I can understand giving someone the benefit of the doubt, but Rowling is being bigoted and willfully ignorant. This isn't a mistake, its a pattern of behavior. Should people send her death threats or degrade the people who enjoy and purchase her work, no. But down playing what's she done said and how it affects others, is not helping the situation. Chalking up her behavior to a 'mistake' is pretty irresponsible.
I feel like you're talking about two different types of people. Let's face it: people throw around -phobes and -ists way WAY too easily. Many times, the person on the receiving end would never consider themselves to be whatever the label thrown at them is. IIRC, Rowling does not consider herself to be transphobic or a TERF so when she gets approached in that way, it really doesn't do much to help. Those types of people I do believe you can talk with and at least come to an understanding. If she says something factually wrong, the best thing you can do is use your voice and own platform to spread the correct information. But screaming out -phobe or -ist, people are just going to shut you out and ignore you (general "you" here, don't mean anyone specifically).
Then there are the people who are actually part of brainwashing groups who are really just looking for a place to belong or let out their rage at the world or whatever. Those people need help in a completely different way. No matter what you say to them, it doesn't matter. I watch a lot of flat Earth "debates" and I can tell you, a lot of them repeat the same things over and over. This is because flat Earth is basically like a cult and they spread around videos and have discords/FB groups where they repeat the same thing. No matter how much evidence is presented to them, they absolutely refuse to see it. Presenting arguments doesn't help and many of them need real, professional help and someone close to actually get them out of the group.
Onto the issue of the thread, I'll just say that I agree that cancel culture is complete BS. It doesn't do anything, it oftentimes backfires and it only riles up people and pisses them off and divides us more. If you don't like what someone has to say, use your own platform to say what you think is right. At the end of the day, we will never agree with each other. We will never completely understand each other. Oftentimes, the intentions of the person saying or doing the thing is misunderstood, especially on Twitter with its character limit really, really doesn't help.
The only time cancel culture works is when someone has gone out and committed an egregious crime. Like I think most people can agree that Shueisha continuing their contract with the Rurouni Kenshin author is wrong, though thankfully they did cancel their contract with the writer for Act-Age who had gone out and attacked two middle school girls.
Adding a JK Rowling's worth of legitimacy to the anti-trans people seems pretty egregious.
And the people protesting aren't really trying to change her mind or those if her followers. They're trying to warn everyone else and maybe send a message to the corporations. You don't want any part of this controversy.
It's here today and it'll be gone tomorrow, that's my honest opinion on it.
Like I think if you try to make change through shame it just never works. It just makes people more cemented in their ways.
And when it comes to people losing their minds on twitter about this...I think it's partly covid? Being quarantined forever? the worst year ever just happening outside our windows?
And...honestly the book funds thousands of artists and writers. She ain't even writing the series anymore. The only people you're banning is the artists trying to get a foothold in this industry. If you want to ban her works ban her new works she's making now not the old stuff.
And one last thing--as a millennial who is old enough to have been Harry's age when the 3rd book came out. We don't care. We've known about JK for a good long time and we were there for the series, not for JK Rowling. (I blocked her like 5 years ago, y'all are late!) The more she has added to the series the more the HP fandom was like "stawwwwp your work is so bad!" And the stuff that was made without her input so much was actually pretty good.
So I don't really see it as fully her creation anymore! In the same way I don't see other book inspired movies as owned by their respective writers. These things start as books by one author--and then after a while...it's just owned by everyone else. She'll slowly lose more and more control and then...Harry Potter will be free to do whatever it wants.
I've never read harry potter, so I have zero attachment to JK and her work (closest I've come to consuming harry potter at all is enjoying the theme park at universal and having watched one of the fantastic beasts movies) so as an outsider I'll say: I might've given her post-HP works a chance since she was such a massive figure in the writing world, but her recent behavior has solidified my drive to never touch a single thing she has or ever will produce. Honestly don't care how masterfully it's written, if the writer has harmful beliefs, it'll bleed into the product in one form or another. That new mystery novel about the gender nonconforming murderer is soaked with it.
