3w ago

‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell

www.theguardian.com ‘Please walk away from Harry Potter’: why the stars of HBO’s new TV show are in for decades of social media hell

The internet is already exploding about Katherine Parkinson, John Lithgow and Paapa Essiedu signing up to the new Hogwarts adventures – and it hasn’t even started filming

257 comments

In addition to my loathing of the author, I have to say I am also really bothered how the books normalize slavery, glorify blood purity and elite privilege, treat systemic child abuse as comic relief, use goblins as thinly veiled anti-Semitic caricatures, reduce fat characters to jokes, sideline women or box them into tired tropes, justify authoritarianism with a shrug, romanticize magical servitude, paint non-human creatures as inherently dangerous, and act like destiny is a substitute for character development — all while the wizarding world runs on a caste system and no one ever questions it.
So I will be passing on this series, personally.
- this what most of the people are elucidating her meaning of her books, its her subtle way to express her transphobia, anti-semititism, etc.
  
  Ok fair, and kind of obvious now that I think about it. But a lot of people seem to also be arguing that the books can stand alone and be enjoyed separate from the author’s discriminatory beliefs. And if that is the case, then let’s take the books separately, and examine what they really are presenting to the audience that loves them so much. Even forgetting about Rowling, can these people really say they feel it’s totally ok to enjoy a classicist story about discrimination, slavery, and child abuse, etc.? And that they should be allowed to enjoy such a story without anyone casting aspersions against them?
- sideline women or box them into tired tropes
  Which makes it mind bogglingly insane how many claimed “feminists” support her because of her stance on trans people.
  Hermoine and Ron ending up together is shit. He treats her like garbage throughout the series.
  Bellatrix is presented as this fucked up “Daddy’s Little Monster” to Voldemorts Joker.
  All of the “good” women are passive little teachers and moms.
  What happens to Tonks is especially gross as shit. You have a GNC women. Goes by a shorten, masc-ish name. Short hair, colors, dresses ambiguously.
  Then she gets married off to the other queer coded character. (Werewolf = HIV, I’m pretty sure she straight up said that at one point.) He calls her her extremely feminine birth name, and iirc the text even mentions that she is vaguely uncomfortable with that? Then gets knocked up and killed off. She gets to die a “proper woman.”
  TERFs say “trans men shouldn’t transition! Just be a non confoming woman!” But it’s a fucking front. They are a conservatives in disguise. They don’t want GNC people to exist, just like they don’t want trans people to exist. “Just be non-binary! But also, shave your legs and wear makeup and make sure to present in a feminine way.”
  If I was a billionaire feminist who could buy courts, I could think of several better priorities.
  
  If I were a billionaire, the amount of low-to-no cost housing, green energy, and fiber internet I would build would be off the charts. And with Elon Musk money, I'm fairly certain I could ensure that NO ONE in the US would ever have to worry about where their next meal would come from. Certainly not schoolchildren. Also, I would commission a third season of the classic 1999 anime Big O, with the original writers and showrunner.
- I have no idea what book series you read (or if you've read it at all) but you are...very off on this take.
  Don't get me wrong, JK Rowling is a total piece of shit, but the books themselves are distinctly anti classism, "blood purity," slavery, misogyny, and a whole host of other things you listed.
  Are they without any flaw? Certainly not. Is it okay if people boycott the media because of Rowling's ongoing transphobia? Absolutely. But most of what you've listed about the book series is blatantly untrue...
  
  I think people like to take all the poorly written parts of HP and conflate them with bigotry. Its possible, but jk Rowling is just a shitty writer who does not plan ahead at all. I still think fans wrote the last three books via posting theories on HP forums.
  
  I agree she is anti classism, and anti "blood purity," but there is no redemption for the enslaved elves. Hermione written as irritating and the strong women are housewives and spinsters.
  
