honestly at this point you just need to let it go, it'll just make you feel bad associating with it while she makes money off it.
there are lots of other things you can invest your time into that don't support such a person, it sucks that your fandom is tainted, but you will definitely find something new :)
Every person has their own relationship with divorcing the artist from the art, and I don't think someone else can tell you how yours should be. There's no objective answer to this. Perhaps all they can do is tell you how they feel about it, for the sake of discourse that can help you work out if you agree or not.
I've loved HP since I was a kid. That's changed over the years to nostalgia plus critical analysis of the text - which I do enjoy. A good convo on how Hermione's represented and how Dumbledore was a groomer? Love it. In a way, I feel HP is shielded from JK for me by a) I bought the books ages ago and have spent no more money that goes into her pockets and b) the fanfiction/fanworks community, which has been re-analysing and critiquing the work for 2 decades. The people in those communities are often not JK fans. They became fans of the text when HP was about fighting against oppression and misrepresentation of minorities. And they've been going against JK since she said "no smut in fanfiction" and keep on it, not respecting the supposed sanctity of characters by reimagining them or being critical of the text through them.
For me, the books still do hold a message of learning to understand and accept minority groups, even simply because that's what a whole generation of readers took them to mean and inspired them to do. A lot of people will talk about how they felt the books encouraged them to come out of the closet (and, understandably, how they now feel betrayed by JK).
I would say this does not mean I support JK, and I don't feel I do. Others probably have different opinions on this, though, and I'm sure for many people they can't divorce the text from her. Quite possibly someone will come and reply to my comment saying it's unfathomable that I can feel morally ok with still liking the books despite hating JK - and they wouldn't be wrong to think so. For them, presumably, it is impossible to like one and hate the other without that causing moral discomfort/pain.
>And they've been going against JK since she said "no smut in fanfiction"
Did she actually say that? I always thought it was Warner Brothers trying to censor HP fanworks, but was it coming from her too?
I've got this one from wikipedia: ['J. K. Rowling has also complained about sexually explicit Harry Potter fan fiction.'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction) Haven't done a deep dive into where and when she said it though
This is extra funny when you consider that notorious TERF Helen Joyce was caught reading Harry Potter smut fanfic on a train, *and casually retweeted JKR in the middle of it.* https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/twibs-helen-joyce-potter-fanfic
this is a great response, detailed and thought out but the main thing is not answering it for OP, it 100% is their decision how they define their relationship with HP
Not a sexual groomer, but an older trusted figure in Harry's life who groomed him to do something a child shouldn't have to do none the less. He was the person in a position of power to at least try to make things better for Harry at his aunt and uncle's place. Instead, he "had his reasons", making sure Harry stayed there, where he was isolated and abused, without doing a thing to make it better for him - from the time Harry was 1 year old. Great way to get Harry to be a complaint little soldier for him, by making sure Harry had a yearning for some kind of parental figure in his life who was kind to him.
He then treated Harry as the "special boy", praising Harry when Harry was put through traumatic experience after traumatic experience (rather than do a thing to take care of Voldemort, Crouch, Umbridge, etc, himself). He never gave Harry the wiggle room to evaluate Dumbledore's actions for himself. Instead, Dumbledore always shared his "regrets" in a way that begged pity from Harry and impressed his unquestionable "wisdom" on him.
From year one, when Harry was 11, Dumbledore engineered things to make Harry fight his battles for him. He chose to bring the philosopher's stone into a school, defended by a sequence of tasks a first year could overcome, and coached Harry with supposed sympathy into understanding the Mirror of Erised. When Harry did manage to triumph, Dumbledore praised him for being a good loving boy.
Which is what Dumbledore did year after year: talk about how much he loved Harry and his parents, and how that was why he was putting Harry through hell.
Find ways to engage that don't give JKR any money. Borrow books/movies from your library, engage in fan communities. Depending on your interests and ethical limits there's also pirating games, commissioning independent artists, and breaking into theme parks.
Let's see, theme parks make way too much money so he'll yeah on that, my mum got me Hogwart's legacy for Christmas before I came out as trans and piracy is always fun.
