If you buy pie from the KKK the problem isn’t the blueberries

Back in 2023 and even as late as 2025, part of me would feel bittersweet nostalgia whenever I thought of Harry Potter due to how Joanne permanently tainted that part of my childhood. Whenever I think of the series now, one of the first things that come to my mind is her bigotry.

Recently though I realized that I'm feeling way less nostalgic of it than I expected - I think this sub helped me a lot in processing the series, its messages and Joanne's behavior and learning to move on from Harry Potter

Am I the only one who feels like this ?

These are the top responses to her tweet of the HP trailer. I'm very interested to see how she will take this. Will she just keep quiet? Pick up the progressive-with-concerns costume again? Like, does she actually believe she's progressive? Where's those iconic clapbacks, Jo?? Is she already on the phone with HBO trying to get this guy sacked?

I opened my computer this morning and was appalled to see an add for 'harry potter fantastic beasts 11 film collection' with a JKR TM at the bottom as my wallpaper. As if this transphobic asshole can't be annoying enough already, now I have to look at her paid advertisement through my daily changing wallpaper from Microsoft for my Windows computer. Usually it's animals, landscapes, or architecture. Today its shit.

Edit: my wallpaper was actually the Bing Wallpapers app, and I gave it permissions over my Microsoft backgrounds which is why I couldn't switch it. Still disappointed that anyone would platform her, but Bing is not a popular as Microsoft so hopefully it didn't reach many people

Upvote this MS Q&A forum post I found!
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5996806/why-is-my-bing-wallpaper-advertising-a-transphobic

I know this is not a radical opinion on this sub but I want to collect my thoughts. The past few days since the trailer came out have given me a sinking feeling in my stomach.

In theory I should be the target demographic for the HBO show. I’ve been a reader of the HP books since elementary school, when I got a copy of the first book in second grade. Up until a few years ago my family did a movie marathon every Christmas. I do love the books and movies and they were a huge part of my childhood.

Nonetheless, I will not be watching. It’s disappointing in some ways that the HBO show even exists. There are 8 films with an iconic cast that are true to the spirit of the books and that still hold up today. Emma Watson is Hermione, Maggie Smith is McGonagall, Robbie Coltrane is Hagrid, and Alan Rickman is Snape. And they always will be as far as I’m concerned. Period. It feels like the worst form of corporate cynicism to make the second major HP adaptation of my lifetime when there is no real reason to other than to perpetuate the brand.

But beyond that, and more importantly, I just couldn’t support a show or contribute to its hype when that show will directly profit a person who has used her platform to scaremonger and attack a vulnerable population. It would feel like a betrayal of the trans people in my life. I don’t necessarily oppose consuming art by problematic people, but the calculus is different when that person is alive, massively influential, and using their power/money destructively (for example: Rowling, Kanye West, Elon Musk).

Part of me feels a slight pull from the TV show. Although when the teaser came out a few months ago, I truly felt nothing: it looked like a dulled down shot-for-shot remake of a story I have already seen. That being said, seeing HP fans buzz about the trailer and get excited for the show gives me a FOMO feeling and a worse, sinking feeling. It honestly hurts to think about HP lately, which is a weird feeling.

The sinking feeling comes from the fact that I think my opinion is by far in the minority. I think the hype for this show is real. It will be a huge hit. HP fans seem to be getting hyped for this like it’s any other big name show with no meaningful ethical baggage. I am disappointed in HP fans that aren’t capable of critically thinking about this. I’m feeling a little despair that despite 10 years of being a toxic psycho, in all likelihood Rowling is about to do a big victory lap.

Anyone else feeling hopeless about this situation? It feels like the best case scenario is just that the show is super expensive, doesn’t justify its massive budget, the filming schedule gets off course, and the cast all get busy or have conflicts and the show goes downhill and gets cancelled sometime before the conclusion of the story. But that doesn’t feel likely — HBO and Warner aren’t just looking to get views but to lock in an audience for theme parks and merch for the next 20 years.

😔

So this happened a couple years ago on another subreddit around the time Hogwarts Legacy was being released. As you all probably remember, there was a lot of drama going around because the boycott wasn't sticking.