  Doesn't HP end up a literal magic cop at the end of the series? The whole caste system is also upheld throughout, at no point is revealing the wizarding world to muggles even considered an option despite the fact that little kids are dying from cancer all over Britain/the world that could be magically healed in an afternoon. The whole SPEW thing is just profoundly racist and always has been. "Cho Chang" – nuff said. The whole point of Hogwarts is that it's a boarding school, which proudly inherits all its real-world British characteristics which are intrinsically linked to the more problematic parts of the British class system.
  Rowling has always been a bigot and I will die on this hill. Any progressive messaging that people read into harry potter is at best performative (for instance yes she explicitly denounces "blood purity" pretty early on, but that's super performative considering her entire worldbuilding is built on the premise that some people are just inherently magical and others are inherently not invited to the party. "Blood purity contests" are only bad when wizards to it to other wizards.).
  I don't think she's a good enough writer to have done most of the racist/classist/misogynist messaging intentionally, but nonetheless her reactionary poorly thought-out world view transpires through every bit of her writing.
  EDIT: Trying to expand on my own thoughts here. I've always despised HP as a franchise so to try to be fair to HP let's contrast and compare with the piece of shit author who did make a book I like, Ender's Game. I pirated it a couple years back, and I won't pretend it's not obvious at times that he's a homophobe and a religious nutcase with some obvious cognitive dissonance with some of his (at least at the time) progressive views. I guess the good thing about that particular IP is that there's no new stuff coming out besides one awful movie, so everyone can agree Orson Scott Card can get fucked and move on with their lives. But it's important to acknowledge that his religious zealousness did impact his writing and to take a step back even if we decide to still appreciate his work.
  The problem is that HP fans are in a much tougher situation because the writing just isn't good so if you drop the flimsy pretense that 2000s Rowling was a champion of liberal ideals, then you really don't have much left besides a profoundly flawed worldbuilding with shitty characters who only work to uphold the wizarding status quo. Yeah I'd get pretty mad too if I had spend my teenage years obsessing over that heap of trash.
  
  Agree with you. You could take most fantasy stories ever written and apply the same "injustices" wrongly so. I call that reaching.
- Everyone who praised blood purity was a villain and the entire last half of the series was about how the real hero was a dude with mixed blood. What are you smoking bruh?
  
  Yea, a lot of people seem to be blinded by their hate of JK they have completely forgotten how the books portrayed many of the themes.
  Like, they weren't incredibly nuanced depictions; it is literally a children's/young adult series. They aren't exactly known for their depth. Yet, they are still good starting points for children to begin thinking about larger concepts and themes, even with their imperfections.
- None of that matters, as it's a book... The problem is her as a person.
- You could apply the same logic to most fantasy and claim they are racist and pro-monarchy. Harry Potter isn't really as bad as you make it sound.
- Never read one completely nor watched a full movie, but it always felt cheap and written from the unenlightened perspective of a simple mind to me.
  The fantasy books of my generation, such as The Neverending Story, Momo, The Hobbit, Jim Knopf were a whole different level. Life experience and a touch of wisdom in a great story for children.
  But I also think that it might be just my perspective, since my mind has been imprinted like that. I'm not judging anyone for being a Harry Potter fan and try to think of it as different, not worse.
  
  I would imagine reading the books or watching the movies as a child probably endeared them to a lot of people. Don't underestimate the nostalgia that people have, especially before it was widely known how troublesome the author is.
  
  Piers Anthony was my jam as a kid
- JK Rowling sounds like an incredibly talented author. Most people just massage things into place. Reuse tropes. But you're saying she baked her worldview into practically every sentence?
  If I see ugliness in the world, I might express it as I see it. I don't have to think something is right for me to include it in a story. Do you think I'm special? Am I the only person capable of writing things that I don't necessarily support? Everyone else is forced to include things they personally would vote for. If you write about slavery, that means you love slavery. Is it weird that I'm capable of being against slavery, yet it's possible for me to include it in stories? Should I be using this power?
  I didn't realize Rowling was one of the best authors. I thought she just reused things without really thinking. I never knew it was 100% meticulous and so... thought out. I don't think even Tolkien can be said to inject so much meaning into every single page.
  
  You realize she didn't write about slaves right? She made the main character a slave owner and had a plot point about how much the slaves love being slaves and dobby is just weird for not wanting to be a slave.
  
  Am I the only person capable of writing things that I don’t necessarily support?
  I can't speak to that. But I can say that I don't think that sentiment applies to her. And I think there's a difference between a viewpoint that one can objectively examine from both sides, and a bias, that is so deeply ingrained to one's psyche that it colors how one perceives the world. And yes, I do think both things exist.

