#… but also Hartman has nowhere near the range and scope JKR has

[much-the-millers-kid]

I’m reblogging not because I 100% agree, but I’m also not here to argue because I 100% disagree. To me, this is a good example of a conversation that there is no 100% correct answer.

I’m not going to go step by step on what I agree and disagree on because there’s a lot, but I do want to highlight a few things and put in my own two cents. I’m not sure if anyone will read or care, but I want to put it out there.

I love peerieweirdo’s mention of certain HP-related things getting renamed and rebranded. It’s a good case of how distancing from JKR and HP doesn’t have to mean distancing from the communities formed. That being said, I’d also understand if someone knew what quadball used to be and were hesitant to be a part of it.

While you can try to separate the fandom from the creator and not compare supporting HP to supporting JKR’s beliefs, there is correlation. Buying merch, getting hyped about movies - in many circles the critiques do not overshadow the popularity of the series, meaning JKR continues to get support for the books, giving her a platform to support her ideals.

I have trans friends who still have their copies of the books because they can’t bear to get rid of them for what they once meant. I’m genderfluid, and I have merch that I’m scared to wear or use because I feel like a traitor, but it was important to me at one point so I don’t want to get rid of it (plus that shit was expensive. If I don’t get every last bit of use out of it, I feel like I just gave JKR money and got nothing in return).

Again, I don’t think there is a 100% correct answer. Transgender people, Jewish people… every group JKR has expressed bigotry toward deserve to feel safe, but also it feels wrong to expect everyone to cut themselves off from something that was so important to them once.

Maybe help make it not so prevalent? Normalize book groups where you don’t announce your hogwarts house in your bio; Talk about similar books; Change the name of your community and branch out… But also don’t shame people who have a hogwarts crest on their backpack or have a keychain of one of the Fantastic Beasts creatures or have a poster of a Dumbledore quote.

Restructure the foundation of the community, but don’t shame those that have a special brick from the original building that they don’t want to get rid of.

What makes JKR's shitshow even harder to process is that she didn't just ruin a book series. Harry Potter was an entire subculture. Like Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Harry Potter fans dedicated their lives and careers to the series. I don't know if I'd call it "underground," but liking Harry Potter got you beaten up when I was in school, so it was more of a dedicated indie culture than a mass-appeal fanbase.

Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality got so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss's career.

Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.

And there's the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.

Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.

Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep...Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.

And that's not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.

Today, there's a thriving culture of "Harry Potter adults" with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the "bookish" community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we've all seen what a disaster that's been.

Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it's just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn't seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don't want to seem like you're condoning JKR's bigotry but can't divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.

I don't expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it's still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don't support her, it's just a weird, tense situation for everybody.

People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I'd have a mild identity crisis. I'd ask myself "Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?"

So ultimately, JKR didn't ruin "just" a book series or even "just" a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series's legacy even without JKR's personal issues.

Once, Harry Potter was a series for generations. Now, former fans hope that the series fades into irrelevancy. Unfortunately, JKR didn't just tarnish her legacy--she took decades of history, millions of fans and a worldwide subculture along with her.