I wrote a 12 page epilogue to my 2019 comic "Harry Potter and The Problematic Author" because I found, in 2023, that I had more to say. You can also find this comic on my website, and I have PDF copies available on etsy. I may sell print copies at some point in the future.
instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my book / redbubble
Full transcript below the cut.
PAGE 1
Part one: Ruddy Owls!
I was in fourth grade when the first Harry Potter Book was released in the US.
Panel 1: Sometimes our teacher would read it aloud in class. âMr and Mrs Dursley of number 4 Privat Drive were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very muchâŠâ
Panel 2: I was 11 years old when Harry Potter finally broke through my dyslexia and turned me into a reader.
Panel 3: Every night in the summer before sixth grade I waited for the owl carrying my Hogwarts Letter. I cried when it didnât come. âI have to go to Muggle school!â
PAGE 2
Part Two: Hats
I dedicated myself to being a fan.
Panel 1: I began collecting Harry Potter News article.
Panel 2: I asked my relatives to mail me ones from their local papers. I filled a thick binder with clippings.
Panel 3: I wrote my own trivia quiz
Panel 4: and participated in the one held annually at the county fair. âNext contestant!â
Panel 5: I usually got into one of. the top five spots. I won boxes of candy, posters, stationary, and once a baseball cap. (Hat reads: I survived the battle of Hogwarts).
Panel 6: In high school I sewed a black velvet cape and knitted many stripped scarves.
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Part Three: Double Trouble
Watching the last film in 2011 felt like the final note of my childhood.Â
Panel 1: I remember driving home from the midnight showing thinking about the end of 13 years of waiting; wondering what would define the next chapter of my life.Â
Panel 2: That same month I heard of something called Pottermore. âOkay, so thereâs a sorting quiz⊠I already know my house! Patronus assignment? Mineâs a barn owl. Duh!"Â
Panel 3: You can read the books again but with GIFs? Why?Â
Panel 4: I lived in a place with very slow and limited internet at the time. Pottermore sounded inaccessible, but also boring. I never joined.Â
Panel 5: "Iâll just read the actual books again, thanks."Â
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Part Four: Sweets
In 2016, a series of short stories titled "History of Magic in North Americaâ were released on Pottermore to pave the way for the first Fantastic Beasts Film. These stories display an extreme ignorance of American history, culture, and geography, but the worst parts are the casual misuse of indigenous beliefs and stories. Fans and critics immediately spoke up against this appropriation. Some of the most quoted voices included Nambe Pueblo scholar Dr. Debbie Reese who runs the site âAmerican Indians In Childrenâs Literatureâ; Navajo writer Brian Young; Johnnie Jae (Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw), founder of A Tribe Called Geek; Dr Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation), a Professor at Brown University who runs the blog âNative Appropriationsâ, and writers N.K. Jemison and Paula Young Lee.
PAGE 5
Rowling is famous for responding to fans directly on twitter, yet she did not respond to anyone calling out the damaging aspects of âMagic in North America.â Her representatives refused to comment for March 9 2016 article in the Guardian. She has never apologized. All of this, plus the casting of Johnny Depp and the specific declarations of support by JKR, Warner Brothers, and director David Yates left a sour taste in my mouth.
For further thoughts on the new films read The Crimes of Grindelwald is a Mess by Alanna Bennett for Buzzfeed News, November 16, 2018.
PAGE 6
Excerpt from Colonialism in Wizarding American: JK Rowlingâs History of Magic in North America Through an Indigenous Lens by Allison Mills, MFA, MAS/MLIS (Cree and Settler French Canadian)
Although Rowling is certainly not the first white author to misstep in her treatment of Indigenous cultures, she has an unprecedented level of visibility and fame, [âŠ] One of the most glaring problems with Rowlingâs story is her treatment of the many Indigenous nations in North America as one monolithic group. [âŠIt] flattens out the diversity of languages, belief systems, and cultures that exist in Indigenous communities, allowing stereotyping to persist. [âŠ] It continues a long history of colonial texts which ignore that Indigenous peoples still exist. [âŠ] In the Wizarding world, as in the real world, Indigenous histories have been over-written and our cultures erased.
from The Looking Glass: New Perspectives in Childrenâs Literature Volumn 19, Issue 1
PAGE 7
Part 5: Music
Panel 1: Also in 2016 I discovered two podcasts which radically altered my experience of being an HP fan. The first was Witch Please created by two Canadian feminist literary scholars Hannah McGregor and Marcelle Kosman.
Panel 2: âIf itâs not in the text it doesnât count!â âClose reading ONLY!â
Panel 3: They talk about Harry Potter at the level youâd expect in a college class with particular focus on gender, race, class, and the troubling fatphobia, fear of othered and queer coded bodies, violence against women, white feminism, gaslighting and failed pedagogy in the books. They bring up these issues not because they hate the series, but because they LOVE it.
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These passionate, joyful conversations went off like fireworks in my mind. I had never taken a feminist class before. I gained a whole new vocabulary to talk about the books- and the world.
PAGE 9
Panel 1: The second podcast I started that year was Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, created by two graduates of the Harvard Divinity School, Vanessa Zoltan and Casper Ter Kuile.
Panel 2: They read one chapter per episode through a theme such as love, control, curiosity, shame, responsibility, hospitality, destruction, or mystery. Like Witch Please, they are interested only in the information on the page, not thoughts from the author. The delights and failures of the text are examined in the context of the present day, and new meanings constantly arise.
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What does it mean to treat a text as sacred?
Trusting that the more time we give to it, the more blessings it has to give us.
Reading the text repeatedly with concentrated attention. Our effort is part of what makes it sacred. The text is not in and of itself sacred, but is made so by rigorously engaging in the ritual of reading.
Experiencing it in community.
âTo me, the goal of treating the text as sacred is that we learn to treat each other as sacred.â -Vanessa Zoltan
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Part 6: Tooth and Claw
In October 2017, Rowling liked a tweet linking to an article arguing that trans women should be kept out of womenâs bathrooms because of cisgender womenâs fears. In March 2018, she liked a tweet about the problem of misogyny in the UK Labour Party which included the line âMen in dresses get brosocialist solidarity I never had.â The author of the tweet had previously posted many blatantly anti-trans statements.
Rowlings publicist claimed she had liked the posted by accident in a âclumsy and middle-aged moment.â Yet, in September 2018 she liked a link posted by Janice Turner to her column in the Times UK titled âTrans Rapists Are A Danger In Womenâs Jails.â
Screencaps of these tweets can be found in the article âThe Mysterious Case of JK Rowling and her Transphobic Twitter Historyâ, January 10 2019 by Gwendolyn Smith (a trans journalist), LGBTQNation.com
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Excerpt from: Is JK Rowling Transphobic? A Trans Woman Investigates by Katelyn Burns
Ultimately, the answer is yes, she is transphobic [âŠ] I think itâs fair that she receives criticism from trans people, especially given her advocacy on behalf of queer people in general, but also because she has a huge platform. Many people look up to her for creating a singular piece of popular culture that holds deep meaning for fans from different walks of life, and she has a responsibility to handle that platform wisely. (Published on them.us March 28, 2018)
PAGE 13
Part 7: Home
At age 30, Iâm still not over Harry Potter.
Panel 1: Iâve recently found a local bar that does HP trivia nights. âPoppy or Pomona?â âPoppy!â
Panel 2: I currently own an annual pass to Universal Studios so I can visit Hogsmeade.
Panel 3: I love talking to kids who are reading the books for the first time. âWhoâs your favorite character?â âGinny!â
Panel 4: And Iâm planning a relisten to the audio books to next year to help me get through the election cycle. âJim Dale, Iâm going to need you more than everâŠâ
Spoiler from 2023: I did not do this. By mid-2020 JKR had posted her transphobic essay; we were in covid; I never visited Universal Studios again.
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But I do want to learn from her mistakes. I never want to repeat âMagic in North America.â As I write, I will do my research. I will consult experts and compensate them. If a reader from a different culture/background than me speaks up about my work, I will listen and apologize. I KNOW I WILL MAKE MISTAKES. But I will own up to them and I will do better.
