NBC News runs opinion piece aimed at JK Rowling, TV spin-off. Twitter thinks NBC and author are wrong.

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[–][deleted] 21 insightful - 1 fun21 insightful - 0 fun22 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

I was fairly miffed when I read a bit on NBC News' opinion section that called JK Rowling's trans essay "was a shockingly unreadable piece, full of pseudoscientific nonsense to dress up undeniable bigotry"

When I recall it having been perfect readable, without much jargon whatsoever, and certainly not bigoted.

Anyhow, I wanted to see the responses to the opinion writer, they're on twitter, naturally, and the responses are overwhelmingly negative against the opinion writer.

Yay.

[–]hetisachoice 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

NBC is the same network that set gay representation back decades with Will & Grace and harmed LGB people even more by using the reboot of the already wretched Saved by the Bell to promote tr-ns propaganda.

[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Saved by the Bell reboot

Oh noooooooooooo..... Did they actually make that??? Have you seen it? How bad is it? It's like they're not going to stop until they destroy ever bit of my childhood. The Heathers reboot was so bad, it's hard to even find it online!

[–]MarkJeffersonTight defenses and we draw the line 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

They rebooted Heathers? Did it really need it? I'm guessing not, but it's like Hollywood has completely ran out of original ideas just like the video game industry and are making reboot after reboot....poorly.

Anyway. I love SBTB. Yeah, it was cringey, socially backwards, and the main character is basically a teenage sociopath. But for certain reasons, I have a lot of nostalgia for the characters and crazy plotlines. I wouldn't be surprised if the reboot lost the marked edge of the original series.

[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

The reboot of Heathers was HORRIFYING!!! Like... So bad! And oddly enough, the only character I didn't hate was the male Heather, the gender-confused one! (Or trans, or whatever the fuck he was, it wasn't really clear.)

I actually downloaded and watched the SBTB reboot yesterday, 10 episodes 30 mins each. I admit I didn't pay full attention, playing cellphone games at the same time as watching, but it was really.......... Weird.

It was like 3 different shows, cut up and blended together.

The first was your official reboot, Slater and Jessie are now working at the school as a gym teacher and counselor and there is a Belding-type goofball principal that they interact with. Except they've all been dumbed down and turned into cartoonish characters, which yes, they already were in the original show, but it's even more here. Slater is basically Hot Homer Simpson. Zach is the (clueless and incompetent) California governor and Kelly is his wife, so they make some appearances too.

The second portion is the kids. There is a mini-Zach clone - Mac, which is Zach and Kelly's kid. There is a dumb hot football player Jamie, which is Jessie's kid (but not Slaters. Jessie is married to a different guy and Slater is single.) And there is their cheerleader best friend Lexi, who is basically Jazz Jennings if he was super rich and lived in Beverly Hills. He dresses like a 2000's pornstar pretending to be 2000's Paris Hilton, or maybe like Regina George from Mean Girls, IDK. He is meant to be a mean girl, who reforms and becomes a nice girl who learns empathy. He also has a reality show just like Jazz Jennings, but we barely see the show, it's only mentioned two or three times and we see one small clip from it in one episode and it's never mentioned again. He is also exclusively attracted to guys, and has a crush on the dumb football player Jamie.

The third portion is like... Fanfic. Basically Zach closed down a school in a poor neighborhood where all the black/brown/notquitewhite kids go, so now they're getting bussed to Bayside High. So you have three new characters. Daisy is the main character, she is a Latina, and basically reads like a Marysue self-insert with an outspoken activist bent. Her mom is played by Selenis Leyva (Gloria from OITNB, so that was kind of awesome!) and ay dios mio! they are pobre! and now she had to go to school with los gringos ricos! que lastima! And she has an Afro-Latina best friend, Aisha, who is plus sized and fabulous and joins the football team, and she's straight and she and the dumb football guy Jamie start dating, and Jazz Jennings Lexi gets jealous and tries to break them up. And there's also a black guy called Devante, and he's a thief, but that's okay because he's poor and he has a grandma with arthritis. Also, he's a fantastic singer and likes musicals. Devante was actually a pretty good character, but I felt like the writers really were too scared to do much with him because RACE STUFF IS SCARY.

