Opinion of J.K. Rowling

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She's awesome, can't imagine a having a childhood without harry potter.

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She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

I would agree. I certainly always read Lupin that way. There's a lot of obvious queerness to Draco and it shows up in his son in The Cursed Child.

But, and again this is telling, 'everyone got married and had babies' to me was either a unintentional or deliberate 'f-ck you' to people's head canon. Weirdly pointless. It's sadly hard to tell now.

Retconning Dumbledore as a burnt and broken desexualised celibate gay man wasn't personally a helpful step. I don't think I  believe her when she say's that was always her intention. I don't think there was malice there, it was just unfortunate.

But the sad truth is that we ended up with a series of books that ran well into the mid 00's with exclusively heterosexual characters and questionably token non white characters. And for someone with her background the 'comedic but lovable' working class parody of the Weasley's.

FWIW during my big move I gave my books away including two copies of the 'rare' UK one that goes for a few hundred a piece to charity. All that came were my old atlases and Pullman (please forever hold your peace Phillip)

His Dark Materials just never took off in America. Really a shame.

[Horus]

She's definitely the most trans-seeming of the major characters, in the same way that Lupin is the most gay-seeming and McGonagall is the most lesbian-seeming.

I would agree. I certainly always read Lupin that way. There's a lot of obvious queerness to Draco and it shows up in his son in The Cursed Child.

But, and again this is telling, 'everyone got married and had babies' to me was either a unintentional or deliberate 'f-ck you' to people's head canon. Weirdly pointless. It's sadly hard to tell now.

Retconning Dumbledore as a burnt and broken desexualised celibate gay man wasn't personally a helpful step. I don't think I  believe her when she say's that was always her intention. I don't think there was malice there, it was just unfortunate.

But the sad truth is that we ended up with a series of books that ran well into the mid 00's with exclusively heterosexual characters and questionably token non white characters. And for someone with her background the 'comedic but lovable' working class parody of the Weasley's.

FWIW during my big move I gave my books away including two copies of the 'rare' UK one that goes for a few hundred a piece to charity. All that came were my old atlases and Pullman (please forever hold your peace Phillip)

His Dark Materials just never took off in America. Really a shame.

I think it would be better now, and certainly people are starting to discover the series. The TV adaptation has been good so far. I get that it's not whizzing you off to a fun world; Potter is joy with impending darkness, His Dark Materials is darkness with impending joy.

It was and remains personally the most influential series of books I have ever read. It upended my worldview at a formative age and sent me off down different philosophical paths. And it gave us Dr Mary Malone who is one of the most underrated female characters in 'young adult' literature. And devoted and loving gay angels. The first gay anything that ever made it into a book I was reading.

The tv series is great, only qualm is I just don't think McAvoy makes a good Asriel. Ruth Wilson otoh is perfect.

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Worth mentioning that Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study was broadly criticized for widespread methodological issues, and should be more properly titled No Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study. The evidence that sex-change surgeries help people with gender dysphoria is not very strong despite intense pressure from activists.

Part of this is because society, in general, just isn't that good to trans people.

Partly, it's because we have an even harder time accepting masculine women and especially feminine men. If people were allowed to be whoever they wanted and were not boxed in by gender, perhaps fewer people would feel the need to change genders in order to fit these silly societal ideas on gender roles.

Take this scenario -

Billy puts on makeup at age 6
 
Mom - Don't do that, makeup is for girls

Now Billy thinks maybe he's a girl instead of just a boy who enjoys makeup.

[Horus]

Worth mentioning that Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study was broadly criticized for widespread methodological issues, and should be more properly titled No Reduction in Mental Health Treatment Utilization Among Transgender Individuals After Gender-Affirming Surgeries: A Total Population Study. The evidence that sex-change surgeries help people with gender dysphoria is not very strong despite intense pressure from activists.

Part of this is because society, in general, just isn't that good to trans people.

Partly, it's because we have an even harder time accepting masculine women and especially feminine men. If people were allowed to be whoever they wanted and were not boxed in by gender, perhaps fewer people would feel the need to change genders in order to fit these silly societal ideas on gender roles.

Take this scenario -

Billy puts on makeup at age 6
 
Mom - Don't do that, makeup is for girls

Now Billy thinks maybe he's a girl instead of just a boy who enjoys makeup.

Billy might also be influenced by the nonsense idea that boys can actually be girls and vice versa. Biological sex is clear, immutable and binary.

I doubt that Billy will undertake SRS only because her Mom's advice. Billy could be a She (transgender) or  a He (a boy who enjoys make up). In any case Billy does no harm to society, but society harms Billy. The same rules for Tom Boy, although masculine women and trans men are relatively less mistreated by patriarchal society.  Gender expressions like using lipstick or wearing baggy trousers are unrelated to biology. The claim on biological sex are a clear sign of ignorance, on the other hand. Sexes are not always binary, clear and immutable

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex

But what about those raised in traumatic, abusive backgrounds where no one had a degree in gender studies or sociology? You don't think years upon years of being told that what they were doing was "feminine" and "for girls" wouldn't convince someone that they were the other gender, when if they'd been raised in a loving society that let boys and girls be whoever they wanted, they might grow up okay with what's between their legs?

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But what about those raised in traumatic, abusive backgrounds where no one had a degree in gender studies or sociology? You don't think years upon years of being told that what they were doing was "feminine" and "for girls" wouldn't convince someone that they were the other gender, when if they'd been raised in a loving society that let boys and girls be whoever they wanted, they might grow up okay with what's between their legs?

My understanding is that most persons undertaking SRS are driven by a strong and intimate desire. I can't conceive someone who is "convinced" to make such a drastic decision on these grounds, except perhaps in cases of extremely weak and insecure personalities that require some kind of psychological or psychiatric assessment

If a child is told for years upon years that the things they enjoy the most are for the other gender and sometimes forcibly, even violently separated from said activities, do you not think that a desire to transition could develop from the trauma?