The Harry Potter reunion broke the internet on 16th of November. The news were posted by news outlets like Film Updates, Variety, Wizarding World as well as some of the HP cast. The HBO Max special is titled ‘’Return to Hogwarts’’ celebrating 20 years of the beloved franchise, set to premiere on New Year’s Day, 1st of January 2022. I didn’t feel that old until that news!
‘’I’ll believe it when I see it’’ I said on @emmawatsonnet twitter account upon seeing the news, yet I didn’t quite believe it, even when Emma Watson confirmed it on her Instagram feed and stories. Me and other fans(@hpana on twitter) felt the reunion was somehow spoilt by J. K. Rowling’s transphobia from recent years.
The fact that Rowling won’t take part in the special didn’t go down well with the TERFs(acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist who are anti-trans groups) who criticized the decision of going ahead with the reunion without the author.
Moreso, @emmawatsonnet was mentioned by Neil Sean, (Media correspondent and Filmmaker for Westminster Live), in a Twitter post in which he expresses his feelings of Rowling not being included in the reunion titled: ’’No magic left for Harry Potter thanks to woke mob’’. The post is leading to a Youtube video, where he said that the actors are ’’very rich, very successful, and of course, very wealthy, all thanks to the powerful pen of J.K. Rowling’’ who he believes saved the British Film.
Afshan Azad was the only actor of the cast I have seen to thank J.K. Rowling on social media, who wrote: ‘’I owe everything to @jk_rowling, the casting agents and the Potter films. #20’’ as a result she was love-bombed by anti-trans accounts, where one user called her ‘’a gracious young woman who appreciates those who gave you your big break.’’ Of course the rest of the cast had received backlash for not thanking the author.
The films were made in active collaboration with J.K. in a time when her transphobia wasn’t yet public, or else could have the series become such a successful one? I dare write that it wouldn’t have been as big of a success otherwise. The actors of the series don’t have to thank her because for 10 years of their lives they worked their bums off, from early morning till it got very dark once they were old enough, often sleeping where they could on sets, in between takes. They earned their money fairly, paid by the studio.
Now, I recognized the author as a highly intelligent woman who created and wrote the universe Harry Potter, of course. That until she showed support to Maya Forstater who got fired after her employer got complaints because she was openly transphobic at work(NBC News, 2019). She’s went on to following LGB Alliance, who ‘’promote the rights of lesbians, bisexuals & gay men, as recognised by biological sex’’ – and of course there’s an issue with that, and their #SexNotGender hashtag. The main cast was clear: Trans men are men, and trans women are women.
J.K. claimed that only women menstruate in a tweet from 2020: ’‘ ’People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?’’ but I’d like to tell her that my cousin was born a woman, has premature menopause and yes, does not menstruate and very much a fully fledged woman, yet trans women can menstruate too, even capable to give birth. Why is she afraid of trans people in public bathrooms? Of all places?!
In other news, it took Bonnie Wright 12 days to delete a post which contained highly offensive words ”killgays” in her custom URL leading to her website. She was promoting her newsletter. I didn’t take her apology for it either, sorry, as she claimed to have used a link shortener, who appears to be blamed for the mishap and not her team for not having spotted the error quicker than the fans. Bonnie, a bit.ly account is free! Not the woke mob again!
REFERENCES:
Afshan Azad, 2021. When the Philosophers Stone film came out.. Twitter. Viewed on 12/1/2021]. Available from: https://twitter.com/afshan_azad/status/1460699041092747264
Bonnie Wright, 2021. Apology. Twitter. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://twitter.com/thisisbwright/status/1459174408157863940
Dr. Veronica Ivy, 2019. J.K. Rowling’s Maya Forstater tweets support hostile work environments, not free speech. NBC News. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/j-k-rowling-s-maya-forstater-tweets-support-hostile-work-ncna1105201
Emma Watson, 2020. Trans people are who they say they are..Twitter. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://twitter.com/emmawatson/status/1270826851070619649?lang=en
Emma Watson, 2021. Harry Potter was my home (..). Instagram. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/p/CWWGFOXLZYs/
Emma-Watson.net, 2021. I’ll believe it when I see it. Twitter. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://twitter.com/emmawatsonnet/status/1460656614336344073
J.K. Rowling, 2020. ‘People who menstruate.’ Twitter. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1269382518362509313?lang=en
Neil Sean, 2021. No magic left for Harry Potter thanks to woke mob. Twitter. Viewed on [12/1/2021]. Available from: https://twitter.com/neilseanshowbiz/status/1461293237822529545
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