J.K. Rowling, Noam Chomsky among dozens to call for end to ‘cancel culture’

submitted by Iam1ofMany from self.news

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]Trajan 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (10 children)

It’s fair to acknowledge the good along with the bad. I’d still criticise her for feeding the movement that ultimately turned on her. She became a joke for her habit of retroactively declaring characters to be gay or black. Even the woke criticised her for this as it seemed very convenient to announce these things after selling the product, and sometimes it was in direct contradiction of what she actually wrote.

That she gives a lot to charity doesn’t mean she can’t be complimented or criticised in other domains of her life.

[–]anarchy753 13 insightful - 2 fun13 insightful - 1 fun14 insightful - 2 fun -  (9 children)

She got a LOT of shit for "retroactively" making Dumbledore gay. He was clearly intended to be gay from the get go. He wore bright purple robes when everyone else wore black or dark colours. In the first book he 'cries at how beautiful music is.' He wears bonnets and women's hats every Christmas that crackers are mentioned. Then in the final book, he has a fling with Grindelwald. She wrote a gay character who basically got to the seventh book where Harry realises "hey, I never really knew anything personal about him," and he kept a very teacher/student relationship with him even if it was a close one, his sexuality was not relevant to the story.

The fact that people got angry because she didn't write "Hello Harry, I'm Dumbledore and I'M GAY!!!" just shows how close-minded people are. It's one of the better inclusions of a gay character in current media because he wasn't forcing his sexuality down our throats, he wasn't defined by his sexuality, and he wasn't just the congealed ball of stereotypes we usually get represented by in media.

The black Hermione thing though, that was just shitty. I'm half giving her the benefit of the doubt that it was more of a "you can't say you won't hire an actress based on race" but we all know it was just a publicity stunt.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

it's odd to say he was gay because he wore purple or bonnets, I guess I never figured that, it did seem a retcon to say after he was gay. He could be gay though, really it was never mentioned who he liked to have sex with so it could be. But Herminoe was said to have turned red when blushing so couldn't have been black

[–][deleted]  (7 children)

[deleted]

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

    hamilton is a comedy/musical, and is not supposed to be in "canon" or "continuity" with actual reality. What is cursed child based on, not reality, but the books. Is it supposed to really be a sequel and in continuity? It's marketed as such. Well sometimes writers make mistakes and things don't fit continuity but it's a legit criticism when they don't do it by mistake but on purpose. Seems to be done for virtue woke points which is pandering. The characters in harry potter were almost all white. Now what if this sequel took the minor character dean thomas, a black boy who went to hogwarts, and expanded on him, maybe showed his story more, showed how as an adult he became a great wizard etc. Or Kingsley Shacklebolt. A good character with not much explained. People don't like blackwashing for same reason they don't white washing. It's really bo different than blackface. Maybe "not as bad" with fictional characters but still a slap in the face to fans.

    [–][deleted]  (3 children)

    [deleted]

      [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

      I guess you could just pretend it's non canon but jk rowling and the rest all said it was, you could say the movies are a different continuity from the books, because of things like harry having green eyes in the books, brown eyes in movies, and ron wheasly is very tall in the books, avg height in movies. That's valid. I guess it just an opion to say that those things are minor but changing the skin color from white to black is major. People didn't like the white washing in the ghost in the shell movie, that could just be said to be a different continuity I guess. White washing in the Last Air Bender movie too. These things aren't the end of the world but it is valid to discuss and criticize them. The question is to ask why make a change, a lot of times it is to get the best possible actor for a part. But other times it is to gain woke points. And it is my opinion, just opinion, going for woke points is a bad reason. White washing a role because of the reason that white actos in big budget movies lead to more profits is also a bad reason.

      [–][deleted]  (1 child)

      [deleted]

        [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        it is "ok" but a bad casting decision. I can see why they made casting decisions for hamilton, it is making a statement, the black people trepresent the good guys of america who were immigrants or I should say maybe not immigrants but just people who were less priveleged than the british where the king had ruled them. So that symbolized black and latino etc people today and another revolution is needed. The question is always why make the casting change and I repeat, woke pts is a bad reason.

        [–]BreedersMustDie 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        hamilton is a comedy/musical, and is not supposed to be in "canon" or "continuity" with actual reality.

        If you wouldn't use that argument to defend Song of the South, then don't even try it with that show. Ishmael Reed was right.

        [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        not sure who reed is. Song of the south is pretty harmless. Sure though cartoon characters didn't exist in the antebellum south, not reality.