would agree it’s not misogynistic to think JK Rowling is one of the most infamous transphobes, but that wasn’t quite ContraPoints’ argument. I am admittedly sharing the conclusion without providing her argument, and I’m actually in the hospital right now recovering from surgery so my head is a bit fuzzier than usual. If you watch those videos it should cover that territory though, in case you are interested. Either way I get what you mean about Rowling being so famous and influential in her transphobia, I tend to agree with you.
EDIT: it’s the second video, the Witch Trials of JK Rowling that has the argument I’m talking about, the way that women bigots in particular are such popular targets of outrage. The first chapter of that video is entirely about Anita Bryant as an example.
I do enjoy ContraPoints. I saw one of those videos, I’ll check out the other one. Cheers
Too bad, trans people are more important than your pottertreats. If trans people say something is hurting them just stop doing it. Don’t get into the nitty gritty of “how much harm does it do really?” make as wide a distance as you can to it.
As for this specific instance its not even hard to see how it is harming trans people: talking about hp keeps it in the spotlight which generats more sales.
Why wouldn’t you purge the franchise that funds trans genocide from your life??
Amazing how you people can’t even read a full post before having your aneurysm about trans allys not being pure enough for you
Why wouldn’t you purge the franchise that funds trans genocide from your life?
Because there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the franchise as long as you aren’t supporting it.
Books are available secondhand. Games and movies can be pirated. It doesn’t cost anything to talk about a shared interest with friends.
Just don’t give them money. Don’t go to their theme parks. Don’t buy the merchandise.
You can like a thing and still make a conscious effort not to support the creator. You just have to be clear about the why if anyone asks you about it.
Books are available secondhand. Games and movies can be pirated. It doesn’t cost anything to talk about a shared interest with friends.
Except it keeps this franchise alive, which in turn causes other people to buy the books, the games. If you want the franchise to die off, so no one buys their shit anymore you have to stop participating in it.
Why is “stop platforming fascists” such a controversial take?
Blahaj people sure are weird.
Because you’re taking an authoritarian approach over policing other people’s hobbies and interests, many of who are trans and queer themselves. The franchise is regarded as a “comfort series” for many people who grew up with it, especially kids in abusive households as those demographics tend to gravitate towards fantasy series like Harry Potter and LOTR the most.
Why is having empathy for people different from you such a controversial concept?
Because this “comfort” comes at a cost for other peoples wellbeing.
especially kids in abusive households as those demographics tend to gravitate towards fantasy series like Harry Potter and LOTR the most.
I dont know if you mean this as “The majority of the HP and LOTR fanbase is comprised of kids in abusive households using them as a comfort from the abuse” or “The majority of kids in abusive households use HP and LOTR as comfort from the abuse” but either way that’s a huge claim, do you have anything to back that up?
I would be genuinely surprised if there is a person who would not be able to manage their PTSD without LOTR or HP.
I want to be respectful here, but this has a lot of issues embedded in it.
This kind of rhetoric rises from what I’ve called the Authoritarian Left, which is an immensely detrimental wing. It’s a group where there is no nuance.
You say that if a trans person says it’s hurting them I should stop doing it. OK, but what if a republican says it? Now suddenly I should ignore them? You can’t base your entire ideology on what members of groups say or demand that others adhere to yours simply because you think you’re right.
I love trans people, and I actively fight for them and their rights. But why? I’ll tell you, it’s not because Democrats told me to love them, or a religious leader, or anyone in politics. I looked at the world critically and found their cause worthy.
I’m a durable ally. I’ll stick with it when it’s not cool or trendy, or when it comes at a cost. But that’s because I arrived at those truths myself.
To loop all the way back to the premise - if talking about Harry Potter at all hurts Trans people, then this post hurts trans people. If you disagree with that, then nuance exists. And I’m saying in the nuance of how and who I talk about any topic with, I know and understand that those people understand the situation.
I don’t make public posts about Harry Potter. I often talk about how JK Rowling is a garbage person. My friends have a Harry Potter party that they’ve been hosting for years, and every person there is of a similar mindset that trans people deserve so much more than they are getting.
