The issue with folks wanting to still be fans of Whedon's works or JKR's works isn't that you can't enjoy problematic things, but that a lot of folks still want to be fans of harmful things as part of their *public identity* without giving space for people to be wary of them.

If you have Hufflepuff in your profile or a Buffy picture in your header, a lot of people don't know where you stand on abuse. A lot of people want to still be viewed as basically a good and trustworthy person in spite of making a harmful thing part of their public identity.

No one is coming to your house to burn your Harry Potter books or Buffy DVDs. The defensive "WELL YOU CAN'T TAKE BUFFY FROM ME" stuff all over my Joss Whedon viral tweet is from people who want to still make "loves Buffy" part of their internet handshake.

They're angry that something that meant a lot to them has changed cultural meaning, and that anger is valid, but it needs to be pointed at Whedon and JKR. Instead, it's pointed at the rest of us: "I'M A GOOD PERSON AND I STILL LIKE BUFFY, FUCK YOU IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE." Ok.

And you see this with the impulse to "reassign" these works to another creator; they want Buffy and Harry to still be wholesome and untainted by their creators. But the taint was always there, and trying to hide that taint isn't going to work.

Harry Potter was hostile to trans people before JKR ever tweeted, because the creator is hostile to trans people. Buffy and Firefly and Angel have hallmarks of abuse and misogyny. People have pointed this out for years (and been shouted down for it).

So while I recognize the impulse to be like "JKR can't spoil Hufflepuff, it's MINE", if you got that house in your public profile, a lot of trans people are gonna consider you unsafe regardless of your intentions.

You can still enjoy Buffy. No one is coming to take your DVDs away. But, yeah, the cultural meaning of that work has changed because of the actions of its creator and if you celebrate the work in public, people are going to wonder if you support an abuser.

I see a lot of desperate fans posting things like "But if we throw the series away, we're throwing away the hard work of the actors involved."

I see none saying "if those actors see my Buffy header, is that a reminder of their abuse? a memory of the worst day of their life?"

Anyway, put whatever you want in your profile. But it's tiring to have people scream "YOU CAN'T TAKE MY BUFFY" en masse whenever I post about Whedon.

No one is trying to take Buffy away. We're just acknowledging that it means something different in 2021 than it did in 1997.

Addendum: Gods bless the artists who came out here with offers to transform Harry Potter tattoos into new art for trans people, because that still brings a tear to my eyes.

I feel like I should add that there was a period during which Hufflepuff was a big part of my self-identity (I made, like, 3 Pottermore accounts until they sorted me "properly") and mournfully had to throw out all my yellow badger stuff a few years back. I get it, really.