UGH “HATSUNE MIKU WROTE HARRY POTTER” I SWEAR TO GOD YOU CANNOT
DIVORCE HARRY POTTER FROM THE RACIST TRANSMISOGYNISTIC ANTISEMITIC
AUTHOR ITS IN THE TEXT STOP DOING THIS SHIT
before yall go “where is it” here’s a few examples off the top of my head!
racism: the entire spew story arc wherein jkr writes about her slave race that loves slavery and hermione is considered weird and to be causing harm by trying to end said slavery
transmisogyny: girls are allowed in the boys dorm rooms, but boys are not allowed in the girls dorm rooms. this becomes incredibly insidious when you know what her beliefs are
antisemitism: every description of snape, the entire existence of the goblins, “goldstein”
you can look up any of these things for more details i am not going into it the point is stop trying to “divorce” works from their creators when it turns out they are bigoted, because their views are definitely there within their works and especially when these messages are being taught to children it’s harmful to pretend these things aren’t there and that the media should be consumed uncritically “because miku made it”
worth mentioning that rita skeeter is extremely trans-coded in goblet of fire, a book that is primarily about characters deceiving others with their appearances
Bonus that often gets overlooked: when asked if there were any autistic characters in her books on twitter, she responded that there are no non-magical disabilities in Harry Potter because wizards cure everything with magic (yay, eugenics!). The characters who acquire magical disabilties in the books, namely Lockhart and the Longbottom parents, are institutionalized for life.
Yes, yes, I get it. Generational discourse and “ok boomer” are reductive and everything. There are marginalized and poor Baby Boomers, and rich and powerful Millennials. I don’t need it explained to me a thousand different times. Generally “ok Boomer” is addressed at the middle-to-upper-middle class white suberbanites that similar memes like “Karen” and “Can I Speak To The Manager Hair” also are.
We get it. Really, we do.
But have y'all considered why this struck a chord, especially as quickly as it did? Because this is one of the fastest inception-to-mainstream velocities I’ve ever seen from a meme.
Think for even a second about the literal decade of the older generation blaming Millennials for literally every single problem. We couldn’t go a week with us being accused of killing an industry or being whiny snowflakes. Of being told we can’t afford healthcare because we’re too lazy to earn it and houses because we eat too much avocado toast. That we’re entitled because we want try to prevent the world from metaphorically catching on fire. That we’re too sensitive and can’t take a joke because we don’t like when comedians shout racial slurs.
It got so bad websites were making listicles of all the industries and societal norms we supposedly killed. From Applebee’s to diamonds, dinner dates to marriage. They would’ve blamed us for tornadoes if they could.
Do you think boomers were having these long discussions and Twitter threads about “well the entitled millennials are just the rich, spoiled ones and most of them aren’t in that group something something class warfare”? I’m sure a few did, but very, very few.
We’ve withstood this shit for years, YEARS, and the one time we punch back in a large scale way, we get this? Like, let people even the slightest amount of cathartic fun.
We’ve been the go to punching bag since I wasn’t even out of highschool, and I’m in my late 20’s.
Yes, it’s reductive. Yes, it’s not a replacement for class analysis. Yes, ageism is a real thing and a large number of 55+ year olds (typically poc and/or working class) are treated poorly and are subject to the same shitty class system we are, too.
But also, yes, sometimes it’s nice to it’s have a fun joke that finally turns the tables and see how terribly they react to the ridicule we’ve put up with since we were preteens.
So maybe just save the thinkpieces for just a little bit. Or, in summary:
