#yeah I think about that in relation to terfs and jkr A Lot

[afarthestarsarewaiting]

One day I will stop looking up triggering things on the internet I promise

[dm-clockwork-dragon]

I don't know much about economy, but while I certainly trust what you say about it, I think there are a lot more reasons than just that to boicott the game

JKR doesn't just use the money she gets to lobby for transphobic laws (lets be real she'll do that anyway she's rich enough), but uses the continued popularity of her creation as a springboard for her cause. She has outright stated that as far as she is concerned, everyone who buys anything Harry Potter related is endorsing her views, which she also uses when arguing for TERF bullshit. Money speaks but it's certainly a lot easier for it to speak when the power behind it is one of the world's most (in)famous authors.

And then there's the whole antisemitism thing. I'm not Jewish, but even without the countless posts and articles going around from Jewish folks pointing it out it's not hard to see why the game based on fighting a rebellion of evil hook-nosed creatures who run the banks and want to destroy the dominant group and also kidnap children is fundamentally antisemitic. And since the game's lead designer has ran a youtube channel peddling this kind of conspiracies, it's hard to deny that it was intentional or at the very least shows very fucked up views on the creators' part.

Yeah, and I'm in no way sitting around trying to defend the game, or the content. It's all full of terrible shit. But I will defend the people engaging with it. JK can use the platform as whatever springboard she wants, but a big part of why that springboard continues to have power is because we give it leverage by hunting down our own.

If JK says "anyone who buys or engages with HP agrees with me" and we respond by hunting down and vilifying those people within our community, all we are doing is falsely validating an utterly ridiculous claim. Vs if we as a collective just stood together and said "no, we fucking don't"

Idk. I don't claim to be right about everything. I'm just putting my opinion out into the world. And that opinion is that there's way more meaningful and effective ways to fight against Racism, Antisemitism, and TERFdom than to argue about which of our own are traitors and heretics.

If anything, we should be trying to find any and all ways to prove to the terfs that JK isn't TERF enough for them. No one burns their own at the stake better than Radicals and Extremists

[gallifreyriver]

I have a question for Harry Potter fans- current and former.

Please don't take this wrong and respond hatefully because this is a genuine, good-faith question about something I've been wondering.

Ok so- JK Rowling is a terf; The Harry Potter fandom is huge; There's a ton of controversy on whether you can separate art from the artist or carry on liking HP without supporting her views.

On one hand, you can say people fell in love with the world she created, not her. On the other, she's come out saying she believes anyone still buying HP merch supports her, and she doesn't seem to care that she's lost a whole audience that used to love her books, saying that "I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly."

My question is, since the Harry Potter fandom is/was so huge, had created so many of their own works within the fandom- both in fic and in art, and hell I know a lot of you guys likely even created your own fan merch- why wouldn't just cutting her completely away from the story be an option? Why wouldn't that be a bigger "Fuck you"?

I mean, yeah I used to like the books too, though I was never super involved in the fandom and honestly thinking about the series anymore makes me sad because what she's done is just so disappointing, and obviously I totally support anyone else who just can't look at the books the same way again and would prefer to leave it behind.

But for the rest of you, instead of fighting with yourselves about which is correct why not just... reclaim the story from her for yourselves? You don't need her. What you all fell in love with was the story you (the fandom) created in your heads around her words. Her words were only the scaffold for the world you all built on your own, and you even created new stories and art based on that world. Your world. Not hers.

You don't need to buy more books or movies from her. You already wrote your own.

You don't need to buy her posters, or her merch, or her toys. You already made your own.

Not one dime needs to go to her as long as she holds her hateful beliefs, especially when you (the fandom) just always made stuff on your own and shared it because you loved to, so why not just... do that? Want more story? Someone's written fic. Want some art? Someone made that too. Want some merch? A scarf? A wand? Mug? (idk) Like I said, one of you is out there making it if it hasn't been done already. Fandom is a conversation, you don't need to include her in it when she now only says hateful things.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying everyone shouldn't branch out to other, better, stories- absolutely do that- but it does seem sad that she just gets to rip away from all of you what isn't even hers.

I don't know if I'm even making sense, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that you all built this community around a story she might have written, but you all built it better. You made it bigger, you gave it it's "muchness." I saw you all "fix-it" to parts that were problematic even before she became this bad. I remember reading posts over the years about how people in the LGBT communities related to the characters and found comfort in the community and even more recently I've seen people in the trans communities creating their own representation in HP universe- for the world you all created. Not JKR.

I ask because I've seen on here similar suggestions like with Amazon's Rings Of Power- to not watch (because Amazon/ exploitation), and how if you want more LOTR content fandom already made it and can always make more. And I read how any mention of Minecraft's shitty creator was completely wiped from the game so people could still enjoy without being exposed to/promoting his shittiness. Would doing the same with JKR be possible? Cutting her out of HP and reclaiming it for yourselves? I know I've seen some people say that having fandom still keeps her relevant, but wouldn't this be more like a Morbius situation? They see "oh everyone's talking about this online!" but then everything they put out flops because no one actually went to see the movie/buy the merch/etc?

