The ability of reactionaries to reframe women of conscience as some kind of demon out to make everyone miserable really pisses me off.

It's just gaslighting when all is said and done, not to mention misogynistic. Once when I made a stand about something objectionable the response I got (from another woman, no less) was being called "nasty" and "arrogant" and she hoped I would "learn to be kind". Ugh, it was eight years ago and thinking about it still enrages me.

I didn't even hit back; just blocked her. I don't like confrontations, and no doubt it's a learned behaviour. First they tell you to be quiet and polite and don't make a fuss, and then a few years later they complain that you're not assertive enough! Well maybe that's because I never really learned how? Ugh.

The key takeaway here is that for Death of the Author to apply, the author must actually be dead.

And therefore no longer making money off the work. Lovecraft was a vicious racist, but he's also been dead since 1937. Rowling is actively giving money to anti trans organisations.

Under that view, the fact Harry tortures people and feels nothing about it makes him an ideal police officer precisely because police officers are bad and it's not okay to want to be one.

And lest we forget, anyone he brings in alive gets sent to a nightmarish freezing cold dungeon and subjected to torture.