#they're super good at comedic juxtaposition

[powerfulblob]

“Our shirking, shrieking hive progressed ever-onward, first northbound towards one national border and then back around, southbound, towards the other, and grew ever-larger and ever-louder on our merry way. Yipee!”

-Julian K. Jarboe, “I Am A Beautiful Bug!” 

[fallowsthorn]

Okay, you say your arguments here are in good faith, so I'm going to take your at your word and try and respond the same way. Apologies if something looks weird, I'm on mobile desktop and it's a pain in the ass to format text without a mouse.

Also I would like note my amusement that your good faith argument starts with calling me a moron. A+ comedic juxtaposition.

This is fair and I should not have been as flippant about it as I probably came off. For context, I'm a few years too young to have really been active in HP fandom during its heyday; when DH came out I was... twelve I think, and not really active online yet. So it's possible and even likely there's something I missed, since most of it is in retrospect. However, I don't remember anything along the lines of this public outcry and backlash regarding, say, the happy-slave house elf thing, or how the goblins are really obvious horrible Jewish caricatures/stereotypes, or the Noble Savage thing the centaurs have got going on, or any of that. It was more along the lines of "yeah, it's awful, but we ignore or fix it in fic."

(how do i indent bullets without a tab key? uh just pretend this is 1a) I want to be very clear: this is not a good thing. It's not okay now and it wasn't okay then. Fandom has a huge problem with racism and it is indeed very telling that white people, and I include myself in this because I am still constantly unlearning this bullshit, puttered along fine and dandy until suddenly our identities [as LGBT+] were threatened. My intent was not to say, "That was fine, so this is fine;" it was to point out the hypocrisy inherent in fandom, on a broad scale, caring about one but not the other.

OP's direct response, by which I assume you mean the third reblog in this thread, can be summarized roughly as, "People aren't bad if they haven't fallen in with the party line! It's possible they just haven't heard about it yet! As long as they immediately capitulate and display the appropriate grovelling remorse, it's all good!" Can you see why I am maybe not super happy with that, or do I need to explain further?

My point wasn't that you should check out HP books from the library, just that they're probably in the collection. Also, you don't rent books from a library, you borrow them.

You are correct! I do not speak for all trans people! But just as I don't, neither do you, and neither does OP. Saying "I am trans and I will block you if you have something HP-related on your blog because I see it as a dog whistle for transphobia" is one thing and I encourage you to do that. Keep yourself safe, curate and tailor your online experience. It's where we get into "the Trans Cabal has decreed" that I start having a problem with it, for exactly the same reason you don't like me doing it either. Neither of us has the moral authority to hand down proclamations from our Transer-Than-Thou Pedestal on the Correct Way to Queer.

Re: HP merch: I mean, maybe? I don't track that stuff either, although it'd be interesting to run the statistics for it. It's not really relevant to this particular argument, though, since we're talking primarily about online cosmetic choices as signifiers for political views, not actually spending or making money (well, except for Google Ads, but that's beside the point).

You're contradicting yourself here. Either JKR cares what I think or she doesn't; you can't have it both ways. But no, obviously I am well aware that I am Internet Rando #8477284 and she's crying into her giant wads of cash. It was mostly facetious and an attempt to humorously emulate the style of many similar tumblr posts aimed at creators who are bigoted or attempt to suppress fanworks. That's not the point. Hell, your own quote flat-out contains my argument: "the text itself isn't even the point." It's about JKR trying to say that everyone who likes HP necessarily agrees with her bigotry, and y'all buying into it wholesale.

Tumblr took your tags off when I hit reblog but I think you were mad about me saying you should vote? Listen, if you don't vote the conservatives are gonna do it for you. I get frustration with politics but you're shooting yourself in the foot here. All those old church ladies who think trans people are deviant weirdo perverts? They vote. If you don't, you effectively give them your support. It's bullshit but that's how the game is played. Vote in every damn thing you can for the least worst option. Make the Overton window work for you.

This is your sign to change your Harry Potter URL. This is your sign to edit your house out of your bio. Trans people are going to see you in their notifs and worry you're a terf or block you. Edit your blog description. Come up with another handle. Thank you.