And idk, but this just seems more effective/sends more of a message of disappointment in what she's become and how she hurt everyone who used to love her story. Like a, "Yeah, we're still doing HP, but the one we built. No, you can't sit with us."

(I'm going to say again because I know people are going to have some strong feelings surrounding HP and JKR. This a question I feel like we can have a good-faith discussion about. I'm not interested in anyone starting fights over this post and I won't be interacting with anyone coming at this in bad faith or screaming at me or others because they've chosen to take a question as somehow an endorsement of JKR's hateful behavior.)

[shadowdianne]

A small(?) thing I doubt anyone will be interested in but nevertheless

Hi, hello. This is me thinking that I might have some mutuals that might have followed me when I started to write Cissamione and such and so they might see this. Or not xd. Anywho

It's been... don't make me look it up, but a long time, since I wrote ANYTHING, less about the pairing on itself and part of me felt that it was obvious where I stood with certain... things that come from writing fics on that very particular world (namely, hi, JKR is a fucking terf). When I started to write for the pairing it came from the angle of; I want to take what she gave us, make it as queer as possible and fuck the rest. However, and probably due to the fact that I haven't been writing much for me personally ever since a few months ago that pervasive feeling of yuck I got whenever I saw anything HP related -as well as a similar post I saw from the lovely @delirious-comfort here- made me adamant on not wanting to write about the pairing or anything HP related ever again.

(And in case anyone comes here asking about my own personal feelings about it: I'm Queer, NB and very very tired xd So, yeah, I've been loud about JKR before. I just considered the angle of being performative AND transformative with the original work would therefore give the power back to those that she is actively trying to harm. However, I do not think is a matter of likes or dislikes or what one does with how we interact with the story any longer as the hole of shit is just too deep already)

The reason why I didn't write anything about it before is, quite simply, because I don't know if it is going to even be read. Dunno about where I stand on the mutual aspect of things as ever since I took a very necessary step back from SQ my times here have been.... random lol but as someone that keeps calling themselves something something fic writing related I am just taking a moment of procrastination from the fucking thesis I immersed myself in to write the post and feel that I've done what felt was appropriate.

I do not know if I will erase the fics, a part of me wants it, as I honestly want to burn everything down from that particular corner but the other understands that most of those fics were prompts or gifts to people I care about. So for now I'll probably orphan them in August once I have a moral normal life schedule and I'm not running on fumes, spite and coffee.

And... that's basically it.

Dianne out, please drink water.

Ps: In case anyone is interested my thesis studies precisely the conceptualization of tropes -particularly the femme fatale- and how archetypes, gender, canon and Apocrypha create a conversation that can be changed if we give voice to a broader aspect of it all within the academia. All of that while using a book that I think a lot of people have read ever since it got published in..2021 :P-

[janiedean]

The problem with jkr not facing consequences is also that hp itself was famous all over the world to the extent that ppl are still nostalgic about it but a lot of these ppl don't really follow jkr or start online that much (I'm talking of audiences outside uk/us). Personally any time ppl who knew me as a stan being it up I just go "yea I'll always have a soft spot for the books because of what they meant to me as a child but I've grown out of it especially after what jkr did now" and 99% of the time they have no idea about the term stuff.

Then when I tell them they're shocked but the point is that none of them know about all this because so much of this happens on Twitter and then spreads to only certain pages that are critical and the vast majority aren't that active online. So it's very much a don't know don't care situation.

The scary thing is also, at least in my country, the lack of awareness + ignorance about trans issues which means that if I hadn't learnt and educated myself, or if she'd started her bs 10 years ago I probably would've believed her correct because I did think of her as an inspiration as a teen.

yeah you make... a very good point in the sense that sadly if you're not in the angloamerican sphere and/or you're not on twitter combined with the utter ignorance wrt trans issues that there is everywhere it makes the situation especially bad because hp is like.... even stones know what it is so you can't escape its popularity, but honestly... ngl I think that's why someone in the uk/us/anglo countries has to try to do something more concerning her platform because like

as that post says the problem is that she's like top ten most famous people in the world and say what you want she's basically the face of that ideology at this point - bc like the average person outside feminist circles or whatever doesn't know who julie b*ndel is and the average person doesn't, so whatever terf crap b*ndel sprouts can circulate up to a point, but everyone and the rocks their houses are made of knows who jkr is even if they don't know the name. like my mom prob doesn't know her full name bc I never was into hp but if I tell her 'the harry potter writer' she knows who I'm talking about. and when that kinda famous person with that kinda platform and fanbase and voice and whose stuff will get published regardless of whether she's writing a novel or the grocery shop list can just go and say the shit she does without a counter or at least without a counter of equal weight - because like if stephen king says she's wrong, king still hasn't the same following or influence and if stephen king says something political in general it doesn't have the same reach as she does, so.... there's a problem here and the fact is that her money will most likely go to finance terf organizations too and the last thing terfs need is anyone making their shitty rhetoric more palatable