I used to think exactly like that. I couldn't imagine my life without HP. Then I realized I felt worse and worse every time I consumed anything HP. Then I just gradually consumed less and less, and now it's not even something I think about anymore. I managed to get over it, you can too.
Being trans myself, I felt nauseous thinking about how many vile things JKR has said about people like myself, and it made me unable to enjoy the franchise anymore as all I did was connect the two together. I don't want anything to do with someone as terrible as her, and that includes her works.
Since you’re a fellow trans person, my personal answer would be that *Wizards of Earthsea*, *Ikenfell*, and *Fire Emblem Three Houses* all do the whole “magical fantasy school” thing much better than Rowling did. They’re not perfect, but I’d recommend exploring them over HP any day, because they all are incredibly complex, thought-provoking, and deep in ways that Harry Potter just…isn’t.
At this point, if it’s literally anyone else my answer is “look if you’re coming to me, a trans person, asking if it’s okay to like a book written by a woman who is currently poised to shape policy on trans folks in the UK that will fuck them over as heavily as possible, I’ve got bigger things to worry about than validating your choice of literature. Get some perspective.”
Caelan Conrad recently [posted this video](https://youtu.be/Cmx_YSPcujE?si=ggLLNfO75Cpr4g8K) in which they name a several series (including some you've mentioned!) that may be worthwhile alternatives as well! They also talk about another reason why HP may not be it.
The Earthsea books are fantastic! They were written well before HP. But I remember when HP became popular, there was an attempt to bank on that. Made it a bit too HP when the story itself was fine. Changed some key things that felt like they were trying to dumb the story down. Ursula Le Guin is a much better writer. Lots of other great stories from her.
Oh, were there changed editions or something like that? I hope not, I hope the originals are intact. I have yet to read them, shamefully, but *The Lathe of Heaven* is one of my favorite all-time books.
Have you tried looking into ways that the books themselves have issues? That’s really helped me detach from the series, and I used to be a diehard HP fan. I can recommend some great YouTube videos!
[Harry Potter by shaun.](https://youtu.be/-1iaJWSwUZs?si=PcORsDayvEl9w183) Iirc this was the first Harry Potter critique I ever watched, and it’s also the one I’ve seen most talked about since. He gives a great overview of a variety of subjects, from plot/storytelling issues to some of the more problematic aspects of the series (fatphobia, racial stereotypes, house elves, etc.)
The 10 hour, ironically named [A Brief Look at Harry Potter by Lily Simpson.](https://youtu.be/N2WDCD_tRnE?si=cAr9pKRyqYol-Jq5) This one really deep dives into so many of the previously mentioned issues, and I specifically remember a lot of criticism about the worldbuilding of the series. Things like how the economy works, and the ministry of magic, and wizard prison.
[Is Harry Potter Bad? by hoots.](https://youtu.be/U3dE0sYZqvI?si=Yk2TXuowoJELen0t) This one I really liked for her speculation on how some of the problematic elements ended up in the series. Like how house elves are basically just brownies (mythical creatures from Scottish folklore), but Joanne felt like she had to put her own unique spin on them, and her changes ended up with a species who enjoys being slaves and are offended if you try to free them.
[Did J.K. Rowling STEAL Harry Potter (Rip-off? Plagiarism?!) by Caelan Conrad.](https://youtu.be/Cmx_YSPcujE?si=0cKulanOAyMO4GK0) This one is great for finding works that have similarities to Harry Potter, and also I personally find Caelan incredibly funny.
I know I’ve seen others, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind.
Besides these, another recommendation I have for engaging with Harry Potter is through the Starkid Musicals. [The first one was remastered about a year ago.](https://youtu.be/Fu3rG5Vd8Bk?si=gWksg7nH_EiXdoLt) They’re not at all affiliated with Joanne, and they’re so so funny! Granted not all of the jokes have aged the greatest in the last 14 years, but I think they’re still a great watch if you’ve never seen them.
I'd also recommend fanfiction that points out what is wrong with the series. On AO3, there are many fics that deconstruct the HP worldbuilding.
My favorite are the works of ShieldEcho, a trans nb former HP fan who analyzed the [novels](https://archiveofourown.org/series/59757), the [movies](https://archiveofourown.org/series/59334), the [play](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15860916), and the [FB series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/3451036) page by page and scene by scene, pointing out the inconsistencies and problematic aspects.
