Why are you still participating in the Harry Potter fandom if you truly believe in trans rights and BLM?
Hi! This kind of question is 100% valid, and I honestly appreciate you asking it. I think many other people in the fandom have been able to answer this question more eloquently, especially those who are POC and trans, and too be clear, I default always to their experiences on this topic because it is not my place to speak on behalf of anyone POC or Trans.
The last thing I want to do as a white and and CIS person is speak from a place of outrage that I will never fully be able to fully understand coming from the place of privilege that I have being white and CIS.
Please bare with me as this is a much longer answer than I intended, but I literally have no idea how to use less words to explain my personal experience. Which is unfortunately the only experience I have to speak from. I could also literally write a full like 10 page paper on like this if given the energy, but I would much rather invest that time into writing gay fanfic.
So, this is my story and why I defend my participation in the fandom on tumblr and AO3(not the author)
When JKR was originally open about what a dumpster fire she was, I basically purged what was left in my life of all things Harry Potter. I stopped watching the movies, buying anything pertaining to it, and I stopped talking to other people about the series as well. I grew up with this series and as a younger person, the fandom made me feel safe and accepted when I was a teenager and RP-ing with my friends, beginning to write terrible fanfiction. So the fandom meant a lot to me at that point, but when I became a healthcare worker I started working 50-60 hour weeks and stopped doing everything from high school I enjoyed.
Like everything that brought me joy besides singing in my car, stopped.
When JKR outed herself as a TERF and I started hearing out POC and Jewish people pointing out the injustices, as well as the blatant missed opportunities for characters, especially Harry and Hermione to be POC, I was so disgusted with her and embarrassed by the fact that I backed the story for so long, I really did not touch it at all until last November when I was doing in home care and saw the movies playing on a cable channel, so I watched them. And then I immediately turned to tumblr for the fandoms opinions, and I’m glad I did.
I was connected with teams of people from every aspect of the spectrum of LGBTQIA and POC. Hearing the reasons they continue to be apart of the fandoms, their reasons for not letting this trash human being steal the enjoyment of a story (though problematic) that affected a lot of us in a positive way and brought so many of us together to form a community of people that continuously criticize the original work and creator, and making new stories and characterizations that are realistic and inclusive and that are reflections of people’s own lives. OR reflections of a world we wish to see, which is also insanely valid in escapism.
In addition, Kirby Alice on TikTok discusses A LOT of the social injustices, and the egregious problematic writing issues in the series. Highly recommend her content as someone who doesn’t just jerk off JKR whenever they talk about HP.
Our response to a rigid bitch that hates fanfiction of her work, hates gay and trans people, hates fat people, hates hyper-feminine women, clearly has an issue with the Jewish people and POC as well as people with mental illness or any kind of disabilities is to write her characters with those attributes.
We write Pansy thicc and curvy and Ginny Trans, and Draco gay and Trans and we give him the redemption a 17 year old should have been given because people should be allowed to admit to mistakes and correct the wrongdoings, and Harry bisexual and Trans and POC, Hermione pansexual, Demi, Jewish and POC, etc. We give them complex and complicated journeys through the mental health issues, and physical disabilities that there’s no way they don’t have after being children of war. We write the wixen world with the corruption that wasn’t fixed or really fully addressed in the books at all, as well as so many other tropes that directly challenges the original series.
As a fandom, we do our best to listen to each other about the injustices, and condemn JKR for her shitty opinions, and show her that she is not taking away our ability to still love these characters, and expand the world to our liking. Ya know like every other fandom is allowed to do?
Because being incredibly frank, there are tons of books we still read on mass levels that were written by the worst kinds of people. Dr. Suess is my exhibit A for that.
I think that’s one of the more frustrating parts? like it’s assumed that anyone left in the fandom loves JKR with our whole chest? Cause we don’t. She wrote like 100 queer baited characters and the one she “wrote gay” (after the fact) is possibly the most morally grey character in the entire series.
She allowed a child to remain in abuse for years until the plot device of a love connection? When it was very easily debunked that that was necessary. Snape is somehow 100% redeemed by just being in love Harry’s mom? Even though he hated all the kids he taught and was like actually torturing and abusing Neville. SPEW was written like everyone was annoyed with Hermione for wanting freedom for the house elves. Like what the fuck? She’s also arguably not a good writer for many other reasons including plot holes and the mere factor she couldn’t just walk away from her work and be done with it? Also don’t even get me started on the infuriating mistake of an opportunity that fantastic beasts was. They basically pissed all over the idea of having the center of the plot being about the cool mythical creatures with no other than Albus fucking train wreck Dumbledore
We’re not supporting the multi-trillion dollar franchise, we are honoring the characters in our own way to fill whatever hole we have in our childhoods from a story that lured us into a false sense of security and comfort of a family and something that understood us, then ripped it away.
And also we’re ultimately creating art and stories for free for each other to just look at and enjoy.
I don’t buy anything with licensing or royalties attached, I only purchase Hp things from small businesses on Etsy. And I don’t support people who talk about HP things without knowing they’re ally status. It’s why it’s on my bio, because I know it’s something people look for when they follow someone.
I don’t defend the books, they are not infallible, I defend what they meant to a lot of us growing up and how they helped a lot of us become the people we are today who have found each other in this community. Who are free to be who we are here. Open and compassionate and empathic and supportive and creative.
I personally don’t regret the decision to be in this fandom. It brought me a connection with friends on here that I’m forever learning from, growing from, and overall helping me to be a better person. It brought me back to my passion in creative writing. It literally helped me realize that I am Bisexual.
It’s highly horrific that she has turned around and denounced and ostracized an entire subculture of the fans that related most to a little kid literally stuck in a closet by people that were meant to love and protect them.
This really got out of hand, and I am really sorry at how much I've tangented, but like I stated at the beginning of this, I didn’t just immediately find justification to the fandom. Like the true Aquarius sun, Virgo moon, and Libra rising I am, I looked to those who knew better, who lived the lives most affected by JKR in question. I was away from this fandom for a while before JKR was vocal about being a TERF and etc, and in reentering HP tenuously, I quite literally refound myself through this fandom.
You are allowed and are valid in having a different opinion than me or anyone else. You are fully valid in critically questioning those of us in the HP fandom to ensure your safety. You're allowed to hate me even after learning my story. It makes sense, and it won’t hurt me at all if you do, though it is upsetting to think that someone thinks of me a bigot. And to be honest, if this was a different day, or if I had addressed this before I probably wouldn’t have responded in this way, especially not this long winded.
If you read all of this, I hope it made any sense, and I hope this comes across genuine to people who read it, because I love this fandom and I love my friends here so much.
