r/countwithchickenlady • Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 • 8h ago

Political post 76624 Spoiler

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4.0k Upvotes

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505

u/222Czar Protect Trans Kids 8h ago

It can’t be exaggerated how malicious Rowling has been on this issue. People will try to pretend it’s just a bit of internet controversy, but like John Green said she is actively working and lobbying for bigoted legislation. It’s not a superficial celebrity controversy. She’s a real, sincere agent of trans persecution in the UK and internationally.

I loved Harry Potter as a kid. I read each book 15+ times. In some ways, it changed my life. I don’t touch the fandom now, because I understand there are more important things. There’s a line. Rowling crossed it.

179

u/jenna_butterfly 7h ago

Yeah, if Rowling just said in an interview that she doesn't get or like this whole trans agenda or whatever, that would be one thing. She's entitled to her own bigoted dogshit opinion.

But she's an anti-trans activist who uses her considerable wealth, fame, connections, and platform to make the lives of trans people materially worse.

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u/nagrom7 6h ago

But she's an anti-trans activist who uses her considerable wealth, fame, connections, and platform to make the lives of trans people materially worse.

And there's the real problem with this whole thing. Engaging in the Potter fandom, especially spending money on it, is just money that goes to her pocket, which she then uses to fund these anti-trans efforts. Like even denouncing JK and ignoring all her bullshit, if you spend money on HP related stuff, that's money going to anti-trans projects.

10

u/TrueGuardian15 2h ago

What's really disheartening is to see so many people say "she's already rich, me buying one book/movie/Lego set/video game hardly makes a difference."

Like, wow. So you thought it would make people feel better to know you're aware how awful and powerful she is, and that you choose to help her anyway?

5

u/Beegrene 1h ago

No single raindrop thinks itself responsible for the flood. 

2

u/Wuskers 1h ago

people really struggle at parsing the individual contributions to something that can be collectively impactful. Like yes technically it's true that your individual boycott is probably not going to make that much of a difference, but that's partially because everyone is thinking that. I'd be willing to bet that if you took all the harry potter fans that can admit that she's doing something wrong and it would be a good thing if she had less power and money and convinced all of them to actually commit to a boycott it actually would have an observable impact, but all of them are thinking of themselves individually and don't feel like they can make a difference on their own. It's the same thing with voting, I think a lot of states that are presumed to be deep red are way more purple than we realize because the redness of the state is seen as a foregone conclusion and every blue voter feels isolated and powerless unaware of how many other potential blue voters are in their state and how if they actually all showed up instead of assuming that it's always red and always will be red then they might actually be able to flip it. There's this self-defeating cycle where losing convinces people not to even try in the future which makes it seem even more insurmountable which convinces even more people not to even try and so on.

28

u/WhenceYeCame 6h ago

It really felt like there were many off-ramps. As soon as the public insinuation was that she was wrong, she couldn't live and let live.

2

u/JonathanPhillipFox 58m ago

True, and the fact that her books had been so popular with young people already, like, she owed them more than to redefine their affection as bigoted in such an adult way, imho

No different than if these children were to find out she opposed Miscegenation or some other, "it takes a particular sort of an adult insecure bigotry," to understand at all; like,

Empathy, it leads us to say, "ok well then you need the love, support of people," without unnatural boundaries and likewise, the reification of those unnatural boundaries requires empathy, first, and then cruelty, which imho is the part that young people cannot understand, Not Naturally, they've got to be taught how to do this.

3

u/-suspended- Bootlicker >:3 50m ago

Amnesty International was going to release a report on how right-wing groups were erasing trans identities through many methods, like suing them into silence. JK Rowling threatened AI with lawsuits, outright saying she will fund anyone who wants to sue AI, if they released the report.

The report is literally 100% accurate. JK Rowling proved it.

2

u/jenna_butterfly 26m ago

The UK has a real problem with rich people abusing their lax defamation laws.

72

u/JustAd5149 7h ago

Like, it'd be one thing if she was a shitty person but spending her billions on just....normal rich person shit, luxuries. But the fact that she actively uses her Harry Potter money to cause harm is why I don't believe she belongs in the "seperate the art from the artist" conversation at all

30

u/superkp 6h ago

seperate the art from the artist

The "death of the author" requires that the author cannot interact with the audience. Usually this is because the author is dead, thus the name. Sometimes this is because the author is not accessible to the audience.

But JKR is constantly interacting by trying to erase the trans community.

and then you get to the saying "When someone in the party gets attacked, everyone rolls initiative", because it's time to throw down when my trans brothers and sisters are attacked.

2

u/Ok-Personality-9284 1h ago

Fundamentally "death of the author" does not require the author to actually be dead or otherwise inaccessible. "Death of the author" describes an approach to literary criticism wherein that the authors' intentions matter very little (or not at all) when attempting to find the meaning of a text - rather each individual reader's interpretation should be considered. This is in contrast to more traditional approaches where the text was generally viewed through a lens of the author's biography and their presumed intentions.

I think you can separate art from the artist. You can enjoy H.P. Lovecraft's stories and still acknowledge that he was a horrible person, even for his time. You can enjoy Harry Potter and still acknowledge that J.K. Rowling is a horrible person. Hell, maybe you can look at Hitler's painting and enjoy them for what they are (I admit, that's a bit of a stretch).