And here are some archived posts from FerretBrain that analyze the themes of the books and movies: [https://preserving-ferretbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/Harry%20Potter](https://preserving-ferretbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/Harry%20Potter)
My hard limit it's spending money on it, you enjoy it, rewatch your books and dvds, fan fIcs, fan art, but spending money on it from now on it's a no to me.
I have this same problem. As a property, there is still so much I love about HP and the fan community around it. But my wife is a trans woman and it just makes me so sick to hear the shit that JK says about trans women, specifically, and to know that she spends enormous amounts of money funding programs specifically intended to harm trans women.
It’s easier to divorce the art from the artist when the artist is dead and you’re posthumously learning how horrible they were. As much as it pains me, I’ve had to let my love of HP languish because I love my wife and the dignity of trans people so much more than I ever loved some books.
So I understand if you still want to stay a fan, but you won’t find a lot of community out there.
Honestly I would say find other books.
Like they aren't great as a series, so finding books by less... Problematic... Or even more quiet authors will be a lot better in the long run.
Like the Septimus Heap series by Angie sage, Bartimeus by Jonathan Stroud (especially if the house elf thing pissed you off) or the old kingdom series are all great starts
I personally don't spend money on it cause I don't want to support her. Watching your old DVDs (or watching the movies in a way that doesn't financially support her) or reading your old copies of the books/reading them in a library/bought second hand is probably the best suggestion I can give you. There are also fanfics, or quizzes on Quotev for example.
I do think these are ways to consume her work without supporting her. It's then up to you to decide if it is more beneficial for you or not to do that, or to try to completely detache from it.
I'm cisgender, and truthfully I think I'd find it easier to still enjoy Harry Potter if I was trans than as a cis person trying to be an ally.
If I enjoy Harry Potter, I feel like I'm letting down people who are far more vulnerable than I am. I think if I was trans and I wanted to enjoy it, I'd be able to say, 'Sod it, it's my decision and I'm going to enjoy it and I don't care what anyone says.' So you do what feels right for you.
i’m sorry but this is an extremely ignorant perspective. you’re viewing the matter entirely through a lens of how much personal guilt you feel as a cis ally and thinking if you were trans well that would alleviate the guilt so you’d be free to enjoy it more! yeahhhhh NOPE—you’re just oblivious to how much worse it feels (in a different sense than guilt) when YOU’RE the one being dehumanized and hated, when YOU’VE spent your life terrified of people thinking the things rowling thinks/promotes about you.
To be clear, that's not the only lens I'm viewing it through. I used to enjoy Harry Potter and think that as long as I wasn't actually purchasing it I could still enjoy it privately. But the more she's come out and become more extreme, the more I've found it hard to personally enjoy what she writes. I still enjoy debating it, but more in a way that exposes the dog-whistles that were always there.
But I'm trying to view it from the perspective of the person who's posted this thread, who clearly still enjoys the story and is trying to work out their own feelings regarding it. And there I think there is a difference. I've known trans people who've burned and thrown out all their merchandise. I've also known trans people who have found ways of enjoying it regardless. As a cis person I feel like it's not right for me to judge what they do, especially because as the people who are the victims here I feel like it's up to them personally how they want to handle it. In the same way, I feel like it's not quite up to me personally, because as someone in a position of privilege as a cis person I feel like I'd be letting someone else down were I to continue to enjoy it. If the person potentially being harmed is someone else who's potentially got less power than you, I feel like you're in more of a position of responsibility to do right by them than if the person potentially being harmed is you. Do you disagree?
What helped me detach myself from the series was seeing how bad the worldbuilding was.
I have been an HP fan for my entire childhood, then I lost all interest in it after I learned about Rowling's transphobic tweets in 2019. That happened shortly after I've read the cursed play and my faith in Rowling was extremely low. For almost two years, I did not touch anything HP-related, merely because I felt no need to. It wasn't a conscious decision.
And then I came back.
Funnily enough, I did it only for the smut. AO3 has plenty of that. I wrote several single-chapter fics of my own. I extensively engaged with the fanfiction community. I've started planning out writing something longer.
