Guys, you can acknowledge that the author is a dick without boycotting the thing you love so much outright. Think about it: how many other authors, actors, directors, painters,. musicians are massive dicks in the wildest ways? Enjoying their work doesn’t make you a bigot, yet that one terf and her wizard books are off limits somehow. Yes, paying for her stuff will give her royalties, yet have you looked at the hoards of money she possesses? Gringot’s absolutely not stereotypical jew-goblins would love to take that. The dollar she gets from your purchase will not matter in any way, but enjoying stories that offer some relief and enable you to forget this problem-ridden dumpster fire we have turned our world into will make your life better. So, don’t die on a hill where no one will even notice your sacrifice.
I was a big fan throughout my child and teen years, but seeing her not only descend into bigotry, but use her large platform to push that bigotry really made it hard for me to enjoy HP going forward. I don’t blame myself for having enjoyed it in the past, but it puts a significant cloud over the series in my mind into the future; yeah, supporting her is a drop in the bucket, but a small share in the large harm she’s seeking to make with her platform is something that very much doesn’t appeal to me.
Her actions are much more visible, and much more impactful on the wider world than someone like William Shatner or Chevy Chase apparently being notorious jerks, and have soured me much more on her work than either of them have on theirs. And there are plenty of other things in the world worth enjoying that don’t have this kind of shadow cast over them.
IIRC, the royalties side of things is strange when it comes to Harry Potter, in that derived works (i.e. same universe, not referencing the main characters) don’t pay out to Rowling in the same way. It probably explains why there has been an influx under WB lately of Harry Potter themed stuff that’s detached from the storyline.
Regardless, if you were to boycott everything due to the dodgy actions and beliefs of the creator, you’d probably need to boycott everything in your life. You probably wouldn’t be able to use a laptop because Gates is a nonce, and Jobs was scum - and you’d probably need to rethink Linux as Linus Torvalds has been a serial bully for decades. You probably couldn’t listen to any music, or read any book published before a certain point.
As someone that likes the Ender’s Game series of books, I know all about shitty authors, but ultimately all you can do is enjoy the output, and be critical of the author.
Very true. Like refueling your car probably help slavery in the middle east a tiny bit, buying any clothes funds sweatshops somewhere and eating chocolate also enables slavery where ever. Rowling is a tiny drop in the ocean of all the bad shit everyone are already passively funding.
There’s zero ethical consumption in capitalism and boycotts of massive global brands like this are as effective as trying to empty the ocean with a bucket. If you want to enact real change then join a union, volenteer at a soup kitchen or do work for a political party you believe in.
She actively and explicitly funds services to exclude trans people and she uses her ongoing popularity as vindication for her actions.
It doesn’t matter how you spin it, if you’re putting money in her pocket, you’re helping her hurt trans people. Anything you tell yourself otherwise is just lying to yourself…
I agree that enjoying her work doesn’t necessarily make you a biggot, but it does mean you aren’t an ally. Your money absolutely does make a difference. She sees continued support of her works as support of her anti-trans ideas.
Also, what I loved about HP has changed, what I see in the original source material can’t be unchanged. I loved the magic, the opportunity, the hope and the underlying messages of love and found family.
But I don’t see those things anymore when I re-engage with the source material. They’re still there on the surface, sure, but now I know more about the author I can’t unsee the racist undertones, the issues surrounding gender roles and the failed allegorys for homosexuality. It was there the whole time, and I was blissfully ignorant as a teenager reading these books, and that’s why okay, but as an adult, I can’t go back. What I loved about HP isn’t there anymore, and trying to read other again through the child like lens makes me feel uncomfortable because it’s like I’m closing my eyes, sticking my fingers in my ears and convincing myself that it’s okay to be complicit engaging with bigotry.
Guys, you can acknowledge that the author is a dick without boycotting the thing you love so much outright. Think about it: how many other authors, actors, directors, painters,. musicians are massive dicks in the wildest ways? Enjoying their work doesn’t make you a bigot, yet that one terf and her wizard books are off limits somehow. Yes, paying for her stuff will give her royalties, yet have you looked at the hoards of money she possesses? Gringot’s absolutely not stereotypical jew-goblins would love to take that. The dollar she gets from your purchase will not matter in any way, but enjoying stories that offer some relief and enable you to forget this problem-ridden dumpster fire we have turned our world into will make your life better. So, don’t die on a hill where no one will even notice your sacrifice.
I was a big fan throughout my child and teen years, but seeing her not only descend into bigotry, but use her large platform to push that bigotry really made it hard for me to enjoy HP going forward. I don’t blame myself for having enjoyed it in the past, but it puts a significant cloud over the series in my mind into the future; yeah, supporting her is a drop in the bucket, but a small share in the large harm she’s seeking to make with her platform is something that very much doesn’t appeal to me.
Her actions are much more visible, and much more impactful on the wider world than someone like William Shatner or Chevy Chase apparently being notorious jerks, and have soured me much more on her work than either of them have on theirs. And there are plenty of other things in the world worth enjoying that don’t have this kind of shadow cast over them.
IIRC, the royalties side of things is strange when it comes to Harry Potter, in that derived works (i.e. same universe, not referencing the main characters) don’t pay out to Rowling in the same way. It probably explains why there has been an influx under WB lately of Harry Potter themed stuff that’s detached from the storyline.
Regardless, if you were to boycott everything due to the dodgy actions and beliefs of the creator, you’d probably need to boycott everything in your life. You probably wouldn’t be able to use a laptop because Gates is a nonce, and Jobs was scum - and you’d probably need to rethink Linux as Linus Torvalds has been a serial bully for decades. You probably couldn’t listen to any music, or read any book published before a certain point.
As someone that likes the Ender’s Game series of books, I know all about shitty authors, but ultimately all you can do is enjoy the output, and be critical of the author.
Very true. Like refueling your car probably help slavery in the middle east a tiny bit, buying any clothes funds sweatshops somewhere and eating chocolate also enables slavery where ever. Rowling is a tiny drop in the ocean of all the bad shit everyone are already passively funding.
There’s zero ethical consumption in capitalism and boycotts of massive global brands like this are as effective as trying to empty the ocean with a bucket. If you want to enact real change then join a union, volenteer at a soup kitchen or do work for a political party you believe in.
Can’t even use TempleOS.
She actively and explicitly funds services to exclude trans people and she uses her ongoing popularity as vindication for her actions.
It doesn’t matter how you spin it, if you’re putting money in her pocket, you’re helping her hurt trans people. Anything you tell yourself otherwise is just lying to yourself…
I agree that enjoying her work doesn’t necessarily make you a biggot, but it does mean you aren’t an ally. Your money absolutely does make a difference. She sees continued support of her works as support of her anti-trans ideas.
Also, what I loved about HP has changed, what I see in the original source material can’t be unchanged. I loved the magic, the opportunity, the hope and the underlying messages of love and found family.
But I don’t see those things anymore when I re-engage with the source material. They’re still there on the surface, sure, but now I know more about the author I can’t unsee the racist undertones, the issues surrounding gender roles and the failed allegorys for homosexuality. It was there the whole time, and I was blissfully ignorant as a teenager reading these books, and that’s why okay, but as an adult, I can’t go back. What I loved about HP isn’t there anymore, and trying to read other again through the child like lens makes me feel uncomfortable because it’s like I’m closing my eyes, sticking my fingers in my ears and convincing myself that it’s okay to be complicit engaging with bigotry.