J.K. Rowling and Transphobia
First, I must apologize for not posting this sooner. In the light of her recent transphobic tweets, I had to do a lot of self-evaluation before posting a word.
When I read Harry Potter at the age of 12, I feel in love with both Harry and its author. For many years if you asked me who I wanted to meet most in the world, I would say J.K. Rowling. I idolized her.
When she liked a few tweets awhile ago by transphobic people, I didn’t necessarily step up to defend her, but I didn’t “cancel” her either. I reasoned to myself that she probably didn’t realize the implications of liking the tweets, that everyone made mistakes, etc. She didn’t actually say anything transphobic herself, I didn’t think, so she just made a mistake. We’re all human. It happens.
But even then, I had niggling doubt. If it was an ignorant mistake, why didn’t she come out and apologize? Why didn’t she read and acknowledge her fan’s concerns and apologize to them?
And now, I’m here. I have made excuse after excuse for her behavior up until now, but I can’t ignore it any longer. My high opinion of her has collapsed.
The easiest thing to do is to say, “death to the author”. To love Harry Potter with all of your heart, but disavow J.K. Rowling. But that’s the problem with fiction - it’s a product of the author, of the author’s thoughts and values, whether it’s done consciously or unconsciously. And Harry Potter reflects that. It is liberal - to a point. Muggle-borns and half-bloods are stand-ins for minorities, but this avoids actual meaningful diversity. There are very few black people in the series, and the only Asian character doesn’t even have a culturally appropriate name. LGBTQ+ characters are nonexistent. She made some strides after the book came out, revealing Dumbledore to be gay, accepting a black Hermione, etc., but these were not a part of the original books. In the past, I’ve excused this because she wrote the series in the 90s, when issues like this were less explored in fiction. But the fact of the matter is, the books series lacks.
One thing I’ve long been disturbed by is the fact that house-elf slavery is played off as a joke most of the time. By the end of the series, this issue isn’t really solved, and there’s not much of a hint that it will be solved in the future. Recently, I was enlightened that goblins are essentially an anti-semitic, stereotypical portrayal of Jewish people - they are greedy, money-hoarding, short, oppressed creatures that you shouldn’t trust. (The only notable goblin, Griphook, betrays Harry.) Whether this was done consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know, but it was done. By the end of the series, Harry isn’t fighting for a new, better world after Voldemort, he’s fighting for a return to the status quo.
The books cannot be fully divorced from J.K. Rowling as much as we’d like to pretend. She created them. But then how do we move on? Because I have invested too much of myself in the book series. I’ve been running this Hufflepuff blog for years. I am currently the president of the Harry Potter fan organization at my college. Every summer I help run a Harry Potter camp for little kids. I discovered one of my favorite hobbies - writing - by starting with Harry Potter fanfiction when I was 13. And quite a few of my friendships were initially forged through a common love of Harry Potter. How can I toss something aside when it’s been such a huge part of my life?
As someone with a Hufflepuff blog with a decent following and as a leader of a club, I know I have a platform to say something. But I’m struggling to say something that would be meaningful and put-together when I feel so lost myself.
So, I will say this - whether you chose to burn the books or continue to cherish them, that is your own decision. I think everyone has their own decision to make that is personal to their own experiences. But one thing Harry Potter has created is this beautiful community. This community includes transgender people, non-binary people, and more, and I will defend them a hundred times over rather than defend J.K. Rowling. As Harry Potter fans, it is our job to stand up for our trans members within our community.
I hope you will stand tall with me in defending our community against the bigotry and ignorance of J.K. Rowling and creating a place that is inclusive for our trans community. I don’t want any trans Harry Potter-lover to feel excluded by the HP fandom, and I will attack anyone who thinks they don’t belong.
Oh, and - trans women are women. I hoped that would be common sense and straightforward, but apparently it isn’t. But there it is, loud and clear, in case anyone was confused. (By the way, J.K. Rowling - trans women are not “confused” or being pressured into changing their gender identity. They’re also not infringing on women’s spaces, because they ARE women.)
