she had a reputation for racial stereotyping even before she went mask-off as a terf, decades back. like naming the one Asian character Cho Chang (sounds like ching chang chong; both names are from different Asian countries), naming the one Black character Kingsley Shacklebolt (King from MLK, shackle from slavery), naming the Jewish character Anthony Goldstein, naming an Irish character Seamus Finnegan…
…it’s not that she was necessarily super racist, she just used very stereotypical/over the top names for her characters. so I don’t hate her for being racist, I hate her for being transphobic.
And to be fair, not all of those are equally bad. Seamus Finnagan and Anthony Goldstein could very well be real people. The other two are so much worse, especially now that you’ve made me realise the slavery connection.
About Cho Chang though, she actually looked up the meanings and choose Cho because it meant butterfly. I’ve never really associated that character’s name as a play on the racist stereotype, being Oriental myself. I’ve just associated it with general western ignorance.
As abhorrent as she is now, she was a queer ally but just didn’t understand trans, like many people around her age and demographic. She reacted to the massive backlash and drove herself into the weeds.
She’s horrible now and deserves all the hate but know that she’s a result of our own making. I think if any new people express a misunderstanding, it’s far better to make a bridge to correct that misunderstanding. It takes a lot on our part, trans and trans allies, but I’d rather make a friend out of a fool than a foolish enemy.
I think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying, though there’s a little more to the story. for reasons I don’t understand, the UK specifically has always been terfier than other Western countries. more lgb-friendly, but historically anti-trans. MumsNet was full of terfs with very similar demographics to Rowling years before trans awareness hit the spotlight.
I think we did a poor job educating potential allies and making a case for ourselves, in a way that got weaponized against us, but terf ideology is as old as Janice Raymond and second-wave feminism. I’m not sure Rowling specifically would have ever been on board.
she had a reputation for racial stereotyping even before she went mask-off as a terf, decades back. like naming the one Asian character Cho Chang (sounds like ching chang chong; both names are from different Asian countries), naming the one Black character Kingsley Shacklebolt (King from MLK, shackle from slavery), naming the Jewish character Anthony Goldstein, naming an Irish character Seamus Finnegan…
…it’s not that she was necessarily super racist, she just used very stereotypical/over the top names for her characters. so I don’t hate her for being racist, I hate her for being transphobic.
And to be fair, not all of those are equally bad. Seamus Finnagan and Anthony Goldstein could very well be real people. The other two are so much worse, especially now that you’ve made me realise the slavery connection.
About Cho Chang though, she actually looked up the meanings and choose Cho because it meant butterfly. I’ve never really associated that character’s name as a play on the racist stereotype, being Oriental myself. I’ve just associated it with general western ignorance.
As abhorrent as she is now, she was a queer ally but just didn’t understand trans, like many people around her age and demographic. She reacted to the massive backlash and drove herself into the weeds.
She’s horrible now and deserves all the hate but know that she’s a result of our own making. I think if any new people express a misunderstanding, it’s far better to make a bridge to correct that misunderstanding. It takes a lot on our part, trans and trans allies, but I’d rather make a friend out of a fool than a foolish enemy.
I think there’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying, though there’s a little more to the story. for reasons I don’t understand, the UK specifically has always been terfier than other Western countries. more lgb-friendly, but historically anti-trans. MumsNet was full of terfs with very similar demographics to Rowling years before trans awareness hit the spotlight.
I think we did a poor job educating potential allies and making a case for ourselves, in a way that got weaponized against us, but terf ideology is as old as Janice Raymond and second-wave feminism. I’m not sure Rowling specifically would have ever been on board.