Reminder: "separating the art from the artist" is an approach to engaging with an artwork, and is a separate question from whether or not you should engage with an artwork when doing so has real life consequences.
Whether or not you should consume HP Lovecraft media despite the fact he was a racist is entirely up to you because he is long dead. He doesn't make any money. He isn't even racist any more. Because he's dead.
When you consider whether or not you consume Harry Potter media, you must consider that JK Rowling will make money and will donate that money to anti-trans groups. If you still go on to buy licensed merch, or pay a streaming service to watch it, you will literally be helping to propogate transphobia. Continue to enjoy anything you currently own if you want. That is where separating the art from the artist comes into it. But if you still actively promote the material online and thereby increase the demand for it; again, transphobia, arguably.
- Can we pirate it. Or will that just make it more popular
  Edit: or should we just boycott
  
  Pirating it wouldn't make it more popular if you kept it to yourself, but talking about it after you watched it probably would.
  
  I think its best to move on
  
  Don't deprive yourself of happiness to spite her. That being said the books have several reasons to not read them on their own merits. Don't forget "dobby is weird for not wanting to be a slave" is an actual plot point in the books. Not to mention the goblins. If you want to revisit a beloved fantasy series, give LOTR another read/watch.
- Only applies to artists who can no longer enjoy the spoils.
- It’s up to society if we should separate a work from its artist. We’ve collectively agreed that this work shouldn’t survive the century. Not only that, you can’t separate an artist from their work when they’re literally tangled in it and controlling it
- ☠️
- But if you still actively promote the material online and thereby increase the demand for it; again, transphobia, arguably.
  I agree with everything you wrote up to this point. I'm not really a Harry Potter fan and I certainly don't think much of J.K. Rowling since she revealed her true nature but this last bit is a very slippery slope.
  
  You know the slippery slope fallacy right?
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope
- JK Rowling is rich enough to fund anti trans groups for decades without any input from us. Boycotting HP has no effect on trans rights.

Because they're supporting the anti-trans hag?
- The parents of the child actors should be getting plenty of pushback. Exploiting their kids like this is gross.
  It's like seeing pictures of kids in KKK robes.
  
  Wanting children to get hate for some other woman's opinions is wild lol
  Before I get more down votes. They clearly said. "Should".
- It's almost like we shouldn't blame others for another. I dunno. Maybe I'm a trans hater like the trans community wants to paint anyone that enjoys Harry Potter.
  
  Brother, it’s Harry Potter which is not exactly a thing you can’t live without lmfao
  You’re making it sound like they’re asking you to give up breathing
  
  If you’re going to make broad generalizations about every trans person like that, I mean, maybe. There are trans people that read HP and trans people that don’t GAF.
  
  Maybe I’m a trans hater like the trans community wants to paint anyone that enjoys Harry Potter.
  That kind of wild generalization certainly makes you sound like a trans hater.
  No one is claiming that everyone who likes Harry Potter hates trans people. But any interaction you have with Harry Potter books, movies, merchandise, etc. makes money for one of the most prominent trans haters in the world and helps her to spread her hateful message. At least pirate her stuff if you care.
  
  Yes. You are. We are asking you not to engage with a very specific thing, and you are refusing. You are stamping your feet like a toddler that we are asking you not to give money to someone that is using that money to fund anti-trans lobbying.
  So yes, you are a "trans hater" and need to do better.
  
  you literally came into this thread with an agenda
  
  Oh yeah, you're a trans hater if you're paying for any HP media. No doubt or questions about it. Straight up scumbag move to be funding that shit.
  If you're paying her, you're part of the reason she has so much money to give her anti-trans organisations. It's directly causal and you need to take responsibility for where you're sending your money. 🙏
  
  What is there to even enjoy? The world building is trash, the characters are shallow, and the setting is mid and bland. You really going to die on this hill?
  Read another book, I'm begging you.

Whether or not you should consume HP Lovecraft media despite the fact he was a racist is entirely up to you because he is long dead. He doesn't make any money. He isn't even racist any more. Because he's dead.
I always say "If you're going to be a shitshow of a human being but a talented artist, the least you can do is also be dead."
See also: Phil Spector, Pablo Picasso.
- HP Lovecraft was more a clinical xenophobe and expressed that in his writings. He was afraid of different races, but he was also deadly afraid of scientific advancement and even the color indigo. He also didn't fund terrible politicians or get into feuds on twitter. You also don't see terrible people on twitter using his writings to justify their beliefs.
  JK Rowling is actively funding and bragging about making other people's lives worse.
  
  Yeah, I actually think Lovecraft was doing what was probably the healthiest thing available to him at the time with all his fucked up phobias by turning them into inspiration for spooky stories. He was creative and articulate enough that he could have been writing political screeds and trying to get others on board with driving out all the immigrants, but instead he wrote about crab monsters from space. Far from the worst possible outcome considering a lot of the other possibilities from the time.
  
