Hello everyone!
I’m taking a cue from another blog here and thinking it’s time for me to call it quits and treat this as an archive only. I really have only remained active for several years now because this meant so much to me when I started this.
This tumblr, this fandom, this ship… have meant so much to me over the years. It’s hard to put into words just how much joy, comfort, and inspiration I found here.
It has been amazing getting to read stories that, fanfiction aside, have genuinely stayed with me for years. There are stories I still think about from time to time, and I hope those authors are still out there somewhere writing and creating worlds that make people feel something. And the art! Truly, I have seen such incredible talent here. Artists captured so much emotion in a single image that sometimes it felt impossible not to be moved by it - there was a time I would have literally bought prints to hang in my house.
More than anything though I’m eternally grateful for the people. Even if it was just that we all simply shared a love for the same characters, I’d like to believe that everyone helped make this corner of the internet feel like a community. A welcoming community.
Which leads to me to say that a big part of why I’m officially fully stepping away is because of J.K. Rowling’s increasingly public anti-trans activism and the causes she has chosen to support. This isn’t new by any means but over the years, it’s become difficult for me to remain actively engaged with the fandom while feeling so deeply sad and angry to watch someone who created a world where acceptance and love was so important to go directly against that in real life to the point of using her immense wealth to fund people and policies that actively harm a very marginalized group (and I know, there is very valid criticism of the books/movies aside from this single issue).
That said, I don’t believe that the meaning people find in stories belongs solely to their creators. Once a work is released into the world, it becomes part of the lives of the people who read it, write about it, draw it, discuss it and find comfort in it. The friendships, creativity, and community that grew from this fandom are real and beautiful and they belong to everyone who helped create them.
So this isn’t a judgment of anyone who still finds joy, comfort, or inspiration here. Some of my favorite stories, artworks, and conversations came from this community and those things still matter to me. This is simply where I’ve found my own stopping point.
Take care of yourselves xx
