r/EnoughJKRowling

TlDr: Give me an elevator pitch that shows Rowling is a bigot.

I'm not asking you to convince me that Rowling's a bigot. I know she is. But the problem with progressives is if they are asked a simple question they will respond with a wall of text, because life is nuanced and progressives care about reality and nuance. Most people aren't like that.

Pretend I'm your average slobbering person. I don't really 'get' the whole "trans thing." My attitude is basically "It just sounds like a bunch of blue haired girls with daddy issues on twitter, but that's okay. Live your life and such but I don't really buy the whole "women can have penises too" thing, but again live your life, it's not my concern. Just like with gay people, just don't shove it down my throat and we're good."

I imagine most of you would go "Well, you see, first we have to understand that sex is different from gend-" and by that point you've lost them. People are chattel and they're not really capable of this kind of analysis.

For example: When I tell people on the Tim Hortons subreddit that JK has engaged in holocaust denial, but because their understanding of the Holocaust begins and ends with that one time they saw Schinder's List, the idea seems stupid on its face. Because Rowling's never said the Nazis' didn't kill Jews, duh.

If someone asked me: "What makes you say trump or the KKK are racist?" It would take me five seconds to give an example of them saying or doing something violently racist. Now pretend that my understanding of the trans experience is what I said above: What is the obvious, easily digestible, non-negotiable example of Rowling's bigotry, where it is bigotry on the face of it.

Some of you will likely give answers I will argue against, and it is not because you are wrong. It's because what you've said is something my manager/coworkers would not be able to understand as bigoted.

Edit: I've gotten some decent answers here. A thank you to:

u/Silly-Arachnid-6187 "She shared a video of a girl beating another girl in a school bathroom, alleging that the aggressor was trans without any proof or indication that that was the case. The school later received a bomb threat."

I think this works because an average, slobbering person could understand that, if you switched the term 'trans person' with "she accused them of being a Jew without evidence" then they might be able to recognize the inherent unfairness of that treatment.

u/errantthimble: "I’d say, lean right into the core issue with something like *”JK Rowling dishonestly pretends that the transgender controversy is about science, when it’s actually about evolving language use. Saying that a transgender woman is a woman is no more ‘anti-science’ than saying that an adoptive mother is a mother.” &

I personally still think that the issue of "this is an issue of language, not science" is too much for the average person to wrap their minds around, but I think that the example of the adoptive mother being a mother is still one of the best analogies I've heard, and I've not once heard a good argument against that claim.

TlDr: I am very, very lucky that HP was not my thing.

Shout out to everyone who has a conscience and who also has/had a real and legit love for Potter. I know that in our circles (pro-trans/leftist, etc) it is very common to hear the following sentiments:

- Omg get over yourself! It's just a story!

- Harry Potter was never even that good!

- You only liked it because it was popular.

- sigh Some people just can't put their fucking toys away. GROW UP

- You must not be very mature if you still like HP

And before any of you get angry at me, I'm posting in the anti-JK subreddit and I'm obviously against Rowling, and I'm boycotting my fav coffee shop right now because they're doing a collab with her. But I wanted to say that I feel really bad for all the trans people and cis trans allies who are fans and former fans of this IP whom this meant a lot for.

Is HP the greatest piece of literature ever? No. But you know what, it was good enough to make kids (and still does) make kids love reading. Do you have any idea how fucking special that is? Yes even if it had good marketing, the reality is that good marketing and franchising would not, by itself, been able to compel a bunch of shit-minions (children) to stay up late and do something as boring as reading. Marketing can help put a book in your hands, but not salesman is good enough to inspire actual whimsy in a person if that product does not legitimately inspire whimsy.

Is it 'just' as story? Yes But stories matter to us. They are important. Poetry and fiction and art are the very things that make life worth living. And they can affect us deeply. And anyone who has ever supported decolonizing efforts in literature, or preserving the stories of marginalized peoples knows this. Stories don't stop being important on a personal sense just because the author/readers aren't from a marginalized group.

