Trans People Launch High Street Protest Against Sale of Harry Potter Merchandise

[IwantToRetire]

Trans rights activists launched a peaceful protest outside Waterstones in Guildford this afternoon (May 16), chalking messages on the pavement to draw people’s attention to the company’s marketing of Harry Potter merchandise.

Protest group Defund Transphobes says Harry Potter author JK Rowling uses money from the sale of merchandise to fund what they describe as her “anti trans campaign”.

Continues at https://guildford-dragon.com/trans-people-launch-high-street-protest-against-sale-of-harry-potter-merchandise/

Meanwhile, I the real world, women are supposed to feel safe when they find a bloke in the female facilities.
P, S did anyone see the NHS employment tribunal case reported yesterday?

You do realise that people read books to gain knowledge? That I don't have to agree with the contents to find it thought provoking, or explanatory? I've read many books by political theorists, many of them I totally disagree with the ideology but they provide useful insights. If you only read books which align with your own views you aren't progressing or challenging yourself.

Well she comes across like an absolute tool with the IQ of a baked bean so I’m not sure she’s worth getting wound up by. 🤣. I just find it hard to fathom that people this daft walk the earth.

So you accuse me of basically being a fan of Hitler and your only evidence is your reading group apparently think a different author might have written something offensive but you never bothered to look into it or find out what that might be?

A reading group that bans one of the best writers on the planet isn't really a reading group to be honest. You might want a refund mate.

Our Waterstones has always had a huge section of Harry Potter merchandise. It must be one of their most profitable areas as there’s a constant flow of children reaching Harry Potter age. I doubt very much they could afford to cut off that revenue stream when the stuff is so easily available elsewhere.

If people are that fragile as a result of their choices, I’d suggest they make different choices.

And imagine a world where people stopped reading books that they’d been told not to read. How very authoritarian.

What is more harmful?

1. Rape victims being told that males are allowed to identify as women and access their support groups

1. A book existing near you by an author you dont like.

I just wasted time googling who wrote Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Doh! Missed the joke.

This is where you've jumped the shark. I really can't believe that someone is this dim.

I think you must just be a very bored person who - for reasons I can't quite fathom - finds it amusing to wind up sensible women by pretending to be a stereotypical omnicause "progressive" TRA.

To get really into character, you should have written folx rather than folks

But not so open minded as to actually read books of "banned authors" to make up your own mind about them, pathetic.

You stating Rushdie is an islamophobe just shows you know nothing about the authors and their books you are villifying. I bet you think Rushdie is islamophobic because the leader of Iran spoke a fatwa out to him, leading to Rushdie being in hiding and protections by the British government for a decade and a violent attack against him. If the leader of Iran disagrees with your work, it must be true, right?

The truth: the Satanic verses shows how Rushdie lost his faith in Islam and references certain parts in the Koran that lots of muslims find offensive because of the reference, not because of what he said (basically the same as the bananarama defence).

But it is Rushdies journey about his faith. You can speak on your experience and your opinion without being phobic.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-satanic-verses/salman-rushdie/9780963270702 £10.99 - it's one of Waterstones' "Bucket list books".

Spot on.
The "my reading group's banned list" is a real give away.
A wind up merchant.

Do you have a copy of Mein Kahmpf too by any chance?

Not any more but I did, I brought from Smiths, the book sellers before Waterstones, it was dire. I know that because I read it, or tried I gave up after 100 pages, have you read any of SR's books or are you just repeating what you've been told. Just like you've been told JKR is a 'transphobe'.

Bookshops are clearly wasted on you so why do you care what books they stock.
You spelt it wrong by the way it should be Kampf.

A phobia is an irrational fear, I think Rushdie's disillusionment is pretty rational, as everything that has happened since has proven.

Let them. The fact that Netflix is shooting a Harry Potter remake, the cursed child is still going strong in London, you have to book the studio tour weeks in advance if you want a weekend ticket at a sensible time and itv regularly replay the movies tell me that HP is going nowhere.

I wonder if @InstantlyBella is one of those students who is instantly 'triggered' by books that don't align with her world view, probably because A. N. Other has told her how reprehensible the contents are, doesn't read them even if essential to the course and then complains when they fail the course?
I mean Salman Rushdie, for crying out loud!
And just to end, this is how actual witch burnings start. Burn books, then burn people.

When I went past they were blocking the doorway and all taking photos of each other with their flags.

And the people who happily go along with the book/witch burnings never imaging that eventually they won't be pure enough either and end up on the pyre too.

This is one of the weirdest things I’ve heard for a long time. It was a Salman Rushdie book which contained ideas that Muslims objected to. Not the author’s personal opinion voiced long after the publication.

Who else is on the banned list?

One can make the same argument saying JK Rowling is standing up for what is right and keeping women safe. Freedom of speech protects ALL speech. Not just the speech you agree with.

Especially when what (particularly young) women are faced with: drinks being spiked, only 1% conviction rate for rape, 1 in 30 women sexually assaulted every year, rape academies teaching men how to rape. And yet we’re told the real issue for women is a children’s book being sold in a book shop written by someone who has consistently supported women’s rights. That this makes trans people feel unsafe. They really need to recalibrate what unsafety actually involves if that’s what they consider unsafe.

The funniest thing I have read on mumsnet for ages.

I’m picturing you all chuntering away and fainting at the thought somebody might think differently to your group mind and have the temerity to have gasp written them into a book.

FFS get a grip.

Very tempted to order a copy of The Satanic Verses now.

To aid your very limited understanding this is the novel which led to islam demanding it’s supporters find him and kill him meaning Salman Rushdie and his family had to go into hiding for decades and culminated in an attempt on his life where he lost an eye.

It still isn’t over and he continues to live under threat.

Now that is what feeling “unsafe” feels like.

Perhaps you might reflect on this when your silly little flock of sheep gather together to mutter about a much loved series of children's books being sold in Waterstones.

Total aside, but since when was Waterstones considered ‘prestigious’? 🤣