You have to allow more than one idea in your head at the same time. If you’re making the rule “talking about Harry Potter in any way, at any time, makes you an active enemy of the trans movement”, then that’s not a place I want to be associated with.
If you want advice - focus on how JK Rowling is harming people. Elevate that as much as you can. When you make these purity tests, you make people not give a shit because it makes it impossible to adhere to the strict and narrow path you say is OK.
This authoritarian left wing of democrats is what got Trump elected. They are so hard nosed on every issue they completely isolate people and make these issues harder to fight for, not easier. You’re heart is in the right place, but we live in a world full of nuance, and the real trick is not scolding people into adherence, but it’s coalition building and asking people to think critically about their choices. They have to find their beliefs, you can’t just demand them.
You have written your comment beautifully. That’s it, that’s all I wanted to tell you.
Signed, a new follower of your Authoritarian Left term, and another durable ally.
I appreciate it.
There was a part of me that got tired of being shouted down because I wasn’t whatever they wanted me to be. Or being told that I can’t have an opinion because I’m not one of the people affected.
I mean generally I agree with that. As a white dude, it’s not OK for me to pretend that my opinion on the treatment of black women is accurate, or even that I can fathom what that is like. However, there is some level of voice I need to have to be a part of the movement.
There was a massive rise in this sentiment that people needed to support these groups they weren’t a member of but only if they were completely silent. You need to build a movement and people generated apathy on some topics. I remember sort of giving up talking about things because I had every so slightly different perspectives, and I would get cast into the “you aren’t a real ally” bucket.
I’m also not convinced I’m right all the time either… I’m constantly listening and changing my perspective, but you need to leave room for people to do so. But that’s what I mean by building durability. My beliefs in trans rights are strong because I have challenged, listened, and adapted. They are truly my beliefs, not just things I’m told I need to believe in.
This kind of rhetoric rises from what I’ve called the Authoritarian Left, which is an immensely detrimental wing. It’s a group where there is no nuance.
There is no nuance that you are aware of that the trans people that are calling for a ban of HP haven’t already thought of. It’s their lived experience after all. They know so many more nuances to this, or any other trans issue than you or I do. I don’t know how much time you spend in the discussions of the so-called “👻Authoritarian👻 Left” but I’ve found them to be immensely nuanced. Cis people don’t get a contradictory opinion on what harms trans people and what doesn’t, simple as.
You say that if a trans person says it’s hurting them I should stop doing it. OK, but what if a republican says it? Now suddenly I should ignore them?
It’s not just one trans person though is it? It’s a pretty widely held opinion in the trans community afaict. That bit about some hypothetical republican didn’t make sense to me, no idea what you’re trying to say here.
I love trans people, and I actively fight for them and their rights.
Maybe a bit more listening is due? A good start would be Trans Liberation: Beyond Pink or Blue.
I’m a durable ally. I’ll stick with it when it’s not cool or trendy, or when it comes at a cost.
Except when that cost is giving up Hahree Pawttah apparently.
To loop all the way back to the premise - if talking about Harry Potter at all hurts Trans people, then this post hurts trans people.
Talk about “no nuance”, obviously this post isn’t suggesting that the mere mentioning of the name is causing trans people worldwide psychic pain. But not purging Harry Potter from your life, giving space to a franchise that is used to hunt trans people is actively harmful. Wouldn’t you be suspicious of someone who is still a huge “The apprentice” fan? Or a huge “Tesla” fan (" Oh I’m not buying their cars, but I still admire them!!")? Similar sentiments apply here.
You have to allow more than one idea in your head at the same time. If you’re making the rule “talking about Harry Potter in any way, at any time, makes you an active enemy of the trans movement”, then that’s not a place I want to be associated with.
More generalizations from the nuance-haver, I think it’s addressed above but just to reiterate, its about purging a franchise from your life that is having a toxic effect on the world.
If you want advice - focus on how JK Rowling is harming people.
I’ll take my advice on fighting for the trans cause from trans people thanks.
This authoritarian left wing of democrats is what got Trump elected.