  HP Lovecraft is a national treasure.
  His detractors are potatoes.
- There's also something to say about someone that was a racist in his mind, but made some effort to move in a better direction and/or live in isolation, versus someone that's actively moving toward ruining other people lives with the benefits they reap.
- There is a novel called "The Art of Monsters" that came out in the wake of Harvey Weinstein (not that he's an artist). It's a good read.
- I'm sure some is profiting from his estate, no?
  
  Well his estate is pretty loose about enforcing copyright and don't take in much per product. That's why you see so much merch. Secondly they are not some racist dipshit.
  
  Is his estate run by raging racists?
  
  Hello, username cousin
  
  His works are public domain. People are profiting who did their own work compiling or creating derivative works
- If only everybody would conform to the consensus morality. We'd be living in caves, eating garbage and telling really stupid stories but at least we'd all be non-shitshow human beings.

It’s pretty simple. Rowling is an avowed bigot who is using all of her means, financially and socially, to punish trans people for existing. She is a hateful person who should be judged harshly and ostracized. It will be a good day for the world when she is no longer able to or allowed to espouse her bigoted views.
Supporting her in anyway, be it paying for her works or even enjoying her content should be stigmatized to the maximum degree. Actors agreeing to work with or for her should lose everything, as they are even worse for helping to continue her pursuit of hate and villainy.
If she were to fall down a literary flight of stairs, I would be most pleased—especially if this were to happen daily until she were unable to fall any further.
Here’s to hoping that anyone that hitches their wagon with hers suffers pain and ruin.
- If she were to fall down a literary flight of stairs
  She already did - it was called the Harry Potter series.

It's always moraly right to pirate any harry potter media.
- Not this show. Don't pirate it, don't discuss it on social media, don't make memes about it. Let it die because of cultural insignificance.
  
  Sadly, Disney keeps it alive with their theme park homage. Fans be craza. No stopping the Potter cult.
- I don't pirate things I boycott. Professionals have standards.
- More morally right to never indulge in any Harry Potter media at all. Don't reinforce the hype by watching that crap, even if by piracy.

John Lithgow reacted to the open letter mentioned in this article, sent to him by "a very good friend who is the mother of a trans child" by saying "Why is this a factor at all?" and expressing sympathy for the transphobic bigot.
So it's unfortunate that he probably wouldn't know what a social media is if it slammed him right in the asshole - which is the entirety of him - because he certainly sounds deserving of decades of hell. Especially from his now hopefully former "very good friend."
- “I thought, 'Why is this a factor at all?' I wonder how J.K. Rowling has absorbed it. I suppose at a certain point I’ll meet her, and I’m curious to talk to her," he said.
  "Decades in hell" for being a clueless, out of touch old man? Jesus Christ you people are unhinged. You fucking act like he's personally bankrolling her anti-trans crusade.
- Hopefully he dies early in production. How's that for winding down?
  I wonder if he'd be ok with others wishing he would die. Or is it only acceptable when he's playing a character or working for bigots? In any case I'm sure he finds it all very exciting.

The online portion of the community that is complaining about all this may be valid, but it's still a small portion of the actual public. Regardless of all the negative press, if this show is good, it's going to be a commercial hit.

I guruan-fucking-tee there's going to be a new character who's basically just a transgender boogeyman
- No, I bet the trans character will be more of a "look! are you happy now?" like with the game.
  
  Naw, JK Rowling has actual creative input this time.
  
  And it be the most male-looking figure they can fucking find

I'm probably gonna watch it because it's interesting to see what they made of it, I'm gonna pirate it and seed it far and wide tho lol

Fuck the whole HP franchise.
It was always shitty writing and the plot was garbage. The whole story was a thinly veiled glorification of British exceptionalism.
The only saving grace of that stinking turd of a franchise is that, in the '90s, it seemed like a good way to get kids to read.
- The kind of hilarious part is there was right wing pushback in the southern US when they came out because it was "teaching kids witchcraft." Which is so fucking funny to me now. It's just so plainly obvious that they were literally judging a book by it's cover. I read the first two books as a young adult because of the right wing pushback and even the 2nd book was an absolute slog. To my dismay I didn't learn any witchcraft along the way either.
  On the other hand, my youngest brother absolutely loved those books. I remember sneaking him one of the new ones when we were staying with our Southern Baptist grandparents for the summer. They absolutely were his first books that he really read independently. He was quite bitter when JKR decided to be all anti-trans and shitty. If you even bring it up now it sends him into a tirade about how shitty she is.
- Thank you for speaking some sense. I never had any interest in anything HP ever since the beginning, long before JK revealed herself to be a piece of shit.
  My cousin dragged me to one of the films once (IDK which one but it was the one where the Gollum ripoff dies). It was so boring that I fell asleep in the theater. Never understood why people find this garbage entertaining.