Then, for fic research, I pirated Fantastic Beasts 2 and my hope for Rowling to produce anything good ever again died for the second time.
But I still wanted to write out my AU - with a Harry who has agency, with an openly gay Dumbledore who's doing his best, and a world that is dark and full of bigotry and oppression but the protagonists are actually doing something about it. Also with an MtF Hermione just because fuck Rowling. So I kept doing my research and planning, hoping to make sense of what was depicted in canon.
Except that the HP canon looks shiny and colorful and fun when you're looking at it from a distance, but the moment you look closer you're finding yourself watching a pile of shit in pretty covers. Many of the problematic aspects are so ingrained in the books - the House system, the Statute of Secrecy - that trying to fix one problem you encounter ten more.
In the end, it wasn't Rowling's transphobia that killed HP for me. It was the ridiculous plot contrivances; the dissonance between the themes it's supposed to portray and the themes it actually does; it was the shallow worldbuilding that fell apart under scrutiny.
And then I accidentally got into another fandom and haven't looked back ever since.
I don't think its worth your time, money, or mental health to continue supporting a creator who actively hates you. I'm not trans, but her stances are so antithetical to my world view,and so dangerous, that I'd rather not give her any more money or platform than she already has. If this is the hill she wants to stake her reputation and money on, that's on her, but I don't eat chick-fil-a andi don't consume hp, anf my life is not worse for it. Now that my daughter came out as trans, I would never consider it.
Honestly I've realized that, having read the Harry Potter books obsessively from ages 6-12, I realized I self projected into Harry a lot and reminds me of like....Trans feelings as a kid lmao. Im transmasc. I was also a pretty bold kid, standing up to shitty people even when I was young, and I feel like I got some of that boldness from Harry. It's such a bummer that she wrote him. I also totally felt like the kid under the staircase, my family was pretty horrible and moved around between relatives a lot. I also went to a fucking boarding school too in high school. Like I identified with him a lot 😭😭 I even used to work at a library that is known for looking like hogwarts.
I don't really have advice but just to say I understand the attachment. I honestly think that's a big part of why her descent into TERFdom is so hurtful. Like yeah I'm angry but anger is secondary emotion to sadness 😥 if I were to ever reread, I'd probably do it from the library, while wearing a pronoun pin or something so the librarians don't get it twisted 😂 I do have the desire to go to the theme park one day. My wife went to Universal the day before HP world first opened and its been killing her ever since. I need to hear more about breaking in 😂😂 because I do not wanna give anymore money to that dementor
So I’m gonna take a slightly different tack: why do you have to stop enjoying the media?
I still own my DVDs of a few of the movies, because I like them as movies. I already bought them, so im not supporting her financially, and on the odd occasion I watch them, it’s in the privacy of my own home so I’m not supporting or endorsing her politics.
Enjoying media made by bad people, does not make you a bad person. Even enjoying problematic media, if you understand it’s problematic. Why do you *have* to let go of it?
I enjoy prisoner of Azkaban as a story *despite* rowling. Not because of her. And I’ve made peace with that
My solution as a trans woman with a soft spot for some elements of the series is to just file the serial numbers off and incorporate those elements into spite writing, like Philip Pullman did with Narnia
Same as a few others my hard limit is spending money. Especially since she uses that support as fuel and encouragement to continue her tirades. There is no ethical consumption in capitalism (or at least its incredibly difficult), but at least most other problematic artists and creators (etc) who get outed have a tendency to just quietly collect their paychecks from residuals or new media, etc. In the case of JK her royalties and residuals and etc just make her louder. That makes it incredibly easy for me to not support her.
