Current Events > HBO stands by J.K. Rowling's transphobia

(+) Yeah! (+)

Who are they going to blame when people refuse to watch the show

Who are they going to blame when people refuse to watch the show

What the fuck were they supposed to do? This is a capitalist society and a fascist just took office.. Get allllll the money you can.

Nothing. They could have said nothing

It's going to be a hit. Hogwarts Legacy proved that it's only a vocal minority who have a problem with Harry Potter.

Announcing this on the Transgender Day of Remembrance was a choice.

It's going to be a hit. Hogwarts Legacy proved that it's only a vocal minority who have a problem with Harry Potter.

OMG I hate when people use "I have a right to express my opinion" line. It's like, no fucking shit, she has a right to express her views. Saying she "has the right to express her views" doesn't make her views have more validity.

I seriously believe people who use that line, knows that whatever discussion they are having, they are on the losing end of it. So they bust out the "free speech" card, as if that's gonna make their opinion the winning one. It's like, no it doesn't. And if anything, it makes you the loser of the discussion, because you obviously have nothing left to give, other than "free speech" as having the last word. That's why I instantly dismiss people who say "I have the right to express my opinion" as being serious.

Announcing this on the Transgender Day of Remembrance was a choice.

Who are they going to blame when people refuse to watch the show

What the fuck were they supposed to do? This is a capitalist society and a fascist just took office.. Get allllll the money you can.

I think you seriously overestimate how many people know or care about JK Rowlings views.

Hogwarts Legacy was much more palatable because they were going out of their way to distance the game from Rowling as much as they could. Sure she still profited from it but she's a billionaire, good luck trying to actually impact her finances in any sort of meaningful way.

This project though, they're embracing her, getting her involved directly. I know trans people who were fine with Hogwarts Legacy, I doubt any of them will be fine with the show after seeing that xcretion.

It may well perform well but you'll not catch me giving HBO money for it.

Exactly the only people who even are aware of the way she thinks are terminally online people

1000% there will be stabs at trans people spread all across it.

It's going to be successful. All the Harry Potter stuff makes money.

Since finishing the Harry Potter series, Rowling has focused on a new series; adult detective novels featuring ex-military policeman Cormoran Strike and his female assistant Robin Ellacott. Some have also been adapted for television by the BBC and HBO.
Initially, the books seemed unexceptional genre works, but that changed when Rowling started to inject her increasingly strange beliefs about trans people and other issues. Over time, it started to become obvious that Rowling was writing these novels as an exhibitionist way to vent her own personal obsessions and prejudices into fiction. At first it was subtle; book two, The Silkworm (2014), features two trans characters who are portrayed in a relatively sympathetic fashion, although Strike is rude to them and threatens one with prison rape.
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Controversy increased with book five: Troubled Blood (2020) features a serial killer who disguises himself in drag in order to assault woman in public restrooms. It also contains a lot of criticism of 21st century feminism for being sex-positive along with gender essentialist undertones in regards to the behavior of men and women. In addition to transphobic stereotypes, several passages in the novel also have a perverse fixation with fat people, filled with bizarre paragraphs that detail in unnecessary length the eating habits and appearances of overweight characters in a less-than-flattering matter and whose behavior is an almost cartoonish portrayal of obesity in what is supposed to be a serious crime thriller. This is even more puzzling when considering Rowling has spoken against society using weight as an insult before.

This was followed by book six, The Ink Black Heart (2022), which is about a cartoonist who is doxxed and ultimately murdered after antagonising woke online trolls with remarks about a hermaphrodite worm that are considered transphobic. Rowling insists any resemblance to her life is coincidental; most people don't believe her.
Author Gretchen Felker-Martin wrote that Rowling is "deeply mean-spirited when it comes to anyone non-normative, especially the fat and the disabled," finding The Ink Black Heart to be "particularly savage" in its "bottomless contempt for 'spoonies' and other disabled communities." She contrasted the sympathetic portrayal of "brusque, manly Strike, whose disability is the result of a war wound" with the portrayal of chronically-ill characters as "malingerers, abusers, and emotional manipulators."
In Hendley's view, Rowling distinguishes "people who have valid, visible, 'real' illness/disabilities" and want to to "'get on with it', to live their lives 'despite' their difficulties, to even excel" from the spoonie who "not only wallows, but defines themselves by (and perhaps even revels in) being ill."

In Half-Blood Prince (2005), Lupin reveals he was bitten as a child by Fenrir Greyback, who he describes as the "most savage werewolf alive today." Greyback, unlike most werewolves who attack in a state of uncontrolled frenzy, knowingly plans and stalks his victims in advance. He "specialises in children," following a philosophy of "bite them young and raise them away from their parents, raise them to hate normal wizards."
Rowling first revealed that she'd used lycanthropy as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS in 2008 while testifying in her lawsuit against Harry Potter Lexicon creator Steven Vander Ark. The AIDS metaphor drew criticism even before its confirmation by Rowling due to the parallels to real homophobic fearmongering.

On 13 March 2024, Rowling denied that the Nazis persecuted trans people, saying the idea is "a fever dream". She cited Malcolm Clark, a LGB Alliance co-founder who isn't a historian. Clark's thread said transgender people weren't a "key target" of the Nazis', then conflated trans surgery with Nazi eugenics and concentration camp experiments.

Hogwarts Legacy was much more palatable because they were going out of their way to distance the game from Rowling as much as they could.

The fact of the matter is that she is an absolutely fantastic writer and her stories inspired children and pushed good moral values, even if that does not reflect her views on one group of people. Hogwarts Legacy suffered for not having her involved in the writing. The series is her baby and she should be involved in new content set in it.

Oh boy, y'all can run another "if you consume this you're a bad person" campaign.

Who are they going to blame when people refuse to watch the show

Because this happened in Harry Potter

The fact of the matter is that she is an absolutely fantastic writer and her stories inspired children and pushed good moral values, even if that does not reflect her views on one group of people. Hogwarts Legacy suffered for not having her involved in the writing. The series is her baby and she should be involved in new content set in it.

It's going to be a hit. Hogwarts Legacy proved that it's only a vocal minority who have a problem with Harry Potter.