Why? I have a HP tattoo and don’t regret it. The fandom has gone past the author at this point. She’s a hateful removed but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still love the world and characters she created. We’ve made it our own.
I’m happy for you being able to pretend these things are separate from the weird cringe asshole who created it. personally, hp shit just makes me think bigot
Pretty much everything you listed is a convenience that can fairly easily be cut out of your life. Except for Nestlé, because keeping tracking of what brands are under any given food companies umbrella is not an easy task and the lack of competition means that oftentimes there are simply no good alternatives.
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but that doesn’t mean that I’m under any obligation to respect somebody who continues to give money to an author who has openly said that they consider buying their merchandise as explicit support of their politics and donates a portion of their proceeds to extremist political groups with ties to far-right Christian groups in the US. The same as I’m not obligated to respect Republicans who say that they’re not racist, homophobic, etc, but still continue to vote for extremist candidates year after year who openly run on bigoted policies.
It’s one thing to have no alternatives to buy or to simply not know of an issue with a company, it’s an entirely different thing to continue to buy something from a company because it would be a minor inconvenience to avoid them.
Nobody is saying that we should go without things that make us happy, but there are plenty of other books to read, movies to watch, and games to play that don’t support the FART.
Unfortunately, Death of the Author does not apply here. Engaging with her media keeps her relevant and continues to introduce her and her beliefs to new people. Plus, the media itself (especially the books) has its own issues. Her bigotry is not a new thing.
As a bisexual trans woman living in the US, my daily life is dictated by the laws bigots like her have enacted and my ability to keep myself safe by spotting red flags. There are parts of this country - entire states - that I would never visit without an M249 SAW loaded and ready.
Being able to continue to engage with a piece of media without the problematic parts of it and the opinion of the author about those who do engage with her media as supporters of her politics bothering you doesn’t make someone a bigot, but it is a red flag. And much like those who say they support trans rights and continue to vote for people like Trump anyways, I’m not gonna trust you to have my back. Because you’ve shown which of the two you value more.
Not really a part of this conversation but I just wanted to say that I literally do subscribe to all these statements lol. I try to reduce harm where I can, and not playing a game made by Blizzard is so easy.
You’ll find most are particularly unconcerned about your fervent desire to shout into the Internet void. We’re not going to get used to it because we really don’t care.
It is pretty unpleasant to be watching old media and be slapped in the face with overt homophobia and transphobia treated as a joke, thanks for your concern.
Last time I checked it was a little more complicated than that. I think the Wizarding World is now owned by WB, whereas Harry Potter is where Rowling gets royalties. That’s where the distinction between the two lives, which is why there are so many things being spun up lately.
I don’t know how involved she still is but I know back in 2010ish when universal was opening the wizarding world in Orlando they had to run all the design desicisions through Rowling. The park ended up changing the color of the name tags for just the workers in that area of the park because she thought the white on them was to bright.
You mean the world where slaves like to be slaves and trying to release them is wrong, apartheid is right because the other sentient people look different, the bankers are antisemitic stereotypes and the main character becomes a literal cop enforcing all this?
If they’re a reader of fanfiction that is typically one of the major changes to the story that’s done. Fanfiction has effectively rewritten the entire series to be more palatable at this point. Bonus points that you can read it without giving Rowling any money too.
That’s a tall order with how most people act. Disney vibes anyone? There were few things that could capture a whole generation’s imagination so strongly, and people want to bond over it. My stance is taking what you like and making new things is how we get new series’s, and fanfic has it’s place in that.
Have you seen the two hour video by Shaun on the books? I highly recommend it for a look back on the books and the issues that we couldn’t have picked up on as kids but are pretty obvious on a reread.
They’re not as great as we remember them to be (if I have to read the phrase “mannish hands” or another word about a 16 year old girls “square jawline” again I think I might vomit) and if the best parts of the world are the bits created in spite of the author, why continue to associate it with her work. Obviously, it’s easier said than done when you’re talking about an entire community, but there’s plenty of other worlds created by nicer authors.
