Note: Not counting raffles/sweepstakes/lotteries. If you got top 3 in a competition and personally consider that a form of winning, that counts as winning.
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As a children's librarian, people who harass fans of Harry Potter indiscriminately really worry me.
Here's why.
1. The majority of Harry Potter fans are children.
I've had people call me disgusting and scum and an embarrassment to my disabled community. I've been suicide baited and have received death threats. All of this can be heavy enough stuff for an adult to deal with.
And then I think of how most of my 700+ elementary-aged students are huge Harry Potter fans. Because, you know, Harry Potter is a children's series. And they also have access to the internet and social media like TikTok and YouTube.
Now imagine the stuff that's been said to me being said to a kid. Because Harry Potter's main audience are KIDS.
2. This black-and-white mentality isn't healthy.
Very few things in life are cut-and-dry good vs bad. And if you employ this kind of thinking in one area of your life, odds are you'll apply it to other areas too(more on that in a moment).
And people who go out of their way to harass people who like Harry Potter don't seem to particularly care about any context beyond "If you like Harry Potter in any way whatsoever you're scum".
It hasn't mattered when I've pointed out that I absolutely and unequivocally think Rowling's TERF views are awful and scummy and wrong. It hasn't mattered that I try my best to consume the content only in ways that won't monetarily support her, (which kids typically can't do, btw). It hasn't mattered that it's literally in my job description to keep up with children's media to procure content for my patrons as well as to be able to hold conversations with them.
3. Saying "You're not allowed to read this without being harassed" is no different from saying a book should be banned.
This is ironic, seeing as the people doing the harassing are also often up in arms about queerphobic and racist book bans (as they should be) while demanding book bans of their own.
Because in their all-or-nothing way of thinking, book bans are only bad when the "bad" people do it.
No. Book bans are always bad, no exceptions.
Book bans aren't bad because they're banning the "good" books, they're bad because banning access to different ideas is always bad. Because every book has a lesson to teach us (perhaps not the lesson intended by the author, but a lesson nonetheless).
[Image description: An infographic. There is a picture of a billboard which reads, "What are your kids really learning in school?" The text is arranged next to a cartoon woman with purple hair and a face mask, standing in front of the Daniel Quasar's Pride flag. The rest of the text in the infographic has been edited over as a series of bullet points. Full text is below.]
the world is DIFFERENT now. Our educational standards, like it or not, need to evolve with the kids. They can’t do nothing, but we ALSO shouldn’t be working them past their limits. Give them a break.
I don't want to work. I want to stay in school forever. I don't want to work, and having teachers in high school talk about working all the time gets me upset. I know that I'm just a high functioning autistic who could conceivably work, but I want to simply survive on disability benefits and go to school forever or something.
Maybe I could write or act or voice act or give other people ideas or something. But for form of real job? forget it.
A handful of states are eyeing laws that would allow criminal charges against school librarians for distributing books that contain "obscene matter."
Why it matters: GOP state lawmakers have in recent years increased their efforts to ban material they deem inappropriate from schools and libraries.
That material includes books on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said the bill "is designed to create confusion for educators about what kinds of materials can be taught or displayed."
The American Library Association said this type of legislation would allow for "advocacy groups and parents to sue or prosecute library workers" for providing books and other materials that present "accurate medical information about sex or puberty, describe sexual behavior, or reflect the experiences of LGBTQ+ persons."
The ALA noted that such legal action would be "based on the false claim that any material that includes information about sex, sexuality, gender identity, or sexual orientation is legally obscene and inappropriate for minors."