And I don't see it as cancel culture personally- JK is a massively successful person with probably enough money to last 5 more lifetimes. She is still getting book deals. She has a video game releasing centered around her creation. She has a theme park. She has people bending over backwards to defend and rationalize her words. She's still succeeding. I'm just making the personal choice to avoid someone who thinks people like me are confused and need fixing, and distancing myself from others who tolerate that belief.
There's precedent for writers and other artists using their fame and influence to get into politics, start harmful social movements, or both. It's never too early to abort these things, is what I mean.
You can like the Harry Potter series and NOT like JK Rowling. series =/= author imo.
Throwing away precious childhood memories because some add-on DLC that happened years later shouldn't change the past.
It's like enjoying Last of Us but not liking Last Of Us 2 XD or playing Pokemon Red but not Pokemon Sword.
We just need to set our own line for when the journey ends.
I think its pretty stupid, honestly. Like there's more hot button issues at hand than a wealthy writer whose swimming in money at least a decade and half past her golden years when she was still relevant. Reminds me of all the times the internet tried canceling notch and it didn't do jackshit. Just don't give them money or publicity if you want them to fade into obscurity. All this is doing is making more people buy her work for the outrage.
Soft power is simply being in good odor with a lot of people. To counter it, you have to make a stink.
People have done a lot of damage with a lot less than what Rowling has. Constant vigilance!
congratulations, you're giving her what she wants lol more money and publicity. You know she's trying to rile people up right? It's exactly what notch was doing and other rich people on twitter once they got bored with their money.
I’m here to clarify on my post. I did not defend anyone. I was just trying to point out that we saw the worst of human nature, and that this is how some humans are. I knew about the transphobic thing, I just never knew that it was this bad, that she published a whole fricking essay on it. I was ignorant about this topic. Rowling might never change, and this is what we have to accept, that she will never say she’s sorry. We don’t have to forgive her. While I never liked her books, I’m disappointed. People should still read Harry Potter if they feel like it and enjoy the movies but enjoy them with the consciousness that what she did was horrible. We shouldn’t to give her attention. I will say no more. Agree, or disagree but I will not add on because this debate has already gone up in flames. I suck at debates anyway.
I always fallowed the "separate content, artist and fandom" rule, so yeah, harassing someone just because they enjoy something that was created by a problematic person just sounds stupid, especially because they might just not know who they're supporting.
If you want to cancel someone, do not go after their fans with pitchforks and such, just inform them, and if they still want to consume the content, show them how to get it without supporting whoever you're canceling.
But if they still support the problematic creator after that... Then still don't go after them! You'll just give them a martyr complex and they'll assume a "us vs them" mentality, and then they'll just get worse than members of a creepy cult, trust me.
There seems to be the implication that there's no way to push back against the rich and powerful once they reach a certain level. That after a certain point there's no such thing as bad publicity. And to an extent this may be true . . . but I refuse to buy into the idea that there's nothing we can do, that we have no control over how the cultural conversation goes. Culture belongs to everybody because it comes from everybody. Learned helplessness is not the way forward and we ought to distrust anyone trying to push it on us.
Someone has to say that something is wrong when it is wrong. Someone has to call out the ridiculous. Someone has to say that the emperor has no clothes.
There’s a really easy answer actually- you stop talking about them
Cancel culture is shit cause it only hurts the little guy; all that happens to the big guy is that rumors start happening and WOM starts happening- and that ONLY helps the people your upset with- there’s plenty of people who had no idea that JK had a crime series and NOW people know and some people are even like “well the magic system was shit in HP but the mystery was good so maybe crime books are better?” And they don’t give two shits about the controversy cause - as I’ve already stated - humans only have so much brain power each day to be responsible consumers especially where we’re talking about consuming entertainment.
This only helped her.
You wanna make a statement and reduce her income? Stop talking about her.
But first we all have to agree to shun her, and that means a certain amount of conversation and maybe a sign for the latecomers.
And if someone hears that something is hate speech and then goes out if their way to buy it, that's not the fault of the people calling it hate speech. If I advocate being a responsible and ethical consumer, that doesn't make me an accessory to someone's irresponsible and unethical purchases.
Yes! Also, Karl Popper's paradox of tolerance:
"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them."