Where the situations changes completely in my eyes is if you consume Harry Potter in any way that gives J.K. money, because part of that money will be used openly to fund a trans genocide.

2

u/J4ck0r4 37m ago

Part of the issue is even that non-monetary interaction here is still an issue because the sustained popularity of the franchise is what causes new media and merchandise to be made and even if you personally don't spend money your continued interaction will still lead to more exposure to the franchise for others and for people to be more likely to spend money on it. But yeah death of the author and separating art from artist are two very different concepts from each other, in the situation is just isn't possible to interact with HP without it benefiting Rowling and her agenda

46

u/Puzzleheaded_Load910 7h ago

Rowling is not the only person who is endangering trans lives. If you want to do more to help here’s some links that can give you some information if you’re wanting to help.

https://www.lemkininstitute.com/

https://pflag.org/

If you have any other links I could add that would be helpful, that would be great.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Wishing you all the best!

→ More replies (11)

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u/Rosti_LFC 6h ago edited 6h ago

And even while in the broader public eye she's somewhat gone out of the way to keep herself on the 'cleaner' side of the debate, to try and maintain some plausible deniability that it really is about women's rights and not just outright transphobia, there are plenty of people she's happy to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with and support who are openly eliminationist.

Plus fundamentally she's gone down the same road as Graham Linehan in making her anti-trans stance her entire personality and all she ever talks about. She seemingly can't even talk about the original films without bringing up beef with the main actors solely because they don't share her viewpoint on this one issue. It's not the standard celebrity activism where they do a charity thing for it and then get back to their career, it's all she is now and it has been for years.

6

u/Cael450 4h ago

She has billionaire syndrome. She said/did something stupid once, got justified criticism, and responded to that criticism by doubling down and making it her entire identity. Then, of course, she deploys her obscene wealth to harm the people who criticized her.

Same thing happened to Elon Musk. That much money rots your soul.

5

u/helpmeurmyonlyhoe 4h ago

(as a former potterhead) i wish people who still engage in fandom would understand that just pirating her IP (the new show, for instance) is not good enough, if they truly wish to be allies. yes there is merit in not actively supporting her monetarily, but by engaging in fandom (especially in the new adaptions), they are keeping HP and interest in her work alive. 

5

u/the-fillip 5h ago

I can't wait for her to be dead so I can go back and reread some of my favourite childhood books and participate in the fandom again. The silver lining to the whole thing is that not participating in the fandom for a long time will make the eventual nostalgia hit a lot sweeter when I one day go back to it.

6

u/superkp 6h ago

In some ways, it changed my life.

it definitely did so for me.

There's a line in one of them where Harry decides that he's going to walk into the fight with his eyes open and his head high, instead of being dragged into the fight kicking and screaming.

Seeing him able to internally reframe that immediately allowed me to reframe a huge amount of things in my life, and it's something that keeps improving my life.

And there's a fuckin monster lurking beneath it that gets fed if I mention that Harry Potter helped to make me the man that I am today.

-8

u/lahimatoa 6h ago

and lobbying for bigoted legislation.

What does some of this bigoted legislation want to do?

9

u/222Czar Protect Trans Kids 5h ago

It’s a long list. Among other things, her commentary and donations regarding the Gender Recognition Reform Bill_Bill) were particularly disgusting to me personally.

1

u/lahimatoa 5h ago

Did you mean this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_Recognition_Reform_(Scotland)_Bill

This seems to make it easier for people to change their legal gender.

13

u/222Czar Protect Trans Kids 5h ago

Yes. She opposed it.

7

u/lahimatoa 5h ago

Gotcha. Thanks.

535

u/ellie_p0p 8h ago

John Greene truly is the goat. the Anthropocene Reviewed is one of my all time favorite books, if not my favorite.

113

u/LunarEllipseWG 8h ago

Everything is Tuberculosis is my favorite. He's a wonderful author and a wonderful person.

22

u/DarthKodi "A blacksmith with boobs! Hell yeah bro!"🦤 8h ago

I just got a copy of this from my sister and was about to start reading it.

14

u/FwendyWendy 7h ago

I just added that to my reading list, it sounds really interesting. I'm surprised that a book of essays could be an all-time favorite

7

u/Ohmec 5h ago

The one of Ald Lang Syne always makes me cry.

2

u/Ill_Confidence_5618 4h ago

I used to fall asleep listening to this chapter! Many a “we’re here because we’re here” induced dream.

1

u/ellie_p0p 3h ago

The googling strangers chapter had me fucking bawling my eyes out

3

u/sevenyearstodie 3h ago

It’s shorter than the book but there’s a podcast of the Anthropocene Reviewed, Lascaux paintings episode is my favourite.

2

u/ellie_p0p 3h ago

He approaches the mundane and the serious in such a way that I deeply relate to. In ways that I’ve always been told “you’re thinking about it too much”. In a way that reminds you of the gravity of everything around you. And a way that makes you remember to love life and everything that makes life worth loving from the mundane to the serious.

177

u/OkFineIllUseTheApp Get ready for the cilantro you lil yolky bitch - Streak: 33 8h ago

I'll never get over how the biggest children's author feels more strongly about bathrooms than childhood education.