Source? I don’t believe that the democrats even have a left wing, much less an 👻authoritarian👻 one, much much less one that is powerful enough to have decisive swing in the presidential election.
the real trick is not scolding people into adherence
I’m gonna keep telling people that are platforming fascists that they are platforming fascists. If they continue to do it, I can then know where they stand.
I’m trans, I have Gender Dysphoria and I’ve been out for 15+ years. I disagree with your way of approaching things, you are alianating allies and you live in a clear online bubble if you think most of us agree with your aggressive, arrogant, tactics.
Also, I enjoy HP due to childhood nostalgia and have watched it here and there as an adult. I just don’t support HP financially and that’s OK… Being a control freak that thinks cis people don’t deserve to voice their opinion if their opinion isn’t exactly the same as yours is toxic to allies and to other trans people who can clearly disagree with you and your little sample of an online clique’s opinion. You don’t speak for most of us (I’m sure there’s various opinions within our community that aren’t 100% in agreement with you, nuance exists in the real world) and you certainly don’t speak for all of us.
Keep it about yourself only next time instead of talking for others, least you make yourself look like a fool and a tool again.
You’re actively alienating people from the movement you say you’re a part of.
You are doing more damage than I am, and continuing to alienate people over your perception of a strict adherence to what is right is not helping.
You’re trying to use childish spelling to say I can’t get over not having Harry Potter. I’m not even arguing it’s good. I probably bring it up maybe once a year? And pretty much always with a caveat of wishing the author wasn’t such an asshole. Yet that isn’t enough for your purity test apparently. I would reflect on the fact that you need allies that you don’t agree with to build a movement. Right now you’re narrowing your scope to a tiny percentage of people, all because you can’t imagine that maybe you aren’t fully and totally correct on this topic, and you want to try and belittle me into agreeing with you.
I don’t think I’ll continue the conversation from here. I hope you limit further damage and alienation to people trying to be on your side.
People that don’t listen to trans people, but only consider themselves allies to make themselves feel better, so they can enjoy their transphobic treats while still patting each other on the back are detrimental to any movement and should be gotten rid of. And if you don’t even enjoy hp that much why are you coming to it’s defense so hard? If there are legit arguments as to why harry potter is so fucking important to someones life let that person speak up. Or if they can’t relay their message. You’re deplatforming them as well as trans people only to “defend the movement” from those “purists” that want a transphobic franchise squashed and want to put trans peoples arguments front and center.
My “strict adherence to what is right” is merely “listen to what trans people are saying, then do that”. That is it.
you want to try and belittle me into agreeing with you.
I want you to center trans people and not some hypothetical allies that might or might not “join the movement”. In any argument about whether something is good or not for trans people it’s trans peoples voices, and only trans peoples voices, that matters. If you don’t argue from a trans perspective it doesn’t matter. The allies perspective is irrelevant, our job is to make trans peoples voices heard and frequently, almost always really, this includes telling cis people to stfu.
This kind of hysteria is amusing.
what are some fun trans-inclusive universes? doesn’t have to be fantasy
Discworld explores gender a few times in a way that I like.
Monstrous Regiment is about a bunch of women who pretend to be men to join their military. For the most part - these aren’t trans characters, they identify as female. The funny is the characters slowly discovering that everyone else in their group is doing the same thing. One character though, explicitly identifies as male after the “reveal” and has male pronouns used for them.
Discworld as a series tends to be irreverent without punching down. Comedy is a weapon in Pratchett’s hands, but his targets are capitalism and oppressive systems.
LeGuin has a lot of interesting takes on gender. The Hainnish cycle is about a race of humans who had previously colonized a bunch of planets and did lots of experimentation on those populations - kinda Vault Tec vibes. The civilization collapses/gets better, and the POV character is usually some type of researcher/anthropologist looking at how those planets develop The Left Hand of Darkness is a sci fi classic: a planet where people stay sexless until they go into “heat” and will develop the opposite genitals of the person who they are attracted to. There’s lots of switching back and forth. It’s a big deal when the king gets pregnant, because only children the king carries can inherit the throne.