so like... most ppl don't know/care because they don't engage with her outside her books which fair enough I found out a singer whose music I liked committed sexual harassment with more than one woman because I didn't follow him on twitter and liked the music but not enough to actually care about his personal life, that happens, and like I'll never buy stuff from him again unless he's blatantly cleared and idt he will be but like the point is that the moment someone is in the anglosphere (imvho) and they know what jkr thinks and where her money goes if they care about trans rights (and honestly if you care about women in the first place too bc terf ideology is not pro-women anyway) they should a) not consume any hp book or movie legally, b) shouldn't buy any merch, c) should openly say why they don't engage with hp anymore, d) should discourage other people from engaging with hp content legally at least and if someone says 'ah well she's a jerk but the art is not the artist' they should double down on the fact that supporting her art means funding terf ideology and with this I mean stopping going to the play, stopping buying the books, stopping gifting the books to their little cousins, let the damned prequels tank and stop trending hp related things online to begin with, because okay that won't change things for someone in italy who doesn't follow jrk on twitter nor follows the discourse but it does change things for her in the public debate and honestly it's high time that ppl nostalgic about hp to the point they'll engage with it legally after they knew about jkr's politics realize that hp isn't untouchable nor beyond critics just because it's that popular and realize that one thing is reading lovecraft books a century after he's dead and the money you pay for it surely doesn't go to the KKK or to any organization that supports anything akin to lovecraft's racist views back when he was alive, one thing is keeping hp alive like that and having jkr profit off it while she's alive and spreading ideals that like... literally do hurt people's lives which shouldn't be a thing so like I'd prefer everyone put their hp energy into supporting whatever project the former hp cast members who openly disagree with jrk did and for the love of everything stop trending h*gwarts and shit on twitter and making ppl realize it's an endless flow of cash because that's where it's going to end /shrug

[fakerbatch]

To the anon who was curious about Rachel Mariam's character, I recently noticed she openly follows Dr. Debra Soh on Instagram, a very obvious terf activist who just recently defended JKR in an article called "J.K. Rowling is being erased for defending women" and wrote a very terf-y book etc. I remember there were likes by RM on tweets of that sort when we just found out who she was but she deleted them when there was chatter about it, so that tells me either she or someone in MF's PR circles figured out we noticed. I took a screenshot of her following list in case that 'follow' just disappears suddenly. And yes anon you were right, Rachel was indeed listed a co-founder of Candid Broads Productions together with Oriane Pick when it was just founded - go look up the website through the Wayback Machine to July 2020 (about a month after she was first photographed with MF) and you'll find the 'about' page bills her first as co-founder with the same description of "kinda french" and "anxious" descriptors she uses now, along with the following disgusting line: "The aim of the company is to tell stories with a fresh, original perspective. To entertain, inform or simply have people relate (or to eventually get enough money to stop selling their used underwear online)." Since RM is the writer of the two I'm pretty sure that last thing is something she'd write. Yikes. So yeah, between being an obvious terf (I guess that's MF's taste) and obv falling out professionally with someone you started a production company with, that really tells me a lot about her. Just like a AA and JJ she looks at first cool, quirky and opinionated and then you realize she's just cringe. It also tells me that MF is doing the right thing keeping himself away from social media and communicating through PR with the world because these choices of partners say a lot about him, too - fake relationship or not, beard or not. I thought at first when she deleted her Twitter and her IG posts that they broke up and she wanted some attention over it, but now I think this means we might be getting some signs that things are becoming more serious between them, maybe participating in one of his projects or starting a production company with him or something like that. Either way, I'm totally put off.

Huh. Interesting thanks. It does seem like he has a thing for terfs which could mean he approves or he’s just oblivious. (If he approves he’s done a good job not really letting on, and yes it is always good for lots of reasons that he doesn’t do social media)

[jaskiersbard]

The Fantastic Beasts Franchise and JK Rowling

Alright, so...hi everyone.

I don’t know how many people follow this blog anymore because my main blog of operation is now @alwaysahiccupandastrid - I still try to keep this blog relatively active though, just because it was my original blog, I’ve had it since I was 13, and I have so many memories attached to it.

I’m aware that a lot of the people who follow me, especially since late 2016, do so because a) I was a loud and proud Fantastic Beasts fan, b) I wrote some Newtina and Jakweenie fic, and c)...I don’t know. I literally don’t know why people bother following me anywhere because I don’t feel like I have a lot to say. But, anyway, many people probably follow me due to Fantastic Beasts and my posts/fanfics within the fandom.

Those who follow my active blog will already know my feelings and thoughts, but because of the fact many things about this blog - me, the posts for the last four-ish years, the url itself - are Beasts related, I felt it was necessary to come and write an actual post here instead of just reblogging things and calling it a day. I’ve always been very outspoken online, but I’ve been avoiding a certain topic of conversation on this blog for years now, and I’m finally in a place where we can discuss it.

I am, of course, talking about the hot topic that is JK Rowling.

Back in the days between FBAWTFT and FBTCOG, I was a very outspoken defender of JK Rowling and her decision to defend Johnny Depp’s inclusion in the films. Now, this is something I still stand by to this day, and due to the evidence that has since come out, I’m even more steadfast in the opinion that keeping Depp was a great decision. I am fully in support of him and the way he’s currently battling against his abuser. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about right now. As I was saying, back in the day, I was outspoken about the opinion that “we don’t know the full story” etc., and as a result I received very colourful anon messages. Now, to my knowledge, none of these were about JKR being a TERF/transphone, but I think it’s important to mention that at the time I scoffed at the idea she could be one. I openly admit that I didn’t listen to what other people - including actual trans individuals - were saying about JKR and her transphobia because I frankly didn’t want to admit it. I didn’t want to admit that the person who wrote something that saved my life could be so hateful and a bad person - that, and at the time I passed it all off as “wokeness out of control”.

