don't want to be flippant about the latest creator "cancellation" that's making the rounds, bc it's legit heavy stuff (and people should be wary of triggers if they look into what I'm referring to)
but do people like... not expect artists to be bad people now? like not ever? I don't mean forgiving
If you regularly have parasocial relationships with creatives whose work you appreciate, then probably yeah. Not defending it but like for a lot of people being a fan is about the experience of being the fan, about the fantasy parasocial connection, and it does feel like a betrayal when shattered.
I may be missing some context that was intentionally left out about this particular artist, although I'm a little cautious about saying "what did you expect?" because, I don't know, I feel like that is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy that creates broken stairs.
I get what you're saying. I'm understanding Ellie's comments to be about this Good Person vs Bad Person and the consumer can tell because the Work is Good until the Creator is shown to be Problematic and then we can all tear our hair and throw sand in our eyes. I think. +
like, people are generally mixed and occasionally someone creates something that resonates but that doesn't automatically mean they're a good person, so we don't have to wrap our entire selves around the work?
I'm kinda thinking about how, for so long, Joanne was seen as this epitome of Goodness, and then when she revealed herself, everyone started combing through her books to go "HERE!!! IT WAS RIGHT HERE THAT SHE WAS SHIT ALL ALONG!" while accounts like Mean Fat Girl cried in vindication.
I mean, "JKR is a bit of a mean person" was definitely common knowledge before
some people in the fandom thought really highly of her in what I assume was an aspirational way/just impressed by the conventional success narrative
I don't think *most* fans really cared that much
like that's one thing that's been dissonant to me in the trans community's reaction to JKR's turn, that people so often assume people who remain HP fans are not just willing to give money to someone who hates us, but actually agree with her
like, most fans don't care that much about her either way!
I used to sorta run with a group of fellow queer performers and creators who did a lot of HP stuff (There's a few trans folk I know who were like the Cool Kids and had some AMAZING cosplays and I had a Hagrid burlesque act) and it wasn't until 2019 that things really took a dive, mostly cause of meh
yeah as I've said the reason I don't consume the stuff that's come out since we knew for sure JKR is anti-trans is *mostly* that it's all very bad and has been for a while (but, to be clear, I'm not with the "all of it was always bad" crowd)
I think part of it was just that she was so *ridiculous* on social media, aside from the politics. Being invested in HP/JKR fandom meant signing on to defend “Oh! And wizards used to just poop in their robes!” or whatever else she farted out. It’s tiring!
before the TERF stuff came out we had:
(1) lawsuits against fan reference guide she herself used
(2) "oh by the way I didn't actually put this in any books, but just fyi Dumbledore is gay"
(3) the poop thing
(4) weirdly international wizarding schools
(5) weirdass Cursed Child fan fic money grab
I will say that at the time, and having had friends that were at the Carnegie Hall reading where she outed Dumbledore, it was ... kinda sweet seeming? Again, the big caveat of at the time (one of my friends texted me super excited the moment she said it). It doesn't hold up in retrospect, true.
Honestly, we’ve kind of memory-holed how *different* things were in 2007, but her saying the character was gay even outside the text was A Huge Deal at the time! That was, for 2007 pop culture, considered a landmark for representation.
We’ve come very far since then, but historical context matters!
