If we didn’t read books when we didn’t personally agree with the artist’s views then we wouldn’t be reading many books at all
HP is a glorious series and no matter how evil this woman is this is going to remain true
The problem is the money JK Rowling is making on book sales and licensing fees is being sent anti-LGBTQ organizations. There’s little issue with the material itself, the controversy is where the revenues from it are going. It’s her money, she can spend it how she wants, but some people would rather not that she get any more of it.
It’s different when it’s fascist talking points or lies advocating intolerance or hate speech. That’s not an acceptable “personal opinion” in a tolerant society. Especially if it’s an active and current threat to democracy and financed by vast profits.
Eh I’m pretty well versed in this as a metalhead haha. So many of my musical inspirations turned out to be horrible people. I learned guitar partially thanks to Dagon from Inquisition and I can’t just unlearn that because he’s a piece of shit for one of many examples
Yeah some artist are horrible or broken or sick in the head and did horrible things.
But that’s completely different to someone who gained a huge checkbook to sponsor lawsuits, lobbyists and social media campaigns to sponsor the socio-economic conditions to proliferate issues like that and agitate not just for violence but against fundamental values like equality, freedom, justice.
Rowlings is an enemy to all people who want to live in a peaceful and tolerant society. They might just be stupid or ignorant but their immense economic power makes them dangerous and they need to be put down - ideally with laws against hate speech or at the very least in polite society. It’s not a tolerable “difference in personal opinion”.
It’s different when it’s fascist talking points or lies advocating intolerance or hate speech.
You’re describing Harry Potter.
Harry should have cast the spell “Antifascio furiosa!”
Be sure to pirate everything so that JK doesn’t get more money to fuel her hate-filled foundation
I pirate anything that isn’t Canadian lol
It’s always moraly right to pirate any harry potter media.
More morally right to never indulge in any Harry Potter media at all. Don’t reinforce the hype by watching that crap, even if by piracy.
I don’t pirate things I boycott. Professionals have standards.
Not this show. Don’t pirate it, don’t discuss it on social media, don’t make memes about it. Let it die because of cultural insignificance.
I guruan-fucking-tee there’s going to be a new character who’s basically just a transgender boogeyman
No, I bet the trans character will be more of a “look! are you happy now?” like with the game.
And it be the most male-looking figure they can fucking find
Naw, JK Rowling has actual creative input this time.
I’m probably gonna watch it because it’s interesting to see what they made of it, I’m gonna pirate it and seed it far and wide tho lol
It’s pretty simple. Rowling is an avowed bigot who is using all of her means, financially and socially, to punish trans people for existing. She is a hateful person who should be judged harshly and ostracized. It will be a good day for the world when she is no longer able to or allowed to espouse her bigoted views.
Supporting her in anyway, be it paying for her works or even enjoying her content should be stigmatized to the maximum degree. Actors agreeing to work with or for her should lose everything, as they are even worse for helping to continue her pursuit of hate and villainy.
If she were to fall down a literary flight of stairs, I would be most pleased—especially if this were to happen daily until she were unable to fall any further.
Here’s to hoping that anyone that hitches their wagon with hers suffers pain and ruin.
If she were to fall down a literary flight of stairs
She already did - it was called the Harry Potter series.
the death eaters have already infiltrated…
John Lithgow reacted to the open letter mentioned in this article, sent to him by “a very good friend who is the mother of a trans child” by saying “Why is this a factor at all?” and expressing sympathy for the transphobic bigot.
So it’s unfortunate that he probably wouldn’t know what a social media is if it slammed him right in the asshole - which is the entirety of him - because he certainly sounds deserving of decades of hell. Especially from his now hopefully former “very good friend.”
“I thought, ‘Why is this a factor at all?’ I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her," he said.
“Decades in hell” for being a clueless, out of touch old man? Jesus Christ you people are unhinged. You fucking act like he’s personally bankrolling her anti-trans crusade.
Hopefully he dies early in production. How’s that for winding down?
I wonder if he’d be ok with others wishing he would die. Or is it only acceptable when he’s playing a character or working for bigots? In any case I’m sure he finds it all very exciting.
Mainstream social media is hell to begin with, that’s why I’m here
Due to how capitalism works, every purchase you make helps fund oppression. That’s how the system was designed: to ensure those in power who wish to oppress will ensure wealth is funnelled into their pockets through their convoluted system of ownership.
If it isn’t Harry Potter media that tangentially funds Rowling through royalties it is something else that funds another bigoted owner somewhere along the supply chain of the rest of the items you purchase in your life.
You really give a shit about this? Then direct your criticisms at the convoluted system that forces people to give up the things they enjoy because some bigot holds a piece of paper that says they own an idea.
This production has nothing to do with JK except for the fact she has a piece of paper that entitles her to reimbursement. That’s the problem, not the people simply trying to make a living or people indulging in media that they enjoy.
You can’t opt out of capitalism. You can opt out of not funding Rowling
Congratulations on missing the point
if they missed your point you should feel the urge to be more clear. Not act holier than thou
yeah yeah we all live in a society, you’re extra deep, we know the schtick. Not what we’re here for
Then help them understand your point of you feel they missed it.
We’re doing what we can, and that’s a whole lot more valuable than sitting around and talking about what we should do when we can’t at the moment.
Please, tell us your plan to dismantle capitalism that requires us to blindly consume Harry Potter media.
Just because there’s an underlying issue doesn’t mean that it’s pragmatic to hyperfocus on it and ignore the more immediate issues. If I have cancer, I’m not gonna stop eating fruit because I really need to focus on fighting the cancer and my other health-conscious activities need to be put on hold. That’s not how responding to problems works.
Sorry but I really don’t follow. Are you saying we shouldn’t boycot and socially cancel products created by bigots?
There’s so much entertainment and its honestly kinda sad that people would sacrifice their moral and justice stance for sake of “comfort consumption”. Ew.
Yes that’s their point. “no ethical consumption under capitalism” There are no degrees of evil or complicity, shut up and let me continue to not think about what I’m paying for when I buy nestle chocolate. You can’t be perfect so trying to cause less harm is just a distraction.
Eh disagree with this weakling mindset. It is our duty to be responsible and caring citizens even in systems you disagree with.
Never give these people an inch, or they’ll take a mile.
When you say “these people”, who exactly are you referring to?
In addition to my loathing of the author, I have to say I am also really bothered how the books normalize slavery, glorify blood purity and elite privilege, treat systemic child abuse as comic relief, use goblins as thinly veiled anti-Semitic caricatures, reduce fat characters to jokes, sideline women or box them into tired tropes, justify authoritarianism with a shrug, romanticize magical servitude, paint non-human creatures as inherently dangerous, and act like destiny is a substitute for character development — all while the wizarding world runs on a caste system and no one ever questions it.
So I will be passing on this series, personally.
None of that matters, as it’s a book… The problem is her as a person.
Everyone who praised blood purity was a villain and the entire last half of the series was about how the real hero was a dude with mixed blood. What are you smoking bruh?
Yea, a lot of people seem to be blinded by their hate of JK they have completely forgotten how the books portrayed many of the themes.
Like, they weren’t incredibly nuanced depictions; it is literally a children’s/young adult series. They aren’t exactly known for their depth. Yet, they are still good starting points for children to begin thinking about larger concepts and themes, even with their imperfections.
I have no idea what book series you read (or if you’ve read it at all) but you are…very off on this take.
Don’t get me wrong, JK Rowling is a total piece of shit, but the books themselves are distinctly anti classism, “blood purity,” slavery, misogyny, and a whole host of other things you listed.
Are they without any flaw? Certainly not. Is it okay if people boycott the media because of Rowling’s ongoing transphobia? Absolutely. But most of what you’ve listed about the book series is blatantly untrue…
Agree with you. You could take most fantasy stories ever written and apply the same “injustices” wrongly so. I call that reaching.
