The Harry Potter Series, perhaps the most highly-favored fantasy novels among young readers, is being cancelled just like its author at a New Zealand book festival.
Woke organizers of the Featherston Booktown Karukatea Festival taking place on May 6-9 in New Zealand, removed a popular Harry Potter segment from the event because of author J.K. Rowling’s “transphobia.” Her public acknowledgement of the reality of biological sex is what originally led to the canceling of the massively successful author back in 2020. In this case, the irony is almost too much to bear as the festival will "feature a panel discussion hosted by veteran broadcaster Ian Fraser examining the phenomenon of cancel culture and its impact on New Zealand art and literature."
The decision to ban Harry Potter was only reached after consultation with the local LGBTQ community. The literary festival’s board chairman, Peter Biggs said, “The overwhelming response was there was a risk around causing distress to particular members of the community and that was the last thing we wanted to do.” The distress-inducing event was a children’s Harry Potter-themed quiz which happened to be very popular in years past. Any adults that would find this triggering should seek professional help.
“We always thought Booktown should be an inclusive, welcoming place for everyone, so we took the decision not to go with Harry Potter,” said Biggs. It's inclusive and welcoming for everyone, except those who impudently believe in the binary of male and female sexes.
The absolute absurdity of Rowling being continually cancelled is especially apparent when reviewing her exact statements. Rowling critiqued an article which intentionally wrote "people who menstruate" rather than refer to them as "women.” From that point on, her career was as good as over in the eyes of the woke mob. Rowling stood her ground, however, and responded to the haters with a sequence of tweets clarifying her stance. “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased. I know and love trans people, but erasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth,” she wrote.
Rowling continued, “I respect every trans person’s right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I’d march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it's hateful to say so.” Somehow, these perfectly rational statements are transphobic and the author's beliefs taint an entirely unrelated series about wizardry.
As reported by Stuff, a local feminist activist by the name of Jenny Whyte thought “there’s an irony certainly” with the festival’s decision to remove the Harry Potter segment. She thought it likely that they “might be trying to capitalize on the current fad of cancel culture.” Whyte said that she did not view Rowling’s sentiments as transphobic: “It’s really funny that all the way from the UK where a world-famous writer has gotten into trouble for expressing quite compassionate and reasonable views, all the way down to tiny little Featherston. It encapsulates the whole madness of it quite well.”
It certainly is madness when a popular event is removed just to appease the delicate sensibilities of some mentally-ill individuals; even to the detriment of the festival’s overall success.
