hey what. what if. what if ken. what if ken was one of my f/os

I have so many random feelings about cultural criticism that this will probably be quite chaotic [ I will try to rein it in though and make it somewhat coherent ]

1. You can love something and also criticize it and it shouldn't lessen your enjoyment of it.

Like of course in extreme cases [ JKR and her TERF rhetoric ] you have to disengage from the media in question because its causing active damage to people. However in many cases a show has its good points and its bad points and it seems almost blasphemous to some fans that you can criticize it and still call yourself a fan of the media.

2. This ones related to the first one in a way. Basically I think everyone's out to find the least problematic media and then stan that and its honestly the dumbest thing ever . Like nothing is unproblematic ? Nothing that has been made has been perfect ; esp nothing that can be considered as art . So this need for ideological purity in art is kinda weird to me ? Every piece of art will have defects and deficits . Its on you as the audience to pick apart the whole thing and appreciate the good and criticize the bad .

3. Stan culture of any sort is set up to fail

4. Continuing a piece [ a novel , a TV series , a movie ] just because its got the ratings is one of the worst things that capitalism has done to art in forever. It has ruined great pieces of media by forcing it to over extend itself to the point of obsolescence which makes zero sense.

5. As a queer person I find it laughable that people think you can create queer media without having queer voices and perspectives be a part of the creation process. The statement holds true if you swap queer out with any other marginalized identity.

6. Show not tell is a great idea when it comes to talking about nuance in storytelling about non controversial topics . But sometimes when youre talking about extremely important things [ racism, sexism , homophobia , transphobia etc] sometimes allegory just allows people to hide away from the inconvenient truth. In those situations " Dont show , directly tell " is the way better method . The audience may not be stupid but most people hate being taken out of their comfort zone unless theyre forced out of it . Great art has the capacity to make you uncomfortable.

7. Just because a piece of media makes you feel "seen" doesn't mean that you can automatically assume that its good. It might be trash.

8. How much ever you think you understand a culture you're not a part of , your opinions about it will never matter more than the people raised in that culture. Accept that and move on.

9. How much ever you think you need to defend your culture remember that each culture on the planet has regressive traditions. Don't get mad when its pointed out . Instead try to engage with it . There is no one perfect tradition . Tradition is borne out of centuries of human endeavor and human endeavor will always have some flaws. That's ok.

10. Believing that art doesnt have a moral obligation and that it can support awful things because "artistic license" is stupid. Art affects society and to believe that it exists in a vacuum makes no sense.

*cracks knuckles* thank you for this thick-ass ask

1. You can love something and also criticize it and it shouldn't lessen your enjoyment of it. Like of course in extreme cases [ JKR and her TERF rhetoric ] you have to disengage from the media in question because its causing active damage to people. However in many cases a show has its good points and its bad points and it seems almost blasphemous to some fans that you can criticize it and still call yourself a fan of the media.

This is very true. I actually tend to be harsher on the media I like because I want it to be excellent, while I don't really care bout media that I just consume mindlessly.

2. This ones related to the first one in a way. Basically I think everyone's out to find the least problematic media and then stan that and its honestly the dumbest thing ever . Like nothing is unproblematic ? Nothing that has been made has been perfect ; esp nothing that can be considered as art . So this need for ideological purity in art is kinda weird to me ? Every piece of art will have defects and deficits . Its on you as the audience to pick apart the whole thing and appreciate the good and criticize the bad .

I haven't met anyone like this which I think is a good sign. But yea that does sound really dumb lol! Especially since you're essentially locking yourself into an echochamber. Even if you're not going to change your views, it's nice to at least know what people are doing that you don't agree with, so you can know that you believe what you do because it makes sense and not just because you were told to.

3. Stan culture of any sort is set up to fail

Oh absolutely. Especially with how more and more, privacy is seen as a privilege and not a right, especially when it comes to celebrities. 14 year-olds doxxing each other and their idols is just a really weird culture and I feel really bad for them & want to call their parents and have a word.

4. Continuing a piece [ a novel , a TV series , a movie ] just because its got the ratings is one of the worst things that capitalism has done to art in forever. It has ruined great pieces of media by forcing it to over extend itself to the point of obsolescence which makes zero sense.

YES and on the flip side, DISCONTINUING CONTENT THAT DIDN'T GET THE RATINGS...

5. As a queer person I find it laughable that people think you can create queer media without having queer voices and perspectives be a part of the creation process. The statement holds true if you swap queer out with any other marginalized identity.