Doesn’t HP end up a literal magic cop at the end of the series? The whole caste system is also upheld throughout, at no point is revealing the wizarding world to muggles even considered an option despite the fact that little kids are dying from cancer all over Britain/the world that could be magically healed in an afternoon. The whole SPEW thing is just profoundly racist and always has been. “Cho Chang” – nuff said. The whole point of Hogwarts is that it’s a boarding school, which proudly inherits all its real-world British characteristics which are intrinsically linked to the more problematic parts of the British class system.
Rowling has always been a bigot and I will die on this hill. Any progressive messaging that people read into harry potter is at best performative (for instance yes she explicitly denounces “blood purity” pretty early on, but that’s super performative considering her entire worldbuilding is built on the premise that some people are just inherently magical and others are inherently not invited to the party. “Blood purity contests” are only bad when wizards to it to other wizards.).
I don’t think she’s a good enough writer to have done most of the racist/classist/misogynist messaging intentionally, but nonetheless her reactionary poorly thought-out world view transpires through every bit of her writing.
EDIT: Trying to expand on my own thoughts here. I’ve always despised HP as a franchise so to try to be fair to HP let’s contrast and compare with the piece of shit author who did make a book I like, Ender’s Game. I pirated it a couple years back, and I won’t pretend it’s not obvious at times that he’s a homophobe and a religious nutcase with some obvious cognitive dissonance with some of his (at least at the time) progressive views. I guess the good thing about that particular IP is that there’s no new stuff coming out besides one awful movie, so everyone can agree Orson Scott Card can get fucked and move on with their lives. But it’s important to acknowledge that his religious zealousness did impact his writing and to take a step back even if we decide to still appreciate his work.
The problem is that HP fans are in a much tougher situation because the writing just isn’t good so if you drop the flimsy pretense that 2000s Rowling was a champion of liberal ideals, then you really don’t have much left besides a profoundly flawed worldbuilding with shitty characters who only work to uphold the wizarding status quo. Yeah I’d get pretty mad too if I had spend my teenage years obsessing over that heap of trash.I agree she is anti classism, and anti “blood purity,” but there is no redemption for the enslaved elves. Hermione written as irritating and the strong women are housewives and spinsters.
She is fine with different people moving to her country as long as they assimilate, so muggleborns and half-bloods can be wizzies too as long as they wear robes and curse in Merlin’s name. She hates multiculturalism, which is why the elves stay enslaved. They’re irreconcilably different. Sort of like transfolk. We’re different, in a way that can’t just be assimilated away.
Or… something like that. Her politics are kind of incoherent.
Her writing shows that her thinking is not logical. She was pro-remain usually means pro multicultural, but not in her case.
I know no details about the abuse she suffered, but she certainly distrusts men. I suspect she views all trans people as men in wigs trying to take advantage of women.
She doesn’t back down (see Stephen Fry “pocketed it” story) so every faux pas gets double downed upon and becomes a belief, no matter how illogical.
But all this comes after the books. I see the pro slavery, anti intellectualism and distinct lack of strong females in the books, but no anti trans or racism. She clumsily including non white characters which seems like they are editor suggested afterthought rather than a negative bias.
Don’t forget the Goblins! Although I don’t know if that was from her or from Universal Studios.
In the book goblins are “A short and stocky humanoid with black eyes, a domed head and long fingers.” but the movies add hooked noses and a Star of David mosaic on the bank floor.
She had a lot of power in the movie (all UK cast, filmed in UK) so she could have vetoed the depiction if she wanted.
I think people like to take all the poorly written parts of HP and conflate them with bigotry. Its possible, but jk Rowling is just a shitty writer who does not plan ahead at all. I still think fans wrote the last three books via posting theories on HP forums.
She had a spreadsheet outlining the plot and character beats for the last books by the time the first film was made.
She’s just not a great writer.
I’d have to see the spreadsheet before I’d give her any credit for having one. The story gets w9rse and worse as it goes, I can’t imagine she planned that. The ending is absurd and I haven’t heard anyone defend it successfully.