honestly at this point you just need to let it go, it'll just make you feel bad associating with it while she makes money off it. there are lots of other things you can invest your time into that don't support such a person, it sucks that your fandom is tainted, but you will definitely find something new :)
Every person has their own relationship with divorcing the artist from the art, and I don't think someone else can tell you how yours should be. There's no objective answer to this. Perhaps all they can do is tell you how they feel about it, for the sake of discourse that can help you work out if you agree or not. I've loved HP since I was a kid. That's changed over the years to nostalgia plus critical analysis of the text - which I do enjoy. A good convo on how Hermione's represented and how Dumbledore was a groomer? Love it. In a way, I feel HP is shielded from JK for me by a) I bought the books ages ago and have spent no more money that goes into her pockets and b) the fanfiction/fanworks community, which has been re-analysing and critiquing the work for 2 decades. The people in those communities are often not JK fans. They became fans of the text when HP was about fighting against oppression and misrepresentation of minorities. And they've been going against JK since she said "no smut in fanfiction" and keep on it, not respecting the supposed sanctity of characters by reimagining them or being critical of the text through them. For me, the books still do hold a message of learning to understand and accept minority groups, even simply because that's what a whole generation of readers took them to mean and inspired them to do. A lot of people will talk about how they felt the books encouraged them to come out of the closet (and, understandably, how they now feel betrayed by JK). I would say this does not mean I support JK, and I don't feel I do. Others probably have different opinions on this, though, and I'm sure for many people they can't divorce the text from her. Quite possibly someone will come and reply to my comment saying it's unfathomable that I can feel morally ok with still liking the books despite hating JK - and they wouldn't be wrong to think so. For them, presumably, it is impossible to like one and hate the other without that causing moral discomfort/pain.
>And they've been going against JK since she said "no smut in fanfiction" Did she actually say that? I always thought it was Warner Brothers trying to censor HP fanworks, but was it coming from her too?
I've got this one from wikipedia: ['J. K. Rowling has also complained about sexually explicit Harry Potter fan fiction.'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction) Haven't done a deep dive into where and when she said it though
This is extra funny when you consider that notorious TERF Helen Joyce was caught reading Harry Potter smut fanfic on a train, *and casually retweeted JKR in the middle of it.* https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/twibs-helen-joyce-potter-fanfic
this is a great response, detailed and thought out but the main thing is not answering it for OP, it 100% is their decision how they define their relationship with HP
Hol' up , Dumbledoor's a what now??
Not a sexual groomer, but an older trusted figure in Harry's life who groomed him to do something a child shouldn't have to do none the less. He was the person in a position of power to at least try to make things better for Harry at his aunt and uncle's place. Instead, he "had his reasons", making sure Harry stayed there, where he was isolated and abused, without doing a thing to make it better for him - from the time Harry was 1 year old. Great way to get Harry to be a complaint little soldier for him, by making sure Harry had a yearning for some kind of parental figure in his life who was kind to him. He then treated Harry as the "special boy", praising Harry when Harry was put through traumatic experience after traumatic experience (rather than do a thing to take care of Voldemort, Crouch, Umbridge, etc, himself). He never gave Harry the wiggle room to evaluate Dumbledore's actions for himself. Instead, Dumbledore always shared his "regrets" in a way that begged pity from Harry and impressed his unquestionable "wisdom" on him. From year one, when Harry was 11, Dumbledore engineered things to make Harry fight his battles for him. He chose to bring the philosopher's stone into a school, defended by a sequence of tasks a first year could overcome, and coached Harry with supposed sympathy into understanding the Mirror of Erised. When Harry did manage to triumph, Dumbledore praised him for being a good loving boy. Which is what Dumbledore did year after year: talk about how much he loved Harry and his parents, and how that was why he was putting Harry through hell.
idk I think you get to love HP if you want to, just like .. steal, yk?
How do you propose I steal, just out of curiosity ;)
Find ways to engage that don't give JKR any money. Borrow books/movies from your library, engage in fan communities. Depending on your interests and ethical limits there's also pirating games, commissioning independent artists, and breaking into theme parks.
Let's see, theme parks make way too much money so he'll yeah on that, my mum got me Hogwart's legacy for Christmas before I came out as trans and piracy is always fun.
Asking someone who sews/knits to make you House scarves or robes is also illegal, as long as you're paying them.
I do sew and my nan is gonna teach me to knit lol, so I'll just make them myself
I used to think exactly like that. I couldn't imagine my life without HP. Then I realized I felt worse and worse every time I consumed anything HP. Then I just gradually consumed less and less, and now it's not even something I think about anymore. I managed to get over it, you can too. Being trans myself, I felt nauseous thinking about how many vile things JKR has said about people like myself, and it made me unable to enjoy the franchise anymore as all I did was connect the two together. I don't want anything to do with someone as terrible as her, and that includes her works.