People think this??? why lol

6. Show not tell is a great idea when it comes to talking about nuance in storytelling about non-controversial topics. But sometimes when you're talking about extremely important things [ racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia etc] sometimes allegory just allows people to hide away from the inconvenient truth. In those situations " Dont show, directly tell " is the way better method. The audience may not be stupid but most people hate being taken out of their comfort zone unless they're forced out of it . Great art has the capacity to make you uncomfortable.

Hmmmm yes but also no; First of all, show not tell is not the same thing as allegory. Showing someone being sad instead of having them tell the audience they're sad is not allegory. Second, I think you can have subtext about certain of these issues without intending it to be an educational experience for the uninitiated. It depends on your audience, I guess; you have to pick the right tool to speak to the people you want to speak to. Someone said art comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comforted, so maybe it's a balance. Finally, I think that you can pretty effectively force people out of their comfort zone using show not tell.

7. Just because a piece of media makes you feel "seen" doesn't mean that you can automatically assume that its good. It might be trash.

This is true. The two pieces of media I feel most seen by are pretty objectively awful.

8. How much ever you think you understand a culture you're not a part of , your opinions about it will never matter more than the people raised in that culture. Accept that and move on.

Hmm I think this is a cultural relativist take. I agree for the most part, for harmless stuff, like in some cultures it might be polite to do something considered super rude in other cultures; neither is better. But also, if a culture is doing FGM or stoning gay people or something, even if someone raised in that culture says it's okay, I'm still going to think it's fucked up and should stop.

9. How much ever you think you need to defend your culture remember that each culture on the planet has regressive traditions. Don't get mad when its pointed out . Instead try to engage with it . There is no one perfect tradition . Tradition is borne out of centuries of human endeavor and human endeavor will always have some flaws. That's ok.

Oh hey this is what I was saying to the previous one.

10. Believing that art doesnt have a moral obligation and that it can support awful things because "artistic license" is stupid. Art affects society and to believe that it exists in a vacuum makes no sense.

I wouldn't call them obligations, per se. I do agree that it is wrong to portray certain things in certain ways, but I just wouldn't use the word obligation. Maybe responsibility.

send me ur hot takes!

I dont really harass anyone who likes HP, but I do block because I cant trust anyone who visibly likes it anymore. Theyre either completely ignorant of what JKR is doing or they know and are fine with being associated with that, and on tumblr its usually the latter. When someone says 'anyone who likes my work supports my views', even if its not necessarily true, it still leaves a pit in my chest when I see someone who is a fan of her works.

Idk, I never got into HP as a kid, but I've dropped nostalgic books before when I realized how fucked up they were, hurts for a little then I just stop thinking about it.

I was never claiming if you did or didn't harrass people. Idek if you're the same person that sent to original ask because this is all anonymous.

I do want to say that you're allowed to feel that way; curate your own space. But everyone can't be filtered into those 2 specific camps and everyone doesn't have the same opinions on it as you do. Like I said in a previous post, I for example don't care if someone like HP or not. It's not a red flag for me and personally I find it unfair to make any sort of judgment based on that. I also don't care if someone just prefers to not be around others that enjoy it. My only issue comes in when people are harrassed or called out for liking HP (or just generally used as an excuse to be a jerk to people)

TOM FELTON AND A FANS ANTI-SEMITIC TATTOO:

Warning: mention of anti-Semitism, nazis, blood supremacy, and hate symbols.

So recently I saw a video on tiktok about this girl who got in Tom Felton’s handwriting, the word “pure blood” tattooed. She originally had dmed him asking for him to write the word for her to get it in a tattoo, he obliged by sending her a photo of it back. She then got the tattoo done, but the real controversy is not only his response/willingness but the tattoo itself.

Here’s the video(the video is no longer up, please do not comment their user to send them hate!):

Why it’s wrong and anti-Semitic:

In the Harry Potter books written by J.K Rowling when talking about blood status, more specifically being a ‘pure blood’ means they held a high level of bias towards those they deemed “dirty” for having any drop of muggle (non magical) blood in them. This created blood supremacy on the idea that ‘pure bloods’ were far more superior for their blood line. This is a very clear allegory for the Nazis. In the books there are blood supremacists called death eaters that like the Nazis held the belief they were superior than any other blood status. Even if the Nazis did not have the same idea of blood supremacy as death eaters, they were blood purist that discriminated against people who weren’t ‘pure’ (in the Nazis case it meant ones blood wasn’t fully Aryan).

Here is a important resource that talks more about blood purity and Nazis:

‘Blood Purity and Nazi Germany’

The Nazis had the ideology that they were “purebloods” or of “pure blood” that needed to get rid of those not of “pure” Aryan descent. In their mission to cleanse the world of the “dirty blood” they killed millions of people. This blood supremacy targeted at people of Jewish and Roma descent.

