The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle announced this spring that it will remove all traces of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling from its Harry Potter collections.
In a blog post announcing this change, the museum writes that “there’s a certain cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity in the world of Harry Potter and, this time, it is not actually a Dementor,” comparing Rowling to one of most horrible of the evil creatures from her wizard-themed books.
The museum now refers to Rowling as “She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named,” in the same way Voldemort is so feared in the fantasy world of wizardry world that it is considered dangerous to speak his name.
“Her transphobic viewpoints are front and center these days, but we can’t forget all the other ways that she’s problematic: the support of antisemitic creators, the racial stereotypes that she used while creating characters, the incredibly white wizarding world, the fat shaming, the lack of LGBTQIA+ representation, the super-chill outlook on the bigotry and othering of those that don’t fit into the standard wizarding world, and so much more. We’re going to be focusing on You-Know-Who’s transphobic views in this blog post because she’s really doubled down on them lately,” the museum writes.
The writer, who refers to him/herself as transgender continues in that vein for several more paragraphs.
“While the Harry Potter series is a major player in the pop culture sphere, we wanted to give credit to the work of the actors, prop makers, and costume designers in our Fantasy gallery. We learned that You-Know-Who was a problem, which is why you’ll see the artifacts without any mention or image of the author. After all, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint are all incredibly vocal allies. Should we forget their work now that the original author is terrible? I’m not even talking about “separating art from artist” but giving credit where it’s due. I’ll never be able to purely enjoy Hagrid or Stephen Fry again because of their support of the author, but I’ll always be a wreck when Dumbledore… y’know. No spoilers. Besides, there’s plenty about Dumbledore that I’ll be a wreck about,” the museum wrote.
The inductees into the museum are chosen by public voting, the museum said.
“You-Know-Who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2018 before she became the face of trans-exclusionary radical feminism (TERF). If you keep looking in there, you’ll see other figures with questionable if not downright disturbing pasts. But what does that mean? Are MoPOP’s hands tied on something that is in our building? Again, it’s complicated. For the time being, the Curators decided to remove any of her artifacts from this gallery to reduce her impact,” the museum said. Read the entire statement here.
Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter series while working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990. By 1997, she had published the first novel in the series, “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” After six sequels, movie rights, and worldwide fame, she became the highest-paid author in the world.
In 2018, Rowling started expressing her views about the transgender movement and its cultural norm of harassing, threatening and doxing all women who stand for women’s rights. She was a target of trans attack when she stood up for a woman who lost her job due to her support for actual women.
“For people who don’t know: last December I tweeted my support for Maya Forstater, a tax specialist who’d lost her job for what were deemed ‘transphobic’ tweets. She took her case to an employment tribunal, asking the judge to rule on whether a philosophical belief that sex is determined by biology is protected in law. Judge Tayler ruled that it wasn’t,” Rowling wrote on her website in 2020.
“My interest in trans issues pre-dated Maya’s case by almost two years, during which I followed the debate around the concept of gender identity closely. I’ve met trans people, and read sundry books, blogs and articles by trans people, gender specialists, intersex people, psychologists, safeguarding experts, social workers and doctors, and followed the discourse online and in traditional media. On one level, my interest in this issue has been professional, because I’m writing a crime series, set in the present day, and my fictional female detective is of an age to be interested in, and affected by, these issues herself, but on another, it’s intensely personal, as I’m about to explain,” Rowling wrote.
“All the time I’ve been researching and learning, accusations and threats from trans activists have been bubbling in my Twitter timeline. This was initially triggered by a ‘like’. When I started taking an interest in gender identity and transgender matters, I began screenshotting comments that interested me, as a way of reminding myself what I might want to research later. On one occasion, I absent-mindedly ‘liked’ instead of screenshotting. That single ‘like’ was deemed evidence of wrongthink, and a persistent low level of harassment began,” Rowling wrote.
“Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased,” she wrote.
“I mention all this only to explain that I knew perfectly well what was going to happen when I supported Maya. I must have been on my fourth or fifth cancellation by then. I expected the threats of violence, to be told I was literally killing trans people with my hate, to be called cunt and bitch and, of course, for my books to be burned, although one particularly abusive man told me he’d composted them,” she wrote.
“What I didn’t expect in the aftermath of my cancellation was the avalanche of emails and letters that came showering down upon me, the overwhelming majority of which were positive, grateful and supportive. They came from a cross-section of kind, empathetic and intelligent people, some of them working in fields dealing with gender dysphoria and trans people, who’re all deeply concerned about the way a socio-political concept is influencing politics, medical practice and safeguarding. They’re worried about the dangers to young people, gay people and about the erosion of women’s and girl’s rights. Above all, they’re worried about a climate of fear that serves nobody – least of all trans youth – well.
“I’d stepped back from Twitter for many months both before and after tweeting support for Maya, because I knew it was doing nothing good for my mental health. I only returned because I wanted to share a free children’s book during the pandemic. Immediately, activists who clearly believe themselves to be good, kind and progressive people swarmed back into my timeline, assuming a right to police my speech, accuse me of hatred, call me misogynistic slurs and, above all – as every woman involved in this debate will know – TERF,” Rowling wrote.