Since you’re a fellow trans person, my personal answer would be that *Wizards of Earthsea*, *Ikenfell*, and *Fire Emblem Three Houses* all do the whole “magical fantasy school” thing much better than Rowling did. They’re not perfect, but I’d recommend exploring them over HP any day, because they all are incredibly complex, thought-provoking, and deep in ways that Harry Potter just…isn’t. At this point, if it’s literally anyone else my answer is “look if you’re coming to me, a trans person, asking if it’s okay to like a book written by a woman who is currently poised to shape policy on trans folks in the UK that will fuck them over as heavily as possible, I’ve got bigger things to worry about than validating your choice of literature. Get some perspective.”
Caelan Conrad recently [posted this video](https://youtu.be/Cmx_YSPcujE?si=ggLLNfO75Cpr4g8K) in which they name a several series (including some you've mentioned!) that may be worthwhile alternatives as well! They also talk about another reason why HP may not be it.
The Earthsea books are fantastic! They were written well before HP. But I remember when HP became popular, there was an attempt to bank on that. Made it a bit too HP when the story itself was fine. Changed some key things that felt like they were trying to dumb the story down. Ursula Le Guin is a much better writer. Lots of other great stories from her.
Oh, were there changed editions or something like that? I hope not, I hope the originals are intact. I have yet to read them, shamefully, but *The Lathe of Heaven* is one of my favorite all-time books.
I missed the word “movie”. There was a movie back in the early 2000s that was more HP like than her fantastic world
Ah, okay good. Was it the Studio Ghibli one?
No. The American SyFy channel.
Have you tried looking into ways that the books themselves have issues? That’s really helped me detach from the series, and I used to be a diehard HP fan. I can recommend some great YouTube videos!
Thank you, that might actually help
[Harry Potter by shaun.](https://youtu.be/-1iaJWSwUZs?si=PcORsDayvEl9w183) Iirc this was the first Harry Potter critique I ever watched, and it’s also the one I’ve seen most talked about since. He gives a great overview of a variety of subjects, from plot/storytelling issues to some of the more problematic aspects of the series (fatphobia, racial stereotypes, house elves, etc.) The 10 hour, ironically named [A Brief Look at Harry Potter by Lily Simpson.](https://youtu.be/N2WDCD_tRnE?si=cAr9pKRyqYol-Jq5) This one really deep dives into so many of the previously mentioned issues, and I specifically remember a lot of criticism about the worldbuilding of the series. Things like how the economy works, and the ministry of magic, and wizard prison. [Is Harry Potter Bad? by hoots.](https://youtu.be/U3dE0sYZqvI?si=Yk2TXuowoJELen0t) This one I really liked for her speculation on how some of the problematic elements ended up in the series. Like how house elves are basically just brownies (mythical creatures from Scottish folklore), but Joanne felt like she had to put her own unique spin on them, and her changes ended up with a species who enjoys being slaves and are offended if you try to free them. [Did J.K. Rowling STEAL Harry Potter (Rip-off? Plagiarism?!) by Caelan Conrad.](https://youtu.be/Cmx_YSPcujE?si=0cKulanOAyMO4GK0) This one is great for finding works that have similarities to Harry Potter, and also I personally find Caelan incredibly funny. I know I’ve seen others, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind. Besides these, another recommendation I have for engaging with Harry Potter is through the Starkid Musicals. [The first one was remastered about a year ago.](https://youtu.be/Fu3rG5Vd8Bk?si=gWksg7nH_EiXdoLt) They’re not at all affiliated with Joanne, and they’re so so funny! Granted not all of the jokes have aged the greatest in the last 14 years, but I think they’re still a great watch if you’ve never seen them.