Any LeGuin is good. Earthsea is a far superior children’s series compared to Harry Potter. Nothing that really makes it explicitly trans but the process of finding your true name and accepting yourself is something that resonated very much with me. (Also props to LeGuin for being very forceful with insisting that the characters not be depicted as white. None of this pussyfooting retroactive “I never said Hermione was white!”)
Anne Leckie’s Imperial Radch trilogy is also more gender bending sci fi. Everyone is “she.” The first book was part of the Sad Puppies drama, because it won Hugo’s and absolutely pissed a bunch of a bunch of chuds.
Pratchett did indeed inspect gender quite a bit in the Discworld books.
It’s never quite explicitly explained where Nobby Nobbs’ peg fits, but it turns out he certainly prefers to wear women’s clothing and is reluctant enough to change back into his male uniform at the end of Jingo that he has to be explicitly ordered to do so.
There’s also Equal Rites, the very second story (and third book), which explores the notion of, “Just why can’t a woman be a wizard, anyway?” (It turns out she can. And quite a powerful one, too.)
Gender is a pretty big deal to the dwarfs on the Disc, too. It’s a recurring theme ever since Cheery Littlebottom is introduced in Feet of Clay.
I read her catwings when I was very young and it made me cry. the ending is so happy. i love her
Unpopular opinion coming, but fuck it. Harry Potter was never great, besides being set in the modern day it’s very generic and the movies were mid. some people will worship whatever JK Rowling breathes on
It’s alright but it’s definitely got more popular than literally all the other coming of age teen fictions through sheer luck. And I read a lot of these as a kid so I know what I’m talking about.
I’ve also heard that she was immensely helped by translation because when her shit was translated she was already starting to get famous, so the publishers contracted their best, and apparently the originals are a lot less “well written” than e.g the french version. I personally never bothered to check because I have more interesting things to read.
Fun fact about this one : when my librarian mom brought the first volume of Harry Potter home, I remember she told me that it must be good because she had never heard of the author (and she was specoalized in kids literature so she knew a thing or two about children and teens book authors) but she knew the translator
I made the same decision with Brandon Sanderson and his fuckin fanclub takes it extremely personally when I point out how problematic he is as an author.
Yes, his writing is good. Yes, his writing is remarkably inclusive with regards to sexual orientation, disability, and mental illness.
However, Brandon is a Mormon first and foremost, and actively tithes to his church. That means a significant percentage of ALL Dragonsteel profits go directly towards the suppression and disenfranchisement of LGBTQ+ programs, sex education, and effective mental health services.
He might write a good story, but his IRL politics are repugnant.
Neat, gotta start reading this guy books then
Oh, when you brought him up I was worried he had actively done something bad. But no, you just don’t like that he’s Mormon, that’s literally your only gripe.
Financially supporting the harming and oppression of others is a problem, no matter how it’s labelled. I think it’s completely fair to call that out.
So how many degrees of separation are necessary for your morals? Because unless you grow your own food, weave your own cloth, make everything you own yourself, and consume no media; I can pretty much guarantee there are things you have spent money or time on that contribute to groups or individuals that you find reprehensible.
Funnily enough, ignorance is a valid excuse here. You can’t be expected to investigate the companies behind every single product you buy or use in the day to day, but that’s not what were talking about here.
We’re talking about Brandon Sanderson, specifically, and how his tithes to the Mormon church significantly contribute to the open oppression and abuse of LGBTQIA+ communities. You, buying your mistborn and stormlight archive books, are DIRECTLY supporting that behavior.
That is some very intense False Equivalence you are brandishing.
Every time he tithes to that house of abuse and oppression, he IS actively doing something bad. Is that not enough for you?
No. And his books are good.
He tithes and hopes those funds go toward the good things the church accomplishes.
He has a lot of explanation on his relationship with the church and his stance on not allowing his religion to negatively affect his writing.
He has consistently advocated for lesser know authors and fought against Amazon to improve conditions for them.
His books are full of LGBTQIA+, neurodiverse people, women passing the bechdel test, and irl cultural inspiration from around the world.
