It’s 2023, let’s stop supporting J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter (and yes, this includes fan-made content)
This past week for me has been (unexpectedly and annoyingly) full of Harry Potter: I found an unimaginable amount of references to it in a book that came out just a few months ago, and I’ve seen at least 3 popular content creators promoting the fanfictions and making content about it. (And I’ve also had the comment that I get almost weekly, of someone comparing my original characters to a Marauders ’ship… but that’s another annoying topic for another time).
All of this sudden Harry Potter content made me think, and since I had a lot to say, here I am to annoy all of you.
I should not have to explain it, but apparently, there are still a lot of people who have no idea what the problem with HP and JKR is, so I’ll have to do a very quick recap.
Disclaimer: if you want in-depth proof or sources, Google it. You really should already know all of these things if you spend time online. I’m only here to refresh your memory.
THE TRANSPHOBIA:
JKR is a proud TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) and she is not worried about loudly sharing it with the world. Her main point is that trans women erase the identity of what she considers to be “real” women (cisgender women) and she regularly makes tweets about the matter.
She started exposing herself with a quote-retweet that she made in 2018, and since then has made it her mission to be as loud as possible about her transmisogynistic ideals. Rowling is still, as we speak, constantly spreading hate against trans people (especially trans women) and supporting (verbally and with actual money) anti-trans legislation and organizations.
Some sprinkles of transphobia can be found in the Harry Potter books as well, and it also seems that she wrote her anti-trans ideals into the book Troubled Blood, which she published as Robert Galbraith.
THE HOMOPHOBIA:
“But she made Dumbledore gay, how could she be homophobic?” is something I hear a lot and that gets on my nerves all the time.
JKR wrote a very interesting analogy in her fantasy series, that many seem to completely forget about. The werewolves in her book (like Lupin, who is a queer-coded character) are a metaphor for HIV, which perpetuates the stereotype that gay men maliciously infected others with AIDS.
Transforming Dumbledore into a canonically gay character was her way of responding to this claim and saying, “See? If I had something against people like you I wouldn’t have included you in my story.”
Robert Galbraith:
This might actually still be news for many people: JKR writes crime fiction under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, which is “coincidentally” the name of the physiatrist who pioneered gay conversion therapy.
That was… a choice.
THE RACISM:
As you probably have noticed yourself, there are very few characters of color in the entire Harry Potter series. These few characters have seemingly easily replaceable and — often times — inconsequential roles.
One of the most obvious proofs of her racism is in the way she names the characters. A Black character is named Kingsley Shacklebolt (was it necessary to give a Black character a name that reminds of slavery? No, yet she did). A Chinese character is named Cho Chang, which is just two Korean last names mashed together (plus, JKR also sorted her in the “smart” house, which is just the stereotype of Asian people = super smart).
I haven’t found much on this, but there’s also talk of how JKR used the centaurs as a metaphor for Indigenous people, which is dangerous because she’s equating them to a half-animal species (which is often talked about as “savages”) that is known in Greek mythology to be violent towards women.
THE ANTISEMITISM:
The goblins are described as a highly intelligent race of small magical humanoid beings with long fingers and hooked noses. They are also very greedy. All of these are common Jewish stereotypes.
I’m not sure if this happens in the books or in the HP games (or maybe in both), but the goblins, which we already established are Jewish-coded, talk of kidnapping children. One of the accusations thrown against Jewish people for centuries — which was often used to justify persecution — is exactly this: blood libel. Blood libel is an antisemitic trope that falsely accuses Jewish people of murdering Christian children in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals.
The discourse of pure-blood wizards and muggle-borns is also related to antisemitism.
THE FATPHOBIA:
All the antagonists are fat, which continues to equate fatness to something bad and/or evil, and they are always horribly described.
The Ink Black Heart:
The Ink Black Heart is a crime novel that JKR published as Robert Galbraith. The book itself sounds like a fanfiction about herself, where she victimizes herself for the “hate” she gets online for her beliefs, especially the ones related to transphobia, racism, and ableism.
DEATH OF THE AUTHOR and SEPARATING ART FROM ARTIST:
“The Death of the Author” is a literary theory that argues that the meaning of a text is not determined by the author’s intention, but rather by the reader’s interpretation.
