Harry Potter Fandoms will be a part of the Fediverse one way or the other. It’s better to shape this development rather than being overwhelmed by it.
Harry Potter Fandoms are a huge opportunity for the Fediverse. Look at what the collaboration of Lego and Disney brought to Fortnite. People want to spend time in places, in which they feel familiar and welcomed. I'm not saying collaborating with big companies here, what I'm saying is: the Fediverse needs to be filled with life and we have to use that opportunity first, before others do.
Don't throw the opinions of J.K. Rowling and its fandom in one bucket. It’s one of the biggest in the world, there is a broad range of opinions and people.
The Fediverse needs more projects that immediately make sense to people. Projects that you tell a person about, and they say: "Oh, yeah, that makes sense." Mastodon in comparison to Twitter was such a thing: its billionaire proof. Everybody gets why that's a good thing. A better, more open place to build Harry Potter fan sites could be another.
The project (including other places like this that may follow) could also become another attractive place on the Fediverse for the open-source community. Who wouldn’t be excited to help build the world of Harry Potter?

All of this is of course up for discussion. I'm a very stubborn person but I'm also able to listen ;)

Edit: I removed "queer friendly" from the description. Its not a claim that I can fully uphold anyways. Instead, it has a no tolerancy policy against transphobia, which is more clear and probably easier to enforce.

Here is the link: https://diagonlemmy.social

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[+] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml -11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (13 children)

Let me pose a hypothetical to you then. If the transphobic rhetoric of JKR escalated, and transphobes took action, like just started doing even more harm to the trans community than they already have. At what point would you say "you know what, I've had enough of HP. It's just distasteful to engage with this anymore".

Let's say a trans person enters, participates, and becomes a part of your HP fan community. What if they are directly, or even indirectly, harmed by JKR's transphobic rhetoric? If you continue to engage with how great the content is, while ignoring what just happened, was that trans person, who was harmed, ever really part of your community? Or were you just paying lip service to your community's inclusivity?

These hypotheticals can happen, it's not even remotely outside the realm of possibility. At what point is engaging in HP fandom distasteful?

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 21 points 9 months ago (12 children)

At what point is engaging in HP fandom distasteful?

I'd say when the material that makes up the HP franchise, itself, becomes distasteful. I'm not hugely invested into HP, but last I've seen of it, the franchise is LGBT-inclusive, directly in spite of Rowling. I see no reason why one shouldn't be allowed to enjoy the story.

Yeah, Rowling may still profit from it. But the bitter pill is that she's allowed to. People are entitled to make money from their IPs, it's how society enables creatives. Just because somebody's a shit person doesn't mean they're not allowed to earn a living. And realistically, she's going to make money from it, anyway. Blocking a Lemmy instance has literally zero impact on Rowling's bottom line, making the act little more than posturing.

The HP material, itself, is fine. And the HP community largely seems inclusive toward LGBT fans. I can't think of any reason to consider liking it or talking about it to be distasteful. Rowling's a TERF shitbag, and I think most of the HP community is generally onboard with that notion, too.

[+] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml -9 points 9 months ago (9 children)

I'd say when the material that makes up the HP franchise, itself, becomes distasteful. I'm not hugely invested into HP, but last I've seen of it, the franchise is LGBT-inclusive, directly in spite of Rowling. I see no reason why one shouldn't be allowed to enjoy the story.

It's not about ”allowing” people to enjoy the story. I'm only pointing out consequences both intended and not intended incurred by choices to engage with, and inherently validate, an author who has engaged in transphobic hateful rhetoric.

Engaging in communities that reinforce a positive viewpoint of a story written by a transphobic hateful person is harmful to those communities in ways that are both overt and subtle. If you are okay with that, then at least don't deny it.

Yeah, Rowling may still profit from it.

I never mentioned boycotting her material because it somehow might starve her of profit. You are obfuscating the argument from the main point. This farcical argument is often brought up as if the harm that the trans community experiences from JKR's rhetoric is directly related to JKR's wallet. It's not. It's her hate speech and the complacency around that hate speech that is the issue.