The best thing to come out of the series was the cast from the movies being as cool as they are today, but any time I think of the world, all I can think of is the token diversity characters named things like Shacklebolt and Cho Chang (almost, but not quite Ching Chong), the young Irish boy obsessed with whiskey and explosives, and the defense of slavery that’s identical to arguments from actual slave owners in the US.
Plus, there’s the whole thing with the hook-nosed bankers that totally aren’t Jewish stereotypes. You know who created a fantasy race based on Jews that doesn’t feel like an offensive stereotype? Tolkien. Tolkien’s dwarves are based on Jewish stereotypes, but don’t come off that way at all because of how they’re presented in the world.
While I agree with you in most things (especially the jewish stereotype, yikes) I must call you on the defense of slavery. I always got the impression we weren’t supposed to agree with the magic world view of house elves. I think the only point of Hermione going over the top was showing how something so hideous had become so normalized and accepted by good people in the magic world. Hermione being an outsider sees how fucked up it is and calls it.
Things are not black white. As fucked up as JK Rowling is, it doesn’t mean everything she says is bad. She tried to make some good points…others sucked ass. It is what it is.
One of the only freed house elves we hear about literally drinks herself to death because she can’t ‘handle’ freedom, which was a defense of slavery back in the day.
Also, even more eerily, Joanne has tried to retcon Hermione as black. When you then read her as the only character to try and free the house elves, something everyone makes fun of her for, it becomes EXTREMELY unsettling. Even if she weren’t black, it’s upsetting, and not because we’re meant to see how problematic the Wizarding World is. May I remind you, Harry also thinks she’s being crazy for trying to free them, and he’s just as much of an outsider as she is. When all characters from all walks of life in a work believe the same thing like this, it feels very much like it’s the author who believes it and is putting it into the work.
To me, the Hermione thing had always felt like JK was trying to make her out to be a “blue hair/pronouns” feminist who shouldn’t be taken seriously and in the process she accidentally walked face first into making the same argument that actual slave owners made to justify themselves. I don’t think she intentionally meant to justify slavery, but she ended up there trying to criticize Hermione.
This is why I recommend Shaun’s video to people, as it tries to take an impartial look at the books. He points out how it feels like JK’s point of view shifts as the books go on, and she goes from criticizing the system to defending it as the money started rolling in and she began to benefit from that same system. But there are some constants with her open bigotry now even as far back as the first book, some of which I’ve already mentioned, like the stereotypical characters (which could easily come from growing up in a sheltered environment, but she claims to deeply research a culture before creating a character) and applying masculine traits as a negative to female characters. Whether or not she supports slavery we can only guess at as she’s never made a statement on the subject, and I can’t imagine that she does, but her bigotry can be seen to not be a recent development, just a more deeply entrenched or worsening belief.
At my last job, the only who was in his 50s or older and was nice to the trans employee had HP tattoos. He saw JK being a terf (we taught him the word) as her (referring to Rowling) own problem to solve.
It’s a great example of why you shouldn’t get a tattoo of something that is intellectual property. It’s way too easy for that shit to get associated with bigots/hatred/etc down the line.
Another example: I’d love to eventually get a Star Trek tattoo. I can see the suits at CBS eventually burning the IP to the ground, sure. But they probably wouldn’t turn anything Star Trek related into a hate symbol. But what happens if it turns out that neo-nazis start using ferengi imagery to spread anti-semetic hate? You can’t guarantee your favorite skin art keeps the ethical values or meaning over the entirety of your life.
I’ve seen quite a few people with the old Carlsberg logo tattooed on their bodies. Imagine being a beer lover only to discover people think you’re a Nazi. /s
I don’t have to imagine. I’m a bald white man. People think I’m a cop or a Nazi. I’m the opposite. My only tattoo turns out to be used by Nazis as a symbol. Not commonly but I have seen it.
I go to Lowe’s a lot for work supplies. Workers there commonly tell me I’m forgetting my veteran’s discount. I have never been in the military. It’s crazy how people just try to put you in a bucket.
I know several “ally” and one trans HP fan. They all just “separate the art of the artist” as cope. They’re also a bunch of adult children and I don’t really respect their opinions on media.
