rowling also wants to retcon the og cast members of the films, because they dont like to be associated with her transphobia.
the thing i don’t get is why people are focused on the transgender community so much?
Pirating Harry Potter stuff is now not only a moral thing to do, but almost a moral obligation.
I’d say just don’t engage with it at all.
If someone talks about it, pretend ignorance. Like total ignorance of any aspect of the stories.
Or, if someone mentions it, just say you don’t give bigots money.
Editing to expand: by pirating you are perpetuating the cultural impact. The majority of people pay for access to this media, and by engaging with it you make it more costly for other people to skip it.
Maybe once they are dead, because history is history. But otherwise…
Just pirated the whole movie series lol
This is just sad. What could have made JKR use her wealth in such an unkind way?
This is why the new tv series will be hated by all. They had a chance to remake and sanitize the series away from the grimy hands of JK and instead they doubled down. So if anything this remake might be even more offensive.
The wild thing is that growing up I had all the conservatives and bible people trying to stop us kids from reading the demonic Harry Potter novels. Now that they realize the author is one of them, they suddenly love the books about witchcraft!
They had a chance to remake and sanitize the series away from the grimy hands of JK
Did they really? My impression was that she used her copyright control
They will cast Snape as black and the audience will wonder why Harry immediately hates him.
That’s the confusing thing to me, clearly the left audience is done with JK, but the show is also pissing off the right with “woke casting”
Unfortunately, they won’t be hated. A lot of people don’t actually care all that much about trans people :(
Or anyone else for that matter
Just like the best selling game of the year, Hogwarts Legacy.
I don’t think Hogwarts: Legacy doubled down, though? It’s definitely sad that she made money off that game being sold, but she didn’t have any hand in the writing. The game has trans characters and allows the player to be trans as well.
she does profit from the IP being sold. and people were like defending the game and her transphobia.
My comment was only to point out that the mainstream does not care about JKR’s take on trans people and that anything Harry Potter will print money, which is the opposite of OP’s take on things.
FUCK OFF JK YOU FUCKING TWAT.
Thar is all
Okay, I’m sure I’ll get vote-bombed here, please don’t jump the gun, I’m pro lgbtq+. I don’t give a shit who or how someone loves, just hope they’re allowed to be happy with themselves (unless they’re hurting people, obviously).
I believe trans rights, and womens rights, are human rights. I don’t think anybody should be treated differently due to gender, sex, race, or orientation, and they shouldn’t be discriminated against in any way. I’m just trying to make sure I understand fully for when I defend the pro trans position that I believe to be correct.
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. It SEEMS like she mostly wants to make sure women stay safe (paraphrasing her own words here). In Scotland apparently they’re changing things so that a dude can just say he’s not a dude, and be legally allowed in all women only spaces if they register with the government or whatever. I can absolutely see how that could be used in a predatory manor, and can see that side of the argument.
I just read her piece here: https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/ To make sure I’m getting as complete of a look at the situation as I can.
And it confused the issue a little for me. All of her arguments seem to be coming from a place of reason, and some of them made sense (if the referenced stats were true). Most of her arguments seem to come from a “I don’t want to make it easier for male predators to prey on women” standpoint, which makes sense at the surface level.
is the current climate making it fashionable to transition? I find it hard to believe someone would go that far without truly thinking it’s the right thing to do, but some people are highly influenced by peer pressure. I can also see maybe some women wanting to change to escape the misogyny of our current world. I’m a straight cis-male, and I can’t personally resonate with the idea of changing that because it’s “popular” or whatever, so I don’t put a lot of credence into that argument, but I’m not everyone 🤷.
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.
Please help me learn and understand. Someone with more context or knowledge, please let me know. I’d love the opinion of some trans folks if you see this. Rowling says she’s getting support from trans women for her positions. And I’m sure that’s true, there’s bound to be some, like there’s women who support patriarchy.
Edit, reordered my statements so my current position is clear at the start
As a cis man who is only tangentially acquainted with transgender issues, and as a person who isn’t particularly eloquent, I cannot do this topic justice myself. You’ll have to trust me when I say that the image of “just any bloke can call himself a woman and go into the bathroom and assault women” is language that is deeply colored by propaganda, and has no basis in reality. When you indulge in language and ideas like that, you are doing harm. Similarly, the “men doing women’s sports” idea is harmful to both cis and trans women, and has, again 0 basis in reality.
