What motivates a seemingly once-brilliant person who appeared to share my values (as an artist, a writer, a thinker), to double, triple down on intolerance? Then of course there are the likeminded so-called leaders who build brands off of persecuting trans kids (and adults), amongst other vulnerable minorities. That some bigoted “leaders” will literally sacrifice certain groups of seemingly less-powerful people for their own benefit isn’t itself surprising, if one has read history (or Harry Potter).
As another example, I’ve often contemplated those once-beloved comedians who are so apparently fixated on bullying trans people that they’re willing to sacrifice their careers to it. (Just the other night, I couldn’t make it more than a few seconds into the Eddie Murphy doc when I saw Chappelle and had to stop.)
I do (still) fantasize about Rowling one day just waking up and saying, Hey you know what? I was wrong and I’m sorry. I felt backed into a corner and it made me say some really terrible stuff. I hope I can work to learn better and to put my resources to good use.
Imagine how people would celebrate Harry Potter, if she just got real with us, said, whoops, mea culpa.
Cynically, one hopes she realizes it’d be great for business, if she just surrendered. These days I do sense even cis people are pretty tired of her crap. I read this summer about a bookstore back home in San Francisco that at long last stopped selling her titles, given she now publicly donates and coordinates anti-trans persecution campaigns. Given how much her evil’s already affected her country—and beyond.
I just don’t get why transphobes are so transphobic. It consumes everything they are and turns them into something even they don’t seem to like.
As someone with transphobic parents (including one who was actually fired for repeatedly and very pointedly dead-naming, we found out later) and a trans nephew, in their cases I there are 2 things I’ve seen:
- the “it’s not real”/ “young people made it up” thing:
This is something my less ‘angry’ transphobic dad does, just writing it off as a ‘fake’ trend where young people do it because of either peer pressure or for attention (positive or negative). He continuously dead names my trans nephew when not in his presence because he doesn’t think it matters to anyone else, but will usually not do so to his face.
- the “I don’t like it, and I’m personally offended by things I dislike, and they’re bad people for offending me” thing:
This is my mom, who was fired for continuously dead-naming a coworker and then loudly refusing to stop. She is very prudish, very conservative, and is just an all-around craven and bitter person.
She just pretends my nephew doesn’t exist, or if forced to talk about him, insists that he’s been brainwashed by his mom. She literally gets angry at the mere existence of trans people, because to her, being confronted with something she doesn’t like is literally a personal offense.
This is in line with her reaction to any criticism, and also her tendency to eventually hate anyone she has to interact with frequently enough, because no one perfectly agrees with you about everything. Not a joke, she used to change jobs every 1-2 years, and each new place she worked would follow the same progression: “I love my new coworkers, everyone’s so nice.” -> “The people here are so mean to me/ ignore me/ etc”. She lives alone, has basically no friends, and is miserable from what I can tell. She’s also super racist, but swears up and down otherwise, but that’s a story for another time.
tl;dr either 1) dismissive, or 2) have zero empathy and just want everyone to conform to their worldview.
as a trans person myself, jk rowling doesnt bother me
i mean jeez, there are things in the world to be outraged about, no?
Is giving a shit about other, multiple things that much of a stretch?
Also, considering the influence she has- even outright stated that buying HP funds her hateful and damaging causes- this is actually something to be pissed about. Instead of minding her own business she is actively doing harm.
As a cis male, her actions as a bigot bother me. I’m glad you remain unaffected by her. I want my kids to enjoy Harry Potter and the world but she gets no money from us.
congrats
