“JKR Didn’t Start Out Like This She Was Radicalized!”

“JKR didn’t start out like this she was radicalized!”

She, like most fascists, started out with antisemitism. It’s obvious in the HP series. It’s obvious in the Goblins. It’s obvious in how she treated the Deathly Hollows symbol (specifically with Mr. Lovegood’s casual wearing of the symbol, despite it being a symbol for a genocide)

Despite the diversity that is within the UK, most of the students at Hogwarts are implied white, British, and Christian. The exceptions being the Patel twins and Cho Chang. 2 of which were the last ditch dates for our Love Struck Heros and were treated horribly, 1 of whom has two different last names and is generally treated horribly by the narrative. Our resident Irish family has “too many kids” and is poor with little social mobility. Welsh students? Where? Scots? 1 Scottish professor in a Scottish school. Black? Only in the movies, and even then subject to change if they happen to become a main character’s love interest (See: Lavender Brown). Oh and don’t forget the House slaves Elves!

Queer characters? Word of G-d we have one gay character and a horrid metaphor for the AIDs epidemic.

My point? Despite the fact that her books managed to radicalize a good portion of her audience, that was a happy accident. We were a happy accident who took the class metaphor she wanted us to see and RAN with it into social justice to fight for anyone who was being oppressed. Because We made the connections for ourselves.

JKR was never progressive. She was a bigoted Centrist at best.

She might not have started out radicalized but she was sure as hell an easy target. Because she was already bigoted in other ways. Being openly transphobic is just one of the more acceptable ways to be a bigot amongst “feminists” in Britain.