That is called a timeline, which most great authors do. It is character and story path development 101.
I will definitely concede that her writing is amateurish and poorly conceived at best, and it’s entirely possible some of these issues are due to that. However since all of it came out of her brain, and these themes are how she thinks about the world, it might be trickier than that to separate the two so neatly.
Never read one completely nor watched a full movie, but it always felt cheap and written from the unenlightened perspective of a simple mind to me.
The fantasy books of my generation, such as The Neverending Story, Momo, The Hobbit, Jim Knopf were a whole different level. Life experience and a touch of wisdom in a great story for children.
But I also think that it might be just my perspective, since my mind has been imprinted like that. I’m not judging anyone for being a Harry Potter fan and try to think of it as different, not worse.
Piers Anthony was my jam as a kid
Oof. Lots of good puns, but watch out for the incest and sexualization of minors …
Reading them as a minor made it hot??? 😬🤷♂️
I would imagine reading the books or watching the movies as a child probably endeared them to a lot of people. Don’t underestimate the nostalgia that people have, especially before it was widely known how troublesome the author is.
JK Rowling sounds like an incredibly talented author. Most people just massage things into place. Reuse tropes. But you’re saying she baked her worldview into practically every sentence?
If I see ugliness in the world, I might express it as I see it. I don’t have to think something is right for me to include it in a story. Do you think I’m special? Am I the only person capable of writing things that I don’t necessarily support? Everyone else is forced to include things they personally would vote for. If you write about slavery, that means you love slavery. Is it weird that I’m capable of being against slavery, yet it’s possible for me to include it in stories? Should I be using this power?
I didn’t realize Rowling was one of the best authors. I thought she just reused things without really thinking. I never knew it was 100% meticulous and so… thought out. I don’t think even Tolkien can be said to inject so much meaning into every single page.
Am I the only person capable of writing things that I don’t necessarily support?
I can’t speak to that. But I can say that I don’t think that sentiment applies to her. And I think there’s a difference between a viewpoint that one can objectively examine from both sides, and a bias, that is so deeply ingrained to one’s psyche that it colors how one perceives the world. And yes, I do think both things exist.
You realize she didn’t write about slaves right? She made the main character a slave owner and had a plot point about how much the slaves love being slaves and dobby is just weird for not wanting to be a slave.
sideline women or box them into tired tropes
Which makes it mind bogglingly insane how many claimed “feminists” support her because of her stance on trans people.
Hermoine and Ron ending up together is shit. He treats her like garbage throughout the series.
Bellatrix is presented as this fucked up “Daddy’s Little Monster” to Voldemorts Joker.
All of the “good” women are passive little teachers and moms.
What happens to Tonks is especially gross as shit. You have a GNC women. Goes by a shorten, masc-ish name. Short hair, colors, dresses ambiguously.
Then she gets married off to the other queer coded character. (Werewolf = HIV, I’m pretty sure she straight up said that at one point.) He calls her her extremely feminine birth name, and iirc the text even mentions that she is vaguely uncomfortable with that? Then gets knocked up and killed off. She gets to die a “proper woman.”
TERFs say “trans men shouldn’t transition! Just be a non confoming woman!” But it’s a fucking front. They are a conservatives in disguise. They don’t want GNC people to exist, just like they don’t want trans people to exist. “Just be non-binary! But also, shave your legs and wear makeup and make sure to present in a feminine way.”
If I was a billionaire feminist who could buy courts, I could think of several better options.
If I were a billionaire, the amount of low-to-no cost housing, green energy, and fiber internet I would build would be off the charts. And with Elon Musk money, I’m fairly certain I could ensure that NO ONE in the US would ever have to worry about where their next meal would come from. Certainly not schoolchildren. Also, I would commission a third season of the classic 1999 anime Big O, with the original writers and showrunner.
Holy fuck someone other than me mentioning the GOAT that is the Big O
She did give away a lot of money to charity. About 16% of her wealth when she became a billionaire iirc. Gave to help children in poverty and to fight the disease MS.