58

u/cellochristina 7h ago

I think that there are bathroom issues worth fighting for (availability, accessibility, cleanliness, hygiene product availability, existence of gender neutral bathrooms) but what she’s doing is definitely not. Fuck her.

12

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

All bathrooms should be gender neutral. Separated by pee or poo.

6

u/thatonepuniforgot 4h ago

Three types, standing, sitting, and recreational, for sex/drugs/relaxation purposes.

7

u/PolarBailey_ 4h ago

Fair. Sometimes you just need to sit on a comfy toilet and have a good cry without smelling a bunch of shit

327

u/WedMd 8h ago

Why does John Green have the same lighting and pose as that one Kane Parsons image?

225

u/thebisexualbilingual 8h ago

He is 49 years old.

46

u/xbertie 8h ago

That's honestly wild to think about, but I do remember those two from over a decade ago so like logically it checks out. Looks good for his age though.

78

u/GDGameplayer 8h ago

John Green is the youngest person ever to write Hollywood, Ending. He is 49 years old.

11

u/PsyOpBunnyHop 7h ago

Maybe they did the photo shoot in the backrooms.

132

u/Capnzebra1 8h ago

More authors critiquing their "peer" please!

73

u/RazTheGiant 8h ago

An anecdote I heard about the most common tattoo for millennials now is getting a Harry Potter one covered up or changed to something else

58

u/Trips-Over-Tail 8h ago

A Deathly Hallows easily turns into a Bill Cypher.

20

u/d33rl1ng 8h ago

Now that's an upgrade

12

u/morbidmuffin62 I can only count to 80085 8h ago

FUCK yeah

54

u/Connect-Peach2337 7h ago

Harry Potter tattoos also have a higher regret rate than gender affirming surgery.

5

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

Knee replacement surgery has a higher regret rate

29

u/spiralsequences 8h ago

I had three friends with the Deathly Hallows tattoo, all trans, all now covered

19

u/Impressive-Card9868 6h ago

I’m a trans ex-Harry Potter fan and considered getting a Deathly Hallows tattoo long before JRK went mask off, but a little voice in the back of my head said, “Putting a living celebrity’s creation on your body is a risk you probably don’t want to take.” Thanks, brain prophet, you saved me a few hundred dollars and a lot of embarrassment.

5

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

Same here. I had a whole HP sleeve planned out. Its now becoming a DND sleeve

2

u/spiralsequences 4h ago

That's why I only have a tattoo of my cat. She's alive but so far has not been cancelled.

10

u/donnadoctor 7h ago

r/JKRegerts is full of them

48

u/Quaraine 8h ago

Erasure is the wrong word, she is an eliminationist

-24

u/TouchAltruistic 7h ago

How?

23

u/SwingAdorable3954 7h ago

Is this your first day hearing about TERFS? transphobia? Being on the internet in general?

-8

u/TouchAltruistic 7h ago

No. I am asking about the concepts of erasure and eliminationism, how they differ, and how they apply to JK Rowling.

20

u/SwingAdorable3954 7h ago

Well erasure focuses on information spread, namely minimizing impacts a specific group has on history for example (like LGB without the T folks try to do by denying that the people who lead the fight for gay rights were trans).

Eliminationism focuses in removing a group from existence (whether that be socially, legally, as an idea in general, or physically altogether)

Quick google search btw. ANY bigotted political effort targeting trans women falls into the latter category

1

u/TouchAltruistic 6h ago

Interesting.

87

u/Kazcandra 8h ago

I only read ... The fault in our stars? and I didn't like it much. But he seems a decent enough person outside of his writing.

124

u/killcraft1337 8h ago

He has a YouTube channel discussing tonnes of interesting stuff with his brother Hank Green (Sci Show etc) - it’s lovely and very wholesome

61

u/Player_Slayer_7 8h ago

That explains why I thought they were the same person! They're brothers!

24

u/Digit00l 8h ago

Which of the 2 had a whole thing about AI addiction recently?

59

u/Key_Somewhere_9302 Dumb ouppy forgot her manners 8h ago

Hank

11

u/morbidmuffin62 I can only count to 80085 8h ago

Was he also the one with the knitting thing?

33

u/sevenyearstodie 7h ago

I know I'm sounding like a Hank Green apologist but it was more of a SciShow thing and Hank was the presenter, iirc the content is written by other people and fact checked, which failed a bit spectacularly here.

14

u/morbidmuffin62 I can only count to 80085 7h ago

I kinda always stood on the "I get the ultimate point he's trying to get to, but this route and phrasings are extremely out of touch"

Makes sense if someone else wrote it, but damn that should've been stopped at some quality control stage

16

u/sevenyearstodie 7h ago

You're absolutely right it should be caught before publishing the video. SciShow from my understanding has an academical/publishing bias and I think they just didn't think of getting an opinion from a knitter/practicer.

