On Harry Potter: a disclaimer

I want to be clear that I strongly disagree with J.K. Rowling’s views on transgender people and especially the way she chooses to express them. Art can definitely be separated from the artist, but when the artist is using their platform to actively harm a marginalized group, I’d rather not fund them. I hope that sooner rather than later, the franchise ends up fully under Warner’s control—similar to how Disney now owns Star Wars.

It's easy to now dismiss the Harry Potter books as having always been poorly written, or to suggest that its fans are ‘too old‘ for it now. Bah, humbug! Plenty of flawed, ‘childish’ works are still enjoyable, even if just for nostalgia's sake! And honestly, the somewhat shallow worldbuilding of the series lent itself well to fanfiction and headcanons. My stance is purely about what the author is doing. That said, Rowling’s behavior does put some of the books’ more questionable elements in a new light.

My own nostalgia is mostly tied the first two movies and the pre-movie artwork directly prefiguring those. The Hogwarts I grew up with is as much a creation of Chris Columbus as it is of Rowling’s writing. In fact, if you watch Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), you’ll see just how much those early films owe to his creative choices!

In any case, Rowling won’t be getting new money from me. I buy second-hand flea market junk, and my main engagement with the fandom these days is through fanfiction—much of it loudly and unabashedly LGBT. I do understand that many other people have simply stepped away from the franchise entirely, and I respect their choice. We all draw our own lines in the sand.