It is now 2020. Up until last Saturday night, I was still in support of JK Rowling - I didn’t agree with some of the stuff she had said, but I was trying to be positive and have hope by telling myself that she didn’t mean to be transphobic, that she just didn’t know what she was doing was wrong, even though the evidence clearly showed otherwise (I.e. her liking transphobic / radfem tweets). I said to my followers on my Beasts page that instead of cancelling people outright, we should be attempting to educate them instead, and if they choose not to learn then fine. And, being 100% obvious, I didn’t want to admit it because I frankly already was feeling annoyed at two different Beasts cast members for different reasons: Ezra Miller (for choking a girl) and Dan Fogler (for his tweet about BLM - admittedly that was probably him being well intentioned but not saying it right). So yeah, I didn’t want to cancel another member of the Beasts “family”.

I had JKR’s tweets on notifications, and for the most part over the last few weeks, it was all about the Ickabog. However, on Saturday night I noticed that she had suddenly tweeted something completely different, and I looked at it. Given that I had adamantly defended her and said “freedom of speech” for so long, it’s telling that my first thought upon seeing her tweet was literally “for fuck sake, Jo, why”.

I won’t post her tweets here but to sum that first tweet up, it was her being annoyed over the term “people who menstruate” being used in an article instead of “woman”, and mockingly saying “there used to be a word for that” before pretending she didn’t know the word. She knew that tweeting it would start arguments and anger, and yet she still made the decision to do so. Her follow up tweets frankly dug the hole deeper; she tried to defend herself by saying, to sum it up, “I have a butch lesbian friend who agrees with me” “I just care about women’s rights!” And “IF trans people were marginalised I’d march with you!” (“If”, of course, being the real kicker here because what do you mean IF. They ARE. Every DAY.)

Since then, JKR has written an essay on her website defending herself and her opinions, and yes, I read it. I read it a few times, in fact. At first, I felt my anger simmer and felt I had been too hasty to make anti JKR jokes, that I was wrong...but then I read it again properly and realised that what she had written was a piece that turned herself into the victim, and that despite putting on the appearance of her saying she supports trans people, including the phrases “I support trans people” and “of course trans women are real women”, she still spewed much transphobic vitriol and hate. She cited no sources for any of her proclamations or statements about statistics, implied that trans men transition to escape their “womanhood”, that trans women are men in dresses, that trans women are dangerous to “real” women (aka cis women) and shouldn’t be allowed into women’s changing rooms or toilets. There was also the autism comment, and the implication of autistic girls somehow not being able to make decisions or whatever.

I’m going to get straight to the point: I don’t support JK Rowling or her radical feminism.

As someone who is a proud feminist (libfem?), I can honestly say that never have I felt threatened or like I was being silenced by the inclusion of trans women in feminist spaces or conversation. Never. In my second year at sixth form, I was in charge of the LGBTQ+ club until a new leader with better leadership skills could step in, and - put simply - that year, the club was made almost entirely of first year transgender students. Even though I had called myself a trans ally for years, I realised there was a lot I didn’t know, and I learnt quite a lot from these students. I continue to still learn today. They were some of the nicest and most intelligent people I got the chance to meet, and I can truly say that at no point was I ever worried to be in a room alone with a trans woman, nor was I concerned about which bathroom they went in - bathrooms are bathrooms. Speaking of bathrooms...when I was at uni during a particularly tense rehearsal a few weeks before our final show last year, a guy in our group made me cry and I ran to the women’s bathroom to escape. Not only did the other girls come to comfort me, but you know what? The guy came in and apologised profusely to me. Did any of us girls give a shit about having a guy in our toilet? Absolutely not. It’s a fucking toilet. And, on that note, I was never worried about a trans woman or even a cis man attacking me in the toilets. You know who DID attack me in the toilets regularly? Other cisgender women.

As a feminist, I fully support trans women and am not threatened by the inclusion of trans women in women’s spaces or in women’s rights discussions. While I agree that cis women and trans women inevitably go through different struggles, at the end of the day, we all identify as women and are women. I think that if your feminism is so threatened by the existence of trans women - TERFs, RadFems, JKR, looking at you - then your feminism is flimsy and not feminism at all.

As a woman, I find it highly offensive that JKR and many RadFems focus so much of womanhood and feminism on an involuntary biological function that, frankly, many of us would rather do without. Yeah, I’m talking about periods - no matter how proud I am to be a woman, I still fucking hate periods and would get rid of mine if I could without erasing my chance of having kids someday. I can hear the RadFems accusing me of “internalised woman hatred” for saying I hate my periods, but you know what, they suck and they hurt and fuck them. The fact that JKR (also the the radfem movement) reduced “women” to just people who menstruate and can have children, and vice versa, is incredibly offensive and misogynistic. For a start, trans men menstruate, intersex people can, non binary can etc. Next, not even ALL cis women have periods - women who are menopausal, young women who haven’t started puberty yet (some do start very late), some women don’t have regular cycles, some women have medical problems that affect their cycle, some women are on birth control that can stop their cycles. So the idea of women being defined as “those who menstruate” is offensive not only to trans/intersex/non binary individuals but also to cis ones too.

