My personal solution is:
- Never do anything that results in money going to JKR.
- Avoid talking about Harry Potter in front of folks who may find it hurtful, use content warnings, etc.
- Continue to participate in the fandom (fanfiction, unofficial products, etc.) because I don’t want the thing that made up the vast majority of my childhood to be taken over by NAZIs and worse. Like it or not, Harry Potter is going to continue to be a huge part of many of our lives, and of the cultural dialogue going forward, the same way Starwars and Star Trek are. That means those of us who have been fans since the start (especially those of us who are straight scis dudes) have a duty to do what we can to keep the fannish spaces open and accepting. Both for kids newly exposed to it, and to make sure JKR doesn’t get to completely control the dialogue around Harry Potter in the way she never used to want to do, but is now set on doing.
I think a lot of the discourse shows up because you have 3 great rules here. But rule #3 normalizes and popularizes the franchise. Which increases the fandom. Which means that it becomes more popular amongst people who don’t follow rules #1 and #2. Which means rule #3 has a potential to increase money to JKR and people being hurt, countering any gains from the first 2 rules.
I agree with the sentiment behind all your rules, but only if everyone follows them. I genuinely don’t know what the solution is and I was never really into HP, so I don’t really have a horse in this race, I just wanted to point out why your clear cut and great rules may not properly placate diehard anti JKR types (which is also a reasonable sentiment that I understand as well).
I’m not them, but one possible approach is to ensure your participation in the fandom helps keep it in line with rules 1 and 2.
Essentially, make H.P. trans-affirming ; promote as unofficial canon things like a rule at Hogwarts allowing the nurse to administer poly juice potion to kids who feel the need to experiment with their bodies’ gender expression, or that the marbles club was a secret trans dude support group, whatever. It doesn’t need to be everything nor everywhere, just needs to be undeniable if anyone asks.
Allow newcomers to encounter H.P. through rule 3, but ensure they can’t meaningfully participate with the fandom without being “confronted” with, essentially, a check if some sorts. I don’t know how well this would work in practice - HP is still a global cultural reference and so no single person (apart from JKR herself maybe) can influence everyone else’s exposure to it too any meaningful degree.
Combine this with making sure all fans know how to get access to the media without paying for it, and hooking up the trusted people in your life if they want that, so they don’t have to buy it.
Here’s a perfect example of what I mean by controlling the dialogue. I’m known throughout my extended family as a massive potter head. A young person in my life had picked up Harry Potter from the library, gotten into it, and knew I’d be someone interested in talking about his new found interest. As part of those conversations, we got to talk about Goblins, why they’re bankers in Harry Potter, and the long history of antisemitism and what creatures with long noses and fingers who control all of the money might mean to some readers. Then we talked about how to enjoy things that are kind of gross, the power of popularity, and my own nostalgia and how Harry Potter became a part of my identity. If the only people participating in the fandom were bigots, I bet that conversation would have gone a lot differently.
That person is lucky to have you. You seem like a good person.
My point was merely that not everyone has that person.
You’re going to focus on the people who can be helped (I support positivity), diehard anti-JKR people are going to focus on the people who can’t be/aren’t helped. And the reality is probably somewhere in between.
It is a very complex situation, and I didn’t mean to come across as being against your stance, simply wanted to elaborate the complication of it all, and why some people prefer a harder stance.
I think what a lot of folks miss is that expecting the people who are actively being hurt to do this emotional labor is not okay. I don’t talk about Harry Potter in front of those whom it hurts. I use content warnings on my socials. And I accept that this is work I have to do as a straight cis dude, and it can’t be offloaded to someone else. That missing peace is what makes the anti jkr folks as vocal as they are.
I’m not sure that holds. First off, the multi-billion dollar corporations spending money on advertising and influencers will have more of an impact than fans ever will. Second, the more of us in the fandom who don’t support giving JKR money, the more openly accepting and encouraging the fandom becomes of piracy. True fans are always the best pirates; they spread it farther, are more likely to get it into the hands of people who would otherwise buy the product, and take more care with the rips/formatting/etc, making the product higher quality. Third, because of those billion dollar corporations, and the number of books and movies sold, Harry Potter is not going away in our lifetimes. I have no intention of allowing people I hate to control the dialogue around it. This isn’t like Twitter, where the owner can just delete views he doesn’t like, so our only choice is to leave. JKR doesn’t control any of the fandom spaces like Archive Of Our Own or any of the fan forums. And if she tried, they’d fight back. I would agree with you completely if the only way to participate in Harry Potter was to sign up on JKR’s website and take part in discussions controlled by JKR. But that’s not the case. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that we can’t control the behavior of others. But if the anti-JKR diehards focused on making piracy easier than giving JKR money in every case, Harry Potter would actually be more likely to go away quicker. If the corporations can’t make money off it, they’ll drop it. And giving people what they want for free will always work better than trying to force them into a mass boycott and to give up something they actually want.
My kids’ headcanon is that Danny Devito wrote the books and JKR took the credit because she’s that awful.
(Also, as they become better readers they see how not-very-good the writing actually is.)
I read the books to my kid, and I distinctly recall thinking “Oh yeah, these are children’s books, this is absolutely terrible writing.” Not even considering the plot or topics or politics or anything: the writing is just not good.
I enjoyed the books even as a young adult, but I give credit to excellent Ukrainian translation and publishing team.
You can’t seperate the artist from the art when the artist is a bigot trying to attack the rights of minorities and the art is still being made and giving her ammunition to do so.
