I know all the re:Dracula episodes have had the main actor give the content warning but it’s even funnier when it’s Jonny giving the medical abuse content warnings for Seward’s episodes because it just sounds like Seward himself going “hey guys welcome!! I’m about to do malpractice. let’s go!”
I love to use my disability “as an excuse.” Fuck yeah my disability is an excuse. It’s the most valid excuse I have. I’m not helping you lift that box/etc because my disability would make it fucking painful. Not wanting to be in pain is a good enough reason. I’m not going to put myself in pain to comfort your sensibilities.
Yes I’m using my disability as an excuse because I refuse to hurt myself for you. If you’re mad about it you can cry! ❤️
Happy disability pride month.
In honor of my chronic pain flareup that I could’ve avoided by asking my wife for help here’s your reminder to say no to stuff when it is safe to do so!!Ask for help!!
This month practice saying “I can’t do that. It would hurt me.” or “can I have help with (x)?” Start with a friend or family member who you feel comfortable asserting your boundaries with and keep saying no.
What makes JKR’s shitshow even harder to process is that she didn’t just ruin a book series. Harry Potter was an entire subculture. Like Star Wars and Star Trek fans, Harry Potter fans dedicated their lives and careers to the series. I don’t know if I’d call it “underground,” but liking Harry Potter got you beaten up when I was in school, so it was more of a dedicated indie culture than a mass-appeal fanbase.
Harry Potter was so huge that fan works developed their own followings. Potter Puppet Pals racked up hundreds of thousands of followers and was nearly as relevant as the series itself. For fanfiction, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationalitygot so big that it has a Wikipedia page. The band Harry and the Potters spawned the wizard rock music genre. A Very Potter Musical developed a fanbase and launched Darren Criss’s career.
Harry Potter also has extensive ties to fandom history. Everyone in my generation (millennials) remembers coming home from school to read Harry Potter fanfiction on the Internet. Today, most people just post their stories on Wattpad or Archive of Our Own. But at the time, the fanbase was splintered between fanfiction.net and dozens of individual websites and forums, some made for specific ships. Since they all had individual hosts, a lot of those sites have been lost to time.
And there’s the infamous My Immortal fanfiction, which is an Internet legend with people still searching for the author. Everybody read that one (and laughed at it) in middle school.
Pre-social media, fan sites like The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet had massive followings because they were one of few sources for news, theories, essays and fan content. Some of these sites still exist after being around for over a decade and building their own legacy.
Before Deathly Hallows came out, fans were so desperate to know what happened that Mugglenet published a book called What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End? Yep…Harry Potter was so big that people wrote separate books about what would happen in an upcoming book.
And that’s not mentioning all the book release parties, Harry Potter-themed events, monuments, fan films, restaurants and even a theme park. A lot of fandoms have those, but Harry Potter infiltrated every aspect of popular culture.
Today, there’s a thriving culture of “Harry Potter adults” with themed weddings, baby showers and Etsy stores. Putting your Hogwarts house in your Instagram bio is pretty much a prerequisite for joining the “bookish” community. Warner still produces new content, like the Fantastic Beasts series, although we’ve all seen what a disaster that’s been.
Everyone has at least a few memories associated with Harry Potter even if it’s just watching the movies. I had great memories associated with Harry Potter. But looking back at the subculture, history and thousands of fan works, it doesn’t seem fun anymore. Studying the fandom or being part of it comes with an awkward tension because you don’t want to seem like you’re condoning JKR’s bigotry but can’t divorce her from the series. This subculture was spawned by a woman who turned her legacy of magic and wonder into one of abuse and hatred.
I don’t expect people to write paragraphs about how much they hate JKR every time they post about Harry Potter, but it’s still uncomfortable to see people make new content or wear their Harry Potter Etsy tote bags like nothing happened. Even if they clarify that they don’t support her, it’s just a weird, tense situation for everybody.
People dedicated years of their lives to running Harry Potter fan sites, writing fanfiction, cosplaying characters and making fan movies. If I were in that situation, I’d have a mild identity crisis. I’d ask myself “Did I waste all those years? Should I delete my content? Where do I go from here?”