I consider myself so fucking lucky that my thing, the thing from my childhood that is really special to me, has not been tarnished in the way HP and other IPs have. For me they are Godzilla and Star Wars.

I hate it when people go "It's just a story. Get over it." Because I can so easily imagine how it would feel to me if we were in a different timeline and Lucas ended up as bad as Rowling. For me, Return of the Jedi and Godzilla are some of the only experiences I can remember with my Dad who died when I was very young. I cannot put into words how precious these IPs are to me. When I watch Star Wars or Godzilla, it is the closest that I can and will ever get to feeling like I'm spending time with him again.

And I am 100% sure that Harry Potter is exactly that for so many people. And I cannot imagine how difficult and painful this must be to have something that means so much to you tarnished in this way. And it's not even like if I found out Lucas now was super racist or something, because he doesn't own Star Wars. I could keep enjoying it just fine. But for you guys, any sort of payment or engaging with the HP empire is funding a hate movement.

And hell, not paying the bitch isn't even good enough. So many people will argue that you should just stop enjoying, or stop reading your copy of HP, and if you share your love of it - even if that doesn't actually result in money going to Rowling, that will still be seen as an endorsement of anti-trans hatred. And I'm sure that many of you, even when/if you read your dusty old copy of the book that you bought 20 years ago, it still feels icky now, doesn't it?

And I don't wanna hear any bullshit about how

- "Omg you're making this about yourself"

- "Oh you're doing the bare minimum by not giving her money. Have a cookie."

The reality is most people would not give up things they love if it had this kind of political baggage behind it. And further, being a political ally does not mean pretending that your feelings don't exist and are not worth airing.

As a massive Star Wars fan who feels like he's dodged a massive moral bullet, I just wanna give all the anti-Rowling HP fans and former fans props for stepping away from this franchise, and for those of you who still try to enjoy it in ways that don't give her money because I'm sure it's just not the same anymore. This has really got to suck. If you're doing the right thing and not giving her money, then your feelings about how much this sucks are totally cool and legit.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Short article from August 11 about Hoult’s casting in the HBO show, but the writer is great and doesn’t pull punches:

“Ahead of his inevitable “she has a right to her opinion” statement regarding J.K. Rowling’s obsession with endangering trans people, Nicholas Hoult is the latest Hollywood star to cast an unforced error spell on his career by joining HBO’s Harry Potter show.”

This isn't going to be a long post but it very much irritates me that both the media and apparently the GERMs themselves are being incredibly selective over what exactly is an outrageous unforgivable lie, and what is a statement that we must all believe.

We must all be sceptical of anything Jason Arday claimed, because it's all unbelievable and almost impossible.

...but on the other hand, don't you dare question whether JK Rowling was ever in just as much poverty as she claimed to be. We must all trust her account & never question it or do our own research!

That's before you even start on just how much of HP she originated & how much was heavily influenced by other works she just 'forgot' to ever give credit to for over 25 years.

I was recently reviewing some past discussions and rediscovered one of the additions to the Fantastic Beasts films that I found most ridiculous (aside, of course, from the half-house-elf woman): Rappaport's Law. It was Joanne’s clumsy, poorly executed attempt to draw parallels with racial segregation. The issue is that the wizarding world already operates under a sort of apartheid system; her solution to make this work resulted in an even worse state of total segregation, where wizards and Muggles are forbidden from having any kind of relationship. The problem—as with other times she tried to introduce new concepts—is that she overlooked a crucial element: Muggle-borns. For a law like this to actually function, wizards would have to kidnap Muggle-born children the moment they displayed magic and either erase their parents' memories of the child's existence or alter them to make everyone believe the child had died. That would actually be an interesting plot point, but Joanne basically ignores this aspect and focuses solely on romantic interactions, disregarding all the other implications.

I'm from Australia and specifically want to donate to a UK based charity so I can support the trans community she is most directly attacking.