He actually hires people to consult on things like schizophrenia so he doesn’t promote misinformation.
The thing you are asking him to do is abandon his community. Instead he works to better it from the inside. He is a lecturer at BYU and is directly exposed to the future leaders of that church. Let him cook.
So yeah I don’t like his religion’s track record but anyone who has investigated the guy can see he’s a fair author and the criticism is hyperbole.
No different than Rowling in that regard. Giving money for others to actively do something bad is also bad. You don’t get to launder your shit politics by paying someone to do the dirty work and it doesn’t absolve you of those politics.
I read the Mistborn books, and wasn’t terribly impressed. Anyone that repeatedly and unrepentantly uses the phrase “decked him in the face” is not a good writer. :)
Mistborn were his first books, the first trilogy is definitely a bit rough around the edges.
And how! That said, they weren’t entirely without entertainment value, and I did finish all of them, but I didn’t feel the need to read any more of his stuff, either.
Go read Le Guin’s Earthsea books instead, which are genuinely better written, and LeGuin was a great person who wrote a lot of socially progressive literature. Not to mention that it hasn’t been turned into a fucking corporate media franchise like LOTR.
JK Rowling:
We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.
Proceeds to fund fascists
Ursula K. Le Guin :
Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape? The moneylenders, the knownothings, the authoritarians have us all in prison; if we value the freedom of the mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can.
(Apparently frequently misattributed to Tolkien. I love his writings but the man was not nearly as based as Ursula Le Guin)
I know this has
energy, but I did try to look for a Rowling quote that wasn’t some uninspired one-liner that she unconsciously copied from some Disney movieWait what was that about the hydrogen bomb and the baby thing
Her books are timeless
I mean there is a a terrible TV adaptation starring Iceman and Lana Lang as well as a beautiful but boring Ghibli movie, but I agree that Earthsea is amazing.
You don’t need to stop doing any of this.
Just pirate all of it.
That’s what I did.
Even better: pirate it, and whatever it would have cost, donate that amount to an LGBTQ+ charity.
That’s still boosting the cultural impact of her work. In some cases piracy increases total sales.
It’s basically impossible to be perfect, pirating the work stops the money from going to jk Rowling which therefore stops it from going to anti trans groups.
Shopping at Home Depot hurts trans people Using Amazon hurts trans people Shopping at basically any big box store hurts trans people
They are a heavily oppressed group and you aren’t able to live your life perfectly so don’t sweat pirating a game
I will argue there is something very different between Rowling and Bezos.
Both are rich beyond measure and can fund lobbying efforts indefinitely. But Rowling has something that Bezos doesn’t have, cultural capital. When she says something, people listen, from journalists to citizens to lawmakers, and not just because she’s rich.
Truth is social capital matters. A lot. Which is good because it’s the only thing we, the people, can hope to have that most billionaires don’t. But a corollary of this statement is that giving social capital to Rowling is, in fact, worse than giving actual capital to Bezos, all else being equal.
Now I can’t tell you how to live your life and we all have our vices. Just giving food for thought.
This ain’t about giving capital to Rowling this is about how even pirating Rowlings work is considered bad
But who out there is actually changing their mind over anything Rowling has said?
Right wing people ignore her because her works (especially her newer works) have a bunch of token diversity characters and left wing people ignore her because of her anti trans agenda
Yeah but it’s not like this is the best literature has to offer, nobody would really lose anything by just not reading a very mid saga.
It’s something people like… and for many people it’s a comfort movie/book
Like there are just so many worse things in the world that worrying about the cultural impact of pirating a movie/book/game is such a waste of time.
Asking people to stop giving her money is 1 thing but you are accomplishing nothing except making people feel like they are completely powerless if you tell them to not even talk about HP
Idk, sounds like they should develop as people then
Oh yes pray tell, who are the under developed people according to you?
What should we do with them?
Let’s go full steam ahead, do they have rights?
The movies are good, but the story is also the weakest link. You could swap the story and maintain everything else and it’d probably be just as good if not better.
It’s impossible to be perfect so you won’t even try?