When you separate the art from the artist, you still have:
a slaveowner cop main character
an Asian named Ching Chong
slavery abolitionism as a joke
genetic superiority of certain characters (the bad guys were just wrong about which people are superior)
rampant fatphobia
Jewish goblin bankers
slaves who like being enslaved
slave heads decorated in Santa hats by the “good guys”
freeing slaves is bad because they become alcoholics
a black guy named MLK Shackles
a Jewish guy named Goldstein (I did not have to change this name to make the racism more clear)
none of the systemic issues that created the villain are ever addressed by the main characters beyond a surface level so nothing has actually been fixed, they’ve just delayed the takeover of society by fascists another generation or two
It’s not that deep. It’s a fantasy world that people can suspend themselves in and each person has their own self made story. If we start nitpicking which fantasy worlds have done something politically motivated we would be left with literally nothing to read/watch.
JKR is an absolute cunt who has indeed damaged the image of the HP universe but for those who just care about that fantasy world because magic is cool that’s their get away from the hell that is real life.
If we start nitpicking which fantasy worlds have done something politically motivated we would be left with literally nothing to read/watch.
The above criticism of Harry Potter is hardly nitpicking. When so much of a setting is stained by bigotry like that, it’s time to move on. Some fantasy worlds are better/worse than others. The HP world is clearly up there with the worst because of the myriad of hateful sterotypes.
The problem isn’t that the world of Harry Potter is politically motivated. The problem is that it’s racist, transphobic, fatphobic, misogynist, and it’s centrally designed to accommodate a political philosophy of systemic inaction even as it directly and clearly shows us systemic problems that are never solved.
The first book was good, but after that point the books keep getting more mature and discussing bigger issues, while also refusing to have the protagonists do anything to help these issues on a permanent basis, even though some of them try! Hermione tries to abolish slavery and the author has to intervene to say no. Harry Potter is trying to be a complex and political story for big kids, and it promises political payoff to the political story arcs, but it consistently fails to deliver.
By the time of book 4 or so, the fantasy of Harry Potter is an imaginary world where nearly everyone sucks and nothing about the world or society ever gets better over time. That’s a depressing AF fantasy. People get stuck reliving the whimsy and delight of the first two books and don’t see that Harry Potter has become grimdark. They don’t see the art for what it is.
Racist I can see, but where did the other -ist and -ics come in to the story? Fatphobic? Are you talking about the part where his cousin just starts eating someone else’s birthday cake with his hands and gets magiked with a pig’s tail? Genuinely curious here, idk any of the hot garbage takes from Rowling herself since I never made and will never make a Twitter.
In book 4, Dudley is trying to lose weight. The narration says he’s “the size of a baby whale”, and constantly mocks him. Harry taunts him with food, and the Weasley twins give him magic candy that causes his tongue to swell to the size of an anaconda. Thing is, Dudley doesn’t actually do anything mean to Harry in this book. This treatment is retribution for abuse that happened years ago, and Dudley was and is a child.
The narration constantly insults women characters by calling them fat, saying they have “mannish hands”, and pointing out masculine facial features. When Rowling doesn’t like a woman, she calls her fat or masculine. In Harry Potter, moral failings are usually accompanied by failure to embody femininity.
Oh yeah. He did work on loosing weight. I really liked his redemtion arc and character by the end of the books. Yeah, that was retribution from children to children. Felt very “Lord of the Flies” esque when I was reading it. I wouldn’t call that fatphobia myself, but I understand your perspective better. Thanks for the quick response.
The thing is, you have to make some sort of distinction between what Harry thinks, and what Rowling as the narrator says. The narration is always going on about how bad women have “mannish hands”. Is Harry a raging misogynist in his private thoughts, or is this the voice of the author? And if this is the voice of the author, why is Rowling making fun of childhood obesity? Why is Rowling joining in Harry’s abuse of Dudley? I can understand Harry being mean to Dudley, he has a pretty decent motivation. Rowling is a grown adult and was not abused by the Dursleys, so why is she so mean-spirited to her own character? Why is she saying he’s the size of a baby whale?