I don’t know much about her stance on trans people other than she seems to believe that there is a difference between trans and biological women. Feel free to drop a good link where I can educate myself.
Anyway, reading comments here make it sound like she’s a modern day Hitler that’s never done anything good in her life, and that sounds both unfair and untrue.
At the risk of godwinning, imma gonna quote my much beloved grandfather:
“And hitler was kind to his dogs”
Donating a crapload to charities she personally gives a shit about doesn’t magically balance out the horrendous transphobic bigotry she is directly funding.
Unfortunately if you were a billionaire you’d be a selfish sociopath so wouldn’t think of any of these things.
Projection much?
Huh? My point was that there’s a reason we never get good billionaires.
It was phrased as an accusation
It actually wasn’t.
Correct me if I’m wrong - I’m not American, so I wouldn’t see this regularly - but I swear I heard about a lotto jackpot or two that hit the billions of dollars (maybe it was close, if wasn’t that much). So it’s possible (rare as all fuck, but possible on occasion) to get to that - or close to it - without building it on the backs of the working class. If that happened to DominusOfMegadeus then that would be awesome! All for it. It’s unfortunately more likely that you’re crushing people’s spines as you climb the mountain of them to reach that amount though. Blargh…
Lotteries are a tax on poor people.
They are also a “bread and circuses” type thing.
Plus basically all the winners end off worse than before/dead
You could apply the same logic to most fantasy and claim they are racist and pro-monarchy. Harry Potter isn’t really as bad as you make it sound.
this what most of the people are elucidating her meaning of her books, its her subtle way to express her transphobia, anti-semititism, etc.
Ok fair, and kind of obvious now that I think about it. But a lot of people seem to also be arguing that the books can stand alone and be enjoyed separate from the author’s discriminatory beliefs. And if that is the case, then let’s take the books separately, and examine what they really are presenting to the audience that loves them so much. Even forgetting about Rowling, can these people really say they feel it’s totally ok to enjoy a classicist story about discrimination, slavery, and child abuse, etc.? And that they should be allowed to enjoy such a story without anyone casting aspersions against them?
FAMILY guy pretty much foreshadowed her writing, and “coming out as transphobic, but a couple years” they were on to sometime that people were ignorant back then.(there was at least 2 cutscenes about her). 1 where peter was reminiscing about her “know problematic writing of jk rowling”
I’ll agree to examine the books separate from the author the day buying them doesn’t mean giving her money to finance her backwards agenda. Until then, they are 100% linked.
Yeah I feel the same. I would love to get a really good and nostalgic tv series out of this, the movies were a big thing in my youth and I liked them, and while I can now see it and some of its themes and portrayals in a very different light even ignoring Rowling themself, I would argue the problematic stuff are in line with other cliche fantasy that have very similar problems. There seems to be a baseline of problematic stuff pretty much everything includes, likely there from naivety or ignorance rather than intentional malice, but there nevertheless. I can live with that small baseline amount as long as it’s clearly sensible, in that I can understand it’s probably not intended to do harm, and ultimately does not do much of it even unintentionally. And I can’t say I haven’t yearned a little bit to play the rpg situated in the world either.
BUT, and this is important to me, I can’t, unless Rowlings no longer benefits from them. The IP, if bought by HBO for example, leaving no royalties to the transphobic bigot, I could see myself even enjoying again. But the cutoff would have to be complete. Even if they managed to cut off Rowlings just for this show, they would still benefit from it in merchandise and the IP recognition in general, so I could not allow myself to enjoy the show even if it did not directly benefit the bigot.
But that’s not very likely, is it, to entirely cut them off? If anyone using the IP truly want to get the full potential, they should find a way to entice the bigot to sell off any and all rights and benefits regarding them and the franchise. But that’s not going to happen, because the hateful bigot needs the money to wage war against minorities.
It’s expensive to be hateful and oppressing. You need a money making machine to support such a campaign. And the bigot knows that.
