JK Rowling, Contrapoints, and Harry Potter

By Liz Shipton

A follower called me out on my recent Harry Potter video for glossing over JK Rowling’s transphobia. And I’m actually really glad that they called me out, because they were absolutely right and I'm deeply sorry. And because it also gives me a chance to talk about Contrapoints.

If you don’t know Contrapoints please go check her out. She’s a transgender YouTuber who makes absolutely stunning video essays on a number of topics, including two amazing videos about JK Rowling being a TERF.

The reason I bring up Contrapoints is because many of my more nuanced opinions about this topic have been informed by her, and you should go watch her amazing content instead of reading my shoddy attempt to explain myself. But I do also want to make my personal views on this subject clear, so here we go:

JK Rowling’s transphobic tweets, her misgendering of people, her open support of other TERFs, that ridiculously bigoted book she wrote under a pen name, and the pieces she’s written for the BBC are absurd, harmful, and disappointing. I want to make it very clear that I do not support those viewpoints and I sincerely apologize that my video glossed over this issue. I’ve taken the video down because I don’t want people to misinterpret it, but I didn’t want to just quietly take it down with no explanation, because that would have felt like I was trying to hide, which I am not. JK Rowling is a TERF, and I vehemently oppose her transphobia.

EDIT (03/10/2024): I re-shot and reposted the video with a new ending! It addresses/pokes a bit of fun at this issue and I personally think it makes the video funnier (plus, my hair is way cuter than it was in the original video.)

Now, that being said, I don’t think that JK Rowling’s TERFism means that people should have to renounce the entire Harry Potter fandom. I'll be honest: I do not engage deeply with Harry Potter. I read the books when I was a kid, but until I put up that video, I had not thought about the world of Harry Potter for years. That world was just a convenient framework for me to hang some jokes on. I'm not part of the fandom, and for me, giving up Harry Potter would be easy.

However, I know there are people out there for whom that world is still very meaningful. Because here’s the thing (and this is something Contrapoints puts very eloquently in her videos) there are a lot of people out there - trans people included - who really identified with that world and those characters (let’s not even get into how problematic a lot of those characters are, we can save Cho Chang for another post.) They found refuge in that fandom. Should they have to stop loving Harry Potter just because the author turned out to be a transphobic piece of shit? Can you love the parts of Harry Potter that are great while still acknowledging the harmful stereotypes and the lack of diversity? I honestly don't know. I try really hard not to tell other people what to do. 

But for those people who still do want to love Harry Potter, I guess I feel like you should still be allowed to do that. I’m not saying you should go out and buy the merch but there are ways to engage with the world that don’t support JK Rowling. Talking about the issues with her books is one way. Making silly videos that poke fun at what it would be like to have lunch with your 35-year-old best friend  right after she gets into Hogwarts is another. Don't let that world be taken away from you just because its author is an asshole. I think WE should get to keep that world - it belongs to us now.

For people seeking a magical academic fandom that is less problematic than JK Rowling's, I'd love to direct you to a Goodreads list curated by Loretta Jean, which is 100% "magical school" and "people learning magic" books featuring queer and/or BIPOC characters. Thanks to Loretta Jean for initially calling me out on this issue and for engaging in a discussion about it with me :)

I also want to make it clear that I am not trying to align myself with the "books are books" crowd who want to pretend a book exists in a vacuum and ignore any problems with it or its author. When authors are problematic, we should absolutely call them out and have a discussion about them. We should absolutely boycott harmful books, and books by authors with harmful opinions. But I don't think you can stop people loving a thing that has been truly meaningful to them. 

This is an issue I find myself coming up against frequently with art - can you separate the art from the artist? Because let’s be honest, a lot of artists are problematic. I really enjoy Miles Davis’s music, and it sucks knowing that he was an abusive fuckhead. I no longer laugh my ass off at Louis CK.

I mean let’s face it: if you’re going to listen to any music made by a man or read anything written by a man at any point in history, you are probably going to have to reconcile the fact that he may have been (at least a little bit) a misogynist. And for me, as a lover of art and writing, I find that I kind of just have to do that. I have to be able to hold the influence of Harry Potter and the shittiness of its author side-by-side in my head and find a way to make peace with that cognitive dissonance. I think having an open discussion about the issues is one way to do that.

People will disagree with me and that's okay. I know there are many people out there who will say that renouncing the art is the only acceptable thing to do and if that’s how you feel, I totally understand, and one hundred percent support that. Honestly, if you told me to never think about Harry Potter again, I'd be fine with that. It’s just not the way that I think everyone should have to deal with it if they don't want to.

So TLDR: I'm sorry for glossing over this issue in my original video. Issues like this are actually something I think about a lot. JK Rowling is a TERF. That sucks and we hate her for it. But I don’t think that means you should have to give up enjoying Harry Potter if it feeds your soul or helps you get through the day. Don’t let that awesome world be taken away from you just because JK Rowling is an asshole - YOU take that world away from HER. And please go watch Contrapoints.

And please remember that I love you. Bye.

I alluded to "open discussion" in this post, however my blog platform does not allow comments. If you want to leave a comment, feel free to do so on the Facebook post in which I shared this blog.