“TERF” is an acronym coined by trans activists that stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist.
Read Rowling’s statement from 2020 at this link.
MoPOP is funded by corporate, government and foundations. In the 2021 annual report, major corporations and foundations and taxpayers were listed as funders, including The Boeing Company, Seattle Seahawks, the State of Washington, and Walt Disney:
The point of ‘history’ is to make an accurate record of events. The biggest crime of cancel culture is going to be the history that is never recorded and forgotten. All you progressives out there forget that history is not just the good stuff, it’s ALL the stuff.
LOL….LOL…🤣
A Left-wing author gets it in the rear from her own people. The nerve. Censoring a fellow liberal. Welcome to your censorship, JK.
Why is it amusing to you when a person, who successfully produced a work of fiction, gets canceled? That’s not funny. I frankly don’t care about JK Rowlings politics, but I do care that she has the right to offer her opinion to the debate WITHOUT being censored. In essence the museum is too cowardly to have an honest dialog about this issue, so instead they shut her up. Tyranny my dear Lakreesha can take many forms and your laughing indulges it. Think about that!
Seattle. What else do you expect?
Behold the much-vaunted, so-called “tolerance” of the radical leftist extremist.
Make me laugh!
J.k. Rowling books are occultic that Christian families shouldn’t had their kids reading them. Her books entice kids into the occult. There were better books series an entire generation now grown could had been reading than Harry Potter. If a parent is smarter or they think they are smart by college education they wouldn’t had their kids reading third grade reading level books. Bigger books doesn’t mean better. A third grade child gets more out of a little slim Beatrix Potter book than one thick Harry Potter book.
Jen, you are entitled to your opinion.
In the final analysis “Harry Potter” is the age old story of good vs evil, tolerance vs ignorance. It is in some parts reminiscent of the pigs in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. It is fantasy and if you see it as such, you broaden your mind to the possibility that others are different and that is okay. You call the books occult, but if you want to be technical, Moses waving a staff and turning the river Nile into blood would fit that description as well. He called on the power of God, Luke Skywalker has “The Force” and Harry Potter does magic. Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit is cute, but way less entertaining and engaging or in my opinion educational. If you can not name evil or talk about it, how are you prepared to stand up to it??
Most of the juvenile literature books published today are a child’s waste of time. And must we need to make bad choices for the experience of it so we don’t make it. That’s too much heart ache. You can watch others without participating others destroy themselves not to participate in their activities, and warn those around you saving others the grief if they listen.
Sorry Jen, I had to read this three times to maybe understand what you are saying.
Let’s get it straight IN YOUR OPINION most children’s literature these days is a waste of time. You are not all wrong on that one, but it is up to the individual parent to make that choice.
People generally learn lessons better if it actually impacts them, again an individual choice. You are welcome to warn people, but are you not substituting YOUR values for theirs and demand that they live life on YOUR terms? God doesn’t want a braggart. He asks that you humbly lead your life and by that set an example for others, not make bombastic speeches lambasting all for their inability to live up to YOUR standard.
AND don’t forget to read to that child around you. “It’s just that important” -Jordan secklow. Read often and regularly. If you don’t train and direct them which direction your child should go, that child will pick their own depending on their feelings. That’s why I read 10 and often more books per day of the week I was concerned if I don’t introduce her to higher quality of written literature and illustrations she’d gravitate toward wimpy books like Diary of a Wimpy kid. Before I even became a mother I didn’t want a “wimpy child” hahahaha. My approach work and she choosy what authors she reads and chooses stories written with details and depth. If a parent don’t read often and regularly to their child, that babe won’t read, they will struggle with reading, books will intimate plus if their early books were wimpy, he’ll choose wimpy books as Harry Potter or Cat Warrior types.
I really want to be a fly on the wall when you come face to face with God.
One of His biggest pet peeves is people like you who divert people from him with faux piety and a complete lack of understanding His word.
And I hadn’t seen you pointing anyone to God in Juneau or anywhere to His Word. At least I am doing something both online and in-person sowing seeds. After those seeds are thrown it’s not up to me when and if it takes root and ever grows in its hearers. It’s not up to us to determine how each of us be judged. masked avenger. One day we will know who we are and see one another’s works tested by the fire, and how many crowns we will receive. However between you and me like a language barrier we have religious barrier you being a catholic and following a religious denomination teachings, values, and expectations while all I got is the Bible and teachers of his word by devotionals. But also your right up anchorage there do much I want to learn however I find “inadequate” pastors who are more judgemental than instructors while the ladies are prejudice and insecure to do what word says to befriend and mentors all women around them not just the ladies they want as friends. Look! I grew up in Juneau, let me tell you NO ONE sowed any kind of biblical reference seed. The church I grew up attending and fell away were more concerned with social services and instilling leftist values in its hearers. I wish there were more Juneauites who talked about God and his word or inviting more people into having bible reading or the sharing of their devotional reading with me. I doubt you can understand me because here in anchorage I noticed as I been introduced and casually talked with those attending a denomination, they have a very limited understanding of God and living out the Word as they read it, starting with they not interested meeting and fellowshipping with other believers to read His Word.
