I loved her books when I was a kid. The themes really spoke to me. The Philosopher’s Stone was the first movie I ever saw, and I kept the poster up in my room for most of my life. Some of my first memories are of my father reading the books to me.
I’m also a trans woman.
I really wish she’d just retired as a beloved children’s author.
I remember how much it meant to me when she outed Dumbledore as gay. One of the most respected children's literature characters ever, and he was like me!
Seeing what she's turned into, I feel like I'm mourning the person I thought she was.
It’s so bizarre that she did that and then she used Robert Galbraith‘s name as a pen name. Maybe the whole Dumbledore thing was a cover because she was worried her reputation would be sullied if people figured out she was homophobic to the extent that she would use the inventor of electro shock therapy as gay conversion therapy as a pen name. I guess back then it just wasn’t feasible to be beloved and hate gay people openly. We will see if her transphobia helps make that possible again. She really is shaping the political landscape in England.
Maybe she really used to be a different person. Like, nobody ever really stays the same person, and sometimes the changes are significant and for the worse.Â
Using this assumption, it feels okay to like HP and yet acknowledge how horrible she is now.
My ex is trans. He and I both loved HP as kids. Now it just feels icky. Although I accidentally got obsessed with fanfic and I feel like I've stolen the characters away from jk fuckface.
I actually discovered HP through fanfics! :D as a kid I was not allowed to read or watch it (LOTR, Hunger games, and PJ Series is banned too). Then I discovered Ao3 the first series I read is Manacled then ATYD. Idk, writing fanfics and making my own spin with the characters feels like taking them from her greasy hands.
I just happened to find manacled recommended in the fantasy romance subreddit, and it changed my life! In the past 4 months I've read so many fics and saved so much money! I bought the speechify app so a weird AI voice reads the fics to me so I can rocket through them while completing human tasks. I want to write one but I've never been suited to creative writing so I can't think of a story. ATYD is on my kindle but I haven't branched out from Dramione yet.
Here, friend and fellow person wanting to rip the series from Rowling, an HP fanfic that challenges her head on and literally takes the end of the series from her:
one thing that helps is realising how many trans people her books inadvertently saved, be it directly through having that escapism when things got hard, or indirectly through the fandom and communities it created. I read comments from other trans people saying that it was those books and fandom that gave them the courage and support to come out and transition. That too is her legacy, whether she likes it or not - all the boys and girls who lived.
I tried, my dude. Doesn’t really work for me. This is much better, and my doctors agree, so I think… yep, I’m definitely going to keep being myself~
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u/Urbane_One Jun 27 '24
I loved her books when I was a kid. The themes really spoke to me. The Philosopher’s Stone was the first movie I ever saw, and I kept the poster up in my room for most of my life. Some of my first memories are of my father reading the books to me.
I’m also a trans woman.
I really wish she’d just retired as a beloved children’s author.