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Excerpt from Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power and Publishing by Daniel José Older
We can love a thing and still critique it. In fact, thatâs the only way to really love a thing. Letâs be critical lovers and loving critics and open ourselves to the truth about where we are and where weâve been. Instead of holding tight to the same old, failed patriarchies, letâs walk a new road, speak new languages. Today, letâs imagine a literature, a literary world, that carries this struggle for equity in its very essence, so that tomorrow it can cease to be necessary, and disappear. (Buzzfeed, April 14, 2017)Â
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Harry Potter is flawed, & JK Rowling is problematic. But the books helped me learn a lot:Â
*One of the greatest dangers facing the modern world is the rise of fascismÂ
*The government cannot be trustedÂ
*Read and think critically
*Question the news: who paid the journalist? Who owns the paper?Â
*Trust and support your friends through good times and bad
*Organize for resistance
*Educate and share resources with peers
*The revolution must be diverse and intersectional
* We are only as strong as we are united
*The weapon we have is loveÂ
MK 2019
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PART 8: EPILOGUE
In 2021 I removed a Harry Potter patch I sewed to my book bag over a decade ago. I took 15 pieces of Harry Potter fanart off my walls. I got rid of my paperback book set, 2 board games, and 8 t-shirt. [images: a Hogwarts a patch with loose threads, a pair of scissors and a seam ripper]
Panel 1: Maia holding up a shirt with the Deathly Hallows logo on it. Maia thinks: âDamn, this really used to be my entire personality.â
Panel 2: The t-shirt gets thrown into the Goodwill box.
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I wrote my zine wrestling with JKRâs legacy in 2019, after her dismissive and racist reaction to indigenous fans and critics of âMagic in North Americaâ and after she had liked a couple transphobic tweets. Since then, she has gotten so much worse.
A Brief Timeline (mostly from this Vox article)
June 2020- JKR posts a 3600 word essay making her anti-trans position clear
August 2020- The Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Org issues a statement about her transphobia, JKR doubles down on her position and returns an award they gave her
December 2020- JKR claims 90% of HP fans secretly agree with her anti-trans views
December 2021- JKR mocks Scottish Police for recognizing transgender identities
March 2022- JKR criticizes gender-inclusive language and legislation
December 2022- JKR retweets trans youtuber Jessie Earlâs critical review of Hogwarts Legacy, starting an onslaught of transphobic harassment towards Earl
December 2022- JKR removes her support from an Edinburgh center for survivors of sexual violence with a trans-inclusive policy and funds her own center which explicitly excludes trans sexual assault survivors
January 2023- JKR tweets âDeeply amused by those telling me Iâve lost their admiration due to disrespect I show violent, duplicitous rapists.â It got nearly 300K likes
March 2023- One the podcast âThe Witch Trials of JK Rowlingâ, hosted by a former Westboro Baptist Church Member, JKR compares the trans rights movement to Death Eaters.
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What are The Witch Trials of JK Rowling?
Panel 1: Maia speaking. âItâs a 7 episode documentary style podcast hosted by Megan Phelps-Roper. Nearly every episode contains interviews with JKR as well as critics, journalists, historians, protestors and fans.
Panel 2: Maia speaking. âIn episode 1, JKR speaks more candidly than she has previously about being in an abusive marriage. Her ex-husband hit her, stalked her, broke into her house overlapping with the time she was writing the first three HP books.â
Panel 3: Maia speaking. âWhat she went through genuinely sounds horrific. I have a lot of sympathy for the kind of life-long traumas those experiences leave.â
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HOWEVER.
It is clear from reading the June 2020 essay on her blog and listening to the podcast, that JKR still to this day feels unsafe. Despite her wealth and privilege she moves through the world with the mindset of a victim. And the group of people she finds most threatening are trans women.
Or rather, she is afraid that allowing trans women in womenâs spaces invites the possibility of male predators entering those spaces.
Hereâs a direct quote: The problem is male violence. All a predator wants is access and to open the doors of changing rooms, rape centers, domestic violence centers [...] to any male who says âIâm a woman and I have a right to be hereâ will constitute a risk to women and girls. - from The Witch Trials episode 4 as transcribed by therowlinglibrary.com, March 2023
Image: A stem of Belladonna with flowers and berries.
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Let me introduce here the term: TRANSMISOGYNY. The intersection of transphobia and misogyny, this term was coined by Julia Serano in 2007. Scout Tran, on tiktok as Queersneverdie said: âTransmisogyny occurs in people who have been previously hurt by traditional misogyny. Who have been driven to hate men or at the very least to be scared of men. They will sometimes take out that rage on trans women. (March 2023)
JKR claims to care for trans women and understand they are extremely vulnerable to assault and violence. In her 2020 Essay she wrote: âI want trans women to be safe. At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe.â
So she cares about trans women⊠just less than cis women, and sheâs willing to throw all trans women under the bus because of her unfounded, prejudice fears.
