I started looking further into this because a friend of mine, which is a total HP nerd, was trying to give me some context on where her anti-trans activism comes from.
You deliberately found someone with strong bias to get info from? Maybe you should think about that.
I also understand that sex and gender are separate, and Rowling seems to be on the train that conflates it, which might be the basis for her position.
I think you need to back up a little more on Rowling. If you start dissecting her works, you’ll see she has born/birth/blood nature being a reoccurring theme. Hagrid is naturally angry. Voldemort is evil because he was a rape baby. House Elves are natural slavesservants. The Weasley family will always be poor(even when Harry should be paying rent or at least buying them a new car). Hell, the Irish character keeps blowing things up. Things are the way they are at birth and anyone who pushes against the natural order is wrong. Hermione Granger, the other outside to magical society took issue with the House Elves being treated as slaves and everyone, including the House Elves and Harry Potter, the first outsider and someone who should have no bias for slavery, treated her as being annoying and wrong for caring.(Also remember when JK implied that Hermione could be Black? Yeah, this isn’t a good look.)
He’s super kind. A tad emotional at times, but not angry.
Also the Irish kid blowing up things is from the movies, not from the books.
anyone who pushes against the natural order is wrong
I mean I get where you’re coming from, I’ve always been bothered by the whole premise of “lol if the muggles knew we had magic they want us to help them so we can’t tell them” and just how unrealistic it would be to be able to keep such a thing a secret, especially when it’s canon and central to the story even that sometimes muggle families have a magical kid, and it can even be just one of siblings. Tweeners are so bad at keeping secrets. Imagine that you’re in a regular school and have regular friends until you’re 11 and then just vanish from their lives or somehow manage to still see them but… you won’t tell them you’re actually magic? Anything about what you’re studying, where your school is, etc etc? Right.
However we can’t deny that within that world the deatheaters are clearly even more racist and evil, and that the main characters fight against them.
Anyway Rowling is batshit nowadays I’m not defending her but I found your criticism factually inaccurate at those small parts so…
It is kinda silly how the wizarding society treats elves, but also it’s not as crazy diegetically, because the crazy author has written the story in the way that the house-elves actually do pretty much crave it. Which in itself is kinda… ew, but it’s not as offensive as it sounds, imo, as the starting concept, seeing as she was probably taking inspiration of mythical house elves, and those are sort of a more respectful concept, but clearly where JKR has drawn from.
The early house elves were by no means merely benevolent figures. The elf was believed to observe the life of the household very closely and judgementally. If the household members did not live in a well-behaved and diligent manner, the easily irritated elf could remind them of his existence, for example by causing a disturbance similar to haunting. At worst, the elf could leave the ill-mannered house altogether, taking happiness away from the house.
Christmas was an important celebration for house elves. On Christmas night, people would prepare a plate of porridge for the elf and put it where the elf was known to live, such as the sauna, barn, stable or attic. It was also customary to leave food for elves at the Christmas table for Christmas night.
No, Hagrid is a very angry person. He just angry on behalf of the MC most of the time, so we’re routing for him. I found it weird how quickly a grown adult was to attack a child despite not really knowing them or being a threat. If it were an illusion or temporary spell Hagrid used on Dudley, it would be a little different, but he needed an operation to get fixed.
Also the Irish kid blowing up things is from the movies, not from the books.
Still has her name on it. Also, that floor in the bank in the movie wasn’t a good look when you’re already under criticism for the goblins for being a Jewish metaphor.
“they wouldn’t know what to do with freedom”
That’s a line straight out of the anti-abolitionist in America and many, many other places that have slavery or caste systems. Harry Potter kept almost being interesting and I had assumed that the story line would go somewhere before dropping for other reasons. I was pretty surprised when Hermione’s SPEW just fizzled out. I really should have know with a name like that.
If the house elves worked like where she supposedly got inspiration form, they’d be far, far more interesting. Like I said, Harry Potter is one of those stories that kept almost being interesting.
Also to your first point, I needed to know what her current stance was and the rational being used to do what I could at comparing.
All the points about the series are interesting, and they all ring pretty true. As I recall Tolkien had similar racial vibes in his works. Nothing I realized until someone pointed them out.
TBH the whole house elves thing always made me uncomfortable.
The thing about the House Elves is, she introduced the concept in one book without thinking too much about. Fans then asked her for details and instead of taking the easy route and saying that Slavery is Bad, she doubled down and said that it was perfectly fine. She tends to have petty responses to criticisms and questions. In one book, she introduces Time Travel and fans asked why the following book didn’t have time travel, so in the next book, the fat kid knocked over the table that had all the time travel on it, so no one could use it again. She also wrote a whole book about an author who was being bullied on social media.
