Hatsune Miku and Harry Potter
On December 19 2019, “Hatsune Miku” trended on Twitter during a controversy involving J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter, and trans-exclusionary feminism (“TERF,” an abbreviation for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” also trended.)
That morning, Rowling had confirmed long-circulating rumors that she supported “gender-critical” feminism, also known as trans-exclusionary feminism, when she tweeted:
Dress however you please.
Call yourself whatever you like.
Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you.
Live your best life in peace and security.
But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019
As noted above, “Hatsune Miku” consistently trended alongside J.K. Rowling’s name and “TERF.” The meme appeared to have emerged from a similar controversy earlier in 2019, involving the creator of the game Minecraft:
Microsoft is hosting a ten year celebration event on May 17 [2019] for seminal game Minecraft. A spokesperson from Microsoft told Variety that Markus “Notch” Persson, the original creator of Minecraft and founder of game studio Mojang, has been purposefully excluded from the event due to his past comments. “His comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft,” the spokesperson told Variety.
[…]
In the past several years, Persson, who currently has 3.7 million twitter followers, has broadcasted several controversial and frankly abhorrent opinions and views regarding politics, race, gender, and sexuality, and even full-blown conspiracy theories.
On March 29 2019, a fan/parody account for the character Hatsune Miku retweeted Persson, and added:
shut the up , transphobe . i created minecraft https://t.co/cuvr2n5yLZ
— @mikumiku_ebooks (@mikumiku_ebooks) March 29, 2019
At the same time, fans of Minecraft also joked the game “came from space”:
son: this minecraft game is great dad
dad: it is indeed son
son: who made it?
dad: no one. it came from space
— zaratustra and the pulsating mass (@zarawesome) December 6, 2018
TIMELINE OF EVENTS:
December 6th, 2018: @zarawesome tweets a joke about minecraft wasn't made by anyone, "it came from space"
March 27th, 2019: Most mentions of N*tch are removed from Minecraft.
April 3rd, 2019: Minecraft adds a splash message: "It came from space!" pic.twitter.com/AgdwoOcSbR— foone (@Foone) April 6, 2019
The meme was readily available when Harry Potter fans felt disappointment at Rowling’s opinions on transgender people. Within a few hours, many fans began praising Hatsune Miku for creating the Harry Potter series:
Just got the news that not only did Hatsune Miku originally create Minecraft but she wrote the Harry Potter books as well?! IS THERE NOTHING THIS WOMAN CAN'T DO?!?!?! pic.twitter.com/iyxJiO3MnJ
— 2Bianca (@theturtlebyte) December 19, 2019
Hatsune Miku writing "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" on her free time in the highschool library (1997, colorized) pic.twitter.com/UxgJuZ7Nix
— ✿ your friendly friend, Friend! ¹³¹² ❀ (@politicsFriend) December 19, 2019
we've collectively decided hatsune miku wrote harry potter haven't we pic.twitter.com/kXgYlF8fW2
— CASKET RHYTHM 🔥 BLM (@HYENABLOOD) December 19, 2019
Agreement wasn’t unanimous, however:
Nah, fam.
That ain't it. Hatsune Miku would never write a franchise where slavery is okay, where pure of blood is cool and where long nose goblins who are very greedy control the only bank in town.
Hatsune miku is better than that. Harry Potter came from space.
— Lulu🌈🎏 (@luulubuu) December 19, 2019
Oopular tweets about Hitsune Miku authoring Harry Potter books are a meme, a rapid response to news about J.K. Rowling’s tweet voicing support for trans-exclusionary feminism. An alternative, less prominent iteration of the meme claimed that Rowling’s works “came from space.”
