Hello everyone,
I saw recently another post on Lemmy which was fairly negative towards fans of the HP universe (some people announcing that they would block other people because those are HP fans)
I guess we can all agree by now that JKR’s transphobia is bigotry and should be condemned.
However, that still does not say what do to with that universe that we love.
I found an interesting article on that topic: https://www.popsugar.co.uk/entertainment/harry-potter-fans-jk-rowling-transphobia-essay-49214964
I guess the most important part is
Still, there may be a way to enjoy Harry Potter as a trans person or ally. Over the years, many fans have found creative ways to engage with the series’s magic while also acknowledging its creator’s bigotry. In her paper “Transformative Readings: Harry Potter Fan Fiction, Trans/Queer Reader Response, and J. K. Rowling,” Jennifer Duggan, an associate professor of English at the University of South-Eastern Norway — says that it’s possible to interpret the text of Harry Potter itself in ways that would certainly horrify its writer. “My central thesis—one which has also been argued by other academics like Thomas Pugh and David Wallace — is that the Harry Potter novels are deeply queer,” she tells POPSUGAR. “I mean this in both senses of the term: they champion nonnormativity through the contrast of the ‘perfectly normal’ Dursleys and Harry, and they are, at their heart, a story about a boy with an ‘abnormality’ (as the Dursleys call his magic) who comes out of his cupboard under the stairs and discovers and finds and affinity for a hidden, colourful, queer world. I take this argument further to argue that the novels are easily read through a trans lens, since there is a focus in many of the books on shapeshifting, including several cross-gendered transformations.”
Fandom, she adds, can provide spaces where Harry Potter fans can explore the series’s queer undercurrents while celebrating their own sexualities. “From what I have observed, I have concluded that for the most part, the Harry Potter fandom continues to offer queer and trans fans a positive space,” she tells POPSUGAR. “The two main trends I have seen in fan works are an ‘answer hate with love’ reaction, in which fans focus on trans positivity, and so-called ‘spitefic,’ which are works that are framed as revenge on Rowling for the hurt she has caused. These works are usually trans-positive, too. That said, I fully understand why some fans feel they can no longer engage with the texts in any way.”
Link to the research paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10583-021-09446-9
Seems an interesting way for me to re-appropriate the universe, what do you think?
To be honest, I don’t really engage in this community because of the discomfort Harry Potter generally brings me now. I was honestly a bit relieved when it died as I knew when it was created it would eventually spell trouble. I want to preface this as I say all of this as a queer Jewish man.
I was a big fan of Harry Potter as a kid. It was the one of the big book series’ I enjoyed and it connected me with my mother. I had difficulty picking up reading and Harry Potter was a pathway to solidifying my literacy. I understand why people enjoy it, and in many ways the memories I have of it with connecting to my mother is something I will never forget. But at the same time… there’s a big difference between consuming public domain work made by awful people who no longer receive profit whilst consuming work by a woman who is actively engaging in political campaigns to make trans peoples lives worse with the profit she still receives.
I am not trans and I cannot speak from that perspective, but what I can speak on is that I don’t really talk about Harry Potter amongst my friends who are as a sign of general respect. It’s hard to really emphasize just how much pain JK Rowling has brought people. It’s horrendous. There is obvious nuance here and I get that and whenever people talk about Harry Potter I try my hardest not to to pass judgement in spite of the fact I cannot help but think of all the awful shit that’s happened. It is extremely difficult for people to break from the cultural hold that Harry Potter has held. It is one of the most iconic media franchises of the early 2000s for a reason.
When it comes to the antisemitism aspect of it, it brings me frustration as it is often an after thought in the discussion of her stuff. TERF shit and antisemitism tends to be best of friends for some reason. Most likely since TERFs are often embraced by fascists who are already antisemitic and they pick their talking points up, but I digress. Antisemitism is a big thing across most media in general and that did leak heavily into Harry Potter at first, but her antisemitism in her work is more jarring knowing that she is now openly associated with public antisemites as well.
I don’t know. The whole thing just upsets me honestly. Seeing the conflict it creates is painful.
Hello,
Thank you for your comment, and sorry about the unease this community brings you.
Are you comfortable having this community active on your instance? We can move it elsewhere if you prefer.
Update as I know this comment is linked to from time to time: we discussed about this with Gabe on Matrix, he was okay to keep the community here. Proof of this: he appointed one of my alts as a moderator of the community, which he probably wouldn’t have done if he wasn’t approving our community being here.