This thread is specifically for people who think JK Rowling is awful so..

[CurlewKate]

If you don't think she is please don’t post. Please can you tell me specifically what she has said or done that is so bad. I promise that I will listen and not argue. If you could include links that would be great. If your inclination is to assume that I’m posting in bad faith and any reasonably well informed person must be stupid or bigoted not to know, then please just let the thread die.

How certain are you that Primark, H&M (do they still HP stuff) use child slave labour? A quick google shows that Primark doesn’t. From their website -

We ban the use of child labour anywhere in the Primark supply chain – it is unacceptable. This is clearly set out in the Primark Code of Conduct, which is based on standards set by the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Every one of our suppliers and their factories must follow our Code of Conduct which covers areas such as pay, employment policies, the right to join a union, and health & safety – including minimum age requirements. We do a formal inspection of every factory against the Code before we will place any orders. We have our own dedicated team of 130 experts based in key sourcing countries who are responsible for more than 2,000 inspections every year. These inspections allow us to get a detailed picture of what conditions are like inside both new and approved factories and are vital in allowing us to check that our standards are being met.

Is she responsible for knock offs too? Maybe best to list what she isn’t responsible for at this stage.

Profit in what way?

H&M group statement -

https://hmgroup.com/sustainability/standards-and-policies/modern-slavery-statement/

It’s a Scottish company that make all the clothes associated with the franchise too, but no doubt some posters don’t have time to look that up.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/child-labour-primark-topshop-sustainable-fashion-industry-m-and-s-select-committee-parliament-a8654026.html

Just one example here, loopholes allowing children as young as 14 to "legally" work in factories, and Primark don't deny this.

Wonderful, and do you think this one Scottish company generates enough profit for Primark to buy the expensive HP licensing, or do they use their other profits from less reputable factories to put towards it?

That article is 7 years old…

So you know that she directly benefits from exploitative child labour do you? You absolutely KNOW that, and can prove it? Because that sounds very like defamation to me if you don’t have the receipts.

What are your feelings about doctors who profit from removing the healthy breasts of neurodivergent teenage girls, by telling them they’re born in the wrong body? What are your feelings about the grifter lawyer who has received £4 million in donations from vulnerable people and takes frivolous cases to court that he can’t and doesn’t win?

Because if we’re going to have a debate let’s do it properly.

Primark started selling Harry Potter merch in 2017.

And nothing could’ve changed in that time?

Oh of course. Silly me 🤦.

Yes, it is in the public arena that JK Rowling receives royalties from Harry Potter licensing. It is in the public arena that Primark, H&M etc, who have used the licensing for HP and therefore must pay royalties, have a murky history when it comes to child exploitation within their factories. It is not up to me to prove anything, I am just commenting on information widely available on the internet.

Again, I'm not sure why people on this thread are desperate to then turn the argument around and try to create an irrelevant debate. Obviously I am opposed to the things you have just listed, but what's that got to do with JK Rowling?

A lot of bold claims but not a lot of concrete evidence to back it up, as per when it comes to JKR bashing. Her sitting back revelling in child exploitation is a new one to be fair.

I don't find it odd at all. Your original OP asked "specifically what she has said or done that is so bad."

You didn't ask for evidence of her being a 'dangerous' or 'unpleasant' person. So is this a new request, or is this whole exercise a rhetorical question?

Perhaps it's your "I'll wait" moment?

Either way, I took you at face value, but I guess my inclination now is, yes, to assume you were posting in bad faith. Still, I can't just let this thread die because "Harry's heart did beat for us, for all of us! It's not over!"

How do you know that when Primark started selling HP merchandise in 2017, and that article you posted came out in 2018, she didn’t get involved?

Can you evidence that such practises still occur to this day?

Hopefully it has! Doesn't change the fact that JK Rowling was, at some point in the last decade, receiving royalties from businesses engaged in the practice of child labour.

I love that you don’t understand how businesses work, but please do carry on. I’m enjoying your morality lecture. I’m looking forward to you telling us about how you own absolutely nothing because that’s the only ethical way to behave, but if you ever have owned anything that you can trace the manufacturing data back to only completely ethical companies. Because you obviously wouldn’t come here lecturing us about JKR’s lack of ethics and not walk the walk yourself now would you? Because that would be hypocritical.

If it is true that child labour was used to make HP-themed clothing, do you think she knew about it?

More unsubstantiated ‘but this could be true’ nonsense. I love how people in glass houses love to throw stones.

Had a quick skim-I’ll read properly later-but it does seem that most of the objections to JKR detailed are actually nothing at all to do with trans issues at all. Is that so?

Something she has done that I find bad: thrusting law-abiding members of the general public who happen to be trans into the full glare of the social media spotlight. I find that irresponsible verging on shitty. YMMV but you did ask in this thread for people's honest opinions. That's mine.

Which she no doubt used to fund wonderful things. If that’s what’s gone on. She hardly had the head’s up did she. The stretching and assumption on this thread is wild.

Slightly off topic I know but Tom Holland and Zendaya were both child actors and seem to have done ok - JKR can't be responsible for how child actors turn out, that's down to the parents. Often stage kids have difficult childhood situations - see Jennette McCurdy from I- Carly for example. And it applies in sport too - see Andre Aggassi and Stef Graf. So JKR shouldn't be held responsible for this.

Re the merchandising, well I'm sure most people buy products with dodgy origins. Mobile phone lithium batteries for starters.

She'd be pretty thick and politically disengaged not to

What sort of things do you mean?