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
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.
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.
None of that is correct.
- The slave thing was about brainwashing and exploitation, and how it’s wrong.
- I don’t know what you’re referring to with the apartheid thing.
- The goblins are antisemitic because they have big noses? That’s been a staple of goblin anatomy since they were created.
- The main character becomes an anti dark sorcerer guy, like counterterrorism, so nothing to do with enforcing all that gubbins anyway.
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.
apartheid is right because the other sentient people look different
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.
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.
They instance they’re on automatically censors certain words the admins consider slurs. “Bitch” is one of them.
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.
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 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.
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.
Much like my mother, she should have no access to phones or internet after a bottle of wine.
Neither should I tbh. Not that I turn into a racist or anything, I just end up sending random unfunny shit in old group chats and get in arguments with people online.
Is she racist too?
I don’t know whether she is actually racist herself or not, but she is definitely willing to promote racists like Christopher Rufo and Matt Walsh so long as she sees them as being on her side regarding her hatred of trans people. On that basis I don’t think it much matters what she actually believes, what’s she doing is spreading racism
She started with ‘the Nazi’s didn’t target transgender people’ which is…
You know, provably wrong.
And since she’s hanging out with more and more Nazi’s, it’s getting worse.
How long before we start hearing her spout that old canard about “well, as much as I disagree with Nazis, at least they’re willing to speak honestly about the threat of <insert libelled minority group here>”? I believe this naziwashing manner of argumentation is called the Sam Harris Code-Injection Exploit.
Or my personal favourite: “Given how much society and the media have lied about trans people being human beings, I’ve now started to question everything else I’ve been told, such as the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines and the truth about the Holocaust”.
I think Graham Linehan has actually said that about vaccines and climate change, that he now questions them because most of society doesn’t agree with his vicious bigotry about trans people. JKR isn’t far behind him.
Big time:
- Asian character with a nonsense name that sounds like Ching Chong
- black character Kingsley Shacklebolt (MLK Shackles)
- Jewish character named Goldstein
- Jewish stereotype goblins
- Irish character who’s obsessed with whiskey and explosives.
- she went on Pottermore and explained that Skinwalkers are actually just misunderstood wizards, and the native american muggles were wrong to oppress the skinwalkers
- her designs of the international magic schools are ignorant nonsense
Christ, what a bunch of contrived bollocks. Who’s the irish guy with the whiskey? Seamus? I don’t even know if he mentions it once. And his spells blowing up is just the films.
What’s the skinwalker thing from?
It’s not so much that he’s INTO blowing things up, more so that his spell work is often atrocious enough that things just explode.
I actually have a headcanon to explain this. We can sort of weakly infer that magic is influenced by the caster as well as just the incantation. Lily did a lot of stuff with flowers (even before she could control it properly), Hermione’s magic is always particularly detailed, Ginny seems to have a penchant for nasty hexes, Lockhart is inexplicably good at memory charms. Maybe something about Seamus’ magic just naturally gravitates towards exploding?
Never have I identified with Seamus as much as I do now
And his spells blowing up is just the films.
Wait, wasn’t there explosion by Seamus somewhere in first book?
Irish character who’s obsessed with whiskey and explosives.
If you try to talk about Seamus, I don’t remember him making explosions intentionally. Obsession requires intention. Same with Lockheart’s explosion in second book.
- Jewish stereotype goblins
So also add speciesism?
An entire bottle of gin will unlock some very disgusting traits in most people.
I disagree in principle as i am biased against alcoholism, but yeah. Limits of tolerance aren’t the same for everyone.
If people could stop centering their entire lives around a mediocre piece of entertainment and letting themselves being spoonfed art in the form of capitalist “Franchises”, maybe people like Rowling wouldnt get this much undeserved attention.
Or maybe we could let parents know whose books they’re reading to their kids.
Yes. Decry the fact she has a platform. By commenting on a post about her… Thus amplifying her reach and her platform.
Or perhaps join the rest of us and call out her shitty views any time she is mentioned helping to ensure her platform is at least also used to amplify dissenting views.
Or just not comment if all you’re trying to do is be super edgy or whatever.
It feels like people make loving or hating this literally a core part of their personality, and is a good model of the enshittification of the internet. The more one side pushes, the further the other side pushes back. A new species has emerged from the mingling of internet trolls and keyboard warriors. I’m going to call it the internet troglodyte. Constantly inflamatory and escalating conflict, the trog does not troll for the lulz, but they have such strong opinions they must share them everywhere every chance they have, often harming the cause they purport while turning online spaces into echo chambers.
Maybe I wasn’t clear, I don’t think calling out Rowling’s shitty views is part of the problem. What I was trying to point at was that fandoms are just a means of marketing and people are too uncritical about how capitalism interferes with art. People are getting steered towards “investing” time and attention into something that isn’t really worth it, and the author, unable to follow up the success because she really isn’t that talented, instead clamps on the attention by putting out edgy political statements.