• Maven (famous)OP
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    5 months ago

    It was not originally intended to be a soap box.

    I thought my reaction to the pickup line would be found humorous especially with the juxtaposition of JK Rowling being a monster.

    I’ve apparently just spent too much time in mostly trans spaces that I underestimated the support JK has on Lemmy outside of trans communities.

    • PhilMcGraw@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I thought it was funny.

      As far as supporting JKR goes: JKR is a horrible person who no-one should listen to but Harry Potter is pop culture. I’m pretty comfortable personally with disconnecting the two in my head. I don’t think people enjoying Harry Potter should be seen as “supporting JKR”, hell a lot of them wouldn’t even be aware of JKRs noise.

      Obviously I haven’t read the comments here a ton but are people really supporting JKR or are you just treating people enjoying Harry Potter as support for JKR? I think there should be a distinction. It’s not really people’s job to deep dive into the personal lives of the creators or people involved in every piece of art they enjoy.

      • Maven (famous)OP
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        5 months ago

        It’s a little bit of both of what you listed. Enjoying Harry Potter on its own is generally fine… The problem I have with it personally, especially in this case, is that JKR has specifically stated multiple times that the funds from it go directly to anti-trans organizations.

        People are allowed to enjoy whatever they want to enjoy, but if that thing directly funds hate… I am likely to think less fondly of them.

        Similarly, if someone says their favorite person is Andrew Tate, I probably won’t match with them.

        • PhilMcGraw@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Oh right, I was not aware of JKRs comments on funding anti-trans organisations. I guess my point still stands, I.e. that people often don’t have deep insight into the creators of the art they are enjoying, so considering liking Harry Potter as a statement about their feelings on the author doesn’t resonate with me but I understand why you’d have issues with it with the funding comment in mind.

          Entirely agree on liking Andrew Tate being a red flag in the same way liking JKR directly would be a red flag. It’s more liking the books that JKR put out years before anyone heard her potentially rotting brain driven opinions on trans people that I don’t think should be seen as a red flag without at least some questioning about their thoughts on the author.

          • un_owen@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Oh right, I was not aware of JKRs comments on funding anti-trans organisations

            That’s literally the point we’ve been trying to make for years. I couldn’t care less about whatever shitty “opinions” JKR posts on her Twitter profile, that’s not what makes her problematic. JKR is problematic because she is actively funding anti-trans campaigns.

            I.e. that people often don’t have deep insight into the creators of the art they are enjoying, so considering liking Harry Potter as a statement about their feelings on the author doesn’t resonate with me

            Which is fair, but then the same people get offended when you try to educate them. It’s the same debate every time a new Harry Potter medium is announced. At this point, you must be living under a rock if you are a Harry Potter fan and have never heard of the controversy that surrounds JKR.

            I think most people don’t know about JKR because they don’t want to know. They are afraid that when they dig deeper, they will have to let go of their favorite franchise, so they choose denial and ignorance instead. It’s hard to give people the benefit of the doubt when a topic has been discussed so many times for so many years.

          • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            JKR has been incredibly vocal and actively pushing for anti-trans legislation. It’s not a secret, and there are many people who vocally do not care and support her anyway.

    • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Most people disconnect the media from the creator… Not all, but hating on everyone who likes Harry Potter makes you look like a lunatic.

      Fuck, Tolkien had some fucked up ideas too, but I’m not going around calling people out on it.

      • Maven (famous)OP
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        5 months ago

        I would agree if it weren’t for the fact that JK has done multiple massive anti-trans media campaigns and has also stated multiple times that the profits from her creation go towards hurting trans people.

        If she kept that a secret or anything then sure… But it’s not exactly a hidden fact that money gained from Harry Potter is being put towards hate.

        • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The fact is, most Harry Potter fans neither know nor care about any of the personal exploits of the author.

          If she kept that a secret or anything then sure… But it’s not exactly a hidden fact that money gained from Harry Potter is being put towards hate.

          The spaces you hang out in obviously make a big deal of these and broadcast them consistently, I’m sure. But it’s clear you spend enough time in them that you’ve lost perspective in how things are in the ‘world at large’.

          Although it’s very obvious and “not hidden”, to you, it wouldn’t even have to be hidden from the average Harry Potter fan, because they make literally zero effort to seek it out. They simply don’t care about anything she does, outside of writing the books they like to read.

          P.S. The way you worded it in a previous comment implies heavily that a lack of explicit criticism of Rowling is equivalent to “support”. It isn’t.

          • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            Literally just look at JK Rowling’s twitter feed on any given day, it’s not a secret, you’re just not paying attention bc you’re not a trans ally.

            • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              Literally just look at JK Rowling’s twitter feed

              You’re projecting your terminal online-ness onto the general population. The vast, vast majority of Harry Potter, or any book series, fans, pay z-e-r-o attention to the personal Twitter account of the author.

              Accusing that huge majority of being transphobic just for that is moronic, full stop.

              • whoreticulture@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                “you’re just not paying attention because you’re not a trans ally”

                yeah so basically anyone paying attention to trans issues knows about JKR. I don’t think I said all harry potter fans are transphobic, so that was a fun little thing for you to make up I guess, but I would say that fans of Harry Potter who don’t know the controversy are not trans allies. She is the anti-trans celebrity. Her letter was huge news.

                Harry Potter fans have likely at least seen one or two hate comments about the video game or something. Stop bring so disingenuous… most people are online regularly … particularly the generation of Harry Potter fans. You don’t need to be terminally online to have heard about the wealthiest author in the world turning into the most prominent anti-trans advocate.