Rowling's a TERF shitbag, and I think most of the HP community is generally onboard with that notion, too.

Obviously I agree on Rowling being a TERF shitbag. And in all truth, I'm sure the majority of the HP community aren't blatant transphobes. The problem is not in any obvious transphobia exhibited by the HP community, but rather what an HP community inherently must ignore in order to enjoy the material. To continue to find the HP franchise tasteful, you must ignore the hateful rhetoric of it's author, and the repercussions of said rhetoric.

Again, if you're okay with that, then I'd encourage you to admit that to at least yourself.

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Engaging in communities that reinforce a positive viewpoint of a story written by a transphobic hateful person is harmful to those communities in ways that are both overt and subtle.

How? If the community at large is against Rowing and is inclusive in defiance of her stance, then it would seem to me that they have enough self-awareness to take care of themselves and mitigate any of this nebulous harm.

[+] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml -8 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Because continuing to engage with her content is a form of endorsement of her viewpoints (As mentioned in my previous comment, it is not inherently monetary support).

By saying, ”I enjoy the content. I don't support her views, but I'm not going to go out of my way to condemn her, and I'm going to continue to engage in positive discourse about her work.", you are indicating "I don't stand against trans bigotry unless publicly pressured to do so. I value the entertainment of her work more than dislike the harm my turning a blind eye to the harm the author causes with her hate speech." Most commonly followed by "I'm just going to pretend it's okay because it makes me uncomfortable to think otherwise. I'm not a bad person, and refuse to even acknowledge that I might be wrong here."

This simple line of thought that is understandably easy to fall into is often used amongst outright hate groups, transphobes in this case, to empathize with people within this community.

With that empathy built off of a mutual dislike for the trans people making them feel bad for just wanting to like their little HP fan club, they form a bond of an us vs them mentality, where the "us"becomes less and less about their love of the content, and more and more about their dislike of the " other."

Part of this discourse I'm engaging in here isn't in the hope that somehow I can dissuade anyone from joining this community. People gonna do what they're gonna do. But pointing out the potential pitfalls of founding and perpetuating this community is meant to instill in those that join an awareness of exactly WHY trans people and their allies are so upset that people are willing to turn a deaf ear to their voices when they tell you to think more carefully on this, to reconsider your position.

then it would seem to me that they have enough self-awareness to take care of themselves and mitigate any of this nebulous harm.

They don't though. Because to mitigate the harm would mean having a more difficult discussion on how JKR's works and awkward stumblings around inclusivity in her works have been nothing but tokenism. A facade of inclusivity made in bad faith. But that's not what this community would ever want to do, because to do so would be to point out exactly what I've been arguing this entire time, that to ignore the fact thst you are celebrating the works created by a bigot means you silently are endorsing her, even if you vocally condemn her.

People claim to care, and heck, words matter. But words only matter inasmuch as what those words do, or inspire people to do. JKR's words obviously have inspired a lot of people in a lot of different ways. But what have they ulimately inspired people to do really?

At best, they inspired people to get together and engage in conversations about a fantasy world, maybe come up with amazing stories of their own. At worst, they inspired some people to go out and make some poor trans person want to kill themselves.

The question I pose is, does the good really outweigh the bad? I don't think so.

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 12 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Because continuing to engage with her content is a form of endorsement of her viewpoints

This is a pretty significant leap that doesn't seem realistic.

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 4 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Would you stay at Trump hotel if you liked the scenery nearby?

[–] Chozo@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

No, because that directly supports Trump. That's hardly an apt comparison to talking about HP on an obscure website with no ads or links to Rowling whatsoever.

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 0 points 9 months ago

The franchise is the link to Rowling. Promoting the franchise directly benefits her.

[–] z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml -3 points 9 months ago

Lol. How so? Seems like a lot of people here singing the praises of the work while condemning the author have a pretty hard time squaring with themselves that maybe enjoying the work somehow makes trans people feel unseen, unheard?

Or maybe it's just that you don't actually care.

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