Seattle Museum Culture & Hall of Fame removes Rowling for “transphobia”

[NitroNine]

Specifically, so the MoPOP’s Director of Exhibitions is quoted as saying in this Daily Mail article, Rowling - & all references to her - has been removed from the Hall
of Fame & the dedicated “Harry Potter” exhibition because she is a cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity. Which seems like a rather stupid thing to say if you wish to continue to be allowed to have a “Harry Potter” exhibition - & presumably sell associated merch in the museum shop - frankly.

The Museum of course responded to request for comment (by “The Telegraph”) in an utterly predictable fashion:
MoPOP is proud to support our employees and unequivocally stands with nonbinary and transgender communities. In an increasingly divided world, pop culture can unite, inspire, and spark important conversations. Education and creative expression are the heart of our mission and in our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, we strive to elevate those that are left out of the mainstream pop culture conversation, by amplifying voices and stories that are not always seen on museum walls.

• They’re literally advocating for silencing women & vital conversations about our rights. Obviously those aren’t important conversations.
• Silly me, museums are awash with exhibits about single mothers who escaped domestic abuse & wrote & published their first novel - which became the start of a cultural phenomenon - while living on benefits.

They of course make sure to complain the books have the utter audacity to be of their time, too 🙄

If you want to know more:

https://www.mopop.org/about-mopop/the-mopop-blog/posts/2023/may/she-who-must-not-be-named/

You'd think an adult would be embarrassed to publish such nonsense.

Seattle is completely captured.

Thanks Nauticant: was distracted from planned inclusion of that by rambunctious kneazles cats.

I think if I was Rowling I’d ask them to remove anything potter related from their museum and anything they sell in the shop

Not the point, but I love that photo of Jo. She is gorgeous.

I think if I was Rowling I’d ask them to remove anything potter related from their museum and anything they sell in the shop

Can she actually do that?

I always admire how classy she is, I think I would cackle and go mad with power. But in this case banning the merch would be totally warranted, she’d be saving their gendery little souls from hypocrisy.

Appalling. Like sashagabadon I really hope JK Rowling instructs this museum to remove all Harry Potter material from their exhibition and gift shop. That any museum would think a display of cultural or literary material could be shown without mention of the creator of said material serves as a stunning display of the Director of Exhibitions lack of qualification for their role. Moron.

Funny that they never quote any of the transphobic remarks.

I'd love to see her tweet that.

Don't you think your opinion might be a little less confusing if you remove all the merchandise you sell on the back of my creation?

their response to that would be very interesting.

I'm heading for Seattle in a few weeks time. I shall be sure to give this museum a miss.

I think this is the Telegraph article the DM has based theirs on, with added extras!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/05/jk-rowling-airbrushed-museum-of-pop-culture-seattle/ **

Cant get over the bit where having said JKR was "super hateful" they use this as justification for erasing her:

After all, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are all incredibly vocal allies.”

Seriously suggesting that 3 actors who are only know because of JKR are somehow of superior judgement, whilst collecting their royalties from the ever popular films.

“MoPOP is proud to support our employees and unequivocally stands with nonbinary and transgender communities. In an increasingly divided world, pop culture can unite, inspire, and spark important conversations.

“Education and creative expression are the heart of our mission and in our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, we strive to elevate those that are left out of the mainstream pop culture conversation, by amplifying voices and stories that are not always seen on museum walls.”

So not only content to trans the past, it seems museums are no longer required to actively preserve history as accurate facts. Museums are now just places where artefacts are re-purposed to fit the view point of an entitled minority.

** The article is available via https://archive.ph

As I understand things, Warner Bros holds the merchandising rights to Harry Potter and they would have control over whether products could be withdrawn.

I bet JKR is devastated

I see from the blog post itself that this happened back in May.

Not that I am saying it shouldn't be publicised. But makes you wonder what other museums may have done in the past and are currently doing.

I suppose the only hope is that any young person being taken round the exhibition will become so interested that they will seek out the films and even the books, so in the end JKR's name will be known.

https://www.mopop.org/about-mopop/the-mopop-blog/posts/2023/may/she-who-must-not-be-named/

Hilarious; It must be a parody account:

Her transphobic viewpoints are front and center these days, but we can’t forget all the other ways that she’s problematic: the support of antisemitic creators, the racial stereotypes that she used while creating characters, the incredibly white wizarding world, the fat shaming, the lack of LGBTQIA+ representation, the super-chill outlook on the bigotry and othering of those that don’t fit into the standard wizarding world, and so much more.

Talk about "sucking the joy out......."

How can these people even survive the day?

I think she needs to take some action - just to show who is in charge.

Same.

And she should tell them exactly what sort of morals the 'standard wizarding world' has 🤣🤣🤣

it's one thing to bang on about your made up genders, but it's absolutely batshit to then compare them to someone else's made up world.

How can these people even survive the day?

How can a professional organisation allow one individual to hijack an event and turn it into a platform for their personal beliefs?

I wish people would take the time to educate themselves instead of accepting as gospel all the bad stuff they’ve heard said about the wonderful JK Rowling. Read her essay. Read her tweets. There is no transphobia to be found. She’s a beautiful person whose genuine care for women, children, gays and lesbians has been grotesquely misinterpreted as transphobia. She hasn’t said anything controversial other than to recognise that sex matters. Even that Stonewall chap admitted there was a conflict of rights between women and trans people (before being forced to backtrack). Shame on this museum for being so ignorant and lazy.

The blog is a fascinating insight into someone who has to buy into false narratives to avoid facing painful cognitive dissonance:

A bit of history is important here, too. You-Know-Who started dancing around transphobic statements in 2018 and became more vocal in 2019 by supporting a person who was fired for being transphobic.

It is shameful that pitchfork wielder #1 is so unsure of themselves they can't even face naming those who are being denounced.

Maya's lawyer could write them a stiff letter, too.

Or you could go, and spend quite a while in the HP section and discuss loudly with your travel companion(s) how talented and generous JKR is 😉

Mmm, it does sound as if they might want to reconsider publicly defaming people. Though aren’t US libel laws a bit weird?

You’d think an institution might not want to publish whopping great lies & support rabid misogyny; xenophobia; & great healings of blinkered cultural imperialism - but here we are 🤷‍♀️ How mortifying that a Museum of Popular Culture apparently thinks it’s acceptable to demand art & culture[s] be reshaped to meet their personal preferences &/or the current Zeitgeist. Perhaps “museum” is another word that’s been redefined?

When people talk about 'culture wars' they are not far wrong. The thing is, tghough, that it is the supposed progressive left that is waging this war.

I've stopped going to local 'alternative' galleries in my city because in the last few years they've become relentlessly preachy; pushing BLM and gender narratives. But last week I went to the re-opening of some newly refurbished Renaissance and Medieval galleries in the city's main art gallery.

Many of the acoomanying information plates have been totally woke washed - reducing everything about the city and its key figures to slavery connections ( for someone who didn't know better they would think the city had been an actual slave port. It wasn't); and one medieval depiction of Mary Magdalene had an info plate which stated that at that period in time she was often referred to as a 'sex worker'.

The guy doing the official photos wore a knee length skirt and had a blue beard - apparently he's autistic and identifies as non-binary.

There is no escaping the total capture of our culture and the re-writing of its history, and in highly contested ways.