midori-verte asked: tumblr's treatment of J.K. Rowling honestly makes me sick sometimes. and then these are the same people who'll praise the Hunger Games for being "such great representation"...
accioharo:
It is honestly really fucking gross.
Rowling’s never asked for credits or cookies for Dumbledore being gay or this kid being Jewish. Someone asked her a question, she gave them an answer. She answers a lot of questions. And hell, it’s not just this. People get pissed at her for revealing any info. “New backstory on Umbridge? Omg she’s so desperate for attention.” Funny that other authors can release compendiums, appendixes, etc. of additional information, and it’s awesome, but when Rowling does the same damn thing in the form of twitter, book tours, and Pottermore, it’s awful of her.
Yeah the media plays it up like she made this HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT but these tumblr users, who claim to be socially aware, should know that the media often portrays things oddly so it’s best to go to the source. And it’s not like HP is ongoing either. It’s not like Steven Moffat who said that River Song was bisexual and then made a biphobic excuse as to why he couldn’t add it into the actual show in future episodes.
Rowling just answered a couple of fan questions. She’s never made an excuse. She’s never done anything to draw over the top attention to it. That just happens because of her fame. She’s never used it as a response when someone asks about diversity in the books themselves (i.e. ‘why aren’t there more gay characters?’ ‘oh well Dumbledore is gay’). She has never done that.
That she thinks this ‘counts’ and that she’s asking for pats on the backs is 100% baseless.
@jk-rowling my wife said there are no Jews at Hogwarts. I’m a Jew so I assume she said it to be the only magical 1 in the family. Thoughts?
@benjaminroffman Anthony Goldstein, Ravenclaw, Jewish wizard.
She later clarifies that there are other Jewish students, but Anthony is the one she knows best since he’s one of the ‘original forty’ students she created; aka Harry’s year (Judaism isn’t a huge religion in the UK btw, it averaging out to around one in every two hundred people). Wow. Such arrogance. Such reaching for representation points. Not just answering a question quickly and simply.
If you want to talk about lack of representation in Harry Potter, that’s totally fine and it’s a legitimate discussion. But the entire “ROWLING EXPECTS PROPS AND CREDIT FOR STUFF SHE SAYS AFTER THE BOOKS” is completely without merit.
Tumblr hates successful women, news at eleven.