Nowadays, it’s mainly used to say that you can separate the author from their work and that the work itself having problematic elements doesn’t mean that the author themself believes them, and that in the case the author is the one with problematic views, you can simply ignore their identity as the author and just enjoy the book.
This is something that would generally fit authors who are no longer alive, but people like to try to apply it to living authors as well.
But is it really possible to separate art from the artist? My answer is very simple here: No.
In this very specific case, the answer should be obvious to you as well, especially after I laid out all the problems for you. It’s not just JKR having problematic ideals in real life, it’s her having these ideals and writing them into her books, as well as acting on them in real life. Both her and her books bring harm to minorities, and you can’t ignore that.
Now, we’ll be going back to the original reason why I wanted to make this post and the things I wanted to point out.
THE FIRST PROBLEM:
There are still books being published right now with Harry Potter references in them (with even multiple references throughout the books).
Continuing to talk about the Harry Potter franchise only helps in keeping it relevant, in showing other people that it’s almost like an innate part of everyone’s lives. It keeps the “nostalgic” memory alive without acknowledging the harm that the series itself and its author have caused, which then keeps feeding the franchise, and as a result, it keeps driving money and power toward JKR.
If you, as an author, are still using Harry Potter references in your books, you are showing your readers that you are not a safe space for them. It might not seem like a big deal to you, but your readers will notice and it will likely be hard for them to let it go.
THE SECOND PROBLEM:
I have noticed a terrible trend with booktokers/bookstagrammers and authors alike who recently decided to read Harry Potter fanfictions (mainly Manacled and the Marauders) and publicly made multiple videos and posts talking about how much they enjoyed these fanfictions.
None of these posts were made with disclaimers or even acknowledgments of the harm that the original series (HP) and its writer have caused.
What people don’t seem to realize, is that fanfiction is not separate from the original work. The characters are not yours, they are still JKR’s, and you will never be able to actually change who they were originally meant to be.
No matter how much you try to change them in fanfiction, the characters are still linked to HP and JKR, and by default, still linked to the harm caused.
You can make the characters queer in fanfictions, you can turn them into people of color, but that does not cancel the all the racism and antisemitism of the magic world itself, or its homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, and ableism, which will still exist even in the fan-made content.
You can pretend your “edited” work is better, but it’s still exactly the same as how JKR made it.
In my opinion, promoting fanfiction is exactly the same as promoting the actual books. Because the characters’ names are still liked to HP. Because even if people never read the original books and only read fanfiction, the content they make about it only adds to the one directly related to HP. Because if they want to buy merch to remind them of their favorite fanfiction, they likely still give money directly to HP and JKR. Because when they talk about these characters, people will find HP as the source and not the fanfiction.
You can check for yourself. Go online and look for fan-made content, and you will notice that all of the art, fanfiction, and merch are still tagged as Harry Potter and with the names of the characters. This means that even if you are not supporting the original story, you are still keeping the names and series alive and keeping it relevant, which tells other people (and especially JKR) that you will still keep supporting her and her books.
It happens all the time, with many fandoms, that people don’t consume the original media but only fan-made content (fanfiction, fanart, etc…) and still call themselves fans of the media and promote it because they like it. Consuming media this way is completely valid, and if we apply it to this case as well, it’s just another example of how people might still end up supporting the original content even if they just consume the fan-made stuff.
One way or another, even fan-made content ends up circling back to her. Any positive or neutral mention of her, her books, or her characters will always end up supporting her.
While the harm JKR caused is not limited to transphobia, it is true that she is most known for the harm she is still actively causing the queer community (especially the trans community). Despite this, there are still queer people who refuse to acknowledge this harm and who keep promoting and talking about her books and characters, just for the sake of nostalgia.
Her being a terrible person and the harm she caused are not recent news. These are things that have been going around (and have been talked about) for YEARS, and all the problematic elements in her books have been in there since publication. If you still refuse to see this, you are part of the problem.
JKR has stated multiple times that she sees any kind of support for her books as support of her ideals.
What I’m trying to say with all of this is: both J. K. Rowling and Harry Potter are harmful to a large number of different minorities, and continuing to ignore that and supporting her or the series only adds to the harm.
There are so many fantasy series out there, both for younger audiences and older ones. So many books have been published, especially in the last couple of years, and so many of them are very diverse in many ways. It’s not hard to find similar books that actually deserve the support.
It’s time to cut the strings that connect you to your nostalgia.
