[ SECRET POST #6328 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6328 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



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02. [SPOILERS for Civil War (2024)]





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03. [SPOILERS for Ghost of Tsushima]




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04. [SPOILERS for Detective Conan]
[WARNING for discussion of incest]




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05. [WARNING for discussion of sex with a minor/statutory rape]




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06. [WARNING for discussion of domestic violence]




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07. [WARNING for discussion of JKR/transphobia]




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08. [WARNING for discussion of sexual assault]




































Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #904.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hm. For one thing, I think there are SO many ways to care about and support trans people other than... IDK, removing your Hogwarts house from your profile, I guess...? I am not sure what exactly we are arguing about here, as I think materially benefiting an author (e.g. buying their next book, buying official HP merchandise, even checking out their books from a library) is completely different from merely signalling you're a fan of that author's works (e.g. wearing HP merchandise you already own, writing HP fic, putting your Hogwarts house in your profile). (I recognize some people view the latter as leading indirectly to the former, and I also just disagree that indirect effect is something I should care about.) The secret mentioned the Hogwarts house in bio thing, but the subthread OP mentioned profit, so I'm not sure.

But assuming we're talking about the latter, non-financial category here, when evaluating whether I "feel safe" around someone, why would I put more weight on someone removing their Hogwarts house from their bio or swearing off HP fic over things like: is this person trans; does this person advocate for trans people in their workplaces; does this person volunteer for or donate to trans activist groups; does this person donate to funds for trans people's surgery; does this person put a trans rights flag in their bio or wear a pin; does this person reblog humanizing and educational resources about trans people; is this person a good friend to the trans people in their life; etc. Why the heck would someone's feelings on Harry Potter (the work of fiction) trump their actual identity, behavior, or allyship/advocacy when I'm trying to evaluate how much they care about real world minorities?

Second, I don't even think making people feel safe should be a goal I value very highly. Now don't get me wrong. I WOULD like every one of my trans friends to feel safe around me; even more, I would like them to live in a world where they can actually BE safe, where they don't have to worry about who they can trust and who they can't. So I do care about whether people feel safe and I am never going to go out of my way to make someone feel scared, anxious, or unsafe, and if there's anything simple I can do to make them feel safer, I will do it.

But also: I am just not a dangerous person and if someone thinks I am, then I don't really think that's worth my time correcting. I can't really control whether someone (especially someone on the internet) THINKS I am an unsafe person or not; it's not something I can change just by changing my own behavior because ultimately, if someone thinks I am unsafe, that is their own choice and I don't have a say in it. So while I care about feelings of safety, I am not going to stake my sense of self or my behavior on other people's feelings of safety, and I don't think anyone else should either.

Especially because a lot of people use "I feel unsafe" as a way to control other people's behavior and harm other people through exaggerated claims of danger and unsafety (ironically, a HUGE part of the anti-trans campaigns right now is using feelings of unsafety to justify denying trans women the right to access resources and spaces normally made available to women). A person ALWAYS has the option to say that they "feel unsafe" around someone. Are they ACTUALLY unsafe is what people should care about. Feelings of safety in fandom are important, but there are way too many exaggerated claims of harm (which go on to be used to justify inflicting harm on other people) for me to prioritize them above actual concrete harms. Is someone with a Hogwarts house in their bio actually spreading transphobic disinformation, supporting transphobic legislation in their offline lives, rationalizing JKR's transphobia, or behaving demonstrably callously towards trans people in their social circles? Or are you assuming they do because they still participate in Harry Potter fandom? People can have very different relationships to Harry Potter even while being dismayed at what JKR continues to do with her Harry Potter money.

(I mean... even the monetary argument is a bit iffy to me, because JKR ALREADY made her Harry Potter money. It's very difficult to spend a billion dollars over a lifetime -- she's going to be rich and funding transphobic causes left and right for the rest of her life regardless of what people do right now. I absolutely do understand feeling "dirty" for financially benefiting her in any way and I personally can't bring myself to support her, but also I am just not a big Harry Potter fan; I am making very little sacrifice by boycotting everything she's involved in. But if I were a big fan, I still think I would feel much less guilty about adding a drop to JKR's already extremely sizable funds than I would in failing to support trans causes in other ways.)