The Transfiguration

Senara, as a resident serious adult with a good grasp on the UK political and cultural landscape, AND the Harry Potter fandom, may I ask:

What impact does the fandom actually have on policies that impact transgender people?

I want to be the best ally I can be to trans folk, and I have seen discussions advocating that the Harry Potter franchise falling into oblivion is the only real way to de-platform JK Rowling.

I don’t entirely disagree - but I also suspect that the fandom as we know on Tumblr and Discord could be a much less influential bubble than it thinks itself to be, and not the main target audience for new movies, shows, and merchandising.

Is simply not consuming products from the franchise enough, or is engaging in extremely niche discussions on a cloudless micro-blogging platform still fanning the fire of Harry Potter, and giving ammunition to JKR to continue on her rampage of infantilising those who challenge her and targeting trans rights?

I don’t want to be naive or wilfully ignorant about my participation in this culture. But I want to know if blogging about Snupin smut and reading fanfiction on free independent platforms still trickles down to making JKR’s voice louder.

I also sometimes think that Harry Potter achieved the status of undeniable cultural staple, and oblivion is simply not an option - much like Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. I can force myself to forget and never engage with it again, but is it at all realistic in a global scale?

Is there an erroneous assumption that most of us on tumblr and discord are on team “fuck JKR, read fanfcition and pirate the books”? Or are offline elder millennials buying HP merch and reading the books to their kids carrying the franchise on their backs?

Or none of this matters, because HP is already part of the popular imagination, and it’s the tragedy of our times that big corporations will inevitably milk it forever?

Hope this is not too much of an awkward question, I really appreciate your insights

the way that the fandom impacts trans rights is by earning jkr money.

jkr's public transphobia - her comments on twitter etc. - absolutely contributes to recruiting others to the anti-trans cause, and that shouldn't be downplayed.

but being loud and wrong on social media isn't the same as having political or legal authority - jkr doesn't have this, and she doesn't deserve people thinking she does.

how she causes material harm to trans people in the uk [which then hurts all trans people, because other places may choose to follow suit] is because she donates colossal sums of money to legal cases which challenge trans people's rights. it's not just yesterday's judgement from the uk supreme court - in which the plaintiff was an anti-trans group she's on the record as having donated £70,000 to - she does it all the time.

she can donate this money because it's loose change for her. she makes millions every year.

and it doesn't come from mid-tier detective fiction, does it?

so, yes, here is the first truth - if she doesn't earn any money from you, you're not contributing to the overarching way her anti-trans crusade has an impact, and that matters.

but there is also a second truth - that you need to go beyond that.

several things need to be borne in mind:

jkr is one of the most visible - if not the single most visible - transphobes in the world. but she's not the only one.

the tendency to make her the figurehead of a transphobic movement, and to assume that disengaging with harry potter without doing anything else is enough may be comforting. but it's also wrong.

indeed, a lot of the people who have the greatest power to harm trans rights are nowhere near as visible as jkr - politicians, lawyers, journalists, academics, doctors, and so on. the supreme court did not reach its judgement because of jkr. the assault on trans rights which will unfold from the judgement will not happen because of her.

i'm not saying this to deny jkr's influence or to imply that she's not dangerous.

i'm saying it because i think it's important to remember that she has a vested interest in you feeling tiny and hopeless in the face of her money - in you thinking that she's the head of a movement and that movement is winning.

instead, the uk terf movement is fragmented and riddled with internecine beef. plenty of its factions don't actually like jkr - and she doesn't like plenty of them.

it can be fought, and it can be fought at the grassroots while she's in her mouldy tower being a bigot on twitter.

it's worth being absolutely clear that yesterday's supreme court ruling was not - in and of itself - new legislation. the uk supreme court does not have the power to make new laws. only parliament can do that.

it was a "clarification" - which is to say that it was an interpretation - of existing legislation. it - by itself - doesn't compel an institution or organisation to change anything. and it is, therefore, an interpretation which can be pushed back against.

this has already started - there's an excellent summary of objections to the judgement, which also provides a rebuttal to the crowing many terfs are doing about how trans rights are being rolled back by pointing out all the ways in which they will not be surrendered:

The Independent

Trans people like me will still be protected by law, no matter what opponents think