As I write this, I’m a 22 year old woman who is still learning and changing every day, and one of the things that I’ve found myself thinking about recently - especially since we’re in lockdown and we have nothing BUT time to think - is about myself and my identity as a woman. What prompted this was when I saw Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved book, “Little Women”, which I’ve since read, for my birthday back in January, and I left the cinema feeling exalted and powerful with my own identity as a woman. (I’ll be returning to LW in a bit)

After some thinking, I’ve realised some things. For me, my identity as a woman is not just because once a month my uterus decides to shed; I do not identify as a woman just because I have certain physical features. I am not a particularly feminine person either, and I’m what some may call a “tomboy” (a phrase I actually don’t mind but I know a lot of people do for understandable reasons since it’s a phrase designed to differentiate people who don’t conform to society’s expectations etc) because I prefer video games and more geeky stuff to shopping or dressing up or make up.

For me, there is no one way a person has to be or appear in order to identify as a woman. Women are beautiful, complex human beings; we are not defined by our genitalia, by an involuntary biological process. Women are strong, intelligent, and interesting people - no two are the same. For example, some decide to raise families, some choose to pursue a career, some do both - all of these are valid and none are more “feminist” or “womanly” than the others, because it’s our as women. I guarantee that if you lined up every single woman in the world - cis AND trans - no two would be the exact same.

I mentioned “Little Women” earlier, and as I was pondering over what makes me identify as a “woman”, I thought a lot about a certain quote from the 2019 film that has stayed with me since it was first said in the release of the trailer. It’s spoken by Jo March to her mother, and I’ve started to understand what for me makes me a woman.

For me, being a woman is all of this: having minds, hearts, souls, ambition, talent, and being beautiful each in our own ways. Women are capable of love and empathy, capable of desire, capable of the most complex and human feelings and emotions, and coming out the stronger for it.

Sex is one thing; gender identity is another.

I won’t dissect every single thing JKR wrote in her essay, but I will just say this: her comments regarding autistic girls are extremely tone deaf and she does not speak for those with autism. I’m going to be honest and admit something here I haven’t before: I have not been diagnosed with autism or aspergers but I AM currently on the waiting list to see someone who COULD diagnose me. Apparently I show signs of a potential diagnosis, so...we’ll have to see. But I have friends who are autistic, and they’re disgusted by JKR trying to use them to support her TERF arguments. Autistic and other neurodivergent people are absolutely capable of making decisions and are NOT people who need to be babied or have their hands held, to be told who they are. It’s incredibly ableist of JK Rowling frankly.

I would also like to point out... I’ve seen people saying “but she doesn’t hate autistic people, Newt is autistic!!!” - yes, but JKR didn’t write him as autistic. Eddie Redmayne chose to play Newt as autistic - JK Rowling didn’t do shit.

It’s also time that I acknowledge that both Potter and Beasts inevitably hold JKR’s problematic views, and that by denying her ownership of her work, we’re not holding her accountable for the horrible things she’s done. This includes - but is not limited to -:

Anti-Semitic stereotypes in the goblins

Lycanthropy being used as a metaphor for AIDS - an illness that is heavily associated to the gay community, and also there was the panic of the AIDs crisis in the 90s where much misinformation and homophobia was generated and spread because of it.

Adding further to the lycanthropy point, one of the infected individuals - Greyback - is stated to have a sick preference for infecting children. Not only are werewolves tied to harmful gay/AIDs stereotypes, but also to the disgusting and frankly wrong notion that gay people are pedophiles.

The only Asian character is called Cho Chang. Cho Chang. That’s two steps away from outright just calling her “Ching Chong”. It’s not a name an actual Asian person would have.

The Goldstein sisters are probably distantly related to Anthony Goldstein, who JKR confirmed (on Twitter of course) is Jewish, meaning that Tina and Queenie are most likely Jewish too (and Goldstein is a Jewish surname). However, despite the fact that the first FBaWTFT is set DURING Hanukkah in 1926, there’s zero signs of them celebrating or observing it. Maybe that’s more on set design than anything else, but come on - if I, a fanfic writer, can do some research, JK/the crew of a major movie can too!

Adding on from that, gotta love how one of the JEWISH main characters then decides to join the Wizarding world equivalent of Hitler. I already had problems with Queenie’s characterisation in CoG, but that’s the icing on the cake.

POC/Black characters - in both series but since I’m a Beasts blog... Seraphina Picquery, a Black female president serving a term during a MAJOR wizarding world crisis, is severely reduced to have only 3 lines in CoG. Nagini’s only purpose is to be the only friend of Credence, a white man, before he joins Wizard Hitler and abandons her; she’s also an Asian character who we know one day permanently becomes a SNAKE, and who goes on to actually have a piece of Voldemort’s soul inside of her?? And some do see her as his slave, though you could argue that she’s actually the only being that he holds any love or respect for. Leta Lestrange is a half-black woman who is killed/literally sacrifices herself for TWO WHITE MEN, and who’s death was literally confirmed to have been added in last minute.