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Panel 1: Maia speaking. âJKR claims to have seen data that proves trans women have presented physical threats to other women in intimate spaces, but never cites sources. She also uses âproducer of the large gametesâ as a definition of âwomanâ.
What about transmen and nonbinary folks?
Panel 2: Maia leaning on a stack of all seven HP books, the first four Cormorant Strike books and The Casual Vacancy, gesturing to a series of quotes with a tired and disgusted expression.
Iâm concerned about the huge explosion of young women wishing to transition and also about the increasing numbers who seem to be detransitioning. * [...] If Iâd been born 30 years later, I too might have tried to transition. The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. -June 10 2020 essay
I donât believe a 14 year old can truly understand what the loss of their fertility is.
-Witch Trials episode 4
I havenât yet found a study that hasnât found that the majority of young people experiencing gender dysphoria grow out of it*. -Witch Trials episode 7
*No sources cited
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Itâs hard to over emphasize how fixated JKR has become on these topics. As of the date Iâm writing this, 14 out of her 20 most recent tweets (70%) are in some way anti-trans. She tweets against Mermaids (a UK based trans youth charity), against trans athletes, against gender neutral bathrooms, and in support of LBG Alliance- a UK org that denies trans rights while upholding gay rights. Here are some gems from her archive:
âPeople who menstruate.â Iâm sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? -June 2020
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman. - December 2021
And in response to someone asking âHow do you sleep at night knowing you lost a whole audience?â
I read my most recent royalty cheques and find the pain goes away pretty quickly. -October 2022
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Hashtag Ruthless Productions a queer nerd podcast company created a great guide on ethical engagement with HP. Image: the two hosts of Hashtag Ruthless productions, Jessie (They/she) and Lark (he/him).
Stop buying all official HP Products: books, movies, games, toys, etc, Universal Studios tickets, food, merch.* Boycott any new TV series or movies. Instead: buy the books and DVDs used. If you still want to wear HP merch, buy fan-made. Engage only with fan content: fic, podcasts, fanart, wizard rock, etc. Show transphobia is bad for business. None of this will change JKRâs mind. But the Fantastic Beast series was canceled and after record Pottermore sales in 2020, they fell in 2022 by 40%.
*She gets a portion of ALL tickets. In 2019, this was her largest income source. Read the full guide: hashtagruthless.com/resourceguide
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As late as 2019, I was still reading JKRâs murder mystery series. But by the fourth book my experience began to sour.
Panel 1: Maia holding a copy of Lethal White. âThe only gay character in this book is a government official who gropes his staff?â
Panel 2: âThe only genderqueer character is misgendered and portrayed as a whiny faker?â
Panel 3: âThe only Muslim character is disowned by his family over gay rumors?â
Panel 4: âEven the women arenât portrayed very wellâŠâ
Panel 5: âWhy is the main female character defined by the rape in her past?â
Panel 6: âWait, what happens in the rest of this seriesâŠ?â Maia scrolls on eir phone.
Panel 7: âIs the series heading towards an employee/boss relationship?â
Panel 8: âAnd has a man wearing womenâs clothes to commit assault?â
Panel 9: âYeah, Iâm done. Iâm never reading a new JKR book ever again.â
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And as for JKR herself?
As tempting as it might be to tweet your frustrations at her, I donât recommend it. In 2021, she tweeted, âHundreds of trans activists have threatened to beat, rape, assassinate and bomb me.â Getting hate online feeds her sense of victimhood and she waves it as proof of her moral high ground. Instead I suggest you block her on twitter, then delete twitter, go to the library and try to find a new book that feels magical.
Stack of books: In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, Gifts by Ursula K Le Guin, Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane, A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik and Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir.
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In âEmergent Strategyâ adrienne maree brown writes: You do not have the right to traumatize abusive people, to attack them, personally or publicly, or to sabotage anyone elseâs health. The behaviors of abuse are also survival-based, learned behaviors rooted in pain. If you can look through the lens of compassion, you will find hurt and trauma there. If you are the abused party, healing that hurt is not your responsibility and exacerbating that pain is not your justified right.
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Seeing anyone over age 12 wearing HP merch now makes me uncomfortable. Are they ignorant or actively a TERF? I hate wondering how much money JKR has probably poured into anti-trans legislation⊠This zine is a culmination of my slow breakup with a story that once brought me joy. Now it just makes me angry, tired and sad.
Image: Candle in a fancy holder burned down to less than an inch.
Maia Kobabe, 2023