Sure, a lot of other things indirectly harm queers, but it’s pretty fucking clear that support for HP, which includes maintaining it’s cultural relevance, is directly increasing the influence, wealth, and power of a single person who’s utilizing a lot of their time and energy on specifically trans hate.
Not hard to drop a shitty YA series, accept that it was in the past and there was no harm in enjoying it, but that continued support is pretty directly harmful.
I don’t get everyone and their eternal “but it was my childhood” crap. I look back on the content I enjoyed in the worst parts of my life fondly, but I’ve moved on to enjoying other things? I don’t need to keep a series from 20 years ago as a current force in the cultural zeitgeist.
(In relation to the current media landscape as a whole) Why people just consume the same content, the same characters, or the same IP repeatedly, as they continue existing in a more and more profit-driven way is beyond me.
That and if you’re not already avoiding big box stores as much as probable, that’s kinda on you. People have to eat, and often, work has to be done, and those monopolies often give you literally no other practical choice. HP is just a single series among hundreds and thousands of YA magical boy series.
That’s what I told a friend who asked if she should read enders game. Get it from the library or steal it. Orson Scott Card doesn’t deserve your money because he’s a shitty person.
I would agree, but the wizard game where the good guys put down a slave uprising isnt just antisemitic and transphobic, even worse, its mid.
Aye. I still have all my first edition books from when I was in 6th grade on and I sure ain’t giving those up, but all the movies live on my server that were obtained from the high seas. I never bought their merch anyway, I’d rather have my band merch.
Just pirate all of it.
how can you enjoy it though? like, don’t you get disgusted knowing you’re consuming the product of a transphobe? fuckin gross
No, frankly viewing anything I try to do for leisure through that lens sounds exhausting and depressing. Just do what you can to avoid financially supporting it, stealing it is fine.
I don’t even particularly like Harry Potter either
The old conundrum of separating the art from the artist. Personally, I think as long as you aren’t giving them any money, have at it.
a painting by a very famous Austrian
Sounds like he had a very promising future in the arts!
a very famous Austrian
schwarzenegger is a famous austrian. your painter there was an infamous shitbag. know the difference!
lol love it when hitler fans out themselves
Kartoffel, kartoffel.
Kartoffel, kartoffel.
he wasn’t german. and it’s a specious comparison, when one comes from a maggoty hate infested shithole, the other from any normal farm.
What do you think a potato is called in Austria?
EDIT: I stand corrected, a potato is more commonly called Erdapfel in Austria, or “earth apple.” That makes it even better: Kartoffel, Erdapfel.
Cute, you don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about.
It’s shit, from a shit vendor. GET BETTER STANDARDS
Either way, you’d be lying if u said his artwork his shit.
the producer was a shitbag. that’s THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF THIS ARGUMENT. wake up and get better standards.
It’s bad
Fuck stopping. Steal it all. Take it and enjoy it without her getting anything. Reclaim the art. Make it your own. Piss her off with fanfic and fan art based on things stolen from her.
This is how you do it. Hermione Grainger? More like HENRY GRINDER!! And he’s PEGGING HARRY!
Finally, someone else who understands. Reject the canon, embrace the ship
Yes. Can we get a trans Harry fan fic where he defeats an evil trans hater? Make it a kids book to for extra points!
Chuck’s already got ya!
https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/trans-wizard-harriet-porber/200695/
I got the recommendation for Kaleidoscopic Grangers from a similar thread a few months ago and really enjoyed reading it. It’s about a trans and blind HP navigating her adolescense while having the backing of the Granger family and was written explicitely to spite Rowling. And she certainly wont get royalties from you reading that :)
Oh no! A boycott coming from people who doesn’t consume the product. What a loss!
says to stop reading the books and watching the movies with the reasoning of giving a bad actor more money but… I already own them all from before it was known she was an asshat. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t get money when I pop the DVDs in my player or decide to re-read the books on my shelf.
