• MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Big time:

    • Asian character with a nonsense name that sounds like Ching Chong
    • black character Kingsley Shacklebolt (MLK Shackles)
    • Jewish character named Goldstein
    • Jewish stereotype goblins
    • Irish character who’s obsessed with whiskey and explosives.
    • she went on Pottermore and explained that Skinwalkers are actually just misunderstood wizards, and the native american muggles were wrong to oppress the skinwalkers
    • her designs of the international magic schools are ignorant nonsense
    • tegs_terry@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      Christ, what a bunch of contrived bollocks. Who’s the irish guy with the whiskey? Seamus? I don’t even know if he mentions it once. And his spells blowing up is just the films.

      What’s the skinwalker thing from?

      • MindTraveller@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/gvkjz2/can_we_just_acknowledge_that_the_main_irish/fsqlrh8/

        It’s not so much that he’s INTO blowing things up, more so that his spell work is often atrocious enough that things just explode.

        I actually have a headcanon to explain this. We can sort of weakly infer that magic is influenced by the caster as well as just the incantation. Lily did a lot of stuff with flowers (even before she could control it properly), Hermione’s magic is always particularly detailed, Ginny seems to have a penchant for nasty hexes, Lockhart is inexplicably good at memory charms. Maybe something about Seamus’ magic just naturally gravitates towards exploding?

        Never have I identified with Seamus as much as I do now

        https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/09/jk-rowling-under-fire-for-appropriating-navajo-tradition-history-of-magic-in-north-america-pottermore

          • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I’ve avoided the Rowling stuff for a long time, but lemmy’s hated of her is just so vitriolic I decided to look into it. It’s ALL very weak. I don’t agree with Rowling, but I don’t think she’s a bigot. I do think she’s having a natural reaction to being viciously attacked online. And I think her initial comments were an illogical fear brought about by her own sexual trauma. In a sane world, we would react by saying “I understand you’re scared but that’s just not rational, I suggest you work on it with your therapist” instead of death threats.

            • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              J.K.'s initial comment was perfectly fine. She simply said that being born a woman and transitioning are different life experiences, and pretending they are the same does a disservice to both. The backlash to that was irrational. And for someone who’d spent years being told by the vast majority that she’s the greatest thing for child literacy since the printing press - her ego just couldn’t handle it. So we set her up to fail with a one-two punch. All that said, she did take that bait quick, and at this point she just acts like another billionaire internet troll.

              • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                I meant her concern about bathrooms. Realistically, having separate bathrooms for men and women at all is a weird cultural vestige. Being worried about assaults specifically in bathrooms is a product of Rowlings trauma.

                But yes, similar deal with her comments about cis women and trans women having different life experiences. Trans women are women, but there are many different kinds of women, and it’s perfectly fine to acknowledge differences.

                that said, she did take that bait quick,

                Yeah and that’s unfortunate. I kind of get it, if you’re being viciously attacked online unjustly, there’s a desire to say “well fuck it, you lot suck but there’s a different ideology who loves me”. But you have to resist that comfortable feeling of finding an in-group. Sometimes you have to be okay just being hated by everyone, if the people on “your side” decide for whatever reason to ostracize you.

                • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  I kinda see all of the online JK drama as stemming from her change in attitude since the cis/trans women comments. But I did totally miss the context of the bathrooms, replying from the new comment roll - thanks for catching me up!

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        And his spells blowing up is just the films.

        Wait, wasn’t there explosion by Seamus somewhere in first book?

    • uis@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Irish character who’s obsessed with whiskey and explosives.

      If you try to talk about Seamus, I don’t remember him making explosions intentionally. Obsession requires intention. Same with Lockheart’s explosion in second book.

      • Jewish stereotype goblins

      So also add speciesism?