The sad thing is, this will likely be a hit still. Most people don’t seem to care, and I guess that’s valid. But it’s harmful. Just like the game. People find ways to justify their consumption even if they are aware and agree with the problems.
Can’t do much else than try and educate the few people we face in our lives.
But if it was ever possible, I would do much want to try the game and ultimately watch this show too, if it ends up being decent in production terms. Just can’t see that happening, which is sad.
Most people don’t seem to care, and I guess that’s valid.
I don’t think it’s valid
Really not looking forward to a repeat of the time of the Hogwarts Legacy game. Online Trans spaces were being brigaded with every reveiw or JKR tweet and comment sections filled unchallenged with tacit endorsements after the trans voices fell silent because we were all just hoping the abuse would stop. That the HP targeted adds and their companion transphobic political adds riding on the wake of the high on queer creators would dry up. The media, the platforms the people coming into places proclaiming they are gunna buy multiple copies of the game to show us what is what. The suicidal ideation of our most vulnerable friends as they deal with feelings of being targeted and feelings of being unwanted or ignored by the world…
Most people not caring might not be “valid” but it will feel like the truth again.
Well, were you to find it on the high seas, you could still enjoy the universe without contributing to anything related…
That’s what someone I know (possibly the one writing this post) does with games from shitty developers/editors that I still want to try.I definitely don’t think we should boycott every creation that comes from a shitty person. I mean, Thomas Edison was a pretty terrible person, from what I understand.
Thanks for voicing your disagreement. While I happily engage in this discussion, I believe your initial argument is somewhat lacking.
I believe there are two major differences between Edison and Rowling:
- In my opinion, we can all without Rowling’s writings (there is a lot of better fantasy out there for everyone) but we rely on a lot of technology attributed to Edison in our daily lives and not using them would be next to impossible (at least for me)
- AFAIK using techs attributed by Edison doesn’t contribute to his personnal wealth or help him push a transphobic and generally far-right agenda
What do you think ?
I certainly agree, but I was seeing some others in this thread who don’t
Starting a covert, underground marketing campaign on Lemmy this early is pretty extreme. I guess we can’t underestimate fandom: the promoters here don’t need payment when they have passion.
What? You mean a celebrity doesn’t really give a fuck about people and just wants to make money? But they were so silly and sweet in their interviews!
Unless this hurts their bottom line, I doubt they’ll move. Her behavior is not new and they auditioned and signed the contract anyway, the same way people still buy their house themed merch and take trips to Potter land or whatever the fuck it’s called. That woman’s growing wealth is a sign of just how little people are willing to give up.
a sign of just how little people are willing to give up.
Also telling a lot about how much many people care about transphobia. Or trans rights at all
The online portion of the community that is complaining about all this may be valid, but it’s still a small portion of the actual public. Regardless of all the negative press, if this show is good, it’s going to be a commercial hit.
Fuck the whole HP franchise.
It was always shitty writing and the plot was garbage. The whole story was a thinly veiled glorification of British exceptionalism.
The only saving grace of that stinking turd of a franchise is that, in the '90s, it seemed like a good way to get kids to read.
Thank you for speaking some sense. I never had any interest in anything HP ever since the beginning, long before JK revealed herself to be a piece of shit.
My cousin dragged me to one of the films once (IDK which one but it was the one where the Gollum ripoff dies). It was so boring that I fell asleep in the theater. Never understood why people find this garbage entertaining.
The kind of hilarious part is there was right wing pushback in the southern US when they came out because it was “teaching kids witchcraft.” Which is so fucking funny to me now. It’s just so plainly obvious that they were literally judging a book by it’s cover. I read the first two books as a young adult because of the right wing pushback and even the 2nd book was an absolute slog. To my dismay I didn’t learn any witchcraft along the way either.
On the other hand, my youngest brother absolutely loved those books. I remember sneaking him one of the new ones when we were staying with our Southern Baptist grandparents for the summer. They absolutely were his first books that he really read independently. He was quite bitter when JKR decided to be all anti-trans and shitty. If you even bring it up now it sends him into a tirade about how shitty she is.