If you are truly interested, and not some right wing troll who’s “just asking questions” (we get a lot of those on .world, it’s like the instance attracts them), please, please give these YouTube videos a watch:
https://youtu.be/EmT0i0xG6zg https://youtu.be/qfUsuQ8rfu4
The shorter one is from a cis man, but it seems to me that he explains the idea very well, at least behind the sports thing. And I promise that the longer one is worth it. It will help you understand a deeply marginalized segment of the population much better, and you will be a better person for it. I think that’s worth 2 hours.
It boils down to this for me: If some bad actor is going to pretend to be trans to access some naked lady area, why are we trying to punish actual trans people for that by taking away their access to bathrooms and healthcare?
It’s just stupid.
Thank you for this. I will absolutely go through both videos.
I appreciate the context you provided as well. In my mind it makes sense that someone willing to break the law to hurt people isn’t going to stop because the sign on the door says it’s not for them. That argument never felt particularly strong to me, and I’m glad that you’ve affirmed it basically doesn’t happen.
I’m no troll, and am truly trying to understand further.
Thanks again for your time, I hope to be able to watch those videos soon.
JK Rowling argument put simply is that women need a safe space, that there are opportunistic men that will abuse workarounds that let them access this safe space, therefore there needs to be tighter regulations on who can enter the safe space.
Does she address that argument in some part of the video?
My comment to her is that we need to enforce anti-harassment laws in all spaces. I don’t care if you’re a man harassing a man, a man harassing a woman, a woman harassing a man, or a woman harassing a woman, the cops should come take you away and … educate you why we don’t do that shit in a civilised society. And you don’t need to make a person presenting as a woman use the men’s washroom, or a person presenting as a man use a woman’s washroom, to make that happen! In short, you don’t need to be a dick to people.
Fun fact. I saw a recent news article where a trans-man (i.e., born female, presents as male) went into the woman’s washroom because the only free stalls were urinals, which he couldn’t use. So he went to the woman’s washroom to use a stall there, and got harassed by the police because…well, he was a man in the women’s room. Except he wasn’t. He was born a she, and in North Carolina, you USED to be demanded to go to the washroom of your birth gender, and they’re trying to force that back in again, after it was partially repealed and allowed to expire back in 2020.
It’s not about protecting women. If it was, they’d just enforce the laws on the books about harassment, sexual or otherwise, and be blind to the genders of the perpetrator and victim. But we can obviously see that this is about legally harassing transgender people, and it just uses women’s rights as cover for the hatred. Your only answer as a transgender person to peeing is hold it…or pee yourself. Or move to a state, city, or country that doesn’t treat you like shit because you would prefer to be the other gender…or not be restricted to the binary structure in general!
As far as I know, if you’re a dude, you can already just walk into womens bathrooms. There aren’t police outside or anything checking peoples pants. There’s not some epidemic of people legally transitioning just so they can be predators.
These laws end up hurting women, who were born women and were always women, who don’t happen to look “feminine” enough (ETA: or the opposite, cis men who don’t look manly enough), and people start harassing them for using the bathroom they were meant to use.
If you want to go after predators, go after predators. It’s not that hard. You don’t need to go after trans people to do that.
idk if reading a billionaire author’s own statement (managed by a billionaire’s pr-team) on the billionaire’s own site is “the most complete picture you can get”.
I’ve read the text as well, and that isn’t too crazy. But it’s honestly just dog-whistling, as you can see from her going utterly BATSHIT crazy on social media.
Edit not to mention highly illogical. She literally wants a law saying this guy must use the women’s bathroom:
And you don’t think he will get harassed when he goes into the ladies’ because he was born with a vagina?
Or that this person won’t get harassed when they have to go the men’s:
You can prolly see why TERF views aren’t actually feminist at all
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.)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.
People have decided she’s literally Hitler and so are you if you disagree with them. This isn’t a subject where discourse is allowed. The point is to make any dissent of any size unacceptable and to make sure no one is questioning anything, 100% unquestioning acceptance is the only option here, no questions allowed, accept it at face value. People can’t accept things they’re not allowed to think through and thinking issues around transness through means you’re a bigot, fully accept it or you’re a bigot… don’t bother talking to people about this here, there’s no point, shades of gray and nuisanced through is forbidden
You say this as if she doesn’t have a long and exceedingly public history of racism and transphobia.
I don’t think this is the right take.
I think perhaps people on the Internet get jaded towards questions and discourse because it’s often disingenuous or just trolling. Do they jump to a conclusion? Perhaps, but it also feels like you may have here.
