![[icon]](http://www.journalfen.net/userpic/177931/20559) |
He farts rainbows and is ded from snake. - Imaginary Articles: From Russia, With Ick.
|
| | Subject: | Imaginary Articles: From Russia, With Ick. | | Time: | 04:56 pm |
|
| On deathtocapslock, sunnyskywalker linked to a list of titles for imaginary articles about feminism in the HP-verse, translated from the original Russian. Some of the titles for these proposed articles are actually interesting, but most of them (per anything deathtocapslock is going to like) are deliberately skewed at best. For example:
Flitwick and Hagrid: Ethnic Minorities Will Always Clean Up After You, or Uncle Tom in Hogwarts - Now, if they meant Filch and Hagrid, they might have a point. But Flitwick? Despite his appearance in the earlier movies, he was envisaged by JKR as a short person, not a part-goblin or whatever. He is also a respected professor, a Head of House and a famous dueller. Hagrid OTOH they have a case for, since he was probably easier for Dippet to justify expelling due to his heritage and he was made into the Groundskeeper.
The Internalized Misogyny Among Successful Women: Rita Skeeter - Another one that's valid in a way they probably didn't intend, since the misogyny and slutshaming in Rita's articles about Hermione absolutely oozed off the page. But who wants to bet that the article itself (or at least, the deathtocapslock version of it) would probably be about how poor Rita got unfairly demonised by a jealous little girl simply for being such a Successful Woman?
Remus Lupin and the “Good Cripple” Archetype - As a Remus fan and a PWD, I'd rather enjoy discussing this myself, I admit.
And, of course, some of them are flat-out offensive products of entitled butthurt.
Consequences of Limiting Abortion Rights: The Tragedy of Lily Potter - Because surely she must have wanted to abort Harry in order to fight and was forced by the Evil James to bear his babies. Nobody ever has a war baby as a way of affirming life in the middle of death.
Replication of Violent Family Practices: Family Strategies of Nymphadora Tonks - What does this even mean? No, really, what does this even mean? Because all I can think of in response is Y HALO THAR BUTTHURT PUPPYSHIPPER.
Ariana Dumbledore: Murder of a Disabled Person as a Social Necessity - Fuck you fuck you fuck you FUCK YOU
I always get knee-jerkily defensive of the whole Ariana thing because of this (warnings for: discussion of child sexual assault, generally upsetting, and my issues let me show you them.) So please forgive me as I explode right back into a chorus of "fuck you fuck you FUCK YOU and may a fishslice on fire ascend your rectum sideways for all eternity."
Luna Lovegood, Tom Riddle, Harry Potter: Good Children Don’t Get PTSD - One of these things is not like the others! One of these things just doesn't belong!
| comments: Leave a comment     |
| Rallying behind Rita? That's a new one for me. Usually the idol of these "OMG WE'RE SO FEMINIST!!!!!1111!!!" types is Bellatrix. Granted, that's even worse...
And... was that (hypothetical) article really (hypothetically) arguing that the disabled should be killed? I will not Godwin myself, I will not Godwin myself, I will not Godwin myself... | | (Reply to this) (Thread) |
| | I think that the argument was actually that Ariana's death was a murder or a semi-deliberate death rather than a tragic accident. The attitude among many butthurt ex-fans seems to be that on some level Albus craved and was relieved by his sister's death and the subsequent lack of responsibilities. So it's another form of character bashing. | | (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
| | Well, that's just bizarre. And truth be told, I always thought Gellert killed her. He was the only one of the three for whom it would be in-character to hurl Killing Curses at people, I think. | | (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
| | I think it was Gellert too, simply because he seems the most likely of the three to cast Dark Magic in general. But Albus and Aberforth can't have just been casting Tickling Charms either, as none of them know whose spell killed her - Aberforth says "I don't know which of us did it, it could have been any of us -" so Albus and Aberforth must have each cast at least one spell during that fight with the potential to be fatal. | | (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
| Flitwick is supposed to have a "dash of goblin ancestry", but yeah, the movies exaggerated it a lot. I really, really don't think it makes any sense with him in the title - maybe it was a typo?
I'm guessing the Rita article would be about JKR having internalized misogyny against Rita as another successful woman, tbh.
Write the Remus one yourself! Turn their sarcastic title-imagining on its head! | | (Reply to this) (Thread) |
| *checks the Lexicon* Huh. True. I was thinking of JKR's statement that she was so startled at Flitwick's makeup in the first movie when she'd always envisaged him as "look[ing] like a very small old man". I assumed from that that the whole goblin thing was wrong, that 'a dash' meant 'negligible' that that for all intents and purposes, he was supposed to be a fully human short person, like his actor is. (And for all intents and purposes, he is.)
At what point did JKR treat Rita in a misogynist fashion? She enjoyed portraying her the way she did, sure, but it's not because she's a successful woman writer and JKR is ~jealous~, it's because she's the worst kind of journalist, the paparazzi sort who gain their success at the expense of the facts, and of other people's privacy and dignity.
JKR's own words: ...So I pulled Rita from Book One and planned her entrance for Book Four and I was really looking forward to Rita coming in Book Four. For the first time ever, my pen metaphorically hesitated over writing her, because I thought, everyone will think this is my response to what's happened to me. But the fact is, Rita was planned all along. Did I enjoy her a little more because of what's happened to me - yeah I probably did!
I fail to see the internalised misogyny in using a previously-planned character or story arc to do a bit of harmless venting.
I might just be tempted to write the Remus one myself, since in the last six months I've recently re-read the books and gotten back into the fanfic/fandom world again and have rediscovered my love of Remus. But I'd want to discuss it with other Remus fans and PWD's (especially Remus fans who are also PWD) to be sure I had my canon facts straight and get others' interpretations. Anyone here interested in joining in? | | (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
| Oh, I totes don't think JKR has internalized misogyny against Rita! But I have seen this crowd argue that Rita is a sexist fail on her part because OBVIOUSLY Rita is only bad because she can't accept that she's not really feminine and JKR hates her for doing the curls even though she has masculine features ... sort of a confusion of Watsonian and Doylist issues, as is usual.
I am a super Remus fan, always interested in anything to do with him. | | (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
| Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you thought that! When I asked 'at what point' I was addressing the people who would theoretically think that.
Why is it that these people cannot keep the Watsonian and Doylist explanations seperate?
If you want to talk (regarding Remus or just in general), I have AIM: WhiteOwl Miki. I also have Y!M and MSN messenger but at the moment they are being stubborn and I'm trying to figure out how to fix them. | | (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) |
| 
BARACK OBAMA DOES NOT APPROVE.
That echoes how I feel reading that thing on DTCL. | | (Reply to this) (Thread) |
|
He farts rainbows and is ded from snake. - Imaginary Articles: From Russia, With Ick.
|
|
![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