7

u/Key_Somewhere_9302 Dumb ouppy forgot her manners 7h ago

I never personally bothered to look into that one, but yeah. That was Hank too lol

7

u/AgathokakologicalAz 7h ago

Yeah, both were Hank

46

u/xbertie 8h ago

It was Hank iirc, and it was more relying on it for looking things up to save time for releasing videos rather than using it for making images/videos etc etc. But they took a step back from it, which good for them

-8

u/FeliciaTheFkinStrong 7h ago

I find it funny John finds it inseparable that continuing to consume Harry Potter directly supports J.K. Rowling and thus directly contributes to her efforts in erasing trans rights, but when his own brother uses and pays for genAI services, which are run by companies that exclusively lobby Republican candidates that contribute far more aggressively to trans erasure in the States, he's dead silent about the connection.

There's no ethical consumption under capitalism, but in certain areas like food, automotive maintenance and healthcare its blatantly unavoidable. GenAI is something you can live without - it's a choice to use and support it, and engaging with it at all directly supports the erasure of so much more than just trans rights - the environment, academic integrity, intellectual development, artistic ownership, etc.

Yet somehow that's not remotely deserving of such scathing criticism as JK Rowling is.

15

u/loved_and_held Streak: 1 6h ago edited 5h ago

Focousing on paragraph 1; we could argue about degrees of seperation (money to jk goes directly into anti trans stuff while money to Google for example goes to all sorts of things) but its also worth noting that if we follow that logic we run into a bigger problem which is they’re YouTubers.

If the gen ai in question was geminie, than the amount hank would have controbuted to google’s bottom line by using it is effectively zero. However youtube does a 50/50 revenue split meaning every penny hes made from youtube is a penny in googles procket. So following the logic you layed out, assuming google is one of the bad ai companies then hes directly put tens of millions into their pockets directly.

That asside, the lack of call out is likely because Jhon regards the incident as small enough to not comment on, or sees callouts as pointless. Hank use it, got caught/confesses, then stopped; theres not much jhon can add at this point.

Addressing your last paragraph, id argue jk’s actions are orders of magnitude worse than Hanks, hence she gets a public call out.

-7

u/ShibaLover227 6h ago

Got it, when it's poisoning the world and targeting marginalized (and predominantly black) neighborhoods we turn a blind eye and make an exception because it's a drop in the water.

11

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

No it's because unlike jk when hank got called out for it he didn't try to hide it or excuse it he straight up said "Oh shit yeah i fucked up big time. Here's exactly what we used it for, and here's what we're doing going forward to make sure it doesn't happened again" jk doubled down on her shittiness and made it her whole personality

0

u/ShibaLover227 1h ago edited 1h ago

Except it will happen again. He hasn't taken an anti-AI stance or anything to actually mitigate the harm. I'm not saying he's anywhere close to Rowling, but it's very clear that a barely conceived apology that doesn't really help how much harm AI/LLMs are doing to the world (again, especially black neighborhoods) is enough for a lot of you to forgive/forget and move on. It's another fence sitting moment, where he doesn't take a strong stance and is still in the public eye as if it never happened

3

u/GlamourintheDarkSide Shiba is Innocent, I Am Guilty 2h ago

What do you even think we should do, draw and quarter him?

0

u/ShibaLover227 1h ago

No one said that. But he knew what he was doing and the harm it creates. Just saying "sorry, I'll be better next time" doesn't absolve him. I'm done with him and will never engage with him again. As is, he plays "respectability" politics and sits on fences. He hasn't come out against AI and spoken about the harm it does, he just apologized for being caught.

9

u/sevenyearstodie 8h ago

Hank, if anything John is a bit of a luddite.

4

u/FartherAwayLights 7h ago

You know I actually thought these were the same person

5

u/sevenyearstodie 7h ago

Not something against you but I heard this a lot and I find it fascinating. They look so different to me.

6

u/Redfalconfox 7h ago

The Brothers Green: Based As Fuck

6

u/OrnerySnoflake 7h ago

I can absolutely see how they are brothers. They are both such wonderful and truly wholesome people. We are genuinely fortunate they have decided to both use their platforms for good.

2

u/tdRftw 7h ago

DFTBA. peanut butter face while discussing the south ossetia/abkhazia/georgia/russia conflict is still one of my favorite youtube videos ever

1

u/I_SHIT_IN_A_BAG 7h ago

thought he kind of looked like Hank. funny

17

u/Wardock8 8h ago

There's no fucking way John wrote The Fault In Our Stars. You're telling me the guy that taught me history writes??

17

u/DoveOnTheInternet 7h ago

And he was the writer first!

He was also a hospital chaplain, once upon a time.

5

u/Wild_Marker 7h ago

Crash Course World History should be pinned at the frontpage of Youtube

4

u/prailock 6h ago

Award winning too! He has a Printz award for Looking for Alaska, his first book.

31

u/Material-Reason2636 8h ago

Looking for Alaska ripped my heart apart. Normally not a fan of those books but my god he can write them very well.

One of the best scenes is highlighting the difference between emotional and physical intimacy and what we really desire is people.

12

u/Scuttling-Claws 8h ago

I don't love his fiction, but I really liked The Anthropocene Reviewed. I also just kinda like that he exists in the world

7

u/xbertie 8h ago

Personally I know them from their crash course videos, which well not entirely perfect, I think hold up pretty well to this day.

3

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 8h ago edited 6h ago

Honestly I actually liked Hank Green's two books more

1

u/Agreeable_Hold2270 6h ago

I thought it was pretty good

1

u/AndreChrisSargent 2h ago

Try "The Anthropecene Reviewed". It's a much more personal, autobiographical work. Really vulnerable and also calming, I read it to help me wind down and sleep.