Let it be known that in interviews jkr has admitted to elements of her story being about real life Nazis. Her book may be fiction but it’s modeled after real life blood supremacists. She has spoke out to say “The expressions 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' have been coined by people to whom these distinctions matter, and express their originators' prejudices. As far as somebody like Lucius Malfoy is concerned, for instance, a Muggle-born is as 'bad' as a Muggle”. Then going even further to add “If you think this is far-fetched, look at some of the real charts the Nazis used to show what constituted 'Aryan' or 'Jewish' blood. I saw one in the Holocaust Museum in Washington when I had already devised the 'pure-blood', 'half-blood' and 'Muggle-born' definitions, and was chilled to see that the Nazis used precisely the same warped logic as the Death Eaters. A single Jewish grandparent 'polluted' the blood, according to their propaganda”.

Admitting that the Death eaters were a allegory for the Nazis, it’s obvious that the blood supremacy in Harry Potter is another allegory for the anti Semitism the Nazis held. The word is an hate symbol about blood supremacy, so the word she got tattooed is a hate symbol and is antisemitic.

Not only that but if anyone saw the symbol without knowing about the Harry Potter universe, they would it associate with the Nazi regime’s ultimate goal of being “racially pure”. It will seem like you have a neo-Nazi symbol tattooed onto you, even if that was not her intent. The tattoo is still anti-semitic in nature, and you can’t change that.

If you’re asking “Why is Tom to blame if she wanted it?” that still does not excuse either party. He willingly supplied her with the handwriting, he hand wrote a word that not only is anti-semitic but he should’ve refused or done a lot better in that situation. It is a hate symbol. It not that hard if you played a role for ten years to understand the similarities between blood supremacy in the Harry Potter universe to the blood supremacy Nazis held. Death eaters are literally wizard Nazis, they oppress those of other blood status’. How did he ever write it and think it’s okay?? It’s not that hard to realize maybe I shouldn’t write this because maybe death eaters were blood supremacist. Idk maybe think how it’s a allegory for Nazis, and how that word literally is anti-Semitic. Maybe a grown 33 year old could realize that.

Here’s what the tiktok community had to say about it(this is linked because they were too long to fit the 1 minute limit. Please don’t send hate to any of these creators‼️):

tiktok #1 : @ sleekeazys

tiktok #2 : @ maythequeer

Note: DO NOT SEND HATE TO THE PERSON WHO GOT IT DONE. Hate and death threats will not help them, rather they need to be educated, learn how their actions were wrong, and find out for themselves the proper way both address this whilst respecting the communities they have offended/hurt. I DO NOT SUPPORT TOM OR THE GIRL WHO GOT IT DONE WHATSOEVER. I ALSO DONT SUPPORT JKR.

Sources:

Allegorical nature in the Harry Potter series

JKR On Blood Supremacy

‘Blood Purity and Nazi Germany’

Neo-Nazi and White Supremacists Terms

Harry Potter for the changes post

ONLY 5??? okay nah i got this

okay i dont actually got this this is too long so im putting it under a cut

1) first and foremost make the inexplicit explicit. make dumbledore explicitly gay. make hermione explicitly black. at the very least the things that she has confirmed or alluded to in the aftermath of releasing the books and at the most like…everything. maybe explore the way that race plays into the worldbuilding of the wizarding world rather than just make an allegory for it. explore how harry being biracial places him in the world and how the different sides of his life (dursleys vs the wizards) view him and his heritage. put more young queer romances in there. maybe the reason ron is so jealous isn’t just because he likes hermione but ALSO because he ALSO likes krum and is really confused about his feelings?? replace the whole lavender romance with a dude and let lavender and parvati run off together like they were always meant to. let trans kids exist in hogwarts!!! you know what would have made ginny’s whole “arc” a lot more bearable?? if she’d been a trans girl learning to overcome her shyness and gain confidence in herself as she puts herself out there into the hogwarts-sphere. just generally opening up the worldbuilding and characters to more accurately reflect the world in comparison to well...what it was......also maybe like don’t rely on real world stereotypes l i k e..........

2) make the characters who are supposed to be likable actually likable. like....i know the marauders have a huge fanbase and everyone loves them but there isn’t really much to love in the canon??? imho. they’re super huge dicks when they were younger and we hardly get to see any transition from them learning how to be better people or having regret in the way that they acted before. we’re only supposed to believe it because they’re good to each other (ie learning how to be animagi to support their bud lupin) and we’re just told they’re good when they’re older and that’s the end of that. so how i would change it is including more scenes of james, sirius, and lupin growing older and acting like better people. since its from harry’s perspective this can be done through sirius and lupin sharing stories or again having some more regretful reflection on their younger years. also give wormtail more nuance?? is he at all regretful for turning on his friends, does he have second thoughts, maybe he tries to make things right in the end?? i know the “he was only in gryffindor because he valued bravery and everything gryffindor was despite not being it himself” but like it would be cool if there was something more....idk wormtail couldve been a more nuanced character......