So ultimately, JKR didn’t ruin “just” a book series or even “just” a fandom. She tanked an entire culture, which inspired people to look at Harry Potter more critically. The issues that people brought to the light tainted the series’s legacy even without JKR’s personal issues.
Once, Harry Potter was a series for generations. Now, former fans hope that the series fades into irrelevancy. Unfortunately, JKR didn’t just tarnish her legacy–she took decades of history, millions of fans and a worldwide subculture along with her.
it’s crazy having been super-involved in the HP fandom for more than a decade and watching the fallout from this
the harry potter alliance (a nonprofit) has rebranded to fandom forward
the sub-subcultures that sprung up within the HP fandom have now distanced themselves from the main fandom and have become independent groups in their own right
HP was so integral to the development of early online fandom (as OP’s mentioned) that now there’s sort of just a weird… hole in the internet
for many HP fans, it took up a lot of their life. three conventions a year, wizard rock shows, HPA fundraising, granger leadership academy, nightly fanfic, podcasts, quidditch games.
when fans (rightfully) shunned JKR and began to leave the fandom, a lot of them (myself included) were left rudderless. how do you reconcile the fact that most of your friends, hobbies, sometimes even jobs, were due to the work of such a hateful person? as OP said, did i waste my life?
i’m obviously not saying that this is the worst part about JKR’s bigotry (the worst part is, of course, the bigotry) or that HP fans are the worst-done-by victims (who are of course trans people)
but it is WILD to see such a juggernaut of internet fandom be virtually scrubbed away
i’m tired of historical dramas trying to spice things up with sex scenes instead of giving the audience what they really want which is excessively long scenes of noble women being dressed in sumptuous and period accurate layers by their attendants with gratuitous shots of the era-appropriate fastenings and lacings being done
And long panning shots of historical buildings and locations that still exist, but bustling with activity back in another time period
Don’t forget: explaining what the politics and leading philosophies of the time period actually are
And artisans! Cooks! Clothiers! Craftmasters in the middle of the painstaking process of creating works of art to adorn the world the nobles inhabit. Beautiful embroidery and intricate feasts.
And armour that hasn’t been scoured down to its base metal thank you Victorians.
Period appropriate food being prepared with seasoning! Different recipes based on seasonally available produce! Preservation methods! Fast food stalls in bustling cities!
The SCA exists. And so do hundreds of other historical reenacter groups.
i see reminders to take your meds all the time and thats great but heres your reminder to get your meds refilled! to call your pharmacy! to pick up your refills while the pharmacy is still open! you cant take whats not there, its super important that you stay on top of getting your refills
I think an underrated horror trope is “insular christian cult worshipping something that slowly reveals itself to be Very Much Not God”.
I think it speaks something to the bastardized nature of american christian sects like southern baptist
and others. I think in a lot of ways the way colonialism pairs with christianity in the americas really makes it demonic in ways that horror makes powerful statements about.
“There is no god in this church. Nothing but an empty box built on
atrocities. You think the christian God watches over America?
God did not come with us to this land.”
I like the idea of a horror story set in a world built around Discworld/ American Gods rules, where belief literally makes gods real, and one of those sects accidentally creates the God that they’re *actually* worshipping, rather than the one that they *think* that they’re worshipping; and He’s callous and cruel and petty and bloodthirsty because His followers are callous and cruel and petty and bloodthirsty, and they’ve basically been worshipping themselves all along.
it obviously makes sense, but one of my friend’s kids is going into swim class, and all the parents got an email today going, “when little ones are scared, they cling on to instructors. PLEASE trim their nails.”
i don’t know why that’s so funny to me, but just. the idea of this poor, scratched swim instructor having to make sure to email before each class as a reminder to please declaw the children SENT me.
When I taught swim lessons I remember trying to delicately ask parents not to cover their child in shea/coconut/olive oil before lessons.
“I understand your skincare regimen and wanting to protect their tender baby flesh from the pool chemicals, but COULD YOU NOT OIL YOUR CHILD LIKE A GREASED PIG before tossing them in the POOL? Thanks EVER so much!”