My comment above is currently (and I expect forever) sitting in the negative, I think this is probably for the reason you stated. I’m going to leave it as is because it’s an honest starting point for me, and hopefully it’ll also help someone else come in, see a resonance with how they think, and also learn something. One commenter already provided videos for me to study and learn from, which I will do as soon as I can.
I’m hoping overall people understand that I’m coming from a place of honest curiosity and openness. I see all the bigotry around and it disgusts me. I just want to make sure I understand this topic as much as I can as a cis-male.
It’s one thing to still support someone despite them having some problematic opinions on the side. I do it, you probably do it, it annoys the shit out of me to know that this thing that I like is made by someone who shares opinion with which I strongly disagree with, sometimes that are even against me, personally, as a trans person.
But not understanding something, being ignorant and being kind of an asshole about it, is very different than what this hateful bitch is doing. She has dedicated her entire life to make people like me fucking miserable. And it’s working!
I’m having a very hard time reconciling the fact that lots of people love Harry Potter and some people in my entourage are the same and they will support and pay for stuff made by this horrendous person regardless because this universe means that much to them. My sister is like that. I’m having a very hard time with that. I don’t want to be that person… but fuck this hurts.
The worst part is that most people don’t know about it. Most people don’t know how much of a hateful, awful person J.K. Rowling is. And I have to admit, those people in my life, I’m genuinely afraid of telling them. Because I know that there is a chance that I’ll tell them everything, and that in the end, they won’t change a thing. Because my rights as a human being matters less to them. And I don’t want to find that out…
I hate everything about this.
I’m not trans, but I feel your pain. It sucks, a lot. Why do people have to be so hateful?
Low IQ and a lack of hobbies
I think that you shouldn’t tell people to stop enjoying what they love but to stop buying and funding her campaign.
It is hard to convince people to give up on their interests but it is reasonable to tell them where the money goes.
I myself I am mostly pirating all stuff. I could even help someone pirate it and do it for them. I think they would understand and agree to it. I would add that If they buy something from hp we are not friends/family anymore but if you ask me to pirate it then we could watch it together.
That’s my advice on how to approach this in a reasonable manner and if you need help pirating any hp stuff PM me and I will explain how to set everything up
First, let me start with saying I am sorry. Currently, the world seems very preoccupied with cocks and vagina’s and who should have what. (Kinda weird, but yeah).
I love Harry Potter. It was the first series of books that really resonated with me. It is really sad to see that someone, who came from nothing and gained it all. Could live the dream, have all the money and affection, is such a massive cunt.
Yet somehow, it doesn’t make me stop loving Harry Potter. When reading the books again, it reminds me of my childhood. Me reading at 2:00 in the morning underneath the blankets with a pocket light in me mouth to not let anyone know I am not sleeping. Daydreaming about such a world where magic exist.
The solution, I am afraid, is something I cannot provide. Money buys news, news poisons the minds. I stand for humanity, and all humans. No matter which configuration. And if someone wants to have a nice pair of tits and cunt instead of a dick, go on and have your merry life.
…
I don’t know if this is helpful or not. What is your solution?
I don’t know, there’s a lot of racism and anti-Semitism in those books as well. I mean the money obsessed long nose goblins? Cho Chang?
They’re good stories, but they do reflect the work of a fundamentally biggoted author.
In general the entire series is mean-spirited. You can see the roots of Rowling’s hate in how she describes any of the series antagonists.
It is important to separate art and artist.
People get a lot of comfort out of religious text knowing next to nothing about the author(s).
This also means you can hate on JK Rowling without making any connection to HP.
You can separate the art from the artist for sure but when people are buying HP branded stuff, they are directly contributing to this.
Totally agree. Although in today’s digital world there is no need to spend any money on HP.
I’ll admit this is easier for me because I was never a huge HP fan. But I don’t even pirate it because I don’t want to increase its cultural impact. I don’t even want to seed the torrent, and leeches suck. I want Harry Potter to disappear because even after Rowling dies, the profits will go towards a transphobic foundation.
In some cases piracy increases total revenue by getting more people interested in the product.
The product itself isn’t bad. But you do have a point.
Let’s compare Orsen Scott Card and Rowling. I’m never going to be pressured into taking kids to an Enders Game theme park, but piracy will make Univeral theme parks (and therefore Rowling) lots more money. Disney made more money from selling Churros than streaming.
