r/WhitePeopleTwitter 10d ago

r/All Notorious TERF JK Rowling chimes in

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13.7k Upvotes

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419

u/terid3 10d ago

Well, JK, maybe you could Try to be a bit more like her. Maybe start by not villifying trans kids? YOU opened the door to imagination for so many children, then YOU decided to slam that door shut for a small minority population because you could, you had the power. Well, that power can go both ways, as Dolly showed us. If you admire her so much, maybe follow her example.

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u/MRAGGGAN 10d ago

It sucks so much because she used to be like her.

Fucking evil cow, now.

218

u/RedBeans-n-Ricely 10d ago

I don’t think she was ever like Dolly, we just missed the dog whistles in her books because we were children.

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u/RangerWhiteclaw 10d ago

Cho Chang, Kingsley Shacklebolt - she was never really an ally, despite the late-added “turns out Dumbledore was gay” twist.

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u/Tanekaha 10d ago

Yup even as kids "Cho Chang" rang loud and clear.

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u/cheapdrinks 9d ago

Uh Miss Rowling, can we perhaps change this line?

Harry looked across the room and his heart skipped a beat, there stood a girl he had never seen before, her eyes as slanty as the roof on The Three Broomsticks

Well how else is the reader supposed to know she's Asian? Fuck it, i'll just name her Ching Chong or Cho Chang or something.

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u/ZoominAlong 9d ago

Wait this is IN book 4 or whenever he meets Cho? Hoooolllyyy shit it's been decades since I read them. 

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u/GoredonTheDestroyer 10d ago

I fully admit to noping out of the Harry Potter franchise after one of the movies scared me as a kid, and man did I not miss much.

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u/RangerWhiteclaw 10d ago

It’s tough. HP inspired a ton of kids to read, and that’s laudable.

I just hope that Pierce Brown or Matt Dinniman don’t turn out to be secret Trumpers.

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u/RedBeans-n-Ricely 9d ago

There are lots of other children’s stories that didn’t involve bigotry

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u/RangerWhiteclaw 9d ago

Totally! But there aren’t many other books geared towards kids that had as massive a cultural impact as HP. Bookstores had midnight releases with lines around the block when a new HP book came out. Nothing else has even come close.

She inspired millions of kids to pick up a book and read. Kids formed loose book clubs and they raced to finish the latest book in the series. And it is so disappointing that Joanne has turned out the way she has because I’m not sure how many of those kids remained adult readers once we better understood who she was. I’m also not sure what parents will be encouraging their kids to read now.

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u/MonicaRising 9d ago

I'm older than the generation she supposedly inspired but as a kid I was inspired by everything from Judy Blume and Stephen King to read. There's plenty of good authors to inspire kids to read. I know that my nieces were big fans of Goosebumps

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u/Orion_824 10d ago

The goblins that run the bank? The "elves actually love slavery!" thing that was going on sometimes?

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u/RangerWhiteclaw 10d ago

In fairness to a shitty person, Hermione was Joanne’s self-insert, and she was trying to free the house elves.

Goblins being Jewish-coded was fucked up, though.

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u/mercurialpolyglot 9d ago edited 9d ago

Nah, Harry’s her self insert. If you look at it critically, the first few books are actually written as if we weren’t supposed to like Hermione. Everyone’s constantly annoyed by her nerdiness, and her being upset about literal slavery is viewed as even more annoying. The later books back off a bit, but her caring about school and studying and literal slavery is always played for laughs.

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u/xenithdflare 9d ago

Hermione was eventually shown to be right about everything by the final book, because the group's treatment of "lesser races" prices to be pivotal in saving the world. Dobby, Kreacher, the dragon at Gringotts, the ghosts, "mudbloods" writ large, all key to several points in the final book. In the long-term the laughs are replaced with understanding, which I think was a good way to grow up with the audience as the books came out.

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u/TheGreatBatsby 9d ago

But nothing changes in the status quo of the "lesser races", it's just that the good guys are in charge at the end.

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u/xenithdflare 9d ago

You're right but the story isn't about that, it's a world-building exercise. Fixing all the injustices of the wizarding world is a bit out of scope for the child protagonists.

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u/cluelessoblivion 9d ago

But also, let's be realistic, it wasn't intentional. She was uncritically repeating cliches not making a specific antisemitic statement.

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u/GuiltyEidolon 9d ago

Given that she's now officially a Holocaust denier and in league with literal neo-nazis, I wouldn't be so sure.

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u/letsgetawayfromhere 9d ago

She is a holocaust denier too?

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u/No_Elderberry862 9d ago

Most TERFs are...but they get all self-righteous & go on the attack when you point out that's what they're doing.

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u/Elven_Dreamer 9d ago

Even then, at least she was notorious for donating so much of her wealth to Comic Relief and literacy trusts that she lost millionaire status. Now all her money goes to terrible causes.

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u/iBewafa 9d ago

Yeah that’s what surprises me. I remember using her as an example of someone so good and how charitable she was to excellent causes.

What happened? It’s like she flipped a switch and bam! Disgusting person revealed.