Maia has thoughts

Last year, I posted this: Falling out of love with an old friend: How to be a Potter fan in 2020. I wanted to write this new piece to document the changes in mentality I have undergone because personal growth is important. It isn't a personal attack on anyone in any way, we're all different people who will have come to our own conclusions, though I do hope it is challenging. As always, call me out on anything that's terrible here.  Over the past year, I've done a lot of reading and listening, and watching. I’ve listened to trans and nonbinary voices (friends/influences/creatives etc.) and the overwhelming message from those voices has been: Get over Potter. I was particularly affected by a close genderqueer friend who I met through Potter and was fully immersed in the fandom. They have absolutely stopped supporting the universe. To them, this meant a lot of changes to their life happening very quickly because they just couldn't anymore. It should go without saying ...

A few weeks ago, I sent out a tweet asking for peoples experiences where people had been made to feel less than because they were a fangirl. I decided to delve into this topic because I’ve recently realised that I am respected as an equal person in most situations except in fandom. In the majority of cases, if I bump into an actor that knows me from fandom in a neutral zone I feel like I am starting from below them and I have to make a massive effort to act intelligent and normal. This isn’t the case with everyone but I always get that shock if they recognise me as a human being whose life exists beyond fandom. I don’t think that any of these people mean to make me feel that way and that it is a structural thing. Something about the expectation of me as a blushing, out of control fan makes me lose my confidence as a normal person and it is hard to break that expectation down. I wanted to get a scope of how others felt they were treated, so here are some quotes from people from differen...

I’ve been writing this for two years. It’s still not flawless but as it’s pride month and we’re already calling out the Church for racism anyway, I thought I’d further shake the boat with my ideas on why a lot of Christianity is bad.   If at any point you think this is about you, it’s probably about you. Those of you who it isn’t about will have no reason to feel called out or guilty.  Disclaimers: I am a cis, middle-of-the-spectrum woman, I do not speak for all non cishets. I am not white, so I exist at that intersection too (which is a whole different issue that needs its own space). Also this is my opinion. The intention of this isn’t to sound aggressive (I’m certain I sound aggressive at times but I’m just being blunt), it isn’t asking for apologies or pitty on any level. This isn’t about me. It also isn’t about why Christians can be gay or why you should be nicer to gay people, those resources exist. I do not offer solutions, only a wake-up call. So hello! I’m Maia, ...

This is an opinion piece, views are my own. Although in this poorly referenced state, it is still better referenced than JKRs essay. This was also written in 2020, and I can safely say that 2021 me disagrees with a lot of this now. I have been a massive consumer of all things Harry Potter since my early teens (I’m now in my mid-twenties). From pretty early on, it become more than just about the books and films and I found fanfiction.net and tumblr to experience the potterverse in more depth. I’ve explored the world more and more as an adult and have had peaks and troughs of obsession with it but the universe has always been a part of the world in my head and my social life. I had been saying for a while that JKR no longer had control of this universe. I’d been saying it because I was on her side, that I thought she couldn’t possibly be problematic- that Warner Bros. were controlling her words on sex abuse scandals and the lack of lgbt representation or that the queerbaiting in Cursed C...

Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece but please do call me out on any way I’ve messed up here. During this article, I am using mixed to describe anyone of mixed raced heritage but mainly those of us who are Black/white mixed. I will be using the term Black to describe people whose heritage is not mixed with a white ethnicity. I don’t mean this to say that mixed people cannot identify as Black but to distinguish. I love my blackness and this is a nuanced conversation. Some background for those of you who don’t know me. I was born and raised in London. I have a white British mum. My dad is a second generation immigrant from London, whose heritage is Guyanese (the heritage of this country is incredibly interesting so please have a google if that interests you). I’m the mixed white/Black Caribbean on the diversity forms. I have 3a hair and am very much brown in terms of skin colour. I am aware that mixed folk around the world identify very differently to mixed Brits (and particularly Londo...