The way the Ursula K. Le Guin quote where she talks about the first Harry Potter book is used is a bit disingenuous because she is talking about the literary quality of the book and like that's not what the "Rowling really fucking hates and slanders trannies"-discourse is about. People are acting like she called Rowling herself "ethically mean-spirited" when she did not and it actually doesn't matter whether the books are in fact actually evil or just trash or widely acknowledged masterpieces because it doesn't change anything about what Rowling does. But apart from that it annoys me because the people sharing that quote don't care about the quality of the books, they only care to reframe the books as a symptom of the author's decrepit morals which is fair insofar as a lot of an authors social and ideological hangups shine through in their writing (some authors are even said to try to mediate, reflect and transform their hangups through writing, the monsters) but it's also unfair in that it completely ignores what Le Guin was actually saying and in that it is actually worthwhile to try to process HP as a book series and a phenomenon. Because Le Guin is right. I used to really like Harry Potter - when I was a kid - and now I can't fucking hear about it anymore, but it really is "good fare for it's age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginary derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited". Le Guin is talking only about the first book here, where the age-group is 11 year olds, and what she is saying is it's an okay children's book, nothing special, pretty judgy. Harsh for a die-hard fan to hear maybe, but hardly the revolutionary takedown people make it out to be. But I think it holds true for the book series as a whole. Like I said, I think it's disingenuous to portray the books as uniquely evil when what they really are is exactly what people expect and want from YA books: lots of characters they can relate to, a seemingly big world they can imagine living in and a nice, inoffensive, boring sentiment like "love is the strongest magic" or whatever. If you were to read the books to find out about the authors political and social opinions, you would expect her to become famous for being very racist and classist, with the role the centaurs, house elfs and gnomes play in the story. Trans-what? Anyway, none of that really stands out in a late 90s, early 00s kids / YA books. And it has all those things the YA audience (which of course includes much more people than just those in their late late teens) desperately craves, even if it is nothing special ("imaginary derivative" would be a baffling criticism to levy against a YA book btw but it does make sense in context where Le Guin talks specifically about how much it annoys her that apparently none of the reviewers at the time have ever read another kids fantasy book). And here my well trained distrust comes into play. Because I have seen so many tweets and hour length youtube videos about this (okay only like two videos but still) that I don't think it's about Rowling spreading hate speech anymore. But it's also not cancel culture, because people are already trying to cancel Rowling, and they should continue to do so, but what you aren't explaining when you're talking about how uniquely awful the Harry Potter books are, is why and how Rowlings statements may classify as hate speech. Let me be the asshole here and say that

Hold up bestie, your bullshit is showing. A small rant about hypocrisy, Elain and the Elriel agenda.

You and I are not the same.

Here’s thing is: I love Elain (gosh, how I love this woman) and I love Az and right now they have the hoots for each other. And that’s a happy thing for me, who ship them 🤗🤗🤗

BUT

You can ship whoever you want, you can theorize whatever you want. You bought that book girl, make your imagination count! Not even the sky is a limit here, we have wings and winnowing! But do not dismiss the fact that they are in most likelly in love at this point like each other! Don’t patronize them, they are adults that liked different people before. They know what they are feeling.

That been said, if tomorrow they are like “Yeah, all this love game was fun, but I want someone else now.” 😊 and then Elain is like “Yeah, also, I don’t like the NC very much. I think I’ll travel a bit or move to __ Court.” And then Az is like “Yeah, also, I realize that I have all this respect for Illyria and I want to shake the mountain a little bit.”

I’ll be like: “Huh? Oh... Okay. I did not see that coming. I’m surprised but let’s go queen/king, I’m game.” And that’s it. If I’m still in love with them as a couple I’ll keep shipping, looking at fanart, reading/writing fiction, interacting with other fans, and this will be my crack ship and I’ll make jokes and memes.

Because I don’t know if you guys know this, but you can ship a couple without demonizing other characters for it to be possible. You can ship a couple without stripping other characters from their essence and twisting their actions and feelings. Hell, people ship Mor and Emerie just because Emerie said Mor was pretty and blushed! AND THAT OKAY! Give me all the ships!

But you don’t do that. You destroy everyone and everything to keep you boat afloat.