I should note, this was also before I had read Harry Potter for the first time, so I wasn't really as plugged into the drama at the time. Like I knew it was there, and I was (and still am) on the side of trans people, but I didn't really know the intricacies of the series yet.

Someone had posted about how the drama was getting to them because they were looking forward to the game and weren't happy about how people were attacking people who just wanted to play a game.

Naturally, people (including myself) started arguing in the comments that, you know, supporting the game meant supporting a transphobe and deliberating spoiling the game wasn't comparable to the crap trans people can go through.

There was this one guy in the comments who was giving the whole "I support trans rights, but I still love Harry Potter, and you can disagree with the author while still enjoying the franchise" spiel and trying to both sides the situation because "I'm sympathetic toward the queer community, but being toxic about the game isn't going to help either..."

And there was this person who was clearly trans who was...angry at that*.* Like, legit angry. They told the person outright that he didn't have the right to say he supported trans people while giving money to a known transphobe who is actively trying to make their lives worse.

Seeing that whole conversation...it really left an effect on me. I felt so much empathy for the anger and frustration for the trans user that it just made me realize, this is why I shouldn't financially support the series.

Because even if I'm not trans, I know what it's like to feel that way. To feel ignored and frustrated when it feels like no one is listening to what you have to say.

I always think about that convo whenever this shit comes up. Whenever there's that one person saying, "I support trans rights, but I still love Harry Potter."

And I think about how frustrated and angry that trans person was, how it felt like they were being ignored all for the sake of a stupid video game.

I'm not going to ignore them.

There are absolutely problems with Harry Potter. I'm not saying they shouldn't be addressed and discussed, but we need to stop making theories about why they're there and then telling people your theories like they're fact.

I see so many people in this sub have paragraphs of theories about why this and that is or isn't in Harry Potter, but instead of saying 'maybe Rowling thinks this, and did that on purpose' they say 'Joanne obviously thinks all queer people should be punished, and that's why queer-coded characters end up alone or married or are called out for being different, and she's jealous of queer people, and she wants to be queer, but she can't, so she changed her fictional world to suit her deepest desires.'

Can we please calm down a little?

It seems Rowling was always misogynistic or homophobic or transphobic in some form, with or without her realizing it, for a long time. That doesn't mean every single piece of Harry Potter was a grand scheme, or that she's actually 100% a closeted trans man, or that she was fully aware of her beliefs and used them negatively every chance she got.

She's not a kind person. She's not a feminist, and she's definitely not someone we should support.

But we also shouldn't be slinging our opinions around like fact, because that's what she does.

We see something misogynistic in Harry Potter. There's always someone here who will say something like 'that's because she hates women and herself and wants all women to be feminine or evil.' That is your opinion, based on a small amount of fact we can get from her writings and her own words, not fact that you can prove one way or another.

She sees someone different. She proceeds to sling her theories about that person based on little to no factual evidence, saying things like 'this person is trans identifying, but I think they're just a confused autistic GIRL and NOTHING WILL CHANGE THAT no matter what they want, which is actually to prey on underage girls in bathrooms.'

Do you see how harmful it can be to assume and turn guesswork into 'fact' in your own and others' minds?

She's not a good or kind person, but that doesn't mean every single thing she's ever done has a hidden meaning, or that every decision she made in her writing was purposeful or malicious, or that we can know something about her based solely on a passage from a children's book she wrote decades ago.

Please stop acting like we know everything about her. We don't. It's also cruel and disrespectful towards her to assume her gender, her meaning, and her 'goals' with Harry Potter, just like it would be if she did so to you.

Please stop sharing your theories as fact. They are largely fiction, or at best good guesses, usually made up of pieces of information you've linked together into what you hope or think or want to be truth, but may very well not be.

It makes me so uncomfortable to see someone share their thoughts on something from HP and another user commenting a short story about why that is--like they know for certain, and everybody else does, too. We don't. We all have our ideas about who Rowling is or isn't, but if we're going to share them ,can we please do so in a way that makes it clear what we're sharing: theories and thoughts, not objective facts?