There is a lot of RACE STUFF involved, and a lot of RICH WHITE PEOPLE PRIVILIGE STUFF and it's really cringe. Like, it's nice that they are trying to address race-stuff but... Like, I'm not black, white or latino, so as an outsider, I'm just staring at this like... It felt very patronizing to me. Maybe it will give the viewers something to think about, I guess...

There was also some foul language. People said "bitch" a lot, which is... I mean, I don't know, I thought that was a gendered slur we weren't allowed to use anymore?

Back to Jazz Jennings Lexi. Since I'm betting you will not waste 5 hours of your life watching this, I will say that in the last episode he and Jamie got together and of course the 'You have a penis, now what?' was never addressed. Him being a "Girl" is completely normalized and no one comments on it. Which, of course they don't it's Saved By The Bell.

I hope this doesn't sound homophobic, but Lexi felt like an extremely flamboyant gay guy in a dress tight stripper clothes. Or maybe like Sharpay from High School Musical, or maybe like a mini-drag queen from RuPaul's Drag Race. Like... that element of CAMP was present, I don't know if I'm expressing this right. This isn't the MTF trans we are used to seeing on the internet, this is Hollywood Trans - what clueless Hollywood people think MTF trans is, a gay guy who is so flaming gay that like a phoenix he bursts into flames and a female pornstar pops out of the ashes. Except that this character is an UNDERAGE CHILD high school sophomore. So it was really uncomfortable to watch. Also there was a lot of sexualization of underage female bodies, and girls in very skimpy, tight clothing. Now that I think of it, hot football player Jamie was given this treatment in a few scenes too, with his shirt off and everything.

Anyway, that's my essay that you didn't ask for! But thank you for letting me get it out of my system!

[–]MarkJeffersonTight defenses and we draw the line 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

The reboot of Heathers was HORRIFYING!!! Like... So bad! And oddly enough, the only character I didn't hate was the male Heather, the gender-confused one! (Or trans, or whatever the fuck he was, it wasn't really clear.)

I see; I'll probably skip this one then.

Do you know a lot of Spanish?

You have a lot to say about this show. I'm gonna have to get back to you on this once I watched a few episodes.

Slater is basically Hot Homer Simpson.

lol looking forward to that. There's a reason I kept on watching SBTB.

[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Ooh! You're going to watch!! Can't wait to hear your opinions!

I lived in a very Spanish-speaking neighborhood in America + so many years of Spanish in high school, but definitely not fluent.

Lot to say, I'd just finished watching and I had to let my opinions explode somewhere, LOL. I just had that WTF did I just watch?? feeling. But if you're a fan of SBTB, you will find parts to like. I saw that Mario Lopez & Elizabeth Berkeley are actually producers, and they along with the trans actor helped with the writing.

Also, the difference between this reboot and the Heathers reboot is like riding on two different roller coasters. At least the SBTB roller coaster, you enjoy the ride, even though its weird and bumpy. The Heathers roller coaster makes you vomit several times and you just want to die at the end.

[–]fuck_reddit 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Hm, who’s more unreadable? A ‘think’ piece journalist or an author that has multiple best-selling series? This is a tough one...

[–]julesburm1891 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The evils of intolerance are main plotline [sic] in the “Fantastic Beasts” trilogy.

Yes. The evils of intolerance...like smearing someone who doesn’t share your opinion as a bigot without even listening to her argument. Or, you know, trying to cancel someone’s career because she doesn’t echo your every thought. Or calling for someone’s death and/or rape because she disagrees with you.