You claim Elain is boring when she hasn’t even had a proper POV. You hate on a woman that was barely flashed through the series and still managed to have powerful interaction with the plot and other characters. Without Elain there would be no exchange of letters with the human queens, therefore there would be no oops-the-book-was-accidentally-forgetten-here-what-are-the-odds. She survived the cauldron, she suggested a safe haven to humans, she faced a faerie hating family, she displayed her love even when the odds were against her, she told visions that happened, she hammered a knife into a king’s throat, she protected her sister and more. Again, barely flashed, appearing in others POV.

But all you chose to focus is that she didn’t plant some goddamn veggies. All you chose to focus is her “unworthiness” of a man because she allegedly can’t give him children OR whish for her to have said child just to die during childbirth. Because she can’t handle/fix said man. Because she is a replacement. Because she is nothing but a 3º sister. Because she is a sex-toy. Because she should go berserk to be interesting. Because she doesn’t belong in a court where she “squared her shoulders and declared that she was a part of”(book quote). A court where she made a new life and friends. A court that she is willing to protect and “would do whatever was needed.” (book quote) 

An Az… where do I even begin?... You demonize Az for having the same  thoughts that other MC expressed about the woman they love. I dare you to show me one thing Az thought that Rhys or Cass haven’t. You say that he is too broken to be in a relation and need therapy (because Madja isn’t even a decent healer, but as a therapist she would rock it!). Say that he is a possessive beast as if Az isn’t one of the gentler characters thought the series (in spite of his horrible upbringing and his torturing side hustle). That boy drinks his respect-women-juice daily. But Mother forbids him to sincerely like Elain!

🧐 He can’t actualy like Elain, right?🧐 Because that would mean he likes someone that APARENTLY is boring, hate his scars, scare his shadows, isn’t strong, isn’t a warrior, can’t save herself, doesn’t accept all his sides, haven’t seen his worst, doesn’t know he sings, doesn’t let him sleep and make him unhappy. 🤨🤨🤨

You know, because all of these things just resemble Elain so much, right? RIGHT?

If Elriel doesn’t solidify further in the books I won’t demonize whichever partner Elain/Az chose to be with or wish for them to die. 

“I don’t like this character” is not the same as “this character is a piece of shit because of the reasons that I made up in my head.”

you 🤺stay🤺back🤺

gif by @honeysuckell​ 

Hello anyone reading this! This is a response to this misguided post.

A classic example of reading way way WAY too far into something  searching for something to nitpick and hate as only the internet can do. And that's ok! You're only 22 (if your profile is up to date) and still growing as a person like everyone else and learning how the world do. 

Btw, the post which btw resulted in @cremsie getting many death threats. Even if you disagree with everything that I say here I am totally fine with that but I am asking you to apologize to Creme for this. Because of your public post and slander she got death threats, she wasn’t getting any before you posted this.  Likewise if you receive any grief this post I’m sorry in advance and I will personally come after any dweeb to thinks it’s normal to tell someone to go kill themselves. Firstly, Creme is not CIS. A little research would have helped there but anyway that’s done with. Check.

I can’t say if the character is trans misogynistic because I’m not fully trans mentally. But don’t you think what you’re saying is a little hypocritical because individuals gonna be individuals and there in fact ARE hypermasculine transfolk out there.

Let’s take your sentence here: “The cis writer portrays her as a hypermasculine woman with a full mane (beard) and muscular build, in nearly every way she is a terf cariactures fursona. “ Way to assume that all hypermasculine people are terfs (if you could say sorry to them too that would be gr8)

Anyway I could pick apart what you said as you did to Creme but the point is this: they were trying to help. They were trying to portray that a simple kindness goes a long way whether you are CIS, trans, gay, ace, a lion or a lioness not glorifying the actions of CIS. The comics illustrate how CIS people can help and help to understand transfolk problems and how small actions can help to make a better, kinder community. I doesn’t matter that the character is quiet  or hypermasculine because there are people out there just like them (well maybe, I hope there aren’t lions walking around downtown otherwise we dead) Saying someone can’t help a transfolk because they are CIS is just...baffles me. You help someone. You help someone regardless of who they are and who you are.  You or anyone else are not the authority on what is transphobic, you can not gate keep transpeople and regulate how to deal with their problems.  

Sincerely, their GF