⚡️ Summer ⚡️

It is very telling to me that people here seem more upset over JK Rowling being a Holocaust Denier now, as opposed to the 5+ months of bullying, harassment, death threats, rape denials, rape apologism, suicide baiting, doxxing, Holocaust Inversion, Hitler apologism, victim-blaming, dehumanization, gaslighting, and antisemitism in general that Jews have been dealing with since October 7th.

Leftists and Westerners only care about antisemitism when it is convenient for them to do so. 😒

They're not really upset about JK Rowling being a Holocaust Denier. They're upset that she's not centering the lgbt/specifically trans experience of the Holocaust. Which, why would she, she hates trans people?

These people have made their opinions clear: they don't care about the Shoah, they've spent months downplaying it, inverting it, weaponizing it against Jews. So why do they suddenly care? Because they imagine themselves the victims in this situation. If JK Rowling incorrectly assumes that books on gender affirming care/queerness were not burned by the Nazis, in these people's minds, that is tantamount to wholesale Holocaust denial. It doesn't matter if someone like her is emphatically not a Holocaust Denier when it comes to a specific lens of Jewish Genocide (she's never downplayed or denied that aspect). She is a HOLOCAUST DENIER!

I can sense the smugness in someone like Alejandra Caraballo getting to act like this is an unfathomable act of cruelty and violence toward the victims of genocide, when she and others like her have been on Twitter spouting antisemitic nonsense for months, proving they find joy and liberation in the murder of Jews for months.

But it really is just another form of appropriation. Most people know what "Holocaust Denial" entails, they know it's about Nazis trying to dismiss or downplay the number of Jews killed by the Nazi regime. But because victimhood is a large component of these people's identities, they seethe with jealousy that Jews' have "gotten" to be victims. This grants someone instant legitimacy and morality, especially on a site like Tumblr. If you're oppressed, you're a good person.

They're very insistent that Jews were not "the only" victims of the Nazis, because to shut the fuck up and take a seat is to admit that one of the greatest atrocities in human history was not primarily about them, in fact, it wasn't about them at all. The number of them who actually descend from queer survivors is outrageously small. This is wounding to the ego. They want to gerrymander Jews out of the Holocaust. You can feel an almost excited energy coming from these people, a gratification and validation that they get to claim this experience, that queer goyim have an oppressor denying The Holocaust, which in this context was the genocide of queer people. Jews and Roma are not relevant.

I don't have a problem with people correcting JK Rowling, what she said was ahistorical. I do have a problem with them spreading like wildfire this breaking news that JK Rowling is an Official Holocaust Denier, and tacking on "and she made goblins antisemitic caricatures!" as a pathetic way to bolster their claims. See if she's also an antisemite then that means we're right! They've shown us what they think of Jewish people. They only care about themselves. But they know the optics of what they're doing, so in the midst of appropriating Jewish death and suffering and genocide, they'll make sure to include a token gesture. It's transparent.

And with your help we can make it 100%.

I've rarely seen a more validating sentence in my entire life.

i imagine it would be like that gif of the woman stumbling horrified through the city and keeps seeing things that remind her of gay people but with trans folks

Absolutely disgusted by NT’s priorities in this time of crisis. You can follow GLAAD on Twitter or Insta for more updates on the queer community is responding to this downright shameful behavior.

+ bonus

congrats to avalanche software for making the first game in the ‘transphobia’ genre!!

God bless our troops.

What makes JKR's shitshow even harder to process is that she didn't just ruin a book series. Harry Potter was an entire subculture. Like Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Harry Potter fans dedicated their lives and careers to the series. I don't know if I'd call it "underground," but liking Harry Potter got you beaten up when I was in school, so it was more of a dedicated indie culture than a mass-appeal fanbase.

Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality got so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss's career.

Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.

And there's the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.

Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.

Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep...Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.

And that's not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.

Today, there's a thriving culture of "Harry Potter adults" with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the "bookish" community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we've all seen what a disaster that's been.

Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it's just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn't seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don't want to seem like you're condoning JKR's bigotry but can't divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.

I don't expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it's still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don't support her, it's just a weird, tense situation for everybody.

People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I'd have a mild identity crisis. I'd ask myself "Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?"

So ultimately, JKR didn't ruin "just" a book series or even "just" a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series's legacy even without JKR's personal issues.