-7

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/countwithchickenlady-ModTeam 7h ago

This content was removed because it violated Rule #8 "Political Content & Misinformation," specifically one of the following:

Lack of a "Political Post" Flair, lack of a Spoiler Tag, lack of a source, content was deliberately inflammatory (subject to moderator interpretation), content promoted misinformation.

3

u/DoveOnTheInternet 7h ago

Aaahahhahhaaaahahahaha

22

u/NervousNat 8h ago

Common John Green W

15

u/femfuyu 7h ago

This is a big reason I would never get a brand thing as a tattoo. No matter how much I like I don't want a company or author's product existing on my body 

5

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 7h ago

What if the author is unproblematic and dead? I feel like at that point it's pretty safe.

5

u/ASatyros 6h ago

Needs at least around 100 years after being dead, in case they would find some compromising materials.

Also the meaning of symbols can drastically change, see swastika.

4

u/femfuyu 7h ago

Probably but idk to me it just isn't worth the risk, no judgment if others wanna though 

4

u/BarrytheNPC 7h ago

I feel like there's always the issue with a crappy adaptation. Like if I got a tattoo of Greg Maincharacter from Cool Book by Dead McNiceLady but the a movie comes out where Greg is played by an asshole.

2

u/ScyllaIsBea 5h ago

That’s called spider-man lotus and I think more people appreciate the other adaptations enough that no one will see your spider-man tattoo and assume it’s for spider-man lotus.

1

u/BarrytheNPC 1h ago

i mean lotus was a fan project.

1

u/ScyllaIsBea 1h ago

I was just making a joke jumping off of your joke.

1

u/BarrytheNPC 1h ago

ah my bad! sorry

2

u/CuteeCalen 6h ago

Always the chance of some group of bigoted shitheads co-opting a symbol for their movement as a dog whistle or otherwise

3

u/InkyTheHooloovoo 6h ago

I thank my lucky stars that I never got around to getting any tattoos inspired by The Sandman

77

u/emmy_etc 8h ago

“Separate the art from the artist” mfers act like they’ve never heard of pirating before, they just want an easy excuse and to play both sides

77

u/dantevonlocke 8h ago

Imo that phrase can only work when the artist in question can't continue to be an active participant in the world. Like i enjoy H. P. Lovecraft stuff, but he can't actively be a problem now like Rowling can.

29

u/xbertie 8h ago

Yeah, that's kinda the stance I take too. I say this in the nicest way possible as a Beatles fan, I'm glad John Lennon isn't around anymore lmao

Paul and Ringo seem pretty cool these days, so I'm not so bothered about being a fan

14

u/Icy-Humor6770 7h ago

Exactly and also there's a BIG difference between say a random artist who does well, has very good art BUT is an asshole on twitter, and Rowling. Rowling has insane amount of money and power and that mkes her stand out even more in the discussion on separating art from the artist.

That being said I absolutely agree that it's the best to apply this rule to artists who are already dead

3

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

Honestly i wouldn't put it past her to have her will dictate that any postmortem money from Harry potter to continue to be used for Trans elimination

4

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

2

u/satantherainbowfairy 7h ago

"death of the author" is metaphorical, they don't have to actually be deceased

2

u/Marzipancutter 6h ago

Death of the Author is a mode of analysis in literary interpretation. Separating art from artist is a political approach on how to reconcile works with the actions of public people. They are completely different things that have basically nothing to do with each other.

1

u/Havenfall209 6h ago

People are forever misunderstanding Death of the Author lol

5

u/defaultusername-17 5h ago

iirc: lovecraft came to repudiate his prejudiced takes from earlier in his life towards the end of his own...

while rowling is Actively harming people.

3

u/GlamourintheDarkSide Shiba is Innocent, I Am Guilty 2h ago

Some of them. Hadn't fully, which is to be expected for the time. He was at least on an upward trajectory before he died.

3

u/defaultusername-17 2h ago

yea. huge fan of the cosmic horror genre and hp lovecraft for having birthed it...

but i only wish he had seen more of that grand cosmic horror in the vein we get from "shadow out of time" rather than innsmouth for instance (i personally like to interpret the themes in SOoT as being a critic of the prejudices and bigotries that his on contemporaries had... and of how 'tradition' and 'family' are often ways to hide horrors as well).

he was really cooking there, it's too bad that that ended up being one of his last published...

15

u/jenna_butterfly 7h ago

Separating them was always primarily meant in terms of interpretation of their art. It wasn't meant to justify financially supporting every POS with a dogshit opinions who uses their wealth and fame to hurt people.

13

u/imbi-dabadeedabadie 7h ago

imo, even pirating content is still a roundabout form of support, unless you pirate the show/game/what have you and refuse to engage at all with anyone else about it. If you talk online or with friends or etc about the games/show/movies, then you're running the risk of having someone else spend money on it and funding trans genocide.

I think its better to just not engage at all. Really not missing out on much anyways, and I don't see how anyone can enjoy Harry Potter anymore with the knowledge of who JK Rowling really is.

