H E L L O jfp-eyes pen (thats your new name btw)
i know its a little late but my mind keep going back to it and i also talked about a similar issue w several other people on here since and i was wondering if you can/want elaborate on what you said about this:
"like, u want potters to be desi? itâs not just the cute clothes and good food and linguistic differences u need to keep in mind. thereâs so much more where it comes from, including several practices that will be considered highly objectionable by this rigidly judgemental crowd."
((i am v v interested but no pressure to answer this, i totally get if you dont want to get into this discourse))
daniâyouâre gonna pull me into the desi potters discourse one way or the other, eh?
so. iâm not sure how much sense thisâll make because itâs likeâŠhalf-baked thoughts but my problem with this scenario actually stems from a more macro, general trend iâm noticing in fandom behaviour. for some reason, puritan culture & veiled conservatism is coming back in the guise of progressiveness? and thatâs leading to a lack of critical thinking in these spaces & randomly attributing buzzwords to things out of context bc u donât have more than a shallow understanding of it.
which means that that comment was directed at a very specific subset of fandom that decided that idk ignoring the Bad Things & Flaws would somehow make them cease to exist. letâs only take the most âexoticâ, fun aspects even if itâs a completely one dimensional reading & run with it. they wouldnât be able to tell u what desi is beyond the barebones.
so, youâll have people vehemently arguing that the potters canât be anything but desi and white james is gross and iâm just likeâwhy. why are u, as a non-desi person, so attached to this headcanon that youâll ridicule real people for it? and then their attitudes as well. the incest thing, for example. there are communities in india that marry their first cousinsâif i write a story tomorrow where james marries his motherâs imaginary brotherâs daughter, then depending on how i HC him, thatâs perfectly culturally acceptable (and desirable). if i write a story where euphemia and fleamont use corporal punishment for him, and he takes it super lightly and jokes about it, thatâs also fine. (which is a direct contrast to how the western black family & siriusâ abuse is treated). thereâ a community in india where the man âdrinksâ from his motherâs breast, publicly, at his wedding to symbolise the last time heâd be her son before he becomes someoneâs husband. another where a new mother canât feed her son until her sister-in-law washes her breast thoroughly. caste is something thatâs not even touched upon. itâs so complicated. but how do u think itâll be received by most of the desi potter crowd if i actually do write any of this? will i be praised for my ~representation or called out on twitter for being a freak?
and thatâs really where i get annoyed. the attitudes most of this crowd hold does not have any space for cultural subjectivity, what is ok to them has to be universally ethical. thereâs no way other cultures do things their way and if they do, itâs barbaric/backward/problematic etc etc. pseudo-colonial, like i said.
(disclaimer: i want it to be made very clear iâm not demanding people nclude this stuff in their fics. iâm well aware of how escapism works, being the premier advocate for it. im just saying it wonât hurt to be mindful of these facts, that this is a whole culture thatâs ridiculously diverse that doesnât just exist for the sake of peopleâs headcanons)
and this isnât even going into the cultural nuances of how desi families work. you canât bring in american/european individualism & have james move out at 18 & write everything transactionally & do everything the way u would for a white character but only pay lip service when saying theyâre brown ykno? when u say theyâre a certain identity, thereâs so much that comes with that. and if u donât include any of that, then it really just makes me wonder why u want a brown jamesâfeels like ego appeasement and falling to peer pressure half the time tbh.
another important thing for me is that so much of this crowd intersects with the âfandom is activismâ crowd and i just. fundamentally disagree with those people. and find their words/actions incredibly performative. by which i mean, the way they treat real peopleâpeople from the communities theyâre adopting as HCs for their beloved characters. thereâs thisâŠhypocrisy, yeah? what i mentioned above, about how if i wrote some culturally different practice, iâd probably be attacked. they donât want desi potter, they want white-lite potters that is palatable to & tailored for their own constitution but in a form that they can pass of as âoh look, my characters r diverse which makes me Morally Good and i can use that to shit on othersâ.
i think my problem is just that i donât like it when people use the identity headcanons to portray themselves as being inherently better because they have ~equal representation. fandom is not a government institutionâlateral visibility & membership is not a prerequisite to wanting to write about x and y fucking or going on a date or hugging or having a conversation. making a marauder group where each characterâfunctionally an OCâis from a different community (often w/o considering how intersectionality works) for the sake of saying âoh i have a x in my HCsâ does not make u some radical leftist, yeah? and i strongly dislike people who pretend it does.