Once, Harry Potter was a series for generations. Now, former fans hope that the series fades into irrelevancy. Unfortunately, JKR didn't just tarnish her legacy--she took decades of history, millions of fans and a worldwide subculture along with her.

jk rowling's new reputation will never not be funny to me. when you see her name now you dont think "oh yeah thats the chick who wrote harry potter" you think "oh lord, this TERF bitch again" like bro how do you fuck up so bad that your fuck ups overshadow writing the third most read piece of literature in existence

YOU hate JK Rowling!

The idea that you have to completely drop Harry Potter and everything related to it or else you support J.K. Rowling’s transphobia is one based entirely in performative activism.

Harry Potter is one of the biggest media franchises of the 21st century. J.K. Rowling already made her money from it  and then some.

I would still suggest that you stop buying books, movies, and merchandise first-hand, so that you’re no longer actively putting money into a transphobe’s pocket, but I’m also not going to pretend that doing so would be anything more than a drop in the bucket at this point.

You’re still allowed to enjoy her work, even if you disagree with her views. Saying shit like “If you still like Harry Potter, you’re actively contributing to the murder of trans women!” is both hyperbolic and performative.

You wanna actually support trans people? Donate to trans charities. Directly support trans people who are in need. Call out transphobia when you see it. Be vocal about your support.

All of this will do so much more to fight against transphobia than putting people  on blast on the internet for still liking a book series they likely grew up with just because the author is a shitty person.

I'm sorry we're not going to take away JKR's money by boycotting her

If she stopped making money on all HP stuff right now she'd still be rich as shit for life

Like I get not wanting to give her more money and wanting to send a message by boycotting but some of y'all are acting like we can take away all of her influence and money by not engaging in a thing that millions of people who don't know what's going on will still be engaging with anyway

Not to say it's pointless or futile or you shouldn't do it but like she's going to stay rich

Yeah like maybe I'm extra grouchy about this but I've seen about 10 "remember that HP was made by a horrible person and your awful for engaging in it" posts for every "here's how to support trans folks especially those in the UK" post, and it makes it seem like people care more about the opportunity to yell at others then actually support trans folk.

You know what I just realized was fucked up in the HP fandom?

Like really really really fucked up?

This fandom likes to tell itself that’s it’s better than JK Rowling, more tolerant, more clever, more everything because she’s a TERF, and that is quite a valid point.

But there’s a point that makes me realize the HP fandom is also a bunch of fracking hypocrites.

Remember Evanna Lynch?

Remember her struggle with an eating disorder that she overcame and how that was so inspiring and empowering?

Now remember how this fandom treats Ron’s eating habits?

How, when they aren’t making a joke out of the fact that he *gasp* eats, they act as though it’s something disgusting, or shameful, or ridiculous? That they go “hurr durr ron iz a slob and a glutton and dumb bcuz he likes eating!!!”

In the same breath the HP fandom manages to celebrate someone for triumphing over a life-threatening disorder (a life-threatening disorder that involves LACK OF SUFFICIENT NOURISHMENT) and to directly shame a character people relate to FOR their eating habits, something that is proven to be the direct cause to the existence of such things as eating disorders in the first place.

Cognitive dissonance, not even once.

originally, hermione’s full name starts out as “hermione jane granger,” and by book seven, jk rowling changed hermione’s middle name to “jean” so that way hermione didn’t share the same middle name with “dolores jane umbridge.”

this is one small choice that jkr made that’s always bothered me. it’s a little indicative, i think, of her fundamental beliefs and the bigger choices––(both writing choices as well as post-publication choices, let alone her current social commentary). umbridge is a horrific person who does immense amounts of harm to children not only because she’s under direction, but because she enjoys it. it makes umbridge a fantastic character, in the sense that’s she’s horrific, but unforgettable. everyone knew a teacher that made their life at school terrible.

but. i think there’s something to be said about sharing something with people we are horrified by––harry shares the same backstory as snape; he shares the same looks with voldemort; he shares the same wealth as malfoy––and it’s this acknowledgement of our shared characteristics that can be a driving force in ourselves for working to improve ourselves and our behavior, and make us better and unlike these people we are horrified by.

