words, words, words

sierras-darkness:

lifeofateenagefangirl:

shotgunanderson:

so awhile ago someone asked me to go through process/resources for what i do when i write. this isn’t for everybody, everybody has different motivators. but some of these links have been useful for me in the past.

• …

netrikon:

ok im really super mad about hp and i have to finish a calc bc problem set and shower and get dressed in the next 20 minutes i cant do all of those things so lemme just get this out there

• jkr is not a feminist writer
• jkr is not a feminist writer
• jkr is not a feminist writer
• jkr slut-shames and shames girls for being interested in “girly” things (lavender)

Hm, I’m not sure how to feel about this.  While I feel like yes, there are warranted discussions for normative gender roles and what makes someone ‘good’ or ‘bad’, particularly in children’s books, I am troubled by the ideas posed here because they seem to take things to an unnecessary extreme to make a point.  First, I don’t think anyone is ‘slut-shamed’.  All of the characters in these books (including Ginny Weasley, the main protagonist love interest) have romantic, bordering-on-sexual relationships when they reach puberty.  The descriptions of sexy cuddling and open-mouthed kissing are pretty prevalent and mildly overdescribed in later books.  And as for being interested in ‘girly’ things, what about when Hermione herself gets prettied up for the ball with Viktor Krum, or has her teeth adjusted to a more ‘normal’ length by Madame Pomfrey?  These are commented on, but I wouldn’t say she is shamed for it in any real sense.  The conversation could be made that it’s troubling she felt herself unattractive enough to need these changes, but that is not the argument being made here.

Also, every fat character is shrewish and nasty?  The court submits for evidence: Neville Longbottom.  He is frequently described as ‘round-faced’ and ‘short, plump and blond’.  He is also the alternate ‘chosen one’ and Harry’s counter-part in many ways for the hero of these books.  I fail to see this as a universal hatred of fat people - particularly when characters like Mrs. Dursley, Bellatrix, the Malfoy family and so many others are described as thin, and the Weasley family, Hagrid, Professor Sprout, and several others are not.

I also find this post confusing on the point of the ‘crazy’ characters - it seems to suggest the JKR is somehow deliberately putting them in bad situations.  No, the treatment of Luna is not okay.  THAT’S THE WHOLE DAMN POINT.  Since when is making a character abused/mistreated some sort of malice on the author’s part?  Luna represents a different shade of family loss, a different type of person and a different type of wizard, and in the end she is one of the most interesting and engaging characters because of her ability to deal with the taunting and mistreatment of her fellow students, and her own sadder past, with dignity and self-confidence.  JKR is not the one saying she is ‘crazy’ or ‘that weird girl’ - her fellow students are, and in the end, she still finds her place in the main cast and is in no way ostracized for her ‘weirdness’ when the final confrontation comes through. 

I’m troubled by the overuse of ‘rape’ suggestions in this post as well.  Not only is it complete conjecture on both the part of Umbridge and Dumbledore’s sister, it’s also just an easy way to make things sound extreme.

Finally, if you’re going to knock any book that neither makes mention of, nor addresses the possibility of, queer characters directly, you’re going to have a problem with a huge percentage of literature in the world.  Is this unfortunate because of the culture of silence and suppression surrounding these issues?  Yes.  But that in no way knocks down the significance or the strength of these books on their own, and it does not warrant our disgust and hatred simply on that fact.  It just reminds us to take our idolization with a grain of salt, and to remember and try and change the fact that some groups are still marginalized in our culture and entertainment and have little satisfactory representation.  Making an example of Harry Potter just because it is one of most popular and well-known series of our time is just an easy way to get a lot of people riled up, and frankly, it is a conversation that deserves a lot more dignity and serious investigation than just blanket yelling on Tumblr.

Kthx.