The Seattle-based Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) on Sunday removed all mention of JK Rowling from its “Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic” exhibit, which was introduced on the museum’s website thusly: “From The Wizard of Oz and The Princess Bride to Harry Potter, Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic invites audiences on a fantastical journey to unearth the inspiration behind this genre’s most magnificent creations.”
Rowling has been accused of antisemitism because, in the Harry Potter movies, the goblins who run the magical bank have hooked noses. But British Jews know better, and remember her satirical parody on the state of the Labor Party under Jeremy Corbyn, a real antisemite, and adore Rowling.
According to MoPop project manager Chris Moore, those views make her a “cold, heartless, joy-sucking entity.” He even said that he would be happy to discover that those Internet experts were right when they said Harry Potter had been written without an author. So, he did the next best thing – erase the living author.
Moore then unleashed on the brilliant author all the hell hounds in the pound: “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.”
And so much more…
Amber Harding explained the MoPOP move: “Without J.K. Rowling, there would be no Harry Potter. No books, no movies, no spin-offs, no podcasts, no Hogwarts theme parks, and certainly no museum exhibits celebrating the wizarding world of ‘the boy who lived.’ Yet MoPop has decided to scrub all mentions of the iconic author in its new Harry Potter exhibit.
“Why? Because she believes in basic biology.”
Rowling has opposed the proposed changes to UK gender recognition laws, and her views on sex and gender have provoked a huge backlash from leftist literary, arts, and culture folks who chose to support the transgenders and vilify the mega-successful author.
In June 2020, Rowling set the record straight (pun not intended) on her views with an essay she titled, “J.K. Rowling Writes about Her Reasons for Speaking out on Sex and Gender Issues.” The essay opens with this warning: “The below content is not appropriate for children. Please check with an adult before you read this page.”
She writes: “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, and 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.”
And: “If you didn’t already know – and why should you? – ‘TERF’ is an acronym coined by trans activists, which stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. In practice, a huge and diverse cross-section of women are currently being called TERFs and the vast majority have never been radical feminists. Examples of so-called TERFs range from the mother of a gay child who was afraid their child wanted to transition to escape homophobic bullying, to a hitherto totally unfeminist older lady who’s vowed never to visit Marks & Spencer again because they’re allowing any man who says they identify as a woman into the women’s changing rooms.”
Chris Moore continues to justify his museum’s cultural hit and run (cultural breaking and entering?), writing: “And what is MoPOP doing? If you’ve visited the museum recently, you will have seen artifacts from the Harry Potter films in Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic gallery and her likeness in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. They’re there and trying to dance around it would make me look like a bigger hypocrite. But here’s the deal… it’s complicated. Long conversations are being had and a lot of considerations around what to do with problematic people and content because instances like this are going to keep happening. I’m privileged to get to work with our Curatorial team and see the decision-making processes there, so let me give you a little bit of insight into what these are like after someone outs themself as holding terrible ideologies.”
Here’s the rest of it, in case reading insane drivel is your thing: She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
