Loaf of Pain

my contribution to the eridian welcoming committee

it's been 6 years since j.k rowling started doubling down on her transphobia. (if we mark her mask off moment as her 2020 posting)

people have had six years to come to terms with it and find alternatives, there have been multiple video essays podcasts and written journalism about all of this, there are so many lists of alternatives including contemporary to the series and current fiction. even as early as 2022 people were renaming real world social groups/sport formed around their hp fandom to distance themselves from her work.

i wasn't even particularly negative, i said "stop spending money here" that's neither critical to the source material nor the fans. and not spending money isn't even an active action it's passive inaction, very easy to do.

also as someone who grew up with the book phenomenon and the films, you cannot reproduce the phenomenon that it used to be. you can find other things that give you joy but that was a very specific pop cultural time and event. the new show not only funds the cultural relevance of and bigoted political actions of rowling, it's also just inherently flawed in conception as a work of nostalgia that will always fall short in both quality, phenomena, and fandom culture.

I'm not coddling adults or teens who are tempted to engage with hp because i respect that they have the capacity to change their minds and expand their own tastes. it's not my responsibility to spoon-feed people alternatives.

I'm saying stop giving her money

i'm saying stop giving the franchise cultural currency via streaming attention

i'm saying the real people who are being made unsafe due to the transphobia and racism of j.k rowling are and always will be more important than nostalgia and fandom

I sound harsh because i was being blunt, if that comes off as negativity that puts some people off then that's okay.

there are much more hand holding options out there, (i myself watched a few video essays years ago deconstructing the bigotry of the novels and the messy relationship between fandom on identity and fiction versus personal ethics. because i needed discussions to process my own personal emotional response to letting the franchise go)

but with my own post I would hope that at least some people go "actually yeah this isn't worth my time and money" about the new show.

because it's okay to feel some negative emotions if it reminds you not to do something you actually feel is wrong.

ultimately @thewickedbohemian it's okay that you don't like my two sentence post as an approach to addressing the entire harry potter fandom. I would encourage you to visit/revisit any works that make you feel the same kind of magic that people are looking for and compile a list yourself to share, it's a good exercise and does help give people a place to start. it's not something i did with this post, it can be something you do with your own post, feel free to tag me in it and i'll reblog.

but again, i'll say it:

"STOP GIVING THE WORKS OF JK ROWLING TIME AND MONEY" "DO NOT HATEWATCH"

here's some places for people to donate

https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/?form=donate

https://transactual.org.uk/change-actions/ https://www.peoplesfundraising.com/donation/support-transactual

https://www.thenational.scot/news/26277881.jk-rowling-urges-gender-critical-groups-sue-amnesty-international/

people with morbid thoughts deserve to be alive

people who don't feel guilt or remorse deserve to be alive

people who fantasize about violence deserve to be alive

people who don't care for friendships deserve to be alive

people who don't desire to "contribute to society" deserve to be alive

people who are aloof or callous deserve to be alive

people who don't follow social norms deserve to be alive

none of these types of people are inherently bad, evil, dangerous, or untrustworthy. personality traits and social preferences do not define someone's right to exist or be treated like a human being. and, if it's wanted, people with these traits can be just as good friends as people without these traits.

@justcakethanks ‘s Eridian OCs and template I fucking love these guys I had to throw them at Simon too

"Something I've learned while in law school is about the social construction of crime. I work in a legal clinic on wage theft cases, where employers have "improperly paid" workers by not paying, paying below min wage, withholding overtime, paid sick time, etc.

Most theft is wage theft. Meaning, the dollar value of stolen wages is greater than the value, each year, of all burglaries + robberies, shoplifting, auto theft, combined. Yet, wage theft is not a crime."

Below this tweet is an image comparing the cost of robbery, auto theft, burglary, larceny and wage theft in billions. Robbery only hits 0.34 billion, auto theft 3.8 billion, burglary 4.1 billion, larceny 5.3 billion, and wage theft accounts for greater than 19 billion dollars. The data is sourced from the FBI and EPF.

"If you steal $100 from your employer, you will get arrested. If you call the police because your paycheck is $100 light, the police will tell you to file a complaint with the AG, and the AG will settle the case for between $50 and $200.

(That's actually not true, because AG's only take on big cases where thousands of dollars are at stake, but they will settle big cases by typically requiring the employer to properly pay what is owed. No jail, no criminal record.)

If the AG doesn't want to take the case, it will give you a Private Right of Action to sue the employer in civil court for what you are owed, plus damages. It can take a 6 to 18 months to win at trial, and months or years to collect on the judgement if you win.

This is what we mean when we say crime is socially constructed. Not all social harms are criminalized. Not all actors committing social harm are criminalized.

I settled a case for $27k for three clients last year. We spent a MONTH negotiating the non-disclosure agreement because the employer stated if all his employees sued him and settled like this, he would go BANKRUPT. His business model DEPENDED on wage theft.

These employers go on to hold elected office. 45 famously used wage theft to improve his finances on construction projects, leaving a trail of victims in his wake. Some sued and he had to pay them. Others didn't have resources to pursue multi-year litigation + got nothing."

Then the user responds to someone else asking a question.

The question:

"Can you explain this reasoning? Why expanding criminal liability is a bad idea? For whom?"

The user replies:

"What should we do about it? Criminalize employers or decriminalize theft or something else?

Wage theft shows that we believe restitution is important. Giving the money back is important. Currently, AG keeps track of bad actors and will increase future penalties for bad actors.

It also shows when harm is committed, we don't have to lock someone in a cage or label them a felon, both of which destroy years of life even after the sentence is over. We can demand restitution instead of punishment.

It also shows how ridiculous the label "high crime neighborhood" is. And the arbitrary and racist response of police surveillance in HCN. Because we defined it that way.

Consider the social construction of murder:

The people committing the most harm aren't in jail, don't live in high crime neighborhoods. And "black people commit more crime" is true only because of how we have defined crimes, and how we then surveil their community in response to find more crimes.

There are so many orgs trying to address harm and create accountability within community + without incarceration. We call ourselves prison abolitionists.

Just a few: @ byp100, @ survivepunishNY, @ justicehealing, @ DeeperThanWater, @ BlackAndPinkBos and @ BlmBoston"