However much campaign groups might try to claim otherwise, it will still be indirect discrimination to put a policy in place excluding trans

sadly, this is behind a paywall. it's summarised here, in an article from the same writer, a practising barrister who is a specialist in employment and discrimination law:

the Guardian

This is a very tough day for trans people – with a long legal road ahead to right this wrong | Robin Moira White

The supreme court judgment is contradictory and confused. And there seems no prospect of the Labour government sorting this out, says discri

and all of us can do things which enable that pushback to continue, above all, in making clear to our mps that they only have our votes if they - at a bare minimum - continue to defend trans rights.

find their contact details here:

parliament.uk

Contact your MP

Information on how to contact your local MP

if you have an mp who is clear that they support restrictions on trans rights, then actively oppose them - call for them to be reselected at the next election [sadly a while away...], canvas for an opponent etc.

support institutions which continue to defend trans rights. the supreme court judgement doesn't force places to, for example, ban trans women from entering women's toilets [parliament could pass legislation which does, but that doesn't exist yet, and that's why you need to contact your mp], but plenty will be frightened into doing so. be loud about how you value and will continue to use businesses and services which don't bend to transphobic pressure.

donate to trans charities. lots are circulating, but here are some specifically northern irish options, which tend to otherwise get overlooked:

The Rainbow Project

Home - The Rainbow Project

The Rainbow Project is a LGBTQIA+ Charity based in Northern Ireland, providing health and wellbeing services for our community

boost stories about the impact of transphobic legislation. it's crucial that you don't underestimate how little the average person knows about this [and about jkr's role in it in particular] - and this is something which helps anti-trans messaging sound more reasonable. but we can reach them first.

what you do with harry potter as a thing beyond this is always going to be subjective. i've set out more on my personal approach before - here - and, of course, you may do what you want.

but - since you've asked - i think two things are true:

on the one hand, harry potter is a juggernaut. the tumblr subsection of the fandom could disappear tonight and the impact would be minimal - harry potter is probably one of the most mainstream cultural products in the world.

and that's how it makes jkr money - branded merchandise, the theme parks, the studio tour, royalties from streaming, and so on.

fandom doesn't require you to engage with any of these. and i do think it's acceptable to understand a commitment not to give jkr money as a viable and sincerely significant harm-reduction strategy.

however.

on the other hand, the vitality of the fandom plays a role in making harry potter marketable. this is undeniable.

and this is the case for all areas of the fandom - i see a lot of cope ["jkr would hate my queer otp!"], but people can get sucked into liking harry potter through anything. having a non-canon take on things, or writing dead dove, or whatever doesn't prevent that.

but it's especially the case for areas of the fandom which are prominent in pop-culture independently of jkr.

i don't just mean the marauders subfandom here - i think we can all stand to grapple with this implication, and i think there's a tendency from people in less prominent fandom subsections to think that they don't have to, which exists at the other end of a spectrum from the tendency from people in the marauders subfandom to assume that their lax approach to canon absolves them from any connection to jkr.

this is a difficult circle to square because it's something which gives jkr visibility indirectly. there's no way, for example, that she's in contact with e.g. artists whose songs go viral in marauders tiktoks, whose youtube comments are then flooded with "can't believe i'm thinking about harry potter's dead dad 😭". and she doesn't earn money from it.

fanfiction and fanart also lives in this indirect space.

jkr doesn't gain any money from it - and that is important. it's also a medium which may engage with the subject matter of the series critically - through taking issue how she writes about gender, for example - and this is important as well.

but she doesn't gain nothing from it either.

my personal view is that the only way to remain in fandom is two-fold:

as discussed, make sure you're actually doing something in defence of trans people in your real life...

and make sure that your indirect contribution to jkr's nonsense never becomes a direct one.

that is to say, don't spend any money.

and - and this is the important thing - actually mean that.

i think that a very important thing to do if you want to stay in the fandom is to work on building yourself a mental defence against the fear of missing out.

by which i mean... in the circles in which i move, people seem - at the moment - to universally agree that they won't be watching the new television adaptation.

but i find it very striking - and very concerning - that lots of people seem to be taking the view that doing this will be easy, because the tv show won't be any good.

i strongly - strongly - advise you to prepare yourselves for the opposite. expect that the show will be absolutely outstanding. deal with your disappointment in missing out in advance. and do not engage with it, no matter what it tries to tempt you with.