in order of the phoenix, one of hermione’s understated but much discussed moments in when she hexes the membership list of dumbledore’s army, resulting with scars on marietta edgecombe’s face. when asked about it, jkr said, “i loathe a traitor.” it’s a deeply decisive preemptive action to take, pointing out that hermione is much more calculating and less trusting than either harry or ron––but, that being said, it strikes as being cruel. marietta’s mother’s job was on the line; she was blackmailed by an authority figure; and she was left permanently (as far as we know) scarred. dumbledore’s army was not the only thing on the line for marietta.

whoa, hermione. that’s a strong reaction, and it’s one that hermione refuses to back down on, even after a year later. it’s also decidedly unsympathetic to marietta’s circumstances, and harry refuses to hear out cho’s pleas on her friend’s behalf. despite the fact that umbridge has equally made marietta a victim as almost anyone else in dumbledore’s army (or indeed the rest of hogwarts), hermione’s concern is only on the cause of dumbledore’s army.

and it’s a little bit reminiscent of umbridge. hermione “makes an example,” out of marietta, just as umbridge made an example out of marietta, too. hermione refuses to back down on her decision, just as umbridge remains equally as strident in her cause when we see her again in book seven. and both hermione and umbridge share the same streak of fervent loyalty to a higher cause.

this isn’t, of course, to say that hermione has done anything like the amount of damage and cruelty umbridge has––but the parallels are there. it’s the same potential that harry worries he shares with voldemort. and i think jkr should have let the parallels exist, and certainly should have explored them more. so, yeah. i think “hermione jane granger” worked really well.

thinking about jkr using remus’ relationship with tonks to feminise her and centre her narrative around a man....thinking about how remus calls her nymphadora even though she prefers her more masculine name and the reader is supposed to understand that this is because she has Matured out of her tomboyish ways....thinking about how her entire character was focused around wanting a relationship with remus and we lost all her nuance and personality....thinking about what a fun amazing cool character she was before joanne decided to enforce her lover/mother/dead model of fictional women onto her......

i think social media spectacle brain leads to people playing down the transphobia of jk rowling because it reduces her to just somebody who is transphobic on twitter (large amounts of people are this unfortunately) and a fantasy author whose books are full of reactionary garbage and prejudice (the fantasy genre is full of authors like this, unfortunately) while ignoring the fact that she’s a billionaire celebrity using her enormous amounts of social and financial capital to actively campaign for restrictions on the human rights of trans people in a country that’s currently undergoing a massive anti-trans moral panic and which has recently seen serious rollbacks in the right of trans people to transition. she’s more than just a problematic fantasy author who is a bigoted asshole, she’s actually putting her money where her mouth is to ensure that her bigotries become actual public policy.

Hey, so they’re making a Netflix Harry Potter.

With that in mind, we’re all gonna remember that JKR is a terf who has literally been cited by legislators engaged in legislation that actively harms trans people, and we’re not gonna give her any more money.

That means not streaming the new show on Netflix, because regardless of how much influence she has on the production, she gets paid for it.

We’re gonna make the show flop. We’re gonna show Warner Brothers that we don’t forget (of course, how would we forget, it isn’t as if she’s stopped), and that their business association with terfs is no longer profitable.

It is NOT like Lovecraft, because Lovecraft is very dead and his works are in the public domain. By consuming Lovecraft media, you are not giving any money to old Howard.

I’d like to make a correction. There doesn’t seem to be any viable sources for this. Its all heresay. There is nothing that supports this from credible sources. This is a unfounded rumor. Every article written bases its sources on what they’ve heard without directly stating a source from HBO, Rowling, Warner Brothers or any other direct links. Just a small reminder to check the sources before believing what you read on the internet. If an article comes out from a news outlet that has no sources or links available, no references, no attachment to specific names in the industry then its not credible.

The article that came out was by Hollywood Reporter who rather than stating where they attained the information simply said “sources tell.” This is disgraceful reporting and is on par with trolling. It means that either she is writing about a rumor she heard or the project has yet to be approved or given any kind of green light.

Make sure when you are reading online to check the sources and to verify it through those sources. If there’s no sources then it simply isn’t true.

Reblogging for the correction, and the sourcing.

I’ve been hearing about it in a lot of places, and didn’t think to look for confirmation, because the actual existence of the series doesn’t make much difference to me.

If there isn’t a series, then we’re also not going to watch it. If there is one, we’re still not going to watch it.