An did an open collab with Noisykoala on twt >.< Left is my work!
ok im going to #seriouspost for a second here. I don't think Harry Potter is a manifesto. I think it was a flawed passion project that millennials latched onto because of the fantasy of sticking it to their mean teachers and arbitrarily categorizing themselves (hogwarts houses; it's the thinking millennial's astrology). I think the fact that the series got popular when and how it did was very much a product of its time.
I don't think Harry Potter is the biggest symbol of JKR's bigotry. I think the most flagrant sign of that was how she responded to critics. I watched her become radicalized in real time. I watched how she doubled down on her racism when she was called out for the ways she promoted her tragically mid fantastic beasts movies. I watched her chase marginalized teenagers with a double digit follower count off of twitter for daring to criticize her thought process, and no one with any kind of power standing against her because she was the one who was paying them. This isn't to say Harry Potter is without flaws. This is to say she really didn't give a shit about that. Getting rich and powerful is a hell of a drug, and she had enough sycophants that she had no reason to care about what her critics were saying.
She was convinced that she was a martyr; a voice for the unheard; a leader for the ages, so of course her detractors were the bad guys. And I think we should take this to heart. We should see this as an example of how easy it is to get radicalized; if you think of yourself as a paragon of virtue, you are going to think that whatever you see as good and right is an objective fact. Most people don't know this, but the majority of terfs start out as trans allies. You are not immune to propaganda! You are not immune to falling into dangerous ideologies!!!
This is why the most important thing you can do as an activist is to listen. Do NOT think you're above being wrong; do NOT develop a god complex; do NOT form an identity out of being right all the time. Involve yourselves in the groups you claim to speak for. Listen to trans women; share resources that help trans women; familiarize yourself with the diversity of experiences that trans people have and the struggles they face.
No, none of you are as bad as JKR because you don't have her money or her power. You will likely never have the capacity for harm she does. But check yourselves. Do not affirm yourselves into thinking you always have the moral high ground. Watch yourselves; humble yourselves; check yourselves for signs of cult behavior and internalized prejudice. You are always learning. You will always be learning. Do not allow yourselves to get a power trip from brushing off marginalized voices.
imagine your girlfriend went missing mysteriously and was replaced by her evil homunculus clone and then you go to a racetrack and they've put up a statue commemorating that time she gave you backshots twice in a row in public and then won the race
to be entirely honest i don't think cats being named after a disability is as bad as people make it out to be. in canon there's examples that are meant to be obviously horrible like lostface or crookedkit but there are also cats who embrace their disability and want their name to reflect that and like. why wouldn't they? why do people think this is wildly unrealistic and awful? these cats are always named after physical attributes or things they're proud of, why can't that include a cat's battle scars or disabilities? whatever floats people's boats when it comes to your own characters and experiences but i think saying someone like deadfoot should absolutely hate his name and it's bad writing for him to like it is bizarre. we have plenty of examples of cats hating names forced upon them, not all disabled characters think the same. deadfoot is named after his leg like cloudtail is named after his tail and he's cool with that. good for him
ฅ^>⩊<^ ฅ