I'd also recommend fanfiction that points out what is wrong with the series. On AO3, there are many fics that deconstruct the HP worldbuilding. My favorite are the works of ShieldEcho, a trans nb former HP fan who analyzed the [novels](https://archiveofourown.org/series/59757), the [movies](https://archiveofourown.org/series/59334), the [play](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15860916), and the [FB series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/3451036) page by page and scene by scene, pointing out the inconsistencies and problematic aspects. And here are some archived posts from FerretBrain that analyze the themes of the books and movies: [https://preserving-ferretbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/Harry%20Potter](https://preserving-ferretbrain.tumblr.com/tagged/Harry%20Potter)
My hard limit it's spending money on it, you enjoy it, rewatch your books and dvds, fan fIcs, fan art, but spending money on it from now on it's a no to me.
I mean it's OK but I have difficulty seeing how you can do it. Harry Potter stuff just makes me feel sad now.
There are loads of other good writers in the same genre. I recommend Diana Wynne Jones, Frances Hardinge, Pat O'Shea, Philip Pullman, to name a few.
I have this same problem. As a property, there is still so much I love about HP and the fan community around it. But my wife is a trans woman and it just makes me so sick to hear the shit that JK says about trans women, specifically, and to know that she spends enormous amounts of money funding programs specifically intended to harm trans women. It’s easier to divorce the art from the artist when the artist is dead and you’re posthumously learning how horrible they were. As much as it pains me, I’ve had to let my love of HP languish because I love my wife and the dignity of trans people so much more than I ever loved some books. So I understand if you still want to stay a fan, but you won’t find a lot of community out there.
Honestly I would say find other books. Like they aren't great as a series, so finding books by less... Problematic... Or even more quiet authors will be a lot better in the long run. Like the Septimus Heap series by Angie sage, Bartimeus by Jonathan Stroud (especially if the house elf thing pissed you off) or the old kingdom series are all great starts
I personally don't spend money on it cause I don't want to support her. Watching your old DVDs (or watching the movies in a way that doesn't financially support her) or reading your old copies of the books/reading them in a library/bought second hand is probably the best suggestion I can give you. There are also fanfics, or quizzes on Quotev for example. I do think these are ways to consume her work without supporting her. It's then up to you to decide if it is more beneficial for you or not to do that, or to try to completely detache from it.
There is also an anime that is basically a parody of Harry Potter, and there's a trans character. It's called Mashle.
I'm cisgender, and truthfully I think I'd find it easier to still enjoy Harry Potter if I was trans than as a cis person trying to be an ally. If I enjoy Harry Potter, I feel like I'm letting down people who are far more vulnerable than I am. I think if I was trans and I wanted to enjoy it, I'd be able to say, 'Sod it, it's my decision and I'm going to enjoy it and I don't care what anyone says.' So you do what feels right for you.
i’m sorry but this is an extremely ignorant perspective. you’re viewing the matter entirely through a lens of how much personal guilt you feel as a cis ally and thinking if you were trans well that would alleviate the guilt so you’d be free to enjoy it more! yeahhhhh NOPE—you’re just oblivious to how much worse it feels (in a different sense than guilt) when YOU’RE the one being dehumanized and hated, when YOU’VE spent your life terrified of people thinking the things rowling thinks/promotes about you.
To be clear, that's not the only lens I'm viewing it through. I used to enjoy Harry Potter and think that as long as I wasn't actually purchasing it I could still enjoy it privately. But the more she's come out and become more extreme, the more I've found it hard to personally enjoy what she writes. I still enjoy debating it, but more in a way that exposes the dog-whistles that were always there. But I'm trying to view it from the perspective of the person who's posted this thread, who clearly still enjoys the story and is trying to work out their own feelings regarding it. And there I think there is a difference. I've known trans people who've burned and thrown out all their merchandise. I've also known trans people who have found ways of enjoying it regardless. As a cis person I feel like it's not right for me to judge what they do, especially because as the people who are the victims here I feel like it's up to them personally how they want to handle it. In the same way, I feel like it's not quite up to me personally, because as someone in a position of privilege as a cis person I feel like I'd be letting someone else down were I to continue to enjoy it. If the person potentially being harmed is someone else who's potentially got less power than you, I feel like you're in more of a position of responsibility to do right by them than if the person potentially being harmed is you. Do you disagree?
I don't think you should blame yourself for that. We don't chose what we enjoy. But have you tried reading/watching other sagas?