Tolkien used his fantasy races as metaphors for real life races/ethnic groups, but was fairly kind to them, considering his time. IIRC, Dwarves were repressive of Jews and while it doesn’t look good that the Dwarves greed for gold was their downfall, a deeper read, it was specifically a certain king that lead them to their downfall and not a trait of the race itself. I’m not a Tolkien head, so I might be getting some wires crossed.
You deliberately found someone with strong bias to get info from? Maybe you should think about that.
I think you need to back up a little more on Rowling. If you start dissecting her works, you’ll see she has born/birth/blood nature being a reoccurring theme. Hagrid is naturally angry. Voldemort is evil because he was a rape baby. House Elves are natural
slavesservants. The Weasley family will always be poor(even when Harry should be paying rent or at least buying them a new car). Hell, the Irish character keeps blowing things up. Things are the way they are at birth and anyone who pushes against the natural order is wrong. Hermione Granger, the other outside to magical society took issue with the House Elves being treated as slaves and everyone, including the House Elves and Harry Potter, the first outsider and someone who should have no bias for slavery, treated her as being annoying and wrong for caring.(Also remember when JK implied that Hermione could be Black? Yeah, this isn’t a good look.)If you want a deep dive into Rowling’s writings that isn’t centered on the trans issue, check out Shaun’s review of her total body of work at the time.
How is Hagrid an angry person?
He’s super kind. A tad emotional at times, but not angry.
Also the Irish kid blowing up things is from the movies, not from the books.
I mean I get where you’re coming from, I’ve always been bothered by the whole premise of “lol if the muggles knew we had magic they want us to help them so we can’t tell them” and just how unrealistic it would be to be able to keep such a thing a secret, especially when it’s canon and central to the story even that sometimes muggle families have a magical kid, and it can even be just one of siblings. Tweeners are so bad at keeping secrets. Imagine that you’re in a regular school and have regular friends until you’re 11 and then just vanish from their lives or somehow manage to still see them but… you won’t tell them you’re actually magic? Anything about what you’re studying, where your school is, etc etc? Right.
However we can’t deny that within that world the deatheaters are clearly even more racist and evil, and that the main characters fight against them.
Anyway Rowling is batshit nowadays I’m not defending her but I found your criticism factually inaccurate at those small parts so…
It is kinda silly how the wizarding society treats elves, but also it’s not as crazy diegetically, because the crazy author has written the story in the way that the house-elves actually do pretty much crave it. Which in itself is kinda… ew, but it’s not as offensive as it sounds, imo, as the starting concept, seeing as she was probably taking inspiration of mythical house elves, and those are sort of a more respectful concept, but clearly where JKR has drawn from.
https://www.kansallismuseo.fi/en/items-of-the-month/2022/tontut
That’s Finnish folklore, not JKR’s writings. I’ve left out food for tonttus as a kid.
No, Hagrid is a very angry person. He just angry on behalf of the MC most of the time, so we’re routing for him. I found it weird how quickly a grown adult was to attack a child despite not really knowing them or being a threat. If it were an illusion or temporary spell Hagrid used on Dudley, it would be a little different, but he needed an operation to get fixed.
Still has her name on it. Also, that floor in the bank in the movie wasn’t a good look when you’re already under criticism for the goblins for being a Jewish metaphor.
That’s a line straight out of the anti-abolitionist in America and many, many other places that have slavery or caste systems. Harry Potter kept almost being interesting and I had assumed that the story line would go somewhere before dropping for other reasons. I was pretty surprised when Hermione’s SPEW just fizzled out. I really should have know with a name like that.
If the house elves worked like where she supposedly got inspiration form, they’d be far, far more interesting. Like I said, Harry Potter is one of those stories that kept almost being interesting.
Excellent response, thank you.
Also to your first point, I needed to know what her current stance was and the rational being used to do what I could at comparing.
All the points about the series are interesting, and they all ring pretty true. As I recall Tolkien had similar racial vibes in his works. Nothing I realized until someone pointed them out.
TBH the whole house elves thing always made me uncomfortable.
The thing about the House Elves is, she introduced the concept in one book without thinking too much about. Fans then asked her for details and instead of taking the easy route and saying that Slavery is Bad, she doubled down and said that it was perfectly fine. She tends to have petty responses to criticisms and questions. In one book, she introduces Time Travel and fans asked why the following book didn’t have time travel, so in the next book, the fat kid knocked over the table that had all the time travel on it, so no one could use it again. She also wrote a whole book about an author who was being bullied on social media.
Tolkien used his fantasy races as metaphors for real life races/ethnic groups, but was fairly kind to them, considering his time. IIRC, Dwarves were repressive of Jews and while it doesn’t look good that the Dwarves greed for gold was their downfall, a deeper read, it was specifically a certain king that lead them to their downfall and not a trait of the race itself. I’m not a Tolkien head, so I might be getting some wires crossed.
Yeah I’m not a huge Tolkien person either. Enjoyed the movies, struggled through the books.