Also, the whole Lestrange storyline was fucking nasty: white Lestrange Sr imperius-ed a black woman (Yusuf Kama’s mother), raped her, and she then died in childbirth. I’m sorry, what the fuck??

In Harry Potter, Seamus is a terrible stereotype of an Irish person - he likes to blow things up. Look up the IRA and their bombings. Fucking Irish stereotype. As someone with Irish grandparents and who is proud of their Irish heritage, this really pisses me off.

Let’s not forget the whole Native American cultural appropriation. That truly speaks for itself.

So here is where I speak candidly to everyone who follows me and/or sees this post. While Beasts is no longer my No. 1 fandom these days, it and Potter still hold a huge piece of my heart. I have 5 wizarding world tattoos, so much merchandise, and I can safely say that being a fan of both series has shaped me as a person. Both of those series helped me get through the darkest days of my life, including bullying at school, my Nan passing away, and my mental health struggles.

This is why what’s happened has impacted me so much and broken my heart. For me, it feels like it’s tainted now because of Jo and her views. I know that we should separate the art from the artist, but when her views are so clearly woven into the very fabric of the Wizarding world, it’s a huge problem.

Here’s another part of the dilemma - I do not wish for the Beasts films to be cancelled. I’m well aware that the *cough* people who dislike me will say I’m trying to be negative, trying to boycott the series blah blah blah, but that’s truly the last thing I want. I still love the story, the characters, the soundtrack, and I want to know how it ends, if only for my own piece of mind. It’s also important to add that by boycotting Beasts, it’s also harming the hard working thousands of others who worked on the films: the cast, the crew, the extras, the musicians, etc., not to mention the fans who actually are invested in the series and have taken solace in it. It’s not fair for them to all suffer over the actions of one TERF.

This is one of my biggest worries, however: the Fantastic Beasts films do NOT have a good reputation as it is. The second film was boycotted by some due to Depp, and now there’s talk of people boycotting number 3 because of JK Rowling. Lots of people already talk hatred about it, and this will only fire that hatred up even more.

There’s also talk of Eddie Redmayne potentially being kicked from the franchise due to a “leak” that he doesn’t want to work with JKR anymore, but this could be sensationalist news reporting. But if it came down to it, I can honestly say that I would rather continue to have Eddie play Newt than keep JKR as a writer. Eddie has done more for Newt than even JKR has, and if he goes, then that will be the last straw for me within the fandom. That will be when I take a sharp exit out, sell my FB merch and have my tattoos covered.

To add, the Fantastic Beasts scripts are...not great. Or, at least, what we saw on-screen wasn’t. Maybe that’s David Yates being the literal worst (fuck you, Yates, you suck) and cutting all the parts with strong female characters, but I honestly don’t think that JKR can write screenplays well at all. I think she’s clearly better at writing books, and that’s fine - books obviously allow for more time to explore characters and story/plot arcs etc, and film scripts offer way less of those chances. I don’t think screenplays allow her to write what she needs to in order to tell the story she wants to, hence why CoG was kind of a hot mess. So maybe it’s just that she’s not suited for screenplays and should stick to books.

Honestly, I kind of just wish that WB would hire another person to finish writing the Fantastic Beasts movies - obviously they’d have to keep JKR on board to tell them the actual plot, but get someone who can actually write screenplays and not be problematic to write them.

By now I’ve gone on long enough that I’ve forgotten my original intent while writing this, so I’ll try to sum up and end now. In short, I am extremely disappointed in JK Rowling and do not support her or her views any longer.

I don’t know how any of you guys are feeling but I would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts, especially other Fantastic Beasts fans. I want to also add that, as always, my DMs and inbox are always open - if not here, then always at @alwaysahiccupandastrid where I’m more active nowadays.

Finally, you guys don’t need me - a white cis woman - to tell you this but you’re all valid and magical and fuck JK Rowling. Her characters would all be ashamed of her, and the characters we grew up with would not stand for the bigotry and vile hatred she spreads under the guise of ““protecting women””. Several of the amazing actors from Potter and Beasts have spoken out against her and her tweets: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Bonnie Wright, Katie Leung, Chris Rankin, Eddie Redmayne. Some have been...less inspiring (Tom Felton, Evanna Lynch, looking at you two 👀)

I’m sending love to everyone right now. I wish I could say something more useful but I’ve spoken enough - I’ve made my opinion clear. I love you all, please stay safe.

[keepoffthedirigibleplumss]

I was just talking about that too! My childhood was so happy and dazzled with Harry Potter universe and I love it and i can no longer really enjoy it or relate to it because that bubble shattered with jkr being a shitty human being. I genuinely lament the loss of something precious.. But also i know i learnt and learnt to recognize the issues jkr represents. It's so saddening, isn't it? I don't know yet how to reconcile with my love for a magical world and jkr being.. A shit, really.

Yup! Yup yup.

Like, it sounds silly now but when I was 8, HP kind of changed my life. I mean, I was 8. Not a lot going on, so there wasnt a lot to change but it did! I did not read, before HP. It was a problem. I was getting notes home about reading homework left undone, my parents were trying to force me to read ANYTHING. but i had adhd and reading took too much concentration and I was like "tv has stories too and takes way less effort so..."