What helped me detach myself from the series was seeing how bad the worldbuilding was. I have been an HP fan for my entire childhood, then I lost all interest in it after I learned about Rowling's transphobic tweets in 2019. That happened shortly after I've read the cursed play and my faith in Rowling was extremely low. For almost two years, I did not touch anything HP-related, merely because I felt no need to. It wasn't a conscious decision. And then I came back. Funnily enough, I did it only for the smut. AO3 has plenty of that. I wrote several single-chapter fics of my own. I extensively engaged with the fanfiction community. I've started planning out writing something longer. Then, for fic research, I pirated Fantastic Beasts 2 and my hope for Rowling to produce anything good ever again died for the second time. But I still wanted to write out my AU - with a Harry who has agency, with an openly gay Dumbledore who's doing his best, and a world that is dark and full of bigotry and oppression but the protagonists are actually doing something about it. Also with an MtF Hermione just because fuck Rowling. So I kept doing my research and planning, hoping to make sense of what was depicted in canon. Except that the HP canon looks shiny and colorful and fun when you're looking at it from a distance, but the moment you look closer you're finding yourself watching a pile of shit in pretty covers. Many of the problematic aspects are so ingrained in the books - the House system, the Statute of Secrecy - that trying to fix one problem you encounter ten more. In the end, it wasn't Rowling's transphobia that killed HP for me. It was the ridiculous plot contrivances; the dissonance between the themes it's supposed to portray and the themes it actually does; it was the shallow worldbuilding that fell apart under scrutiny. And then I accidentally got into another fandom and haven't looked back ever since.
I don't think its worth your time, money, or mental health to continue supporting a creator who actively hates you. I'm not trans, but her stances are so antithetical to my world view,and so dangerous, that I'd rather not give her any more money or platform than she already has. If this is the hill she wants to stake her reputation and money on, that's on her, but I don't eat chick-fil-a andi don't consume hp, anf my life is not worse for it. Now that my daughter came out as trans, I would never consider it.
"is it okay to be a hp fan" not really but I don't get to police people's interests
Honestly I've realized that, having read the Harry Potter books obsessively from ages 6-12, I realized I self projected into Harry a lot and reminds me of like....Trans feelings as a kid lmao. Im transmasc. I was also a pretty bold kid, standing up to shitty people even when I was young, and I feel like I got some of that boldness from Harry. It's such a bummer that she wrote him. I also totally felt like the kid under the staircase, my family was pretty horrible and moved around between relatives a lot. I also went to a fucking boarding school too in high school. Like I identified with him a lot 😭😭 I even used to work at a library that is known for looking like hogwarts. I don't really have advice but just to say I understand the attachment. I honestly think that's a big part of why her descent into TERFdom is so hurtful. Like yeah I'm angry but anger is secondary emotion to sadness 😥 if I were to ever reread, I'd probably do it from the library, while wearing a pronoun pin or something so the librarians don't get it twisted 😂 I do have the desire to go to the theme park one day. My wife went to Universal the day before HP world first opened and its been killing her ever since. I need to hear more about breaking in 😂😂 because I do not wanna give anymore money to that dementor
So I’m gonna take a slightly different tack: why do you have to stop enjoying the media? I still own my DVDs of a few of the movies, because I like them as movies. I already bought them, so im not supporting her financially, and on the odd occasion I watch them, it’s in the privacy of my own home so I’m not supporting or endorsing her politics. Enjoying media made by bad people, does not make you a bad person. Even enjoying problematic media, if you understand it’s problematic. Why do you *have* to let go of it? I enjoy prisoner of Azkaban as a story *despite* rowling. Not because of her. And I’ve made peace with that
My solution as a trans woman with a soft spot for some elements of the series is to just file the serial numbers off and incorporate those elements into spite writing, like Philip Pullman did with Narnia
Same as a few others my hard limit is spending money. Especially since she uses that support as fuel and encouragement to continue her tirades. There is no ethical consumption in capitalism (or at least its incredibly difficult), but at least most other problematic artists and creators (etc) who get outed have a tendency to just quietly collect their paychecks from residuals or new media, etc. In the case of JK her royalties and residuals and etc just make her louder. That makes it incredibly easy for me to not support her.
Not really, not anymore.
As long as you don’t pay for anything official and fund her harming other trans people