No. I’m so tired of this. You can like the IP but you can’t spend a single dime on it without funding transphobia. That’s what we are talking about here.
Edit: The IP also should just die. Its popularity fuels hateful policies and attitudes against my existence.
Edit: This comment on it says it succinctly: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/26719393/14648789
And this is why I pirated Hogwarts legacy…
For me the whole IP has been so tainted by her behavior that I can’t even enjoy it if I didn’t pay. I get a gross feeling from it, like I’ve stepped directly into some filthy place and must be careful not to let anything touch me.
Understandable
If you are going down that road then there are much big targets to aim at. Are you also applying the same anger (and logic) to organised religion?
The same arguments apply and they are multiple times more powerful than Rowling.
Yup, fuck organized religion
Yeah okay, you are not being genuine. That much is clear now. This is a post about J. K. Rowling using profits from her IP to fund transphobia. People run in to defend the franchise, we try to explain how giving her money means more policies against us is bad, and then you object to that?
Ofc we are talking about HP in the HP post. Why would I talk about religion here? She gave a significant meaningful amount of money to fund hate against me, and she continues to be influential and use her and her IPs popularity to make peoples lives harder.
Why do you think I don’t speak up against any church or organization funding hate and bigotry? You are not being genuine.
giving her money means more policies against us is bad, and then you object to that?
No, you went further and are hating on people liking HP. You are attacking the art not the artist. I am defending art in general. I am not defending Rowling at all or encouraging funding for her. Everyone should pirate anything HP related.
Why would I talk about religion here?
Because you are confusing the art and the artist. That precedent should not be allowed no matter the topic. (By equating religion to art I can make my point quicker. Note I’m not choosing any religion in particular)
Why do you think I don’t speak up against any church or organization funding hate and bigotry?
Do you also try to stop people from believing in that religion? From reading those religious books? No. The art is separate.
You are not being genuine.
I’m highlighting how art and artist are separate. No-one should feel guilty about enjoying a fictional book.
No, you went further and are hating on people liking HP.
Where did that happen?
The IP also should just die.
It is important to separate art and artist.
I completely disagree, both on a subjective selfish aesthetic level, and on a moral level.
On the aesthetic side, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice by making this separation. You’re missing out on this whole other dimension a piece of art has to offer you; namely the context that the author operates in. Star Wars gains this whole other rich level of interpretation if you consider the fact that George Lucas lived through the invasion of Vietnam and other forms of US imperialism and completely opposes it, for example. You’re missing out by ignoring the author.
On the moral side, the argument is more obvious, I think. By ignoring the author you’re denying yourself the opportunity to spend your money and support folks in a way that aligns with your own morals. In my case, I consider trans people people, and think they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. Since I know J K Rowling completely disagrees, I know that if I spend money on her, I will be putting money in the pocket of someone, and platforming them, who actively works against my morals. And I’m thankful for being able to know that spending money on her goes counter to my own morality.
Obviously if the authors views are reflected in the work then there isn’t a separation. HP is badly written with many failings, but it is enjoyable and not anti-trans itself. The art does not reflect the beliefs of the author.
On the moral side, no money needs to be given directly or indirectly to Rowling.
The art does not reflect the beliefs of the author.
It really does though. The moral universe of Harry Potter says a lot about J K Rowling as a person, and there are many parallels with her own life. Morality in the Harry Potter universe is not inherent to an action, but to an actor. Is bullying bad? Depends on who does it. If a bad guy does it (for example the Dursleys), then it’s bad. If a good guy does it (Hagrid), then it’s good! There’s a parallel with the abolition of slavery about half way through the series, and it’s only one character doing it, and they’re the butt of the joke. And of course there’s Cho Chang and Blackie Shackleslave or whatever she called the one black character. The work speaks volumes about her, and vice versa. And you’re depriving yourself of this deeper level of analysis. You’re missing out.
There’s a YouTuber called Shaun who’s done a thorough analysis of her work and its parallels with her dealings with nazis and fellow transphobes. It’s worth a watch.
Imagine what good things could be done with the money instead of using it for stuff that’s non of her business. The older they get, the more conservative they turn out to be - sad for someone who brought a wonderful world to life once…
Boycotts work! Don’t watch her show on HBO and cancel your subscription after The Last of Us season finale of course. If her brand becomes toxic nobody will fund projects around it and she will fade into obscurity.
I didn’t subscribe to HBO when Game of Thrones was airing, I’m not about to start now.
To many people care more about their immediate shiny than any lasting harm their actions do in the world.