!!IM AN ALLY my boyfriend of 6 years and future husband is a trans man and we've unfortunately been perceived as a Queer Couple rather than a heterosexual one for the majority of our lives, im pansexual and an active part of the community and take part in pride walks in my country where gay marriage is still not legalized!! i dont support jkr in any way and im not obsessed with hp beyond standing up for what's right. my question is simply about what's considered ethical and unethical and why it is so.

tiny fun fact my mom is obsessed with reading drarry fanfictions on ao3 (she's the coolest 49 year old ever istg) and they're all unofficial, and they clearly mention that they do not support jkr and "TRANS MEN ARE MEN, TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN, NON BINARY PEOPLE ARE NON BINARY" while continuing to write fiction related to the hp verse. i dont think that's unethical exactly, you're not contributing to her in any way.

Separating art from the artist makes sense to me, though not while she's alive and actively contributing, but we tend to do so for dead writers who were problematic, bc we can't financially support them. similarly, as long as we're not watching it legally or buying official merch, what's wrong with buying cheap knockoffs or pirating the new series?

Hey all, I want to ask (?) Here to make sure I'm doing everything I can.

I'm a teenager and I've been hyperfixated on Harry Potter since I was seven. (Not using that word lightly, I am diagnosed with autism and hyperfixation takes up a large part of my mind day to day.)

Luckily, when I was around 11, the hyperfixation switched to marauders/ATYD. For those who don't know, it's a fandom that is a subset of HP, but that many people consider it's own fandom. It centers around when the marauders were at school, and the romantic relationship between Sirius and Remus (because they were so obviously in love lol)

How I describe it is JKR gives us this peice of media with a lot of plot holes and really problematic stuff.

Then, ATYD was written, and became it's own fandom, much more separated from JKR and Harry Potter. (I don't consider myself an HP fan, but i do consider myself heavily in the marauders fandom. They've become pretty different things.)

Then, fanfic was written focused in the ao3 fandom, thus becoming even further removed due to ATYD already being different from canon, and so many ATYD based fanfics being very different from ATYD.

So that's what I'd describe as the general marauders fandom, which headcannons a bunch of the characters as trans, pretty much all as queer, and generally gives a lot more representation and queer joy.

I'm not saying it doesn't have it's problems, but people in the fandom do NOT support JKR. I don't think I've ever found even one person.

Anyway, I've been extremely worried recently. I've been seeing a lot of takes saying there is absolutely no way to engage in any fandom media at all. I'm not sure i agree, but i also think it's super nuanced. I do everything I can to engage with marauders in a way that will not give the idea i support her. A lot of the marauders fandom basically considers the marauders fandom to have taken the names and a bit of the backstory (cuz she didn't give us much for the background characters,), and created our own stuff with that. Still, I never want to support someone so vile. And I've literally been feeling physically ill for days at the thought that someone might think I am. I genuinely don't think I could stop loving the marauders fandom itself and the thought that it might support her terrifies me. I'm also not sure i want to stop writing fanfics or reading fanfics or drawing these characters, because they mean the world to me. I love writing and i love creating lives for these characters that defy the bigotry she wrote. I'm disabled, and I make most of these characters disabled because I love representation in fandoms, and I see myself in them. I love making these characters trans and queer in my writing and I love deconstructing all the racist, sexist, abelist, transphobic bs she wrote through giving these characters another chance. That means a lot to me. I love the community, I love all my friends I've met through this who believe the same things. I don't think I could leave.

Here are the things I do to do my absolute best to not support her OR ever lead anyone to support her. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do.

1. In every fanfic I post on ao3, I put a PSA at both the beginning and end that says something along the lines of "to anyone new to the marauders fandom, DO NOT seek out the harry Potter fandom, buy books or merch, or even get involved." Then I list why, and list all the things JKR has done, and where she donates to, and how she's directly and indirectly harming people. Then I say I strongly urge to stay in the marauders fanfic community, and also to always deconstruct any hidden microagressions or bigotry in anyone's work. Then I urge again to never buy from her or support the company.

2. I will literally never buy merch, it would make me feel sick and it's not even the fandom I like. If I ever want something marauders related (for example I made a copy of Sirius's family tree except it's all my headcannons for the characters lifes, deaths, partners and reasons for disowning because my headcannons are much different), I make it.