This is why I said I don’t trust their opinions on media. This group lacks any media literacy and just looks for “roller coaster” type experiences. There’s so many better children’s/YA fantasy out there, many a direct response of HP, but to them, they’ll just be imitations to the sort of people who can’t read subtext.
Edit response: yeah it is very weird. Imagine getting a tattoo of Hitler’s (obvious exaggeration) paintings, and then have people come along to say they shouldn’t feel bad because “the fandom has gone past the author”.
I don’t think the people with tattoos should feel responsible, or bad about themselves in any way, but I would look at them sideways if they then were saying actively that there’s no part of them that’s sad or disappointed about getting it.
i feel bad for all the people i know who got harry potter tattoos 15 years ago
edit: it’s really fucking weird how people are trying to invalidate my criticism of the bigoted bigot who loves bigotry, j.k. rowling
Why? I have a HP tattoo and don’t regret it. The fandom has gone past the author at this point. She’s a hateful removed but that doesn’t mean that we can’t still love the world and characters she created. We’ve made it our own.
Except she still gets royalties and uses those to donate to political organizations, so you know
Tons of ways to enjoy the fandom without giving her any money.
I’m happy for you being able to pretend these things are separate from the weird cringe asshole who created it. personally, hp shit just makes me think bigot
Better apply that energy to other things, too.
Like the rolling stones? You’re a pedophile.
Enjoy Top Gun? You support scientology.
Ever played any Blizzard game? You support sexual harassment.
Ever ate anything related to Nestle? You support slavery.
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. You better get used to it.
Pretty much everything you listed is a convenience that can fairly easily be cut out of your life. Except for Nestlé, because keeping tracking of what brands are under any given food companies umbrella is not an easy task and the lack of competition means that oftentimes there are simply no good alternatives.
There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, but that doesn’t mean that I’m under any obligation to respect somebody who continues to give money to an author who has openly said that they consider buying their merchandise as explicit support of their politics and donates a portion of their proceeds to extremist political groups with ties to far-right Christian groups in the US. The same as I’m not obligated to respect Republicans who say that they’re not racist, homophobic, etc, but still continue to vote for extremist candidates year after year who openly run on bigoted policies.
It’s one thing to have no alternatives to buy or to simply not know of an issue with a company, it’s an entirely different thing to continue to buy something from a company because it would be a minor inconvenience to avoid them.
Nobody is saying that we should go without things that make us happy, but there are plenty of other books to read, movies to watch, and games to play that don’t support the FART.
Enjoying Harry Potter doesn’t mean they have to engage with JK Rowling.
It can mean talking about it with fans, getting a tattoo, cosplaying, or just rereading a book.
If you see a harry potter tattoo and the first thing you think is “bigot”, youre just a prejudiced dickface.
Unfortunately, Death of the Author does not apply here. Engaging with her media keeps her relevant and continues to introduce her and her beliefs to new people. Plus, the media itself (especially the books) has its own issues. Her bigotry is not a new thing.
As a bisexual trans woman living in the US, my daily life is dictated by the laws bigots like her have enacted and my ability to keep myself safe by spotting red flags. There are parts of this country - entire states - that I would never visit without an M249 SAW loaded and ready.
Being able to continue to engage with a piece of media without the problematic parts of it and the opinion of the author about those who do engage with her media as supporters of her politics bothering you doesn’t make someone a bigot, but it is a red flag. And much like those who say they support trans rights and continue to vote for people like Trump anyways, I’m not gonna trust you to have my back. Because you’ve shown which of the two you value more.
LOL
Where can I read more about this?
Not really a part of this conversation but I just wanted to say that I literally do subscribe to all these statements lol. I try to reduce harm where I can, and not playing a game made by Blizzard is so easy.
The fuck did the rolling stones do?
i don’t like the rolling stones or any of that other shit, but you make a good point. literally everything we do is immoral.
the thing is, i’m still going to shit on rowling and harry potter. YOU better get used to it
Lol, then thanks for spreading hatred in an unjust system?