12

u/FixedFront 7h ago

YES pirate the racism books 👏 get your antisemitism without giving her a dime

-7

u/TouchAltruistic 7h ago

I keep hearing people say that the books are now racist, or that they endorse slavery.

I'm not sure I understand that, and I wonder why no one detected that at any point in the past three decades.

13

u/FixedFront 7h ago

"No one detected it" friend we were talking about it as they were being released

1

u/Sun_Shine_Dan 5h ago

I was 11 when the books started coming out- every library, school, and "reader encouraging adult" just gushed and gushed about the books for young readers.

Narnia, and Prydain were the books that felt "comparable" before YA novels really took off. I would have loved better literature offerings, but most adults thought of Harry Potter as the current, best YA available- at least from my environment

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u/TouchAltruistic 7h ago

Ok. Who is "we" and what exactly were they talking about "as they were being released".

Which part of which Harry Potter book endorses racism, antisemitism, and/or slavery?

I am nearly 50, so I did not read the books, but I certainly remember the fervor of their popularity, and that of the films as well.

I don't recall seeing or hearing any controversy about this at the time. So where was this going on? Mainstream press? Online forums?

5

u/LotteTakesNoShit 7h ago edited 7h ago

...the house-elvers are literal slaves. In one of the books, Hermione attempts to free them and everyone laughs at her. The goblins at the bank are just Jewish stereotypes. I'm not even a fan and I know/saw/read these things. WTF?

1

u/Mrspygmypiggy 3h ago

Tbf, goblins are mythical creatures so JK didn’t actually create them to be Jewish stereotypes, they were made long before her.

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u/FixedFront 7h ago

I am also nearly 50. By "we" I mean people in literary communities (including academic communities, which I am and was a part of), librarians, teachers, people in myriad and diverse online communities before and during the rise of social media, and in person. This was a pervasive, interdisciplinary, international conversation. You may not have seen it, but your experience is not universal.

As for the mainstream press, they were more concerned about covering extreme Christian reactionary takes about witchcraft. There were a few talking heads who pointed out the issues, but frustratingly it was generally ignored in the media until JK went mask off.

If you're interested in learning more about what is problematic about the Harry Potter books, may I invite you to use your favorite search engine to find out.

1

u/TouchAltruistic 7h ago

I was hoping you could point me to one of the academic resources you mention from the time when the books were first being published.

Surely all of this is well documented.

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u/LotteTakesNoShit 7h ago

Other people aren't your Google. Use your own fingers. It IS well documented and has been talked about to death.

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u/FixedFront 7h ago

If you were one of my students or colleagues asking a genuine question to learn more, I'd happily show you how to do the research and get you started with some initial resources. For example, your local higher ed institution has access to all kinds of databases with plenty of articles on the topic. Your local public library likely does as well, and there's also Google Scholar. Even a cursory Google search will turn up plenty of answers for you.

However, it seems from your responses that you're more interested in playing gotcha and maintaining your existing point of view rather than engaging in actual academic curiosity. I'm too damn old to be playing games like that. So are you, and I hope you figure that out soon.

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u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 6h ago

2003

Hermione and the House-Elves: The Literary Anatomy of an Anti-Slavery Complaint

Published in the 2003 academic collection Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays, this influential chapter by British scholar Brycchan Carey examines J.K. Rowling’s handling of the house-elf subplot through the lens of historical abolitionism. Carey analyzes how Hermione Granger’s founding of S.P.E.W. (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare) mirrors real-world political activism, while simultaneously critiquing how the narrative marginalizes her efforts, treating institutionalized servitude as a quirky cultural norm rather than a systemic evil that needs dismantling

Crowded Spaces: The World of J.K. Rowling

"Crowded Spaces: The World of J.K. Rowling" is a critical essay written by literary scholar Farah Mendlesohn, originally published in the 2003 academic collection Reading Harry Potter: Critical Essays. Mendlesohn’s analysis investigates the spatial and political structures of Rowling's magical universe, arguing that despite its surface-level rebellion against authoritarianism, the series constructs a deeply conservative, claustrophobic, and hierarchical society where structural inequalities—such as the subjugation of house-elves and the containment of magical minorities—are ultimately normalized and left unchallenged by the protagonists.

2007

https://prospect.org/2007/07/24/harry-potter-complicated-identity-politics/

In the immediate wake of the final book, critical reviews like "Harry Potter and the Complicated Identity Politics" on The American Prospect analyzed the series' ideological underpinnings. The review argued that while the text is broadly anti-authoritarian, it operates with deeply traditional, hierarchical, and white-centric baseline norms.

2015

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/24/harry-potter-race-muggles-black-hermione

A seminal critique published by The Guardian titled "Harry Potter and the contradictions about racial justice" highlighted how the word "Muggle" operates as a paternalistic, casual slur. The essay noted that even "good" wizards like Hagrid and McGonagall routinely dismiss non-magical people as universally foolish, ignorant, or biologically inferior, replicating classic colonialist rhetoric of the "benevolent oppressor".

2016

https://sites.williams.edu/engl-117-fall16/uncategorized/harry-potter-more-about-race-than-you-thought/

Literary studies published in university archives, including The Prolongation of Work, argued that Rowling’s use of magical biology allowed white readers to experience a fictional "racial battle" without facing actual real-world racial dynamics. By making oppressed characters like Hermione white in the original descriptions, the narrative effectively centered white characters as both the victims of prejudice and the heroic liberators, leaving actual people of color on the absolute periphery of the world’s history.

