Mudblood (fanfiction)
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Mudblood |
| Author(s): | ComfortableSilences |
| Date(s): | 21st January 2019 - 8th September 2019 |
| Length: | 71,267 words |
| Genre(s): | het |
| Fandom(s): | Harry Potter |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | Ao3 Link Fanfiction.net Link |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Mudblood is a complete multichapter Harry Potter fic by ComfortableSilences. It is sexually explicit and features the het pairing Draco/Hermione. The fic broke containment and was deleted on February 28, 2024 after notorious TERF Helen Joyce was spotted reading the fic on a train[1].
The fic was reasonably popular on the AO3 and had 1,209 comments; 3,442 kudos; and 1,048 bookmarks shortly before it was taken down.[2] It was also featured in a few "best of" collections by other users. 29,329 fanworks are posted in the Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy tag on AO3, and the fic would have been in 318th place for kudos and 184th place for comments before its deletion.[3]
History
ComfortableSilences said in Mudblood's author notes: "This is the first fic I've actually had the nerve to post!!".
Fan Reactions/Reviews
The fic on AO3 had many positive comments from readers.[2]
The fic was recced in several places.[4][5][6]
The fic also appears on Goodreads, where it has 64 ratings with an average of 3.66 (out of 5) and 6 reviews. Reviews are mixed, with one calling it "one of the worst dramione fanfics I've read" and another describing it as "Smutty and oooooh so so beautiful".[7]
Helen Joyce Incident
In February 2024, a user on Twitter wrote a thread claiming they spotted Helen Joyce, a well-known TERF activist and director of the anti-trans lobbying group Sex Matters, reading an underage Harry Potter smut fic on the train. After looking up phrases that were visible on Joyce's phone, the twitter user identified the fic as "Mudblood" on FF.net.[8]
Later, Joyce posted tweets asserting that she was researching how fanfiction could be used to convince young cis women to become trans[9], but didn't directly acknowledge the train incident. (Sex Matters posted a press release the following day that did acknowledge it.[10]) The tweets were criticized for several reasons, not least the claim itself, but also as being highly likely false in regards to supposed 'research' given the fic in question appears to have very little to do with trans characters or representation, even by the skewed standards of TERFs, instead being primarily a non-con Dramione fic between two heterosexual cisgender characters.
Many folks started to refer to the fic as 'child porn' and similar variations, given the characters are underage (likely around 16-17). As the fic had broken containment, many of the folks commenting on the fic were doing so outside of the realm of fandom. Other people criticized some of the reactions against Joyce, most notably the ones accusing her of being a paedophile, arguing that people were repeating similar sexist, anti-trans, anti-fanfic claims TERFs used in order to dunk on Joyce for being a hypocrite.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Some folks instead focused on the hypocrisy of gender criticals like Joyce reading the kind of content that any trans woman or transfem seen reading would be baselessly accused by them of being a groomer.
There was also some confusion about the title of the fic: some folks stated it was called 'Mudblood Bitch' or 'Mudblood Btch'. In truth, the latter was the name of the chapter, with simply 'Mudblood' being the name of the fic itself.
The fic began to get comments referencing the event, including one pretending to be Joyce.[19] Others attempted to warn the author that the event had happened.[20] After learning about the incident, ComfortableSilences decided to delete the story both from fanfiction.net and AO3, along with a few other fics set at Hogwarts, so as not to get caught in the crossfire.[21] ComfortableSilences also expressed support for the trans community.[22]
My fic Mudblood has been caught in some kind of controversy on twitter, where people are grossly misconstruing my fic to defame someone else’s character. I won’t defend the person that they are defaming because it seems they have some terrible views on transgender issues that I don’t agree with. But sadly my fic has been caught in the firing line. What was supposed to be a fic about deeply flawed characters slowly working through their prejudices in a fun light-hearted way is now being characterised as inappropriate content involving children, sexist content and more- none of which was never intended by me and I’m not comfortable being associated with those things in any way.[21]
Further Reading
- Fail_fandomanon thread: Don't read non-con raceplay fic featuring your best friend's teenage characters on the train if you don't your dirty laundry all over Twitter., Archived version (2024-02-28)
References
- ^ Gender-critical group responds after director spotted reading NSFW Harry Potter fan fiction on train, Archived version by Amelia Hansford, Pink News, 28 February 2024.
- ^ a b Wayback Machine copy, 28 February 2024.
- ^ Results from AO3's Works Search query on 28 February 2024.
- ^ rec by dramioneasks on Tumblr, Archived version
- ^ LF your best dub con Dramione fic recs, Archived version, Dramione subreddit comment, 13 August 2022.
- ^ Mudblood by ComfortableSilences, Archived version by katesthoughtsonthis on Tumblr, 26 April 2022.
- ^ Goodreads: Mudblood, Archived version (Accessed 28 February 2024.)
- ^ tweet (privated). archive.is. Twitter thread on threadreaderapp, Archived version, 27 February 2024.
- ^ tweet 1 by HJoyceGender, Archived version, tweet 2 by HJoyceGender, Archived version, 27 February 2024.
- ^ Statement on Helen Joyce and fanfic, Archived version, press release on the Sex Matters website. (Accessed 28 February 2024.)
- ^ idk about you but I don't think moral pearl clutching abt erotic fanfic is going to do a whole lot to counter the terf arguments which are also moral pearl clutching about fanfic. I don't think that's a winning move, personally, Archived version, tweet by SiliconeAndBone, 28 February 2024.
- ^ It’s equally concerning to me that people are talking about it like she was caught looking at child sexual abuse material when it was fanfiction about characters banging., Archived version, tweet by GojiraSpouse, 28 February 2024.
- ^ I'm begging y'all to stop focusing on the fact she was even reading fanfic in public. The fanfic is only relevant for her hypocrisy. The ACTUAL issue is her irl actions & energy going into harming the queer community. Please stop focusing on the fanfic., Archived version, tweet by hysterekal00, 28 February 2024.
- ^ Ready for all this shit about HJ’s fanfic reading to be off my TL already. I’m genuinely sick of seeing people regurgitate anti-trans talking points in an attempt to morally “own” a terf. The hypocrisy all around is exhausting., Archived version, tweet by assortedpuzlpcs, 28 February 2024.
- ^ why are you just using the same kind of radfem rhetoric against fanfic when fighting against a terf? whats even your point if you can't even resist doing the same shit they do?, Archived version, tweet by larvalLamped, 27 February 2024.
- ^ can’t even take joy in a round of “prominent terf is being roasted” because they’re roasting her for… reading fanfic in public and calling it CSEM because it was HP smut, Archived version, tweet by varlinheau, 27 February 2024.
- ^ Considering how "fanfic turns you into a sex pervert" is literally a terf and right wing talking point, can leftists not fall into that line of thinking just to land some dunks, Archived version, tweet by goth_gunnywolf, 27 February 2024.
- ^ Unfortunately, everyone and their brother is falling over themselves to AGREE with terfs that smut of fictional minors is CSAM and makes you a pedophile for reading it just so they can dunk on her. Everything is bad and I hate it., Archived version, tweet by NemoEntropy, 27 February 2024.
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ a b untitled Tumblr post, Archived version by comfortablesilences110, 27 February 2024.
- ^ anon ask answered by comfortablesilences110, Archived version, 27 February 2024.