And I hadn’t seen you pointing anyone to God in Juneau or anywhere to His Word. At least I am doing something both online and in-person sowing seeds. After those seeds are thrown it’s not up to me when and if it takes root and ever grows in its hearers. It’s not up to us to determine how each of us be judged. masked avenger. One day we will know who we are and see one another’s works tested by the fire, and how many crowns we will receive. However between you and me like a language barrier we have religious barrier you being a catholic and following a religious denomination teachings, values, and expectations while all I got is the Bible and teachers of his word by devotionals. But also your right up anchorage there too much I want to learn however I find “inadequate” pastors including their wives who are more judgemental than instructors while the ladies of the churches are prejudice and insecure to do what word says to befriend and mentor all women around them not just the ladies they want as friends. Look! I grew up in Juneau, let me tell you NO ONE sowed any kind of biblical reference seed. The church I grew up attending and fell away were more concerned with social services and instilling leftist values in its hearers. I wish there were more Juneauites who talked about God and his word or inviting more people into having bible reading or the sharing of their devotional reading with me. I doubt you can understand me coming from a catholic background because here in anchorage I noticed as I been introduced and casually talked with those attending a denomination, they have a very limited understanding of God and living out the Word as they read it, starting with they not interested meeting and fellowshipping with other believers to read His Word.
You are so obsessed with yourself and your unique version of “Christianity” I could be right in front of you and you’d not see it.
It’s hard to see anything when one spends all their time staring into a mirror.
Oh, and after the first sentence I stopped reading. Even the Bible, at least the ones not written by you, use paragraphs
Seems like if paragraphs were good enough for the apostles, they’d be good enough for you.
Taxpayers funding censorship? whudathunk?
So glad they are taking that bigot out! Surprised this terf article made it on my news feed.
Since when did having a difference of opinion automatically make someone a bigot? And YOU aren’t one toward groups or people you disagree with? If you have never read “1984” by George Orwell, I highly recommend it. Maybe then you will understand why some of us get a little perturbed at the leftists attitude. Some of you are doing the equivalent of holding your fingers in your ears and going la-la-la.
Why do you hate women, Drew?
You use the vocabulary of the slave sheep.
Disturbing that there are really that many of you in this world. Dark times indeed.
“Surprised this terf article made it on my news feed.”
That sentence says it all. You only want news that you approve off. I suggest you broaden your horizons. Aristotle said:
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
This is a shocker to people?? Seattle is a rotten apple with gender confused morons. They actually think they can erase people? This shows the immaturity, the NON ability to live with others that don’t agree with you, and the fantasy land they all live in. By the way? It’s not Transphobic to not tolerate a form of mental retardation.
Seattle is a Shxthole!
A reminder in case you ever wondered for a second that your political, cultural, and civilizational enemies want you bankrupt, jailed, or dead (canceled). Preferably all three.
Remember that when they try and buy your silence or allegiance. (“Look at this government program that will give me money!”)
To paraphrase, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” I wish it wasn’t so, but it is.
Lol, don’t give rip! One way or another! It’s all of fantasy bs! Really! Who cares about having potter books in a museum! I think, suppressing is the problem??? People like to choose and judge!
The Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle is located near the Belltown neighborhood located just north of downtown. It’s one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Seattle, especially because of its higher rate of violent crime. So just think of the lives saved by not having to run the gauntlet and risking your life or your family’s life to go see the Harry Potter Collection that no longer is.
Who cares. It’s Seattle
Museum of pop culture.
So not really anything of substance anyway, considering pop culture itself is not entirely authentic, mostly marketing and foolish people following along.
Booring…
Where’s the tolerance? Great piece… loved all the research she did.
Apparently, the residents keep voting for this crap. Or are they like Anchorage, where the average slob doesn’t bother to vote, allowing the activist minorities to run the show?
Glad they solved that problem. Intolerance toward trangenders is no longer an issue.
.
Damn, the leftists are good at solving problems, aren’t they? Ever since they tore down all those Confederate statues and memorials, racism is all but non-existent. We cured COVID by preventing people from talking about possible ways to treat it outside of the government sanctioned treatments as well. And, just imagine how peaceful the world will be if we just get people to stop expressing opinions that do not conform to what the leftists want to hear. What, really, is the problem with the government setting up offices to stop “misinformation?”
So they are keeping the exhibit but removes the references to the author? So it is ok to profit on her work by charging money for the exhibit? Fascinating thought indeed. I hereby coin the term selective canceling by “pecunia”.
To me it is unappealing. It is unappealing to yearn to trim off one’s privates and then demand extreme social support for this endeavor. To me it seems a strange fixation when there are more worthy goals like saving funds, starting and running a business etc. It is a colossal waste of time and energy to avoid being yourself.
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