Since speaking my truth, I have been grateful to connect with a supportive and strong community however it didn’t take long to also learn the extent of our struggle. I wasn’t oblivious to the attitudes that exists in our society as I had plenty of experience as a teacher and engaging with the media in Australia. However, it wasn’t until reaching out to the trans and wider LGBTIQ+ community that I could really appreciate the extent of the ugliness or the influence of those driven by hate and the potential impacts on our lives. Most of those vocal proponents of the ‘Gender Critical’ movement clearly establish their feelings towards the trans community but on a personal level our response is clear. We try to avoid their influence or publications and if we are so inclined try to reveal their fear mongering, bigotry, and the other tactics they use to manipulate the political climate. Sometimes, what is most confusing and more difficult to avoid is the pressure of our own community to act in a certain way which leads to infighting despite our common cause.
This is clearly seen in the response to “She who must not be named” and the Harry Potter franchise with the ongoing boycott of her work due to her transphobic views. It is simple for many members of our community that we avoid any HP products or branding as well as actively encourage others to do the same and if they don’t, they clearly support transphobia or just don’t care about trans rights. As always, I resist such black and white conclusions, only a “Sith deals in absolutes” as we should never blindly classify people’s views based on their background or interests, this is a trait of the GC movement, and we should always resist becoming our enemy. Instead let’s recognise the real factors that are at play in relation to the continued popularity of Harry Potter, firstly that most of the population especially in Australia unless they follow Trans related topics online are completely oblivious to the views of its creator while younger fans can’t understand the political climate. In a slightly different vein, many people have a deep emotional connection to the series because of their childhood which tied with the inherent flaw in humanity that we are driven by own needs and desires means even those that are aware don’t necessarily prioritise trans rights. These are not necessarily the black and white motivations of an army of transphobes, excluding what I believe is a minority of fans who make their voices heard over social media.
Lack of awareness
So, let’s consider this grey area a little more deeply and unpack some of these motivations. As we know our community makes up a small percentage of society and therefore our effect size is equally tiny. Beyond our friends, family, and other minorities both within the LGBTIQ+ community and beyond most people simply aren’t aware of trans issues. What is amazing within all this is the rights targeting of the trans community frustrates those not invested in the issues and potentially gives attention to our plight, raising our effect size. It is therefore possible that the louder they get it may one day seem to work in our favor, but we will have to wait in sight of that one as it will get worse in many places around the world before it gets better. But as it stands most of the population are not invested and therefore are unaware and therefore are not making a conscious decision to support transphobia. In the same way, Harry Potter still appeals to a young audience and while we credit the current generation with more social awareness the ability to connect a popular franchise with economic support for political views is not something that children introduced to HP by an oblivious parent or relative is going to recognise not to mention the influence of the school yard. Personally, I’m not going to hold this against people, I’ll just try to educate and make them more aware. Then it is possible that some people might change.
Nostalgia
In the case of those that don’t there are other factors at play like nostalgia and deep emotional connections. In my case, I remember reading the original Harry Potter series as they were released as I was the same age as the characters, throughout the journey. Not to mention, like all great books, the series provides an element of escapism and for someone feeling out of place in their own world it was a deeper connection than others. Beyond this I have always felt a sense of pride at being close to guessing the ending by suggesting that both Harry and Voldemort would die although personally the resurrection element was always a bit too ‘Christ like’ and a result of an unwillingness to kill off such a well-loved figure but hay it works. Even the fact that I smashed through the 7th book in 7 hours over one night after I got my copy, an hour faster than my older brother has stuck with me all these years. Here I am like many others with a deep emotional connection which is as much about myself as the books themselves, this is part of what we talk about as literary critiques in that once a work is created it has a life of its own as the audience brings their own context and experience to the text to create meaning. Regardless of your position on ‘the death of the author’ I would never disregard a person’s connection to a text as even despite knowing her views I won’t give anyone the power over my source of pleasure or more importantly memories. Whether that is the author’s views making me reject something from my childhood or even pressure from my own community to discard my copies of the books which have been well worn from multiple reads to fit in with their expectations. This after all is something that we as Trans people have done for all our lives so I’m not trading one cage for another. At the same time, I’m not going to go out and buy any new spin offs or secondary media, partly as I’m not going to continue to financial support someone that targets my very existence but also because there is not that nostalgic pull.
Self – interest
Finally, we get to those that can’t resist buying these new products because quite frankly they may be aware of JK’s views and don’t support them, but this doesn’t out way their personal desires. Frustrating as this is, it’s also just humanity and in other situations, we all give in to desires we know that we should resist for financial, political or health reasons and in these cases the consequences for such a decision are normally felt by us. So, considering this it is hard to condemn someone for giving into a universal flaw based on a consequence that is removed from them, it really is just weakness. In many cases these people will try and justify their actions because deep down, they feel guilty about buying the product with things like ‘I’m supporting the game developers’ or ‘It’s not going to matter if I buy it, it’s a drop in the ocean’. The bottom line is that only people that disagree with her beliefs would bother producing these justifications. Yes, it is frustrating that they lack the strength to resist these desires but hell nobody is perfect, and these people are more likely to make it up in other ways so let’s not push them away by antagonising those that could and are our friends.
It’s clear from all this that if we just label anyone that reads HP a transphobe, we are doing a lot of people an injustice in a similar way as generalisations and fearmongering are used by the right. However, more importantly we are a community unwilling to deny ourselves and conform to the expectations of society and it is a shame to see members of our community trying to enforce different expectations on each other. Of course, that doesn’t mean we give up the fight, it just means the battles we pick, our methods of engagement and our sacrifices are different based on our own story. I for one will celebrate any impact a boycott has and contribute by avoiding merchandise and spin offs but I’m hardly going to deprive myself by ‘burning’ books I already own and have a connection with as that just seems pointless.
Read more about my reflections on the importance of connecting with the LGBTQIA community and showing pride.
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