JK Rowling was my hero during all my childhood, a few years ago she started to express virulent opinions with which I don't agree. For this reason I have started thinking about that and I think it can be interesting to share it with you. Can I still like Harry Potter ? If I do so, am I a bad person ? Do I have to separate the women from the artist ? It is the first time it has caused a real problem for me. It is one thing to learn an artist you barely know is problematic and another when it concerns one of your models.
First let me introduce JK Rowling. She is the famous author of Harry Potter (600 millions copies world wide), a fantasy book about a world full of wizards.
In her books she praises inclusion, tolerance, equality, and antiracism. She was a single mom in difficulty, she defended migrants, the system of public health, abortion, and respect of homosexuality.
But now she has a new obsession : transidentity. She is absolutely against it and doesn't consider trans women as women. For her, menstruations are a key element in the definition of woman . She started posting tweets about that,she started posting about that about seven years ago. Then she took part in political debate and now she has created the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund (JKRWF) dedicated to anti-trans actions and supporting justice actions against transidentity.
For instance she wrote “I love it when a plan comes together” after the UK's supreme court ruled
that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex (17 April). This was accompanied by a photo of her holding a cocktail and smoking a cigar aboard her yacht ( valued at $150 million) in reference to Hannibal Smith, a fictional character from the A-team.
In spite of activist pressure more than 12 millions copies have been sold in 2 weeks of Hogwarts legacy, a game about Harry Potter. A lot of people reacted in social media but it has changed nothing. The powerful communities of fans deny her, the calls for boycott are increasing. The historical comedians of the movie adaptation of Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) and Emma Watson (Hermione) have taken their distances while many other cultural symbols criticise her. For example, Pedro Pascal (the last of us) called her “heinous loser Behaviour”. The actor, whose sister is trans, encouraged his followers to stop buying anything linked with Harry Potter including the future series HBO or the attractions of the theme park Universal studios.
The impact of her declarations is minimal.
It is said that there are three types of fans. The first claim that we have to stop buying in the Harry Potter business some of them burn their Books. Another type of fans argue that we have to take into account that she is already well-established and even if boycotting her feels morally right she has more than one billion in her wallet. Others simply agree with her. A fourth way emerged : take advantage of the universe of Harry Potter while refusing to finance its creator. Fans promote illegal downloading of the movies and the future series, knowing the benefits of the series coming for JK Rowling would be $20 millions per year. She declared that the money she will receive for the series will go to her fund.
It would be different if she kept her opinion for herself but here she uses her celebrity, her wealth to act against people. I personally can't support her, and since I know her position I stopped buying things related to Harry Potter and remunerated her. For instance when I wanted to read Harry Potter I bought it second hand or I only watch the movies if it is a DVD I already have at home. I am not going to stop liking Harry Potter but I will try to keep her out of the picture.
And you, do you have an opinion on the subject ? how did you react to this polemic ?
Sources :BBC; Forbes; diggit magazine; Liberation; fugues; TFI; France 24; Le Monde; Télérama
Really liked your article !! And yes maybe Harry Potter we should buy Harry Potter. Thx for sharing your point of vue (I think you’re perfectly right)
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