Monday News: Rowling’s Magic in North America, #UnfairandLovely campaign, rescuing women, and amazing book art
Publishing Newsbook art / colorism / gender stereotypes / Harry-Potter / landscapes / Magic / Native Americans / stereotypes3 Comments
“Magic in North America”: The Harry Potter franchise veers too close to home – So if you’ve heard about or read JK Rowling’s new “Magic in North America” pieces on Pottermore, you may also know about the pushback that Adrienne Keene and others have articulated. Rowling, you see, has decided to bring the Harry Potter world to what we now refer to as North America, a fully colonized territory taken forcefully and most often illegally from the people of the First Nations. This distinction is important, in part because Rowling’s “history” begins about a hundred years before Amerigo Vespucci was even born and carries through colonial history in a way that is astonishingly incoherent and re-colonizing in its portrayal of “magic” indigenous peoples. Rowling has not in any way created something entirely new and fictional here; instead, she has borrowed liberally from known events and cultures and re-written them to fit her own HP world. If you haven’t already, please read Adrienne Keene’s articulate and informative blog posts on the “Magic” writings, and also listen her to discuss the appropriation issues further on this CBC radio interview. As Keene writes on her blog,
We fight so hard every single day as Native peoples to be seen as contemporary, real, full, and complete human beings and to push away from the stereotypes that restrict us in stock categories of mystical-connected-to-nature-shamans or violent-savage-warriors. Colonization erases our humanity, tells us that we are less than, that our beliefs and religions are “uncivilized”, that our existence is incongruent with modernity. This is not ancient history, this is not “the past.” The ongoing oppression of Native peoples is reinscribed everyday through texts and images like this trailer. How in the world could a young person watch this and not make a logical leap that Native peoples belong in the same fictional world as Harry Potter?
We are also fighting everyday for the protection of our sacred sites from being destroyed by mining, fracking, and other forms of “development.” These sites are sacred. Meaning they have deep roots in our spiritual beliefs, hold sacred power, and connect us to our ancestors. If Indigenous spirituality becomes conflated with fantasy “magic”–how can we expect lawmakers and the public to be allies in the protection of these spaces?
This isn’t a joke, this isn’t something that can be laughed off and just enjoyed at face value. As I often say, when you’re invisible, every representation matters. And the weight and impact of the Harry Potter brand can’t be ignored. – Native Appropriations
Women of colour around the world are taking part in the #UnfairandLovely campaign – And speaking of fighting back against stereotypes, three University of Texas students began an online campaign against the skin-whitening cream called “Fair & Lovely,” which has been particularly popular in South Asian countries that practice colorism. Check out the incredibly beautiful photos.
It began when black photographer Pax Jones shot a photo series titled “Unfair & Lovely” featuring fellow students, Sri Lankan sisters Mirusha and Yanusha Yogarajah, to highlight their common experiences of colourism. After it went viral, the three decided to evolve the series into a hashtag on social media.
The campaign invites dark-skinned women from around the world to post their photos on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the hashtag #unfairandlovely. Since then, hundreds of women have been sharing their stories. – Mashable
The Eight Words I’d Hoped Never to Hear From Any Daughter of Mine – So let’s go for the hat trick of awful stereotypes, shall we? Oby Bamidele discusses the ways in which women internalize and pass down the message that women must rely on men to rescue and take care of them. Even the assumption that a woman wants to marry is part of this messaging, which should give Romance readers and authors something to think about, as the genre continues to promote marriage as the standard HEA.
The other day, my four-year-old daughter and I were hanging out, drawing pictures of Disney’s Princesses Cinderella, Belle and Jasmine from a birthday card she received. We were having a nice time when from nowhere (it seemed) she suddenly uttered the words that I hoped never to hear from any daughter of mine: “The woman always gets saved by the man.”
I felt my heart sink in that instant. “No, no, no”, was all I could think, “How did she miss the lesson I had so carefully been trying to teach her?” Actually, more to the point, how had I missed the fact that I hadn’t done a good job of teaching my daughter that the woman doesn’t always get saved by the man?. Reaching for all my thoughts and trying to quickly get them in some kind of order, I quickly composed myself, looked her in the eye and with a smile said, “No Dara, there are only two people who can save you — God and you.” Of course she didn’t agree with me and an argument ensued, “No mummy, that’s not true”, she insisted, “the man saves the woman.” – Huffington Post
Artist Transforms Old Books Into Miniature Landscapes – So before you get thoroughly bummed out, train your gaze on these amazing works of art.
Artist Guy Laramée transforms old books into oceans, valleys, and sprawling mountain ranges. For the last 25 years, he’s created multimedia artworks that address the “erosion of cultures” and the way new technologies affect the transmission of knowledge. His works explore (and question) the shift from print to digital, from the physical world of the library to the intangible realm of the Internet, giving new life to abandoned encyclopedias and obsolete reference books. – Mental Floss
I haven’t figured this out for myself, so this may be wildly inarticulate, but the whole skin shade business has me utterly confused.
As a white person, I spent plenty of time trying to become darker through sun tanning (which I happen to hate). I have plenty of acquaintances, especially their older relatives, whose later life complexions are deeply grooved from too much tanning. IOW, we as a group seemed to crave more color. But as a larger group, we disdain others who naturally have the complexion we craved. This to the extent that those perceive/strive for lightening as a means to improve their own appeal.
At some very fundamental level, isn’t there something really illogical about this? Geneticists will tell you that race is a construct not a scientific reality. We certainly treat it as reality, I get that. But skin color is no more genetically significant that eye color or bone structure. I dearly hope the not to distant future holds a wake up call that this global mass hysteria is utterly foolish and dispensable.
I think the Rowling thing is interesting, because it feels to me like she’s been asked to produce this stuff as promo for the film and she either hasn’t had time or the inclination to do more research on American history than the average Brit gets in school*. She’s ignorant of her own ignorance. Her original world building is based on her experiences of being British, which gives it depth. This is based on her experiences of having been to America on book tours, which makes it shallow. I’d be interested to hear her reaction to the reactions, because she’s usually very classy at admitting her mistakes, and there’s a lot of possible paths she could take if she wanted to tackle the issues raised.
*Columbus, WW1, WW2, and if you’re lucky maybe even the Cold War. We don’t do colonisation, revolution, civil war, or really anything for a good four hundred years in the middle there.
@MzCue
The star belly sneeches had bellies with stars and the plain-belly sneeches had none upon thars. . .
Those stars weren’t so big. They were really so small
You might think such a thing wouldn’t matter at all.
But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches
Would brag, “We’re the best kind of Sneetch on the Beaches.”
With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort
“We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!”
. . .
Then, quickly Sylvester McMonkey McBean
Put together a very peculiar machine.
And he said, “You want stars like a Star-Belly Sneetch… ?
My friends, you can have them for three dollars each!”
. . .
But the thing really worked!
When the Plain-Belly Sneetches popped out, they had stars!
They actually did. They had stars upon thars! . . .
“Good grief!” groaned the ones who had stars at the first.
“We’re still the best Sneetches and they are the worst. . .
“Belly stars are no longer in style,” said McBean.
“What you need is a trip through my Star-Off Machine.
This wondrous contraption will take off your stars
So you won’t look like Sneetches who have them on thars.”
And that handy machine
Working very precisely
Removed all the stars from their tummies quite nicely.
Then, with snoots in the air, they paraded about
And they opened their beaks and they let out a shout,
“We know who is who! Now there isn’t a doubt.
The best kind of Sneetches are Sneetches without!”