we are about to see an unprecedented level of fan service. every single complaint people made about the film series will be addressed. it's going to make sure that ron is written book-accurately. it's going to give romione or hinny or whatever as it "should have been" in the films. it's going to whip out some really big name casting [cillian murphy has had months to shut down the rumour that he's voldemort... and if it comes to pass, his casting will bring a legion of peaky blinders fans on board. do not be one of them.]. i would bet my house that it's going to make wolfstar canon.

and it's going to do this because it knows that's how people who have committed to not watching it will waver - that, when faced with "i've got the chance to see x done properly" or "god, i love y in everything else they're in", people will go "lol, no ethical consumption under capitalism" and consume anyway.

but there is a more ethical strand of harry potter consumption, and that's consumption which does all it can to limit its impact to only benefitting jkr indirectly seriously.

harry james potter

Also I've said this before but advertising is an industry that should be considered as pointless and harmful as fossil fuels.

I’ve probably said this before but having every good and service turn into a subscription model is one of the worst new developments of our era of capitalism. Like yeah, shit sucked before but it didn’t suck for 19.99 a month indefinitely. This some new shit.

*thinks up an idea for a silly quick piece* okay haha let's whip something up real quick

*idea gets more complicated*

*idea gets more complicated*

*idea gets more complicated*

*idea gets more complicated*

oh no

[day 13 of Microfic May: beware]

Harry doesn't mind keeping their relationship a thing only known to them and their friends.

It's not really a secret, but both of them have lost enough patience trying to dodge unwanted attention since the war has ended that it's only reasonable then that they keep their dates firmly in the muggle territory of the British Isles. Going anywhere else means planning and strategy and way too much effort to successfully avoid every vague acquaintance wishing to once again disparage the name of Malfoy—as if that's not old news—or advise Harry that he should beware of harmful influences in his midst.

He looks now to the other end of the couch: to Draco's nose buried in a book, his in-need-of-a-trim hair falling into his eyes, his body contorted into a shape that looks uncomfortable, but considering he hasn't moved in more than half an hour, it must not be.

Every couple of minutes, his hand darts upwards to push up his hair and every single time, his tome tilts, nearly falling out of his lap. Draco scowls every time, but does nothing to readjust his circumstances. Harry almost wants to shoot a bunch of sticking charms at him—one at his hair and forehead, the other at his book and knees—but this routine is too charming to fix.

He taps his thumb against Draco's ankle, where his feet are buried under Harry's thigh. Draco hums questioningly.

"Love you," Harry says, casually, as if the first time he'd said it had not almost broken them up. Now, though, they feel more solid. Draco doesn't even look up from his reading.

"Thanks," he responds instead, absentmindedly, and pokes Harry's knee with his toe.

other days: tumblr / ao3

Drarry as Onion Articles (pt. 1?)

feel free to add on!

day 4: pathetic

drarry microfic, 333 words

The weight of the curse is heaviest in moments when Draco catches Harry looking; his gaze a loaded, lonely thing across the High Table.

It should remind Draco of a time when they, too, were only children in this very same room—but years have softened the edges of Harry's glare, turned the devoted heat of his hatred into another, a sweeter form of passion altogether.

It's just Draco's luck that Harry is too scared to word what Draco can't—no Malfoy of his proclivity has been able to properly court, or even voice whom they desire. Not until they've produced an heir.

Threads of fate and duty woven together, always, always for the likes of him, cruel where they mark bleeding lines around his heart, as if he doesn't have enough.

Still, Draco's eyes must not lie. Nor does the returned fondness of his touch when their fingertips brush and linger over a cup of sugar. But Harry's gaze just keeps shifting between his porridge and Draco, one corner of his smile sad, and Draco wonders how he doesn't notice when he's studied his every move for years.

It's pathetic—really.

Luckily, there are things even Draco's ancestors hadn't thought of.

Because it's been years since Draco has known; it's this, him, and if Harry hadn't approached him for help, taken that potion, Draco would have rather chosen to die with the curse, with lonely nights and an empty house, for all he cared—if it wasn't with him.

The curse made it so that he couldn't have any of it—but when Harry rises from the table with his hand on his swollen stomach like he does each morning now, a tiny sprout of hope springs inside Draco, too, as if he were the one carrying their child. That in three more months—he might just get it all.

Threads are easy to weave into new shapes, after all, once something as simple as a sprinkle of chance joins your side.