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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Still profiting off JK Rowling i see

352 replies

JustcameoutGC · 17/11/2021 06:45

So, the Hogwarts turncoats are getting back together, sans Rowling.

They have a brass neck, that's for sure.

Happy to ring every last penny they can out of the franchise whilst continuing to sell Rowling down the river.

Zero moral compass between them. Either they back Rowling, and thank her for the fact anyone other than their mum knows they exist, or they renounce and walk away. You dont get to have it both ways.

www.theguardian.com/film/2021/nov/17/harry-potter-cast-return-to-hogwarts-to-mark-20th-anniversary-of-first-film

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7
NovemberWitch · 18/11/2021 16:20

@MrsWooster

Alright, I’ll bite: “I don't get all the ''spoiled brats! '' comments. They're now grown adults, possibly even early thirties? With minds of their own. They're not kids, but people on here talk about them like they are. Why should they stand by and not say anything if they hear what they perceive to be bigoted views?” They are fully entitled to their views on JKR. They are not entitled to watch these views encourage multiple rape and death threats to JKR, without ANY condemnation and then creep back a year later and pocket £100,000s of money courtesy of her work
But perhaps they’ll donate the cash to A Worthy Trans Cause? Or Stonewall, Pink News or a statue or summat? That’d be the right thing to do.
ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 16:38

It is now nearly 24 hours since I started my Vigil for evidence of JKR's cancellation-worthy views.

I've eaten forty five mince pies, had some butterbeer and hot chocolate (thanks for kind donations) and started crocheting a blanket in the shape of Hagrid.

And still no one has offered a single quote.

How can one woman be turned into a figure for whipping up hate, anger and venom on the basis of - it would appear - absolutely ZERO evidence?

Gosh, it reminds me a lot of the witch-hunts of 1591.

ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 16:38

I mean, not that I was there.

I'm not quite that old.

ChloeCrocodile · 18/11/2021 16:51

Perhaps you need to wait just a little longer Arabella, I'm sure someone will be along soon. I can offer you some homemade cottage pie to keep you going if that would help?

In all seriousness, tho, waiting for evidence of JKR's transphobia is somewhat like waiting for Godot.

Whinge · 18/11/2021 18:28

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/35c57bd0-47ec-11ec-aa43-5cc5157b09b9?shareToken=5394af155c3e870b797bcda409954314

@SoniaFouler It was from the Times article linked above.

PenguindreamsofDraco · 18/11/2021 18:33

@ArabellaScott

It is now nearly 24 hours since I started my Vigil for evidence of JKR's cancellation-worthy views.

I've eaten forty five mince pies, had some butterbeer and hot chocolate (thanks for kind donations) and started crocheting a blanket in the shape of Hagrid.

And still no one has offered a single quote.

How can one woman be turned into a figure for whipping up hate, anger and venom on the basis of - it would appear - absolutely ZERO evidence?

Gosh, it reminds me a lot of the witch-hunts of 1591.

Well she did turn me into a newt if that helps?
RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 18/11/2021 18:36

@ArabellaScott

I mean, not that I was there.

I'm not quite that old.

Methinks the lady doth protest too much 🤔
Igneococcus · 18/11/2021 18:37

The most recommended comment under that article has 1249 likes. That is amazingly high for a comment in the Times.

Arabella I've been waiting for a sensible explanation how nonbinary sex works within evolution by natural selection for years now, years, I tell you.

ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 18:47

Bless you, Chloe, thank you for generous Mumsnetters with hot food.

Penguin, that's genuinely awful. However, forgive me, but I do require proof. I will need footage of you typing this into MN with your ... newt feet?!

ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 18:48

how nonbinary sex works within evolution

A great title for an essay! I look forward to reading it with relish!

ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 18:51

And Rufus I am deliberately ignoring That Comment.

RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 18/11/2021 18:58

😀

Couldn’t resist I’m afraid…I’m a slave to temptation

scarpa · 18/11/2021 19:00

I'm not sure actors who happened to be cast in films owe solidarity to the author of the books that the films were based on... for the rest of their lives. They were children when they were cast, they're now adults with their own views on the world - it's not like they can go back in time and turn the job down based on what they now know so that they not accused of being ungrateful "brats" and "quislings" 2 decades later.