That it doesn’t disgust you to consume the media of an open fascist using her money to attempt a genocide is highly suspect
oh my god. get off your high horse.
they read a fucking book in their own Library
the books dont even feature any of those views
touch grass
You are the one who seems complely out of touch with reality here. So you should go touch some grass, or whatever pathetic way that inane saying goes. You are the one on your high horse, making poor excuses for poor reasons.
I don’t think it’s terribly suspect. What are you even suspicious of? People experience disgust in different ways. I can watch Kevin Spacey and not be disgusted, even if he’s a piece of shit. And I like Tarantino movies too, even though he’s also, ah, suspect.
As far as I’m concerned, the old J.K. Rowling was murdered and replaced by a bodysnatcher who gets the royalties from her work. Engaging with the fandom and paying for new HP stuff is bad, but otherwise let’s not police people who just want to enjoy their childhood favourite thing.
List your favorite actors, authors, musicians, products, services etc. I dare you. I’ll absolutely find and point out how something you like is actively harming someone. Where’d the lithium in your phone battery come from? The electronic components? The meat you likely eat?
Doing jumping jacks to continue consuming a children’s wizard story from a billionaire who’s paying to insight a genocide is really not something an adult with an adult brain should be doing, but you do you
I’m not consuming Harry Potter crap, I’m pointing out your hypocrisy of judging someone based on some unattainable moral standing. You cause harm to others just like we all do.
Holy shit, did you just say it’s unattainable to stop watching fucking Hairy Pothead? lol
Reading comprehension isn’t really your thing, eh? That’s OK. We all have faults. Everyone reading your replies is getting a good look at yours.
Bro, this whole entire thread is about pointing out all the flaws in JK’s writing, and how her bigotries have always been embedded in her stories, outside of the fact that she’s incredibly transphobic, and currently funding a hate campaign, and you’re calling not consuming this specific media an “unattainable moral standing.”
No, I don’t think I need to work on reading comprehension. I think sea lions and goal poster movers need to get banned and removed from the fediverse completely, like the parasite that you are.
To me this reads like one of those bad jokes on the expense of trans people in 90’s media. Like how Ace Ventura has sex with a trans woman, then only after he learns it, he starts gagging and washing his teeth religiously and like pumping his face with a plumber; it’s hypocritical. You already enjoyed it, now you’ve learned something about it, it’s suddenly shit and retroactively changes your previous enjoyment to disgust?
Perhaps you never liked HP, but practically the entire world did, before we knew how JKR will turn out. I’m not gonna give her a cent and previously used money for any HP related things like… 20 years ago, but I’m also not going to pretend they weren’t meaningful to me or that her politics will retroactively change those feelings.
This may be hard to understand, but many people are totally capable of separating the art from the artist.
It is hard to understand, actually. I don’t understand how you consume something that’s been over for 20 years, that was intended for children, and contains veiled racism and fascist undertones that go right over the head of average people, and still sit here in 2025 going, “I regularly pop Hairy Plopper into my Dee Vee Dee player” like
I guess it doesn’t matter, though, because now the next time you plop that thing in you’re going to think of these posts.
contains veiled racism and fascist undertones that go right over the head of average people
You got any examples of it promoting these ideas and not not being a negative critique of them? All the examples of bigotry and authoritarianism in the books and films are rightfully portrayed negatively; not something to celebrate.
The goblins are Jewish caricatures first and foremost, and most obviously. I thought we as a society knew that most portrayals of goblins have always been antisemitic, but that’s aside from every other character in HP being some kind of stereotype metaphor. There’s a reason that became a meme, and is still a meme. i.e., stuff like, “JK has announced that her newest character, John Gayman, is a gay man!” for a rough example.
I don’t particularly agree with every single thing listed here, but these are some more examples to mull over: https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughJKRowling/comments/kaxw28/i_made_a_list_of_examples_of_racism_prejudice_and/
Yeahh, people talk about the goblins being anti-semitic but honestly they don’t seem any more anti-semitic to me than typical goblins. Like, yeah, goblins in fantasy are all vaguely anti-semitic, sure. Wato from star wars is way more anti-semitic.
What gets me is Seamus Finnigan. That guy’s a walking stereotype.
lol
