NZ museum canceled Harry Potter exhibition

[MusingMuseum]

Summary of correspondence behind decision by Auckland Miseum to cancel Harry Potter exhibition following Posie Parker visit.

https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/13-12-2023/why-auckland-museum-pulled-the-pin-on-hosting-a-hit-harry-potter-exhibition

I haven't read the article yet, but off the top of my head my reaction is are they so rolling in money that they can afford to to turn down a guaranteed moneyspinner of an exhibition? 'Go woke, go broke' comes to mind.

They really fear online TRAs with enough time on their hands to attack and sabotage things, don’t they? And a media that disproportionately presents the TRA position as the mainstream one.

Despite all the evidence very clearly showing the TRA position very much represents a minority view.

Now skim read it. The management appear to have capitulated to a small number of vocal members of junior staff. They knew this was going to be a big financial loss and concluded it was worth it to avoid all the protests and unpleasantness that would have followed if they'd gone ahead with an exhibition which has nothing whatsoever to do with any gender issues. It doesn't even benefit JKR financially. I surmise that most staff kept quiet for fear of being labelled as transphobes and bigots, as JKR has been. I wonder if she has grounds for a defamation case. That article completely ignores the violence at the Let Women Speak event and the elderly woman with the fractured skull. Far from unbiased journalism.

What a bunch of fools 🤷‍♀️

It is quite a good illustration of the utterly disproportionate influence that very online TRAs can have, at least in part because journalists just lift stuff from twitter/X as if it is real life.

A small number of museum staff managed to persuade senior management that, despite overwhelming positive results from properly conducted market research, the reputational risk related to TRAs commenting on any positive SM post about it was simply too much.

Contrary to TRA claims about those opposed to gender Identity theory being 'fascists' it is actually the woke TRAs who most resemble the fascists.

I apologise for bringing Nazism into this - because it is now being used to validate and reproduce anti-semitism in the wake of the war in Gaza - but the behavour of these trigger happy 'no platform' people is actually reminiscent of Hitler Youth - who were indoctrinated into following the fuhrer in a zealous and religious manner - even encouraged to betray their own families in the name of totalitarian ideology.

https://www.history.com/news/how-the-hitler-youth-turned-a-generation-of-kids-into-nazis

“great that some people asked say they’ll come, but they’re likely not the ones who would vocally criticise the museum’s decision”.

Or alternatively, those who will come (and pay) are not about to start a boycot.

Two negative comments out of 500, 11 out of 1,400. Those proportions are noise, not signal.

Nothing like not letting the facts stand in the way of a good old self-righteous tantrum is there.

This is such an insightful piece of reporting.

It really opens the black box of how organisations with all sorts of systems in place to ensure a sensible approach to decision making - workshops/surveys/risk assessments/profit forecasts galore - can still utterly shoot themselves in the foot, ignore them all and cave at the last minute to appease a tiny interest group who they are utterly and disproportionately terrified of.

Honestly would love to see more FOI requests along these lines leading up to decisions to 'cancel'. That is the way this madness is going to end, by shining a light on how ridiculous and irrational this kind of decision making is.

Just to add - it's interesting too they took in 'reputational risk' as a factor in hosting the exhibition. They clearly overlooked the 'reputational risk' of not hosting, and having their thought processes laid bare like this really does expose them to the 'risk' of looking quite silly.

How bloody ridiculous.

It reminds me of the Harry Potter computer game that came out recently, to howls that there would be a boycott. Of course, the game was hugely successful because those advocating for the boycott were a tiny and irrelevant minority, albeit a very vocal one, and the boycott made no difference.

Except in this case, undue weight was given to the tiny minority. Why does anyone listen to this cohort of muppets?

"The management appear to have capitulated to a small number of vocal members of junior staff. "

Indeed. They ignored that large numbers of people who were keen to see the exhibition, they ignored the reputational damage to their establishment, they entirely ignored the risk that JKR could sue (although she probably wont be bothered).

What gutless wimps.

Virtue signalling over basic sense and profit. Good luck with that chaps. Tilt carefully at those windmills now.

I really hope some other Auckland exhibition space takes this on, and reaps the rewards. Shame for NZ Harry Potter fans to be denied the chance to see it - but hey, TRA ideology not really know for putting children first

My home town. The absolute state of it. 😡

I took my 11 year old granddaughter to the Harry Potter studio tour in Leavesden in November. We had a wonderful time and it was packed with other people having a wonderful time. Not a protest to be seen. The people in NZ are nuts to give in.

The childish narcissism is front and centre.

Blow the business reality of the situation, blow the finances, blow the wider picture and other views- the sole thing of importance is demonstrating how very Right On they are and that they're part of the Right Gang.

Presumably demonstrating to other right on people in the same gang. Strokes and applause and personal identity obvs matter where reality, income, sustainability of their work place etc don't. This really is the province of the privileged.

So much of this seems to come down to noise of social media.

Liking or retweeting something is not the same as getting involved in any real activism.

Is this translating into successful boycotts? Are these companies/businesses/establishments seeing a profit from those they wish to appease? Or are they simply making decisions based on the views of people who have no intention of actually doing anything/giving anything they want up?

Love (not) that they not only ignored the results of a survey of 500 likely customers (external majority views) but also ignored the responses of 8 out of 9 museum stakeholders (internal majority views) interviewed by a consultant that they appointed to better inform their way through this. The decision was taken to not put this to the Museum Board but instead withdraw quietly claiming financial and values risk. There is no evidence in the emails selected by this reporter of financial risk. There was and is evidence of financial risk should they not host it however.

The Board should be asking questions. So should those who are publicly funding a museum which has now set a precedent for selection of exhibitions based on minority views with no evidence to support them. Why would you want to work for this museum if they won't listen ... Hmm could be that you are a member of a vocal minority. Poison.