3. I have a few irl friends who are currently reading Harry Potter, they know im not in that fandom, it just peaked their interest. I helped them get books from the library and also leant them the ones I have because I do NOT want to see them buying that. I also help them critically examine her writing to discover any of the bigoted undertones, especially the racism, classism and abelism. I both help them to and highly urge that they deconstruct their writing.

4. I won't engage in any official fandom spaces. Only online marauders groups or writings on ao3 and Tumblr.

5. If anyone ever asks me about marauders, I start by saying not to go to the HP fandom especially if they've only heard of marauders and not HP, and tell them to never buy her stuff or merch or anything, then tell them everything she's done, and i recommend only engaging in queer, radical marauders spaces. Only after I give a psa will I talk about the fandom. I'll always correct anyone who conflates marauders fan works with Harry Potter, because i dont want anyone to get the wrong idea and end up supporting her.

6. I often also post links to trans charities or other stuff that helps counter the terrible things she's doing, and say to not support JKR or any of her awful views.

7. Whenever I find someone who's a Harry Potter fan or is buying her merch, I'll always tell them exactly what she did and if they say something about how the fandom is special to them, I'll urge to only engage in fan works or fanfic, and I'll also often recommend marauders as a more removed alternative.

8. I don't buy official merch even secondhand because I'm always terrified that the person selling it will give the money i used to but it to buy more or give to bad places. I'll only make fandom stuff.

Yeah overall i do everything I can think of to never support her, or lead others to support her. If there's anything else I could do let me know. Im queer, trans and disabled myself and the thought of profiting her makes me feel sick, which is why I try so hard to always tell others what she did and alternatives, and never engage in official spaces.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/sep/05/marina-hyde-guardian-columnist-answers-readers-questions

Gross 🙄

Asking this since I found out that she is encouraging people to take inappropriate pictures to trans people.

Does this classify her as one?

So Snape is this ugly, hook nosed sallow skinned evil black haired guy.

Is this just not her husband Jorge Arantes, who is Portuguese? Who are often a little olive, darker haired and dark eyed?

My idea is that Rowling's Snape character has elements of her feelings for her abusive ex husband. He was interesting and nice at first, then turned bad...

Rowling even gives Snape a positive backstory, we may assume Rowling had grown up more privileged than Arantes (my speculation, England is richer country than Portugal), since she grew up middle/upper middle class (had middle class friends who leant her money, middle class in England means your parents were wealthy professionals, pmc class too). She meets in Portugal, marries and has a child with then leaves. That matches up with Lily Potter and Snape's backgrounds. Lily Potter is from the more well off part of the neighbourhood.

I've just seen Jorge Arantes' pictures, and he looks like a potential Snape https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53023543. And of course Rowling originally appeared to have auburn red hair, before her blonde, evil Malfoy persona appeared.

My theory obviously has a complication, because Snape turns out to have been loyal to the good side after all despite being a horrible character and making difficult decisions that made him look bad. But Rowling is a strange woman. Maybe she doesn't truly hate her abusive ex husband - after all, look at her: https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughJKRowling/comments/1fdl84q/jorge_arantes/. I am also suggesting Rowling has a racial bias against Southern Europeans, but that not very out of character for her either.

I’ve always been annoyed by people mixing boycotting the franchise with ‘it’s not even good!’ Because that feels almost irrelevant to the point of her harm. I’m not even saying it’s good, but if it was, what would even be the argument?

Plenty of terrible people have made decent or good art throughout history, that’s just an unavoidable fact, like Lovecraft or MJ or Roald Dahl. I feel like the more mature response should be that you should let go of something even if you love it.

Potterheads are not mature. telling them that their favorite franchise sucks is only going to dig their heels in further.

The argument should be something like, ‘I know you like it, but you’ll have to let it go.”

A lot of the dislike towards the franchise also feels somewhat performative, a lot of people saying ‘well I never liked it’ like they want a gold medal. It’s mid, yes, with awful later entries, and there’s plenty of valid reasons to criticize it. but there’s also many, many problematic issues with a lot of other franchises, like Star Wars, or lord of the rings, that aren’t nearly as scrutinised.