I'm sure they're enormously grateful for their break into acting because of her work - in fact both Grint and Radcliffe publicly said so in the wake of her original essay about trans people, while acknowledging they can disagree with her on an unrelated topic. And Watson didn't say anything about Rowling at all, positive or negative, at the time, and hasn't done so since as far as I can see.

In fact they've all been quite careful not to say anything negative about Rowling herself while also ensuring that they distance themselves from views they disagree with, which, as working actors with fanbases of their own, they have every right to do to ensure they're not intrinsically linked with views that don't align with their own due to their work on a project of Rowlings years ago. I think given their opposing views, they've handled it quite gracefully, refusing to say anything bad about her personally while managing to make their own views clear.

If she has been deliberately excluded from the event - and there's no concrete reason to assume that's the case that I've seen; as PPs have mentioned she's a very shrewd businesswoman who I'm sure has influence as far as projects like this go - I don't think it's their obligation to take a stand against the film company.

PenguindreamsofDraco · 18/11/2021 19:13

@ArabellaScott

Bless you, Chloe, thank you for generous Mumsnetters with hot food.

Penguin, that's genuinely awful. However, forgive me, but I do require proof. I will need footage of you typing this into MN with your ... newt feet?!

I turned back again. Grin
ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 19:16
Hmm
scarpa · 18/11/2021 19:30

@MrsWooster

Alright, I’ll bite: “I don't get all the ''spoiled brats! '' comments. They're now grown adults, possibly even early thirties? With minds of their own. They're not kids, but people on here talk about them like they are. Why should they stand by and not say anything if they hear what they perceive to be bigoted views?” They are fully entitled to their views on JKR. They are not entitled to watch these views encourage multiple rape and death threats to JKR, without ANY condemnation and then creep back a year later and pocket £100,000s of money courtesy of her work
And courtesy of the work of countless others - screenwriters, directors, everyone involved in film making - and of course, their own work. Should they not celebrate years of their life and work they did? Or do we think all filmmaking is solely the work of the creator's original ideas, and nobody else's contribution is worth anything, and therefore if they don't agree with her on something unrelated to that project they should renounce their own emotional (or financial!) stake in it?

Also, not a single one of them has said anything negative about JKR in public. They've said they were enormously grateful for the HP franchise giving them their acting break, but that they disagreed with her. Any threats of violence are not on them, nor were they made in their names.

I understand that for those who agree wholeheartedly with Rowling, it's disappointing for you to see the lead actors of films of her work disagree publicly. You think their views are wrong, fine, I understand that.

But acting as though they owe her a lifelong debt of solidarity and agreement, and to demand they be on call to publicly condemn any negativity she faces from anyone (when it was nothing to do with them whatsoever) is odd.

If... I don't know, Stephenie Meyer came out and said, "I don't think we should have balloons at birthday parties", and it happened to be a big global topic where lots of people had very strong feelings about it, and Robert Pattinson said to the press "I'm grateful for my work on Twilight, but I disagree with Stephenie's views" and then some rabid balloon fans were awful to Stephenie, he's under no obligation to call that out. Nor is he ungrateful for saying he disagreed. Nor would his work on the Twilight films be any less his own, nor would he be obligated to pretend a chunk of his past work no longer existed and stop talking about it or profiting from it. He still did the work.

(A terrible example because he absolutely hated the Twilight films 😅 but my point stands - whether they were calculatedly toeing a public line they believed best for their career or passionately standing up for what they believe in or whatever isn't really relevant. They don't owe her agreement, they don't owe her their dissociation from their previous work because she was the original writer, and nor are they responsible for what others who happen to share some of the same views as them do.)

TinselAngel · 18/11/2021 20:00

@ArabellaScott

It is now nearly 24 hours since I started my Vigil for evidence of JKR's cancellation-worthy views.

I've eaten forty five mince pies, had some butterbeer and hot chocolate (thanks for kind donations) and started crocheting a blanket in the shape of Hagrid.

And still no one has offered a single quote.

How can one woman be turned into a figure for whipping up hate, anger and venom on the basis of - it would appear - absolutely ZERO evidence?

Gosh, it reminds me a lot of the witch-hunts of 1591.