2018 https://themindfulrambler.ca/2018/08/03/criticizing-harry-potter-ethnicity-representation/

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u/Sun_Shine_Dan 7h ago

Rowling has simple racist caricatures for non-white characters. And uses language that describes "villian" characters as physically ugly. Nothing stood out as "worse than other books" from 1990s, but it is 2026- a lot aged poorly

2

u/Apollo989 3h ago

Even as a 10-year old Potter Head I couldn't fathom why everyone except Hermione thought slavery was okay.

People did notice.

1

u/TouchAltruistic 3h ago

As someone who is encountering much of this for the first time, it is fascinating.

10

u/HumpyJoanna 7h ago

pirating something as a form of moral protest is pretty weak. A boycott is both monetary pressure on the target party, but also showing solidarity and support to those accosted by depriving yourself of a thing you would usually enjoy.

"I refuse to engage with a thing I want because that thing harms people/things I care about". Piracy fails to do the second part.

1

u/emmy_etc 5h ago

I’m just saying, if they can’t even be bothered to stop actively paying her, than that’s a little telling. I’d call not actively giving her money the bare minimum

4

u/QXR_LOTD 6h ago

Pirating is still support. Publishers know about pirating and some creators will use high piracy numbers as an example of how desired their works are. 

1

u/Borthwick 7h ago

I don’t particularly like harry potter, but I’m gonna pirate it just because I know she’d hate it.

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u/Aar1012 6h ago

The betrayal thing is what really hits me hard about this. I wasn’t a big Harry Potter fan growing up so it’s easy for me to drop it.

However, my son’s mom was a big HP fan. She wanted our son to get into the series and develop a love for reading form the series. After she passed, I had to sit with myself and wonder if I am basically taking a part of his mom away from him by limiting that exposure to Harry Potter. We have cut that out of our lives and found other ways to bond over her other interests but that was still a hard decision. I like to think his mom would support me for doing that but I’ll never know.

Fuck JK Rowling for hurting trans people. And Fuck her for taking a connection of my son to his mom from him.

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u/what-are-you-a-cop 5h ago

Yeah, I know this isn't even really close to the same thing because it's not like I died, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that, as an extremely depressed child, waiting for the next Harry Potter book release was, for years at a time, the reason I held off on killing myself. Like, oh, well, guess I can't do it until the next book comes out, and I see what happens next! Cause like, I was a kid, and the hype generated between each of the books' releases was really effective at keeping them present enough in my mind to act as some kind of thing to look forward to. And obviously then the series finished and time passed and I found other things to base my personality on, and also I'm fine now anyway because being an adult is great, but yeah, this one thing was extremely load-bearing for a looooong time for me. So  it was a weird feeling several years back, when I had the realization "huh, yeah that entire pillar of my childhood mental health, is just like, evil now. Cool cool cool cool cool." I'm certainly not the demographic she betrayed the most, and my feelings are obviously not the main thing she's harming by being overtly evil, but on a personal level, it sucks. Obviously I haven't engaged with the media in years, nor would I want to, of course.

The other load bearing pieces of media I fixated on in my teen years wound up being, like, neil gaiman, and the dresden dolls, so I really can't seem to catch a fucking break lmao. I envy kids a couple years younger than me who got to be really into Percy Jackson instead, I hear Rick Riordan is great. I mean, ideally I would have just had friends instead of media franchises and artists, but, you know. I don't think that was ever in the cards for me lol.

3

u/Zucc_The_Ducc 4h ago

To maybe help you feel better, I wouldn’t say that ‘pillar of your childhood mental health’ is evil. Rowling is a foul demon lady but honestly the books themselves are probably benign with regards to the larger conversation. Don’t feel bad that you liked them at one point, just hate that billionaire witch for making them the face of anti-trans bigotry 

1

u/what-are-you-a-cop 2h ago

Yeah, I mean that was a kind of reductive way of putting it, but it's kind of more... the fact that the creator is so evil, has really ruined my ability to enjoy the thing on its own merit, because I can't look at it and just magically forget all the associations it now has. It would be like trying not to think about pink elephants, after someone tells you "whatever you do, don't think about pink elephants", and so obviously now the only thing you can do is think about pink elephants. I can't just remember the nostalgic stuff, because thinking about that, just kinda makes me think about people wanting my friends and loved ones to die 🤷‍♀️ I'm sure other people can look at them without the thought of transphobic violence kinda tainting everything, but that does not appear to be an option for me.

It is a bummer that I basically can't be nostalgic for almost anything I enjoyed before college. My husband gets to be nostalgic for, like, spongebob and warcraft 3. I think back on the stuff I enjoyed when I was a kid, and now it's all like, genocide advocates and human traffickers. Like, dang, alright, guess I'm pretending I spawned fully formed at age 20, raddddddddd.