That’s super cool of you.
Youre using Lemmy right now, a system created by an unabashed tankie.
Congrats on the genocide support you fascist.
/s
yea. and i live in america. so i guess you’ll also say i “support genocide” too right?
You’ll find most are particularly unconcerned about your fervent desire to shout into the Internet void. We’re not going to get used to it because we really don’t care.
and yet…you reply
You must not be able to enjoy anything from older than 20 years ago.
It is pretty unpleasant to be watching old media and be slapped in the face with overt homophobia and transphobia treated as a joke, thanks for your concern.
Or pretty much anything younger than 20 years ago either
back to the main point though: fuck j.k. rowling, and fuck harry potter
Why not sail the high seas?
AARGH MATEY!!!🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
Last time I checked it was a little more complicated than that. I think the Wizarding World is now owned by WB, whereas Harry Potter is where Rowling gets royalties. That’s where the distinction between the two lives, which is why there are so many things being spun up lately.
I don’t know how involved she still is but I know back in 2010ish when universal was opening the wizarding world in Orlando they had to run all the design desicisions through Rowling. The park ended up changing the color of the name tags for just the workers in that area of the park because she thought the white on them was to bright.
Political organisations like Remain
You mean the world where slaves like to be slaves and trying to release them is wrong, apartheid is right because the other sentient people look different, the bankers are antisemitic stereotypes and the main character becomes a literal cop enforcing all this?
It’s really a magical world /s
If they’re a reader of fanfiction that is typically one of the major changes to the story that’s done. Fanfiction has effectively rewritten the entire series to be more palatable at this point. Bonus points that you can read it without giving Rowling any money too.
If the fanbase needs to rewrite the entire series to be “more palatable” that might indicate something about the series itself.
Might be time for people to just move on to a different series.
That’s a tall order with how most people act. Disney vibes anyone? There were few things that could capture a whole generation’s imagination so strongly, and people want to bond over it. My stance is taking what you like and making new things is how we get new series’s, and fanfic has it’s place in that.
can you please share where can I read that fanfic? :)
None of that is correct.
Oh, and thanks for the ‘/s’. You know, otherwise I really would’ve thought you were giving it a compliment after a full paragraph of invective.
This is what the fucking bad guys believe, it’s not like the books are advocating for apartheid. What the hell kind of criticism is this.
What species are allowed to use a wand and attend Hogwarts?
What other species has wizards?
At least goblins and giants and the wand ban is broad enough to imply more.
Have you seen the two hour video by Shaun on the books? I highly recommend it for a look back on the books and the issues that we couldn’t have picked up on as kids but are pretty obvious on a reread.
They’re not as great as we remember them to be (if I have to read the phrase “mannish hands” or another word about a 16 year old girls “square jawline” again I think I might vomit) and if the best parts of the world are the bits created in spite of the author, why continue to associate it with her work. Obviously, it’s easier said than done when you’re talking about an entire community, but there’s plenty of other worlds created by nicer authors.
The best thing to come out of the series was the cast from the movies being as cool as they are today, but any time I think of the world, all I can think of is the token diversity characters named things like Shacklebolt and Cho Chang (almost, but not quite Ching Chong), the young Irish boy obsessed with whiskey and explosives, and the defense of slavery that’s identical to arguments from actual slave owners in the US.
Plus, there’s the whole thing with the hook-nosed bankers that totally aren’t Jewish stereotypes. You know who created a fantasy race based on Jews that doesn’t feel like an offensive stereotype? Tolkien. Tolkien’s dwarves are based on Jewish stereotypes, but don’t come off that way at all because of how they’re presented in the world.
While I agree with you in most things (especially the jewish stereotype, yikes) I must call you on the defense of slavery. I always got the impression we weren’t supposed to agree with the magic world view of house elves. I think the only point of Hermione going over the top was showing how something so hideous had become so normalized and accepted by good people in the magic world. Hermione being an outsider sees how fucked up it is and calls it.
Things are not black white. As fucked up as JK Rowling is, it doesn’t mean everything she says is bad. She tried to make some good points…others sucked ass. It is what it is.