3) speaking of possible redemption arcs tho how about some actual redemption arcs?? first we have draco, who despite having multiple hints of having a sweeping redemption arc the whole thing just sort of....falls flat. idk i dont really pay much attention to dracos character and there are people who could speak to this way better than i could go look at their meta.but then snape. SNAPE!!!! undoubtedly the worst character in the series and the bane of my existence. the worst part is he really COULD have been the ‘villain-but-not-really-he-was-good-all-along’ character jkr wanted to be if we just changed some pretty fucking major things his character in his character. first like....don’t....make him a child abuser??? its really that simple!!! don’t abuse children!!!!! like he could have just been a stern and surly teacher who yeah is maybe too strict and is maybe an asshole but also doesn’t like. fucking abuse children because of his own vendettas. IT’S NOT HARD like children/teens always think teachers are out to get them when their teachers are just kind of dicks it could have easily been just that without snape doing a ton of the awful shit he did. like remember when they saw snape muttering when harry’s broom was going nuts so they just assumed he was evil and doing it himself when really he was just trying to be a good guy??? more of that. like the whole thing.second like make his love for lily a legit and motivating thing rather than the creepy stalkerish thing it became. maybe instead of snape being the one to tell voldemort the prophecy so that he can kill james and harry (wtf????????!!!!!!!!!) he overhears someone else tell voldemort the prophecy and begs voldemort to spare them (yeah ALL of them!!!! because even tho hes a salty salamander he still wouldn’t wish death upon those who makes lily happy because that’s!!!! what love is!!!!!) . and when he doesn’t that’s when he realized he fucked up and joined the wrong side. and then actually looks out for harry growing up. like maybe he can’t bring himself to be a full fatherly figure because he’s still an asshole but he doesn’t actively go out of his way to be a huge dick to harry just because he’s bitter that lily had a child with someone else. and in the end when he gives his memories it shows all the moments where harry thought snape was being a dick but actually behind the scenes he was doing all he could to protect and push harry along on his journey because he loved lily and hates himself for the way he treated her and he also loves harry and you know stuff that could play into the whole love thing without being a creepy vindictive abusive stalker!!!!i hate canon snape not just because he’s the worst but because he could’ve been written to be the actually good character he’s framed to be.

4) a better approach to houses!!!! like i get its told from harrys perspective so of course Gryffindor Is The Best but like. it is soooo easy to make the houses more nuanced and balanced look at every piece of fanfic and rp ever (okay thats obviously hyperbole but still. point is it aint hard). maybe add more characters to each house!! i get its easier to just have the golden trio all be gryffindor but how interesting would it have been to have them scattered across the houses but still manage to become friends. and yeah maybe some slytherins can be jerks but also maybe thats just how harry sees it because the first slytherin he met was a piece of shit!!! but there are tons of good slytherins and maybe some join dumbledore’s army or hell at least come back for the battle of hogwarts!!!! and then there can be plenty of death eaters who come from all across the house spectrum. hufflepuffs who are undyingly loyal to voldemort. ravenclaws who love learning about the dark arts. gryffindors who would absolutely sacrifice themselves for their dark cause. like. its so easy. its soooooo easy. and then there would be equal merch of all the houses across the spectrum and people would be able to be proud of their houses without having to justify “yeah well not all slytherins are evil!!! hufflepuffs can be cool look at cedric!!!!! ravenclaws care about more than just getting good grades!!!!!”it’s so easy. im so mad.

5) STOP!!!!!! just. stop the fucking series. of course rewrite the epilogue to show not everyone being Straight Married With Children but how the war affected them. maybe it be a couple months or a couple years after everything and yeah maybe you can make some couples canon if you really want but thats not what i would do personally. show that they’re struggling but they’re surviving. they’re there for each other. use it to drive home a few of the main themes.and then just STOP!!!!!!!! NO MORE!!!!!!! like yeah maybe pottermore could be used to post some cute little quips that expand background characters and fill in plot holes that couldn’t be explained in the books. we learn more about professor’s histories, maybe some cool worldbuilding about stuff that was sort of mentioned but just!!!! no cursed child!!!!! no fantastic beasts!!!!! no making up shit for countries and cultures that you barely know about and don’t feel like researching or being actually respectful towards!!!!!!!!! let the fans do all of that for you stop putting your foot in your mouth and milking the cash cow!!!!!! just!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway that was a horrible ramble that isn’t actually all that well thought out nor did i reread it but take it anyway my lovely followers