Molly Weasley knowing her youngest is trans long before Ginny comes out, and reassuring her daughter that “we’ll still get you new clothes as quick as we can, dear. Ron’s hand-me-downs just wont do, will they?”, whenever Ginny worries about her transitioning being a burden to her family.
Molly Weasley immediately accepting the fact that Ron likes girls, “but also wouldn’t mind dating a guy like Krum”, and instead of making a big deal about it, just tells him embarrassing tales of her romantic life.
Molly Weasley finding out about Aspie Hermione and helping her sew weights into her robes and making her stim toys and teaching her spells to help with noise. (And never hesitanting in any of this, even when’s she’s mad at Hermione, because her anger will never overshadow her need to care).
Molly Weasley send the Twins constant letters reminding them to study, as well as little ways she finds to improve focus, and reminding them that even if their ADHD makes it too hard sometimes, she’s still so proud of them.
Molly Weasley doing everything she can to help Percy feel comfortable with his OCD, even in the chaos of the Burrow, and never going into his room because she knows it makes him paranoid, and not getting mad if his compulsions get in the way of her cleaning.
Molly Weasley meeting Ginny’s new friend Luna, who switches pronouns whenever, and always making sure to ask Luna for the proper ones whenever they see each other.
Molly Weasley sending howlers to anyone at Hogwarts who makes fun of Harry for the panic attacks he has. (Malfoy ends up with quite a few of them).
Molly Weasley happily accepting that she’ll never have grandchildren from her ace aro son Charlie, who prefers dragons to people anyway.
Molly Weasley sending extra care-packages to Hogwarts, with strict instructions to “give to whoever needs it most”.
Molly Weasley being a safe place for all her kids to turn to, even the ones she didn’t raise.
Molly Weasley being a Mother with a capital M.
Harry Potter headcanons are important to me.
A Handy Guide to What Is and Isn’t Cultural Appropriation
What isn’t cultural appropration:
• Trying/eating/making a culture’s food
• Listening to that culture’s music
• Watching that culture’s movies
• Reading that culture’s books
• Appreciating that culture’s art
• Wearing that culture’s clothing IF in a setting where that culture is prevalent and IF people are okay with it and/or it is necessary to fit in and not stand out weirdly (i.e. If you visit Pakistan, you can wear a shalwar kameez so you don’t stand out as an American tourist. Or if you visit a specific temple or religious setting, you may need to/want to adhere to specific dress forms. Or if you’re invited to a wedding and they allow/invite you to wear their cultural dress to participate in the festivities).
• Using that culture’s dance/physical traditions in specific settings (i.e. taking belly-dancing classes, or going to an Indian wedding and trying to dance with them).What is cultural appropriation:
• Wearing specific items of clothing that may (and probably do) have deeper meaning as a costume. Like on Halloween.
• Wearing specific items of clothing to be trendy or fashionable.
• Trying to imitate their natural beauty standards and possible makeup/markings (i.e dreadlocks and bindis and mehndi/henna).
• Taking their rituals, old-as-hell traditions, and dances and turning them into cheap, tacky everyday garbage for you to have “fun” with (i.e. smoking sheesha. Y’all turned it into this janky nonsense that looks so trashy and stupid).
• Taking spiritual/religious ideas and traditions and subscribing to them to be trendy or unique
• Trying to act like you’re an expert in their food, music, or art, and that you can do it BETTER than them
• Basically trying to WEAR that culture’s skin, clothing, & beauty traditions as a costume/trend and turn old traditions into cheap garbageAnd WHY is this wrong? Because, in our society, white people or non-POC can get away with wearing another culture’s clothes and identities and it will be “cute”, “indie”, “bohemian”, “trendy”, and “exotic.” BUT when a POC who actually belongs to that culture wears their own culture’s clothing, styles of beauty, or does things that are specific to their culture, they’re looked down upon, made fun of, sneered at, told to “Go home, get out of this country, we don’t do that here,” and laughed at. The few times I wore a shalwar kameez in public—and I’m Pakistani—people gave me weird looks, like I had a disease. And yet if a white person (or, heck, even a different POC, because POC don’t have the right to appropriate other cultures either) wears a shalwar kameez, people will call her exotic and cute. Seriously? Do you see a problem? I do. Want some proof? When Selena Gomez and Katy Perry use other cultures as costumes in their music videos and stuff, they were thought to be creative and fun. But when an Indian American woman with brown skin won Miss America, there was a huge racist backlash and people said, “We don’t look like that here, we don’t need a curry muncher here, get out of this country.” So I guess Indian culture is only okay if Selena Gomez is stealing it, right? But not if an actual Indian woman is displaying it? Another example: white people with dreadlocks are seen as “soft grunge” and “hippie”, but black people with dreadlocks are looked down upon and seen as dirty and lazy for having them, even though they know how to take care of their dreadlocks way better.
Respect the fact that we are different. You don’t need to be culturally BLIND because that is just as ignorant. Trying to ignore cultures means you’re trying to erase peoples’ identities. You can appreciate/like/admire other cultures without trying to steal them, use them, cheapen them, and wear them as costumes. You weren’t born into it, so know your limits. And YES. There will ALWAYS be those people who say, “But my Chinese friends don’t care if ____!” and “I’m Mexican and I don’t care if people ____,” but they do not speak for all people of that culture and just because THEY don’t mind doesn’t mean other people don’t. Plenty of POC get harassed/taunted/degraded/fetishized over their own cultures WHILE people not of that culture are called “free-spirited”, “bohemian”, “quirky” and “trendy” for imitating the SAME culture—so yes, the people who oppose cultural appropriation do it based on actual microaggressions and bigotry they may have faced and it is NOT your job to try and convince then that they don’t have a right to their own culture or that the oppression against them should mean nothing.
Think about this. There are some women okay with sexism. Some POC okay with racist jokes. Some Jewish people don’t care about anti-Semitic jokes. And your friend might be one of these people. But suddenly that makes it okay for you to behave foolishly, immaturely, and ignorantly?
Wise up. It’s 2014. There is no excuse to be ignorant.
And if you ever need to explain to someone what cultural appropriation is, show them this post (credit me if you post it elsewhere). It’s a good starter and I think it encompasses the basics of what cultural appropriation is and isn’t.