Basically, if you allow sheep and wolves, you're only going to end up with wolves in the end. Tolerating transphobes endangers lives. We cannot tolerate JK's intolerance.
Remember when JK Rowling was awkwardly trying to pander to SJW with bizarre random trivia?.......those were wild memetic/cringy times.....Maybe those are the consequences of trying to appeal to a group she doesn't understand and now it's reaching its logical conclusion......
Now, to wonder if she is transphobic.........Can someone sumarize what did she say/do that was transphobic and who would be kind to share links to the tweets or whatever?
Saw the links to long winded videos about the issue, but i wonder if i am asking too much when asking people to:
I don't think you can summarize the depth of the situation in 20 words or less. There are resources provided, and articles out there. If you google "JK transphobia" you'll find plenty of examples. She generally hides her transphobia behind her "feminism" (hence: TERF), so any tweets from her you'll see are her defending cis women against the trans women she perceives as a threat. And therein lies the problem, and the danger to trans womens' lives in particular.
This "I wonder if she's REALLY transphobic though" sentiments are kind of exhausting after people have provided myriad examples that you just don't want to bother with.
Thanks a lot for the reply. Maybe i am feeling lazy for just waking up. Anyway, will follow your advice and do a quick google search to see what i find.
the fact that you use FoxNews scares me...
however, I agree with you...
also, Rowling's original statement wasn't against transgenders however it was a tweet that could be interpreted differently
what actually made things go downhill was when she tried to defend her statement and didn't properly express herself and I admit she shouldn't have said some of the things she said ...
harry potter came out in 1980 and for its time it's very open and isn't against LGBTQ+ at all
Rowling's original statement was about how after surgery you can't go back and you can no longer have children of your own which is a big thing ...
You shouldn't feel conflicted, if you enjoy something you should enjoy it regardless of what people say ... cancel culture is a joke anyway it was good at the start and now it has literally reached a point that it walks over other people's human rights I have seen nothing good from it .
for someone who has been popular for such a long time I'm surprised Rowling managed to last this long without tripping over all those people who want to drag her down
the internet is scary
don't just take my word for it do your own research on the subject and make your own opinion
So I did a bit of my own research. The first Harry Potter book came out 26 June 1997.
Admittedly cancel culture can be way too heavy-handed and stupid. But you can't fault the sentiment behind it. In this ongoing culture war, it's the side that stands for the people.
@byelacey Reached some of her tweets to judge better......there are probably way more out there, but these are what i found on a quick search.
This is a whole topic that would go on a massive tangent......if anyone is interested here is one of the topics that discussed it https://forums.tapas.io/t/getting-rid-of-gender-hear-me-out/28496
Gotta say i agree that surgery and hormone therapy is not a decision that should be rushed because of the health risks. Specially on children and because of the fact that children are on a life stage where they are figuring out their identity.
While i disagree with the analogy, the point about the health concerns are still valid. Pretending that those risks dont exist is irresponsible and people who has gender dysphoria deserve to take a fully informed decision.
Medication for any health issue, physical or psychological need a prescription. This law was made to protect the health of any person.
And here is a point i heavily disagree......there is a thing called menopause and another called not reaching puberty yet, so.....mentruating is not what defines a woman. Also, the "Wumben?,Wimpund?,Woomud?" was an insensitive move that doesnt help her case......
lmao you are right I ended up typing when Harry Potter was born instead of when the book was published 
However, I disagree I am part of no culture war. Culture is culture. because someone tweets something controversial does not give you the right to cancel culture...
you can't say you stand for the people if you are bullying people who just want to enjoy harry potter regardless of this whole tweet thing.
also did you research the tweet of just the books? tbh the books are a lot better than the movies
https://twitter.com/Carter_AndrewJ/status/1270787941275762689?s=207
This thread goes through most of her concerns and debunks them. The thread creator is the owner of a platform that seeks to end disinformation being spread across social media. Take a look if you want to learn more.
you really did research it! I like you!!
people like you make my day!
but yeah I agree with what you said... the initial statement defo isn't something that can just be summed up in a tweet...
and she kinda dug her own grave ... she had a valid point but ... wtf why would you explain it that way.
she did kinda make cooked herself up as the perfect prey for cancel culture
but from these I still can't see her being homophobic or against LGBTQ+
idk I never liked cancel culture and I'm not gonna like it now it attempts to just cancel Harry Potter for some tweets
I appreciate that you're going into detail on this, and explaining exactly which parts of cancel culture you think are ridiculous. Yes, I don't agree with bullying either, and especially not bullying casual fans or people who just want to keep having fond memories of the franchise.