What? You mean a celebrity doesn't really give a fuck about people and just wants to make money? But they were so silly and sweet in their interviews!
Unless this hurts their bottom line, I doubt they'll move. Her behavior is not new and they auditioned and signed the contract anyway, the same way people still buy their house themed merch and take trips to Potter land or whatever the fuck it's called. That woman's growing wealth is a sign of just how little people are willing to give up.
- a sign of just how little people are willing to give up.
  Also telling a lot about how much many people care about transphobia. Or trans rights at all

Never give these people an inch, or they'll take a mile.
- When you say "these people", who exactly are you referring to?

i heard rowling was trying to retcon the characther to curate thier her subtle transphobia needs because the og cast members do not like rowling.

Bummer, I like Katherine Parkinson...
- Don't watch the series of Taskmaster that she's in then. You'll lose respect for her, she crashes and burns so hard it's cringe and difficult to watch
  
  I've enjoyed every single series of Taskmaster, including the one she was in. I'm sure if I watched it again with this in mind, I'd recognize what you're referring to, but aside from that I remember having zero issue with her on TM.
  
  She didn't shine, but crash and burn is an exaggeration.
  David Baddiel lost all my respect during taskmaster.
  
  Possibly the worst taskmaster cast member of all time.
- Honestly she probably needs the money, I'm least upset about her casting.

Starting a covert, underground marketing campaign on Lemmy this early is pretty extreme. I guess we can't underestimate fandom: the promoters here don't need payment with this kind of passion.

the death eaters have already infiltrated...

Mainstream social media is hell to begin with, that's why I'm here

If we didn't read books when we didn't personally agree with the artist's views then we wouldn't be reading many books at all
HP is a glorious series and no matter how evil this woman is this is going to remain true
- The problem is the money JK Rowling is making on book sales and licensing fees is being sent anti-LGBTQ organizations. There’s little issue with the material itself, the controversy is where the revenues from it are going. It’s her money, she can spend it how she wants, but some people would rather not that she get any more of it.
- Be sure to pirate everything so that JK doesn't get more money to fuel her hate-filled foundation
  
  I pirate anything that isn't Canadian lol
- It's different when it's fascist talking points or lies advocating intolerance or hate speech. That's not an acceptable "personal opinion" in a tolerant society. Especially if it's an active and current threat to democracy and financed by vast profits.
  
  It’s different when it’s fascist talking points or lies advocating intolerance or hate speech.
  You're describing Harry Potter.
  
  Eh I'm pretty well versed in this as a metalhead haha. So many of my musical inspirations turned out to be horrible people. I learned guitar partially thanks to Dagon from Inquisition and I can't just unlearn that because he's a piece of shit for one of many examples

Due to how capitalism works, every purchase you make helps fund oppression. That's how the system was designed: to ensure those in power who wish to oppress will ensure wealth is funnelled into their pockets through their convoluted system of ownership.
If it isn't Harry Potter media that tangentially funds Rowling through royalties it is something else that funds another bigoted owner somewhere along the supply chain of the rest of the items you purchase in your life.
You really give a shit about this? Then direct your criticisms at the convoluted system that forces people to give up the things they enjoy because some bigot holds a piece of paper that says they own an idea.
This production has nothing to do with JK except for the fact she has a piece of paper that entitles her to reimbursement. That's the problem, not the people simply trying to make a living or people indulging in media that they enjoy.
- You can't opt out of capitalism. You can opt out of not funding Rowling
  
  Congratulations on missing the point
- Sorry but I really don't follow. Are you saying we shouldn't boycot and socially cancel products created by bigots?
  There's so much entertainment and its honestly kinda sad that people would sacrifice their moral and justice stance for sake of "comfort consumption". Ew.
  
  Yes that's their point. "no ethical consumption under capitalism" There are no degrees of evil or complicity, shut up and let me continue to not think about what I'm paying for when I buy nestle chocolate. You can't be perfect so trying to cause less harm is just a distraction.

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