Anyways, they made me read HP and that was it. Suddenly I was a book nerd. I read everywhere, all the time. And I loved Harry potter. I was like, that became my whole idenity. Again, I was a small child so I had no concept of moderation. It made me so happy. And even into my adult years, it still does! I've read it again and again and it's still good! Lots of things you love when you're 8, they just dont hold up when you're 28. Like, Barney just doesn't hit the same these days.

So yeah, it sucks. Because she crushed me. It sounds dramatic but I swear, somewhere in my head that 8 year old is destroyed. She's been through a lot, too, she did NOT deserve that.

But I think it's important that we keep discussing it, and talking about how we cant support JK rowling as a person, even if we can't divorce ourselves from the books. We need to discuss the shitty stuff she put in the books, and the absolute trash stuff she's said and endorsed outside of it. Because it's there, and ignoring it won't make it go away. The books have value, but we need to be upfront about the person who wrote them. Because she's so awful. She really is.

This is long but like, I feel you and it's hard and we all just gotta do our best and remember: hey, we're not perfect, but at least we're not TERFs.

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: Blake Belladonna from RWBY: "Here's a gift for the 16 Symphonia Chronicles cast." *Passes out their favorite kind of book to read. In that vein, what genre of books do the 16 Symphonia characters like to read? I believe Marta likes romance novels, Zelos likes someone akin to perverted mpbooks and Raine maybe likes scientific books. I could be wrong though.

Lloyd doesn't seem like he reads much but that could just be because he struggles academically and a dislike of academics can lead to a bad association with reading. But if Lloyd does enjoy reading, I bet he likes adventure novels, whatever the Aselian version of comic books are, and books on craftwork. He was raised by a dwarf after all and seems to really like making things for others. Colette seems like she'd enjoy just about anything as long as it had a happy ending. She also seems like she would enjoy fiction more than academic texts, just like Lloyd, so I bet they enjoy a lot of the same books together. Genis probably reads voraciously. As long as it's interesting, he'll read it. Fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, articles. As long as it's new and doesn't rehash something he already knows, he probably loves it. As one of the best cooks in the party, he probably also enjoys recipe books especially because, compared to his sister, he seems to prefer following the recipe the conventional way. Raine probably likes science, yeah, but I also bet her favorite books are on ancient history and ruins. She did initially become interested in ruins because she wanted to find the place where Virginia left them, but she seems to genuinely like history even after she discovers where the Otherworldly Gate is. But she also seems interested in most things which are broadly academic, so scientific books are definitely something she would probably also like. (Also if you gave her a cook book, she would promptly read it, understand all of it, and defy all of the recipes anyway and make so many alterations and substitutions that the original recipes wouldn't be recognizable.) Zelos almost certainly enjoys erotic literature but he also seems like a pulp fiction kind of guy. Given that in both games, Sheena is shown to be one of if not the best female cooks in the party, she might enjoy cook books, though given that her strongest recipes are curry and miso stew, it might just be that she has a lot of experience making dishes from Mizuho. She also seems like a pulp fiction kind of person. I'm also getting some vibes that she'd be the kind of person who -- if she was in our world -- would claim not to like horror, but knows more than half of the 6000+ SCP anomalies by name. Regal probably has the biggest library, but he seems like he mostly reads the news when he has free time. I assume most of his daily reading is related to his company, so I don't think he de-stresses by reading very much. Would probably like romance novels and period pieces though. Presea strikes me as the sort of person who likes anything exciting even though it probably keeps her awake at night now that her emotions are starting to show up again. 10/10 would be the girl watching Squid Games and eating popcorn and being like "This is terrible." with a straight face but continuing to watch because SHE NEEDS TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS OR SHE WON'T BE ABLE TO SLEEP LATER. 10/10 would be one of those girls who read "Ted the Caver" and got legitimately scared but no one realized because she can't emote properly. As for things she would enjoy that wouldn't be a stress fest, she probably likes witchy things. She would read Harry Potter cover to cover and love it and then get (invisibly) upset that JKR turned out to be a TERF. Probably enjoys astrology books, ancient myths, urban legends, and the "not terrifying" SCPs like the dog that predicts weather. Absolutely loves books about animals too, obviously. Presea is the person who would put PBS and National Geographic on the TV and just run an endless loop of nature documentaries 24/7. Catch Kratos reading the Aselian version of The Epic of Gilgamesh and being pissed that the paper versions are missing half the chapters. Aside from the haha joke of "Old man is old," Kratos seems like the kind of dad that reads the sports section in the newspaper and then the headlines and then gets too tired and gives up and throws the rest away. Emil seems like he doesn't read much, but he does reference a lot of Aselian versions of a lot of