One of the only freed house elves we hear about literally drinks herself to death because she can’t ‘handle’ freedom, which was a defense of slavery back in the day.
Also, even more eerily, Joanne has tried to retcon Hermione as black. When you then read her as the only character to try and free the house elves, something everyone makes fun of her for, it becomes EXTREMELY unsettling. Even if she weren’t black, it’s upsetting, and not because we’re meant to see how problematic the Wizarding World is. May I remind you, Harry also thinks she’s being crazy for trying to free them, and he’s just as much of an outsider as she is. When all characters from all walks of life in a work believe the same thing like this, it feels very much like it’s the author who believes it and is putting it into the work.
The other freed house elve Dobby is portrayed as a good meaning, but over the top eccentric, quite literally wearing a dozen hats in book 4.
Cool nonsequitur
Not the person you’re originally replying to, I think they’re agreeing with you
To me, the Hermione thing had always felt like JK was trying to make her out to be a “blue hair/pronouns” feminist who shouldn’t be taken seriously and in the process she accidentally walked face first into making the same argument that actual slave owners made to justify themselves. I don’t think she intentionally meant to justify slavery, but she ended up there trying to criticize Hermione.
This is why I recommend Shaun’s video to people, as it tries to take an impartial look at the books. He points out how it feels like JK’s point of view shifts as the books go on, and she goes from criticizing the system to defending it as the money started rolling in and she began to benefit from that same system. But there are some constants with her open bigotry now even as far back as the first book, some of which I’ve already mentioned, like the stereotypical characters (which could easily come from growing up in a sheltered environment, but she claims to deeply research a culture before creating a character) and applying masculine traits as a negative to female characters. Whether or not she supports slavery we can only guess at as she’s never made a statement on the subject, and I can’t imagine that she does, but her bigotry can be seen to not be a recent development, just a more deeply entrenched or worsening belief.
Anyone who thinks “shacklebolt” is some sort of callback to slavery need to have their brain rebooted. That’s Qanon levels of pattern-finding.
hateful removed
[EXPLETIVE DELETED]
They instance they’re on automatically censors certain words the admins consider slurs. “Bitch” is one of them.
wow thats pretty unnecessary for regular swears lmao
At my last job, the only who was in his 50s or older and was nice to the trans employee had HP tattoos. He saw JK being a terf (we taught him the word) as her (referring to Rowling) own problem to solve.
I am once again asking you to please read a different book
It’s a great example of why you shouldn’t get a tattoo of something that is intellectual property. It’s way too easy for that shit to get associated with bigots/hatred/etc down the line.
Another example: I’d love to eventually get a Star Trek tattoo. I can see the suits at CBS eventually burning the IP to the ground, sure. But they probably wouldn’t turn anything Star Trek related into a hate symbol. But what happens if it turns out that neo-nazis start using ferengi imagery to spread anti-semetic hate? You can’t guarantee your favorite skin art keeps the ethical values or meaning over the entirety of your life.
I’ve seen quite a few people with the old Carlsberg logo tattooed on their bodies. Imagine being a beer lover only to discover people think you’re a Nazi. /s
I don’t have to imagine. I’m a bald white man. People think I’m a cop or a Nazi. I’m the opposite. My only tattoo turns out to be used by Nazis as a symbol. Not commonly but I have seen it.
I go to Lowe’s a lot for work supplies. Workers there commonly tell me I’m forgetting my veteran’s discount. I have never been in the military. It’s crazy how people just try to put you in a bucket.
Harry Potter tattoos have a higher regret rate than gender affirming surgeries.
That’s a low low bar to try to beat in the first place lol
I know several “ally” and one trans HP fan. They all just “separate the art of the artist” as cope. They’re also a bunch of adult children and I don’t really respect their opinions on media.
When you separate the art from the artist, you still have:
It’s not that deep. It’s a fantasy world that people can suspend themselves in and each person has their own self made story. If we start nitpicking which fantasy worlds have done something politically motivated we would be left with literally nothing to read/watch.