Just look at how quickly the Nintendo Switch 2 sold out preorders, despite explicitly telling customers they won’t even own the device, and thus nintendo can fucking brick the thing whenever they want.
Don’t watch anything of hers on anything, like she’ll still be getting royalties for films.
Can’t she just take up knitting or photography or racing driving?
No, because she’s still traumatized by the thought that Corbyn could have won, and could have raised her taxes.
“You hurt a community the most by going after their most vulnerable.”
No because we all keep talking about her.
I’d prefer she take up parachuteless BASE diving, personally.
Is that Titanic sub company still in business?
Appreciated, I just don’t get why people choose hate as a hobby when there are much better options.
What a miserable person. More money than God and all she can do is sit around hating people she’s never met.
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Let
Harry
Potter
Die
Just let it go.
They won’t and its crazy. I know people that just CAN’T because they made it part of their personality.
The amount of people with Deathly Hallows tattoos is crazy. My partner is among them
I know a trans person who still consumes HP media. I didn’t respect them before they came out and transitioned and I sure as hell not going to start now. They’ve always been a selfish Adult Child and they’ll never stop being one.
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The artist is not the same as the work.
The world of Harry Potter, the books, the movies, future shows or whatever involve a lot more people than just this fucking idiot shit writer. And a shitty person can anyway create a good thing that helps people.
Now in this case where the author is still alive, let people enjoy harry Potter stuff, while asking people to not send money her way. Help people pirate her books if they really want to read them, pirate the shows and movies. Better yet, make those involved in the shows and movies voice their opinion against her, make the money going to those works support trans people to counter JK. Make her see her works support the causes she hates.
Alienating people for liking some book series, movie or show that was made, paid, produced, written or whatever by some asshole won’t help the situation. In other words, in this case, harry Potter is not the problem, it’s the author.
Read them with a little media literacy. Birth/Blood nature keeps coming up and was one the reasons I was getting uncomfortable with the story and dropped half way though. 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. This mind set in her writing reflects to JK’s views on trans. You are the way you are at birth.This. Not only is JKR a sorry excuse for a human being, she didn’t even write good stories. Ursula K LeGuin wasn’t keen on them either:
“I have no great opinion of it. When so many adult critics were carrying on about the ‘incredible originality’ of the first Harry Potter book, I read it to find out what the fuss was about, and remained somewhat puzzled; it seemed a lively kid’s fantasy crossed with a ‘school novel,’ good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.”
Shaun pointed out how mean spirited the books were as well. I remember back when there was a mini satanic panic targeting the HP books and Philip Pullman came out and said that his books were way more anti-religion and that he should have been getting that attention.
The first book was… fine I guess. Nothing ground breaking and the weirdness was still shallow and hadn’t created a pattern yet. I was really surprised that Voldemort became the reoccurring villain. He’s just a boring villain.
Harry Potter is part of the problem. I am totally onboard with the idea of ‘The Death of the Author’, which is the concept that something like Harry Potter is much more than just intellectual property owned by a person. It’s a shared cultural experience which is so much bigger than one person it becomes impossible to say the author owns it.
However, J.K. is using the profits from her intellectual property to hurt people. Harry Potter is being used as a tool to hurt people. As much as I hate to say it, Harry Potter is part of the problem. At least for now. So pirate it, consume her IP without ever paying her a penny.
Also she’s not Trans rights are human rights but she wrote pollyjuice potion into her world…
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Let it go, let it goooo
Imagine getting all that wealth just to use it to hurt people
You are describing most of the billionaires.
There is a difference between abusing people to generate money and spending money to hurt people
Most of the Billionaires do both.
My intuition says you’re right, but I’ve learned to question it from time to time. I don’t know any billionaires myself, nor have I read much about them, so I don’t really have any facts either way. Got any sources I should look into?
The 1st thing always come to my mind is Nestlè. But there are many others, doing worse. Like Chevron, Elon Musk and others.
The difference between not being keen on trans people and making a few shitposts versus actively devoting time and money towards oppressing them is HUGE.
This isn’t just someone with an alternative opinion we’re talking about. It’s someone using more wealth than a lot of us will never touch, to fuck over an already marginalised group. She’s pure fucking evil.
It’s loathsome because she has chosen to use her vast wealth to punch down.
Sadly I’m still going to hear “Oh she gives to LGBT Charities, she just doesn’t agree with transpeople on EVERY little thing, doesn’t mean she’s a transphobe.”
