This great and wondrous digital age, where all voices can be heard without any jet-lag, is really an amazing thing. It allows us to be an instant part of the world and be given access to so many events in real time.
But it also allows us to see those we might look up to in an unfiltered light that might not reflect to well on them.
J.K. Rowling recently made a simple comment in a tweet.
'But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real?'
It was a short sentence, as is needed for any tweets. A quick read out of context and it looks rather innocent, if a little confusing. However, in full context, it was an undeniable attack against transgender people.
Needless to say, in our present charged society, Rowling has come under attack from many who once praised her for her for her progressive views. There are comments out there from trans people who found Rowling's writings inspirational and helped them to come out and be themselves, who now feel betrayed.
How do you separate a person from the artist's works?
There was a lot of the same issues when Orson Scott Card, writer of the award winning Ender's Game books, which I have enjoyed, came out as anti-homosexual. Suddenly it became hard to enjoy his writings, knowing his views, which I very much regard as being ignorant and harmful.
There are several local writers, whom I shall not name here, who have shown certain views that have bothered me.
One had posted a comic on Facebook that was truly insulting towards homosexuals regarding their rights to marriage and being given equal service and access as everyone else. When I tried to have a mature discussion about it he started with 'I have many gay friends who I love, but...'. He basically said that homosexuals are fine, but should not be allowed the same rights and privileges of us straight people and it is wrong to 'force' anyone to treat them as human. He then went into being politely insulting towards me by saying I needed to deal with my anger issues. This was a man many told me I should befriend because he would good contact to have.
I am no longer in contact with him in any manner and avoid him as much as possible.
The other I shall not name, has a blog where she insults anything and everything liberal in a condescending manner. According to her words I am stupid and ignorant and a sheep and so much else, just because I share differing political views than she does. Her posts are not that well thought out, often just stating how wrong liberal ideas are without presenting anything of substance to back up her claims, much like what I have seen from the one time I tried to read an Ann Coulter book. The idea is you just insult the other side over and over again, making some really outrageous generalizations about them that, with nothing to defend those claims and then pretend you won your 'argument' because of course you're right.
So she is now another local writer I go out of my way to avoid now, even though we have been on panels together in the past.
As for their works, the first one I have yet to read anything he has written, but I have no desire to check any of it out. Some of it might interest me, but because I am unable to get past his beliefs, I am not willing to spend my money to support him.
The second one, I have read a few of her short stories and I was not impressed. She is known for her long fiction, but I have no interest in checking it out. I also know one person who has picked up a good deal of her work and will no longer support her because of her views.
As a writer myself, I have faced some of this. Although I am not at the level of anyone I have talked about so far in this post, I did get one interesting response to a mildly political post I once put up on Facebook, oddly enough it was far from being one of my heavily political posts. This man that I really did not know at all messaged me 'As a writer you should know better than to be political. You have lost a potential reader.' and then blocked me. I found it more amusing than anything else, but I can say I have had at least one person 'boycott' me over political views. I'm not going to go into how just about all artists put their political ideas into their work, but they do.
So here we have the dilemma. When an artist puts out there a view you dislike, where does the line between enjoying their work and not being able to support them get drawn? It is really hard to separate the artist as a person from their creative works. I no longer pick up any of Card's books, but I have a lot of them in my house and I did enjoy the Ender's Game movie. We have so many Harry Potter items in this house it is crazy and I very much want to see where the fantastic beasts movies go, yet all of that is supporting Rowling. I find it easier to ignore this one slip of hers those and keep on with supporting the Wizarding World she created, in part by hoping she will see the errors of her ways and apologize, as she does seem like the kind of person that might do that. The other three I have talked about here, I don't believe will do that.
I know that Walt Disney was racist and held strong sexist ideas, but I still am able to enjoy what he created. If we start to dissect all the artists whose work we have enjoyed, many of them will not be able to live up to our standards.
In the end, the whole ability to separate the artist from the art is a tricky thing and a lot of it comes in to just how much the art means to us. I am willing to forgive Rowling this time around, even if I really feel she holds some dangerous views on this subject. But it does bother me that I can do that so easily and I have to wonder how fair it is that I do.
In the end people are imperfect.
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