Come Back Down Slowly

Alisons: Sexuality? 

Amaranth: Pronouns/Gender? 

Amaryllis: Birthday? 

Anemone: Favorite flower? 

Angelonia: Favorite t.v. show? 

Arum-Lily: What’s the farthest you’d go for a stranger? 

Aster: What’s one of your favorite quotes? 

Aubrieta: Favorite drink? 

Baby’s Breath: Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? 

Balsam Fir: Have you ever been in love? 

Baneberries: Favorite song? 

Basket of Gold: Describe your family. 

Beebalm: Do you have a best friend? Who is it? 

Begonia: Favorite color? 

Bellflower: Favorite animal? 

Bergenia: Are you a morning or night person? 

Black-Eyed Susan: If you could be any animal for a day, what would it be?

Bloodroots: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

Bluemink: What are your thoughts on children? 

Blazing Stars: What are you afraid of? Is there a reason why? 

Borage: Give a random fact about your childhood. 

Bugleherb: How would you spend your last day on Earth?  

Buttercup: Relationship Status? 

Camelia: If you could visit anywhere, where would you want to go? 

Candytufts: When do you feel most loved? 

Canna: Do you have any tattoos?  

Canterbury Bells: Do you have any piercings?  

California Poppy: Height?  

Cardinal Flower: Do you believe in ghosts? 

Carnation: What are you currently wearing?  

Catnip: Have you ever slept with a nightlight? 

Chives: Who was the last person you hugged?  

Chrysanthemum: Who’s the last person you kissed?

Cock’s Comb: Favorite font? 

Columbine: Are you tired? 

Common Boneset: What are you looking forward to? 

Coneflower: Dream job? 

Crane’s-Bill: Introvert or extrovert? 

Crocus: Have you ever been in love? 

Crown Imperial: What’s the farthest you would go for someone you care about? 

Cyclamen: Did you have a favorite stuffed animal as a child? What was it? 

Daffodil: What’s your zodiac sign? 

Dahlia: Have you done anything worth remembering? 

Daisy: What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment? 

Daylily: What would you do if your parents didn’t like your partner(s)?  

Dendrobium: Who is the last person that you said “I love you” to?

False Goat’s Beard: What is something you are good at? 

Foxgloves: What’s something you’re bad at? 

Freesia: What are three good things that have happened in the past month? 

Garden Cosmos: How was your day today? 

Gardenia: Are you happy with where you’re at in your life? 

Gladiolus: What is something you hope to do in the next year or two? 

Glory-of-the-Snow: What are ten things that make you happy/you’re grateful to have in your life? 

Heliotropium: What helps you calm down when you feel stressed?  

Hellebore: How do you show affection? 

Hoary Stock: What are you proudest of? 

Hollyhock: Describe your ideal day. 

Hyacinth: What do you like to do in your free time?  

Hydrangea: How long have you known your best friend? How did you meet them?

Irises: Who can you talk to about (almost) everything?

Laceleaf: How many friends do you have?

Lantanas: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received? 

Larkspur: What do you think of yourself? 

Lavender: What’s your favorite thing about yourself? 

Leather Flower: What’s your least favorite thing about yourself?  

Lilac: What’s something you liked to do as a child? 

Lily: Who was your best friend when you were a kid? 

Lily of the Incas: What is something you still feel guilty for? 

Lily of the Nile: What is something you feel guilty for that you shouldn’t feel guilty about?  

Lupine: What does your name mean? Why is that your name? 

Marigold: Where did you grow up? Tell us about it. 

Morning Glory: What was your bedroom like growing up? 

Mugworts: What was it like for you as a teenager? Did you enjoy your teenage years?  

Norwegian Angelica: Tell us about your mom.

Onions: Tell about your dad.  

Orchid: Tell about your grandparents. 

Pansy: What was your most memorable birthday? What made it be so memorable? 

Peony: What was your first job? 

Petunia: If you’re in a relationship, how did you meet your partner(s)? If you’re not in a relationship, how did you meet your crush/how do you hope to meet your future partner(s), if you want any? 

Pincushion: How do you deal with pain? 

Pink: Where is home? 

Plantain Lilies: If you could go back in time, what is one thing you would stop/change? 

Prairie Gentian: Who is someone you look up to? Describe them. 

Primrose: Describe your ideal life. 

Rhodendron: What is something you used to believe in as a child? 

Ricinus: Who’s the most important in your life? 

Rose: What’s your favorite sound? 

Rosemallows: What’s your favorite memory? 

Sage: What’s your least favorite memory? 

Snapdragon: At this moment, what do you want?  

St. John’s Wort: Is it easy or difficult for you to express how you feel about things? 

Sunflower: What is something you don’t want to imagine life without? 

Sweet Pea: How much sleep did you get last night? 

Tickseed: What’s your main reason to get up every morning? 

Touch-Me-Not: How do you feel about your current job? 

Transvaal Daisy: What’s your favorite item of clothing? 

Tropical White Morning Glory: Describe your aesthetic.  

Tulip: What would be the best present to get you? 

Vervain: What’s stressing you out most right now? 

Wisteria: How many books have you read in the past few months? What were they called? 

Wolf’s Bane: Where do you want to be in life this time next year?

Yarrow: Do you know what vore is?

“What? You can’t. They’ve seen your picture, and you’re a human.”

“I have my dragon girlfriend eat Farquaad.”

“…you what?”

“I have my dragon girlfriend-”

“No, no, I heard you the first time. Look, I’m gonna roll a d20 and if it’s a 20 then the dragon will eat Farquaad.” -dice sounds-

“WHY”

“It’ll be amazing”

“How would that even work”

“I ROLL TO CREATE A GIANT GINGERBREAD MAN”

(A few rolls later)

“YOUR GINGERBREAD SON DIES DURING THE BATTLE”

“I WEEP FOR MY GINGERBREAD CHILD”

But here’s the thing: that’s probably not true at all.

Pretending it is discounts the harsher, scarier truth: that even decent, well-meaning people can be radicalised by dangerous, hateful, predatory groups, and given enough time they can become truly hideous versions of their former selves.

It can happen to me. It can happen to you. It can happen to any of us, given the right mix of circumstances. And over the past few years, we’ve seen it happen to one of the most famous children’s authors of our age.

This isn’t to apologise for her behaviour or rehabilitate her into some former activist who is still worthy of saving; it’s to contextualise her recent descent into TERFdom compared to her previous political stances she’s openly held. She was probably never going to be a staunch ally for equality and diversity, and yes, a lot of the HP series were very problematic in retrospect, but she could very easily have gone the other way and at the very least turned out to be less of a bigoted shitbag she is now. The fact that her politics in late 2000′s/early 2010′s were similar to so many people who are now activists and organisers for queer, BIPOC and vulnerable communities should tell us to be all the more careful about radfem ideology and transphobia in progressive spaces. 

It’s comforting to say “we should have known in hindsight that she was always going to become a TERF, the early signs were all there!” but that’s also not true. We have to recognise that the toxic ideology, the active harm she chooses to participate in, was a deliberate choice; this was a path she chose to go down, not one that was pre-determined for her. It’s also an easy way to separate ourselves from being critical of radfem influence; “JKR was always a right-wing bigot and that’s why she became indoctrinated with radfem bullshit. I’m not a right-wing bigot, therefore unlike her, I will never fall for radfem bullshit.”