[–]haveanicedaytoo💗💜💙 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

A tiny bit OT:

I'm in the middle of re-reading Harry Potter right now (up to the middle of book 6 actually) and after finishing each book, I watch the movie, and as you know these last few books are looooooooooooooong and once you start nearing the end portion of them, it's always a bunch of people standing around explaining to each other what happened, which drrraaaaagssssss a bit, so when I heard HBO wanted to make a series out of it, my first, genuine, honest reaction was 'Oh for fuck's sake, don't we have enough Harry Potter in the world already???'

But then I just grinned, because what a coup for our woman JK Rowling! Suck on that deliciousness, TRA's! It's not like I have to watch it if I don't want to. (And who are we kidding, of course I will watch.)

I really hope this time around, they'll be a little bit more obvious about Dumbledore being gay. I don't remember what book it's in, probably 7 because it hasn't show up in 6 yet, but when I first read the books, I was hyper-sensitive to anything remotely same-sex attraction related in the media I was consuming (I think many of us were, because there were such few things for us back then) and immediately sensed Dumbledore's attraction towards Grindelwald during those flashback scenes. IIRC it was just the way the author was describing Grindelwald from Dumbledore's point of view - as attractive, and with a sense of fascination and wonder towards him, and with clear admiration and desire to be near him. (This is my memory of it anyway, I haven't re-read this portion yet and it's been a long time.)

I wasn't a part of the fandom, but I wasn't the only one who saw it. (Though let's be real, fanficcers will literally write a romance between Dobby and Snape so...) But I'd like to see it in the show, since JK Rowling did say that Dumbledore was gay.

Anyway, it's good to see that at least one of us is uncancellable, no matter how much TRA's cry about it.

[–]ArthnoldManacatsaman🇬🇧🌳🟦 8 insightful - 2 fun8 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I tend to agree. If JK Rowling hadn't been embroiled in this imbroglio about twans, then I may well have rolled my eyes and thought the Harry Potter gravy train should have reached its terminus by now.

As it stands, however, JK Rowling was the witch they couldn't burn, and unlike so many celebrities or public figures who are criticised for speaking out, she hasn't genuflected and retracted her statements, she has stuck with them, eloquently explained her points of view at every turn, and gracefully turned the other cheek.

More power to her.

[–]reluctant_commenter 8 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 0 fun9 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Archive link to NBC article: https://web.archive.org/web/20210127021242/https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/hbo-max-s-harry-potter-streaming-plans-would-give-j-ncna1255774

Archive link to twitter post: https://web.archive.org/web/20210128073814/https://twitter.com/NBCNewsTHINK/status/1354250925121146880

You know, it's actually kind of fun to go archive a post and then find out someone has already archived before you. Nice to know other people are also trying to document this insanity.

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Interesting all the comments seem to be totally against the article. Twitter always seemed to be annoyingly brain-wormed in the past. I wonder if it's just that more regular people are filtering into the platform.

[–]BEB 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think that people are just becoming more aware of this issue in the last few days and months.

Joe Biden's executive order unleashed the hounds of conservatism: Fox News has had on a bunch of feminists in the past few days talking about Biden's attack on women's sports.

Republicans in Congress are now diving into the debate with save women's sports-type bills, which they also started sponsoring before the election as a safe issue to perhaps sway Independents.

Fox also has had on Abigail Shrier, author of IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE to discuss how girls are being sucked into the fad of thinking they're transgender. That'll scare the hell out of many parents.

So basically, the GOP and their media goons waited till they had almost ditched Trump to bring the transgender issue to the forefront knowing that they would win support, or at least peel off support from the Democrats, once people woke up to what the gender lobby agenda was all about.

Which they haven't yet completely. Wait till people realize that the Equality Act means that their daughters/wives/girlfriends/ mothers will now be live porn as men can simply claim to be women and waltz into spaces where women are naked and vulnerable.

It is more important than ever for LGB to speak out before people blame LGB for all this- LGB Alliances are doing great work raising awareness - there's a new one in Germany.