JKR is an absolute cunt who has indeed damaged the image of the HP universe but for those who just care about that fantasy world because magic is cool that’s their get away from the hell that is real life.
The above criticism of Harry Potter is hardly nitpicking. When so much of a setting is stained by bigotry like that, it’s time to move on. Some fantasy worlds are better/worse than others. The HP world is clearly up there with the worst because of the myriad of hateful sterotypes.
The problem isn’t that the world of Harry Potter is politically motivated. The problem is that it’s racist, transphobic, fatphobic, misogynist, and it’s centrally designed to accommodate a political philosophy of systemic inaction even as it directly and clearly shows us systemic problems that are never solved.
The first book was good, but after that point the books keep getting more mature and discussing bigger issues, while also refusing to have the protagonists do anything to help these issues on a permanent basis, even though some of them try! Hermione tries to abolish slavery and the author has to intervene to say no. Harry Potter is trying to be a complex and political story for big kids, and it promises political payoff to the political story arcs, but it consistently fails to deliver.
By the time of book 4 or so, the fantasy of Harry Potter is an imaginary world where nearly everyone sucks and nothing about the world or society ever gets better over time. That’s a depressing AF fantasy. People get stuck reliving the whimsy and delight of the first two books and don’t see that Harry Potter has become grimdark. They don’t see the art for what it is.
Racist I can see, but where did the other -ist and -ics come in to the story? Fatphobic? Are you talking about the part where his cousin just starts eating someone else’s birthday cake with his hands and gets magiked with a pig’s tail? Genuinely curious here, idk any of the hot garbage takes from Rowling herself since I never made and will never make a Twitter.
In book 4, Dudley is trying to lose weight. The narration says he’s “the size of a baby whale”, and constantly mocks him. Harry taunts him with food, and the Weasley twins give him magic candy that causes his tongue to swell to the size of an anaconda. Thing is, Dudley doesn’t actually do anything mean to Harry in this book. This treatment is retribution for abuse that happened years ago, and Dudley was and is a child.
The narration constantly insults women characters by calling them fat, saying they have “mannish hands”, and pointing out masculine facial features. When Rowling doesn’t like a woman, she calls her fat or masculine. In Harry Potter, moral failings are usually accompanied by failure to embody femininity.
Oh yeah. He did work on loosing weight. I really liked his redemtion arc and character by the end of the books. Yeah, that was retribution from children to children. Felt very “Lord of the Flies” esque when I was reading it. I wouldn’t call that fatphobia myself, but I understand your perspective better. Thanks for the quick response.
The thing is, you have to make some sort of distinction between what Harry thinks, and what Rowling as the narrator says. The narration is always going on about how bad women have “mannish hands”. Is Harry a raging misogynist in his private thoughts, or is this the voice of the author? And if this is the voice of the author, why is Rowling making fun of childhood obesity? Why is Rowling joining in Harry’s abuse of Dudley? I can understand Harry being mean to Dudley, he has a pretty decent motivation. Rowling is a grown adult and was not abused by the Dursleys, so why is she so mean-spirited to her own character? Why is she saying he’s the size of a baby whale?
She damaged her own reputation, not Harry Potter’s.
This is why I said I don’t trust their opinions on media. This group lacks any media literacy and just looks for “roller coaster” type experiences. There’s so many better children’s/YA fantasy out there, many a direct response of HP, but to them, they’ll just be imitations to the sort of people who can’t read subtext.
This is so absurd I can’t help but laugh.
To be honest, I am Chinese and that easily can be a legit Chinese name.
I’ve definitely seen a few Chinese names that made me do a double take, come to think of it.
Edit response: yeah it is very weird. Imagine getting a tattoo of Hitler’s (obvious exaggeration) paintings, and then have people come along to say they shouldn’t feel bad because “the fandom has gone past the author”.
I don’t think the people with tattoos should feel responsible, or bad about themselves in any way, but I would look at them sideways if they then were saying actively that there’s no part of them that’s sad or disappointed about getting it.
The fuck is this dense comment? Rowling being a cunt doesn’t change anything for Harry Potter. Jesus fucking Christ.