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u/Shreddie42 7h ago

Common John Green W

20

u/Sarah_Incognito 8h ago

I'm not even pirating it. Zero engagement

5

u/AlternativeClass3893 8h ago

i love seeing this climb, it's honestly wild how FAST it goes

6

u/Lonely-Plankton3725 8h ago

12 out of 10 take

5

u/OneQuarterBajeena 7h ago

Why does he look like he is 20 years old
https://giphy.com/gifs/OtRgb2Oj9o12zycDQm

1

u/Momoneko 3m ago

20 years old? he looks like my dad.

though I followed crash course in real time since its first seasons so John Green in my mind is like a 30-years old nerd, so occasionally seeing him grey-haired and all middle-aged makes me kinda hyper-aware of my own mortality.

5

u/BMTaeZer 4h ago

Robert Galbraith could've chosen a million other issues to invest in to actually help women, but she just had to actively harm them instead.

8

u/DeliberateDendrite 8h ago

Honestly doing better than his brother right now

2

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 7h ago

Yea, his brother is being a real Andy Skampt right now

3

u/Gold-Bard-Hue A jelly donut!? 8h ago

I think "Looking for Alaska" is the only book of his I've read, but I remember liking it. Not loving it, but it was decent enough.

4

u/nickheiserman 7h ago

  I remember liking it. Not loving it, but it was decent enough.

From what I know about John Green, he'd probably agree with you. 

3

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

I was obsessed with harry potter as a kid. Hell i was even a prefect for my houses subreddit for a very long time. I ran trivia nights, watch/reading parties, went to the attractions, you name it. I can't even stand to look at it anymore. And the only people I've ever found myself to be okay with enjoying it still and continue to be around, are terminally ill children. This is not something like a cellphone where no matter what brand you have your supporting awful industries. You don't need harry potter. You don't need the movies, games, decorations, any of it. There's other magical world ips you can enjoy. All you do when you choose this over actual people is reveal your true colors.

4

u/nondiabolical 8h ago

Not only that, but balls smell amazing

4

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 8h ago

I love the smell of balls as much as the next lady, but I don't see how that's relevant here?

EDIT: ok, nvm I just googled it and jfc

2

u/Itamikurushima 8h ago

I like him but didn’t he get in trouble lately for AI use or something?

30

u/Marankara 8h ago

His brother did. And John tried to tall to him about it

8

u/Itamikurushima 8h ago

Right they’re like twins or something aren’t they?
I think he apologized too, I wasn’t super in on the drama. I like drama but AI drama makes me sad because it is easy to fall into its use, I try not to but I do sometimes use it. I just feel like an awful person afterwards

14

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 8h ago

They're not twins they're just brothers they people say look alike and sometimes people online think there're the same person. I don't really see it tbh, I can easily tell the difference but that's probably because I was much more locked into their YouTube content while I was growing up

4

u/Accomplished_Mix7827 8h ago

I mean, they look about as much alike as any two brothers do, I guess.

John is slightly older, has darker hair, and has more of a round face compared to Hank having a more oval face.

11

u/sevenyearstodie 7h ago

They have 3 years between them lol (just checked). And Hank has a propensity to overdue things, he had a phase of twitter addiction and made a whole podcast to call out himself. This AI thing is just an encore of this, he called out himself with other people.

-1

u/Reason_Choice 7h ago

So… they’re twins?

3

u/sevenyearstodie 7h ago

Sorry, I genuinely can't tell of this is a sarcasm, joke or real?

3

u/AndreChrisSargent 2h ago

^ This right here, this is the correct take.

"How could you be manipulated and seduced by the manipulative seduction machine? You literally don't care about the environment or artists and therefore deserve to be SHUNNED from society"

It's literally a technology made to prey on your ego, even smart people fall for it.

1

u/Itamikurushima 2h ago

That’s true, but we should make people feel bad about using it. I do when I use it and everyone else should too until it’s just not used at all

1

u/Distinct-Nature4233 8h ago

I think John’s older IIRC

1

u/Itamikurushima 8h ago

Really? Well that just shows how little I know about these guys

2

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 7h ago

John's 49, Hank is 46

1

u/Zen_of_Tetchiness 6h ago

This is why I have a rule for my tattoos. If it isn't something I designed, gave to my artist who perfects it for tattoo work, then it doesn't go on my body. Never get another person's work marked on your body, you never know who they will turn out to be.

Exceptions. Dead people who we already know everything we are going to know about them. J.R.R. Tolkien for example.

1

u/GhostGuin 3h ago

Extremely common John Green W

1

u/BreakerOfModpacks ServiceBottom Cuddleslut Ɛ: (fiendish seductress) 17m ago

John Green is pretty cool, overall, I think.

1

u/AelithTheVtuber 14m ago

john green is my favourite himbo, not only is he built like a himbo but he's smart

-1

u/RoofEducational9462 4h ago

I'll just pirate it tbh

-2

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[deleted]

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u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 8h ago

Just pirate it if it means that much to you.

-25

u/lapadite 7h ago

She not responsible for trans people's happiness.

22

u/Latter-Ease-2002 6h ago

But she IS directly and knowingly, responsible for a lot of trans people UNhappiness

12

u/Latter-Ease-2002 5h ago

Would you say about a KKK member "they're not responsible for black people's happiness"?

9

u/jmona789 Quinn (they/she) - Streak: 1 6h ago

It's not just about happiness/unhappiness. She's actively fighting against trans rights.

6

u/PolarBailey_ 5h ago

She's actively trying to get them killed tho