But I must respectfully disagree when you say you're not part of the culture war. We're all part of this culture, which means we're all in the struggle whether we like it or not. There's been too much social engineering this last century, and very little of it has been in the public's interest.
@DiegoPalacios I also appreciate that you're moving away from having a twenty-word opinion. May I ask where you think Rowling stands at present?
Giving a ear to a known prejudiced someone "just asking questions" is exactly how we got vulnerable people buying conspiracy theories and some facist lines of thought(Folding Ideas' recent video on this is a good watch if you have the hour and feelings to spare). There's a limit where you just gotta say "regardless of your points being valid, you just want an opening to say bad things about trans people, so how about no", and JK has long since passed it considering the content of her newer books.
huh fair enough, good thing you don't agree with bullying !!
attempting to rip appart someones carrier because of a set of tweets would be awfully similar to that !! I'm glad we see eye to eye!
also I'm still not part of a war! I'm part of a friendly debate, which doesn't have any real impact on society at all!
tbh these things happen a lot people go ballistic about what some celebrity said... personally I don't really follow celebrities or hang onto their each and every word...
from what I see Rowling started with a valid argument that simply could not be summed up in a tweet... and she dug herself a grave attempting to explain it through tweets... I'm sure someone you have done the same when you were driven into a corner while trying to explain something.
this debate has been fun though but it looks like I'm finishing with the same opinion I started with 
Some people dont`t realize that snarky comments often fail to make the person willing to listen. Also, they may fall into strawman fallacy sometimes.
It was the most recent article at the moment and easiest to link. I'm not much of fan of Fox, but it was easier than reading through a bunch of other articles to find just the perfect one. I think folks get the point of the situation. 
yeah I had only read the first tweet and the menstrual one ... the rest isn't as bad as the menstrual one but its still pretty bad..
aha and strawman fallacy what a useful term I didn't know existed this makes my life so much easier!
I feel like the more I hear about cancel culture the more I hate it... it feel like a bunch of wild dogs attached to chains that will bite at the heals of anyone who get close... if you slip up for even a second you don't know when they'll strike even if its not actually racist or homophobic you don't know how they'll interpret it ...
of course, that's Rowling's fault for not taking it into account its sad but she shouldn't have said what she did through a tweet ...
thanks again Diego! I've learned so good things!
haha fair enough!
well I hope that reading our debates allowed you to see a good perspective from both sides, so you can form your own opinion.
Have a good day!
This is Rowling we're talking about though. A multimillionaire owner of a billion-dollar franchise. We're very much punching up toward the moon.
Society is everywhere, even in this forum. Every little bit of productive discourse counts towards progress. You say that your opinion hasn't changed (and that's totally valid) but you had fun, you refined your arguments, and you defended them with greater rigor. Those are good outcomes too.
This whole conversation has been very enlightening. I haven't interjected much since I really just wanted to learn how people feel about it. I'm also pleasantly surprised how civil it has stayed for the most part.
you have a good point!
I guess the fastest way to grow and improve your way of thinking is through sharing opinions and debating ...
it has been fun indeed!
This is kinda wholesome, but, thanks a lot for your time!
have a good weekend!
The newest thing that sparked this thread is that her upcoming(or maybe it's already out?) book is a serial killer that dresses as a woman to kill his victims(and is sexually fascinated with women's clothes in general). It's EXACTLY a fictional justification that transwomen are just faking it and harming the feminist movement from the inside, just like the other dangerous stereotype with the t-word. Apparently this also came up a bit on the Robert Galbraith books but I only saw small snippets on twitter.
It's in the air exactly how much of Harry Potter's problems came from ignorance or deliberate attempts at bad stereotypes, but there's no hiding anymore with this new work of hers, since she was so kind as to leave it all over twitter and her blog.