Do you need a tent? Maybe one of the ones in HP that are bigger on the inside?
RufustheBadgeringReindeer · 18/11/2021 20:12

Feeling guilty

🎂🍿🍰🍧🍦🥮🍸🥃🍺🍹🧉🥂⛺️🛖

Provisions

I got a yurt….

KimikosNightmare · 18/11/2021 20:23

scarpa

The laboured balloon analogy really doesn't work. I hope you didn't spend too long on it.

For me what was so striking about this trio was their failure to give any support for J K Rowling. I don't recall any of them condemning the absolutely vile things which were said or the threats.

scarpa · 18/11/2021 20:37

@KimikosNightmare

scarpa

The laboured balloon analogy really doesn't work. I hope you didn't spend too long on it.

For me what was so striking about this trio was their failure to give any support for J K Rowling. I don't recall any of them condemning the absolutely vile things which were said or the threats.

Nor did Helena Bonham Carter, or Gary Oldman, or Michael Gambon. Is it only the young actors who you believe should forever be in her debt who should fight her corner?

I abhor anyone threatening violence to anybody, for any reason. However, nobody - regardless of fame or age or their connection to the person - owes someone else public support, and I'm not sure why you're so incensed that these particular actors didn't offer it above anyone else.

ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 20:38

A tent is a wonderful idea! Thank you. When I get some of these terrible quotes I will embroider them in the walls like a Tracey Emin.

Rufus thank you that is kind. Much more of this very well catered vigil and I will be as fat as I am old!

I am unsure what the rabid balloon fans story means, tbh, but it is not a JKR quote so inadmissible and will not be embroidered on the tent.

TedImgoingmad · 18/11/2021 20:43

Radcliffe's response to JKR's essay was to apologise on her behalf, patronising little twit, but he didn't outright attack her. I can therefore see how he can make the statements in the Edinburgh Gazette article linked above without thinking he's done anything hypocritical. Watson is far more TRA is all her statements, and, as she likes to shout her feminist credentials to the rafters, her betrayal of JKR talking about her domestic violence experience was as grave as it was nasty. Grint is largely an irrelevance, as he has no career to speak of any more, so little influence on the current crop of teens.

No they don't have to kow tow to JKR their whole lives. However, they deliberately ignored the actual content of her essay in order to pander to the TRAs, knowing full well the threats of violence that had prompted the essay. They fed into the TRA narrative. They had the option of "no comment". They took the option of comment and damn the consequences. It went far beyond respectful disagreement with her point of view. It was a deliberate attempt to break themselves and, by extension, the Harry Potter franchise (because their faces are inextricably linked to to it) from JKR, exactly what the TRAs have been trying to do since JKR first spoke out.

I posed on another thread a while back a question about how the HP alumni who had stabbed JKR in the back would react now the tables are turning. Would they double down? Would they apologise for getting it wrong? Or would they pretend nothing ever happened? I think they are taking the third path and pretending nothing untoward ever happened, that they are not a bunch of backstabbing ingrates, nor are they money hungry hypocrites betraying the so called most marginalised. Let's not forget that Watson deleted a load of tweets supporting Mermaids. They are just going to pretend it never happened. Because without Harry Potter on their CV, nobody would cast them - atrocious actors that they are and not attractive enough to be cast on looks alone. They are cast because they bring in the Harry Potter fans, so they need to keep that gravy train running and running.

TedImgoingmad · 18/11/2021 20:46

Nor did Helena Bonham Carter, or Gary Oldman, or Michael Gambon. Is it only the young actors who you believe should forever be in her debt who should fight her corner?

They don't owe their careers to Harry Potter, and nobody automatically associates their names with the HP franchise. They had huge bodies of more important work before that. Young impressionable people don't care what they say or think, will not be influenced by them. Their situations are entirely different to that of Watson, Radcliffe and Grint.

KimikosNightmare · 18/11/2021 21:16

Nor did Helena Bonham Carter, or Gary Oldman, or Michael Gambon. Is it only the young actors who you believe should forever be in her debt who should fight her corner?

Well all of them had prestigious careers long before Harry Potter. HP neither established nor defined their careers so not analogous at all.

And I don't recall any of them falling over themselves to weigh in about how much they supported trans rights and how wrong JKR was to say what she said.

ArabellaScott · 18/11/2021 21:21

Watson deleted a load of tweets supporting Mermaids Hmm