Variety on JK Rowling

[ArabellaScott]

https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/harry-potter-hbo-series-jk-rowling-transphobia-1236215642/

HBO are supporting Rowling. To the bewilderment and despair of Variety, and the author of some Harry Potter themed cookbook or something.

A delightful article in which the writer attempts to find a reverse gear on their ferret-pulled bandwagon.

A 'rational' response to JKR's post about John Oliver.

She has had a lot of death threats over the years. I really admire how she has continued to stand up for what she believes in and hasn't been cowed by it all.

Edited to add the response, as the text is quite small in the MN upload. It reads "I really hope someone m***s this bitch soon".

Variety needs a good cancelling for spreading JK’s terfy viewpoint 😃

One of our semi regular TRA guests said that the trans character was transphobic because it was too manly looking/sounding.

it turned out to be a pretty faithful visual depiction of the MtF trans-in-real-life actor, Rebecca Root, who did the voice for the character.

😆

Indeed. You cab generally spot a trans woman actor playing a trans character and think that's fine. Each to their own. But it would be wrong to have a female play a trans woman character and use that to say "see you can tell"

Yes. There was an episode of Inside Number 9 where one of the twists was that a character was trans. I was so surprised by how well the actor had passed up until the reveal that I looked him up to see what he looked like out of character. Turned out the part was played by a woman up until the reveal scene.

Charlie Chaplain’s granddaughter.

Hayley Cropper, anyone?

I think the joke of that was partly that it was very clearly a different actor when the trousers came down though!

Which episode was that? Think I missed that one!

A Quiet Night In

Series 1 ep 2. It’s a brilliant one imo.

Oh I have seen it, forgot though!

Yes, it's really good and well acted. But it is telling that they could only pull off the "OMG" surprise by not using an actual male person to set things up.

Good on HBO anyway. I am very, very excited for the Harry Potter series, any estimates for when it will come out? I presume it’s years away, but I know they’ve started casting the children.

And it is a while since I saw it, bu I don't think the character being trans was especially relevant? Not to say that means the character should not have been trans, more that it's odd they bothered with the setup to make the audience assume the character was female.

(Sorry about the derail)

I watched it the other day, so it’s been on my mind

I think it’s just a comic detail designed to enlighten us about the complexities of the sex life of Denis Lawson’s character. They have a blow up sex doll with a giant penis and breasts under the bed.

It’s Hogwarts Legacy all over again. The way the TRA brigade went on you’d expect it to be a massive flop but it was a resounding success, which they seemed absolutely baffled by and horrified with in equal measure.

It’s almost like, as a demographic, they're statistically irrelevant.

They are also accidentally excellent publicity generators, of course. And I suspect they encouraged people that wouldn’t otherwise have thought to buy the game to get it out of irritation.

I remember when there was a big song and dance made about the first trans actor in Doctor Who, in 2015´s Sleep No More - Bethany Black, who was unfortunately pretty awful. Now of course it seems every second person in Doctor Who is trans.

I wonder how many of them couldn’t resist buying it. They’d have felt terribly guilty of course.

I was in central London recently. I hadn't realised just how huge HP still is. In the area around Soho and Leicester Square there are not just one but several shops and experiences, all catering to different groups of the fandom.

And not just Central London.

I’ve had trips to Bruges & Cambridge this year & both were heaving with Harry Potter gift shops, which definitely weren’t just aimed at kids.

Makes sense around Leicester Square, with the Cursed Child theatre show.

But there's random Harry Potter gift shops up and down the country.

All sorts of shops have link ups... homewares, clothing, food, Lego, other toys...

Its not going away.

there's one in Meadowhall which is pretty fab too, and doing good business by the look of it.

It's the problem of being in an Internet bubble. Some of us are careful to look at things we don't necessarily agree with, so that doesn't happen to us.

This sounds like Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In without wishing to give any spoilers. I watched it when it came out pre-trans madness but would like to give it a go again in this light. Almodovar is obviously pro-queer theory/trans ideology in person but his work is a lot more ambiguous.

Probably had to tweet a few rape threats to atone.