our pop culture icons like Power Rangers and Man in the Iron Mask and things like that. If Emil actually reads, he seems like the guy that picks up whatever's on the bestseller list and gives it a try because there must be a reason it's a best-seller, right? 10/10 seems like the kind of guy that reads lots of Shonen manga for fun but has a secret stash of the shoujo stuff too. Marta is definitely a romance (maybe even some erotic romance) type of girl, but also seems like she also goes for what's most popular. Definitely read Twilight and 50 Shades (or the Aselian Equivalent) because of the hype along with Hunger Games and Divergent. Probably reads mostly young adult literature with the odd exception if an adult romance is particularly popular. 10/10 is the type of girl out there on FanFiction.Net, Wattpad, and Archive of Our Own reading coffee shop AU romances of literally all the popular fiction. Also, because I have seen people like Marta go through this phase, Marta seems like she would have one of those true crime phases too. Richter seems like he hates reading now after basically having all his reading be mandatory reading of history texts because Sybak thinks forcing half-elves to be, essentially, living databases is a nice thing. Would probably enjoy pulp fiction if it didn't ruin his street cred of being a serious guy. Pulp fiction gets a bad rap for being poorly written and cheaply made, but short, action-packed, simple stories have a place. Richter would probably grow to enjoy reading again if he started small. Probably enjoys detective stories like the Original Sherlock Holmes (BBC Sherlock was a juggernaut but that's NOT what Sherlock was about.) 10/10 would like Beauty and the Beast as a guilty pleasure and would love Lupin III and be embarrassed about it. Would enjoy the One Piece manga in secret. That said, I'm sure he would enjoy science books as long as he got to read them in his own time at his own pace. Probably the only fiction he's read and unironically likes and expresses positive feelings for is whatever the Aselian version of Dante's Divine Comedy is. Would contribute to the SCP page under Aster's pseud to carry on Aster's legacy even though he doesn't understand the appeal. Decus reads exclusively books by pick-up artists and anything about how to woo women so he can try literally every technique on Alice. Unironically enjoys old fairytales like Brother's Grimm and particularly enjoys those "wedded to beasts" stories like the Swan Princess and Beauty and the Beast because this guy is 300% about ignoring beastly behavior for love even though that's absolutely not what those fairytales are about. Alice visibly reads things like H.P. Lovecraft to intimidate others. Is a repository of ghost stories and knows every SCP by heart. Touts Battle Royale type novels as strategies to live by and would unironically call Dangan Ronpa games a masterpiece. Secretly, though, I bet she hides a book on how to make friends behind all her books about how to manipulate others and get your way. Unironically reads power fantasy and Isekai manga while insisting it's ironic. Presuming the last 2 are Aqua and Tenebrae, but if you want responses for others, let me know. Aqua is 300% reading and writing fanfiction from a bunch of romance media as a thinly veiled reference of herself and Richter. Probably reads all those 2nd Person "Y/N" stories and unironically edits the text so that the male lead is always Richter. Her tastes vary wildly across genre and she'll take whatever plot or genre she can get as long as it's well written and the male lead is written to be at least 60% like Richter. 100% has a secret bin of smut somewhere. Tenebrae reads exclusively old history and books about outer space. And joke books. He has to get all his dad jokes from somewhere and I'm sure not all of them are original. Edit: Including Mithos because he was the intended 16th character. Mithos is probably the most elitist with his books and only reads books if their either really really good or written by other half-elves. Very picky. Probably enjoys history books. Especially books that mention himself.

[rotationalsymmetry]

More on how getting enraged at specific people for not doing the specific thing you want them to do isn’t constructive: https://deliriumcrow.tumblr.com/post/671547117749305344

The initial thing is no longer visible, but apparently it’s about “yeah I know Amazon is evil but I live in the middle of nowhere and not using Amazon isn’t an option.” And I’m sitting here and thinking about how between us my husband and I have had two short, offline, ”JKR is a terf” conversations in the past week, one with his mom who had no idea what this was all about, and it’s just like…sure, you can go all “kill the beast” on someone who you don’t know from Adam who is specifically arguing with you because they’re never gonna do the thing you want them to. Or you could have a real conversation with someone you actually know, who’s a lot more likely to be persuadable.

Of course there’s more risk with in-person conversations. I get it, I got the brain stuff too. It might get uncomfortable, and if you’re enough of a dick offline there might even be tangible long term consequences to yourself. (That just means you’ve got incentive to not be a dick.) And of course I realize a lot of people’s family members aren’t going to listen to them, and I realize a lot of us don’t have that much of a social life offline. But even if you’re going to stick with tumblr mutuals, you still might have mutuals who are kinda lost and confused but don’t want to admit it, and could benefit from the “here’s what’s going on and why it’s important” explanation.

And if you’re more in a place of “I know it’s not constructive as such, but I still have all this anger?” Yeah, anger is a thing, especially among people who have been traumatized, and often especially among people with the brain stuff, having feelings is fine, not all expressions of those feelings are. If you understand it’s not ok to beat people up when you’re mad, you can understand that it’s not ok to suicide bait/death threat people when you’re mad. Yes, even if you’ve decided they deserve it. (Your motivations are fucked, and your ability to target people is fucked, and they don’t.)

And people who aren’t doing this themselves really should not be encouraging/supporting people who are. It’s harassment. It’s lateral violence. It’s …shit, it’s a wrapping paper thing — it’s a thing that seems related to something important but is actually itself trivial — but instead of being neutral it’s actively harmful, you know? It is hurting actual people. When you’re hurting actual people, you’d better make damn sure what you’re doing is actually worth the harm.