What Does Harry Potter Mean Now? [0:00-5:00]

Why does this keep happening? The creator of a beloved work of fiction turns out to be a bit of a sh**. And now we have to figure out how we square our old feelings about the art with our new feelings about the artist. Harry Potter is different from other examples, because it's not just a populous series of books and movies, it was an actual cultural phenomenon. Likewise, Joanne is different from other examples. She's not just posted a few problematic tweets, she has spent her post-Potter career advocating for so-called gender-critical politics, which actively harmed the rights of trans people. I'm not going to waste my time arguing whether Joanne is transphobic. For one thing, she's been known to threaten legal action against people who say that. I'm already going to have to qualify anything I say about her as my own opinion. But also, in my opinion, it's obvious she is. And at this stage, anyone who's still of a different opinion is beyond convincing anyway. Trans people are the gender they say they are. Trans rights are human rights, and they deserve rights. If you disagree with that, go f**k yourself. Although if you are genuinely unaware of what Joanne's been doing and why people are so upset about it, here are some people who can explain it far better than I could. I'll leave links in the description. But I'm not here to talk about Joanne. I want to talk about Potter. Because I guess I'm a fan. I'm part of the generation who grew up with these books, reading them was a formative experience for me. But I'm also a member of the LGBTQ plus community, and a vocal supporter of trans rights, in solidarity with the trans and non-binary people I know and love. And I'm also a media critic. I have a responsibility to make criticism that is fair, accurate and honest. So, being honest, I'm a bit conflicted on how I feel about Potter now. A version of this conversation was first had back around 2020. In the aftermath of Joanne's mask off, many Potter fans expressed disappointment, hurt and betrayal, which they didn't know how to reconcile with their fondness for her books. From this emerged a desire to separate the art from the artist. People jokingly attributed the Potter books to Hatsune Miku, Britney Spears, or even the characters of the books themselves. On Twitter, the trending hashtag RIPJKrolling was not, as some misinterpreted, a death threat against Joanne, but a reference to Roland Barz essay The Death of the Author, which, broadly speaking, argues that a reader's individual interpretation of a work matters more than the author's intent. In other words, fans were arguing they could still participate in the fandom without supporting Joanne. And in response to this, media critics pointed out that Death of the Author is a literary theory, whereas Joanne's call to turfery is not a literary problem. How we interpret her books isn't what matters here. What matters is what she's using her vast wealth and influence to do. She co-founded a Women Only Sexual Violence Support Center, which excludes trans women. She donated a million pounds to the Labour Party and agreed to meet with them over their gender recognition policies. She donated 70,000 pounds to a group opposing self-decloration gender laws, who, earlier this year, successfully campaigned for a Supreme Court ruling that the equality act refers to biological sex. This has complicated legal implications, but other organisations are using the ruling to justify policy discriminating against trans people, as encouraged by the god damn Prime Minister. And now, Joanne set up the JK Rowling Women's Fund, so she can financially support even more gender-critical legal cases. Meanwhile, the Potter capitalist machine continues to mine Joanne's intellectual property for movies, TV shows, merchandise and theme park rights. According to Forbes, Joanne has recently regained billionaire status. Whoopie! We know Joanne's contracts with both Warner Bros. and Universal require her to be involved in any Potter project they produce, which means, when we purchase Potter products, we are indirectly funding anti-trans causes. This is not about death of the author, because Joanne is very much still alive and still profiting from Potter. The verdict is simple. Don't give Joanne your money. As such, there's been an increasing push to Boycott Potter, mainly targeting new Potter products, such as the Hogwarts Legacy video game