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This is actively dangerous and disgusting.
(lemmy.nz)
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this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2026
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They're not saying that Rowling co-opted anything. They're saying that they used to use the term "muggle", lifted from the HP books, as their go-to term for "non-magical people", until Rowling went full mask-off TERF.
Which does mean that they lifted a term that is literally used in the books as a slur, and were like "OK, yeah, this is a good way to describe people who don't share my interests."
Ahh ok,. I remembered muggle was a slur in HP (Hermione cries because [mean blond kid] calls her a mug blood) and assumed they couldn't be talking about that.
I made this assumption because I have this user tagged as "Narcissist is a slur." And I remember why.
So my understanding is that it's a good thing to use a fictional slur when the only definition for the word. But also, it's a very bad thing to use a word based on a character from a Greek myth who exists solely to convey the idea described in the definition.
Narcissus of Greek myth never abused anyone, unless you count fighting back against Ameinias, who sexually harassed him. While he was 16.
This implies that non-wizards were the abusers in Harry Potter and I don't remember that being true.
Narcissus is a fictional character who was written exclusively to convey the idea that is described in the definition of the word based on his name*
Muggle is a fictional slur used by the ruling class in Harry Potter to denigrate people they don't respect. It exists to be offensive.
I think it's worth a bit of self reflection as to why you've embraced a word that was always a slur to use as a slur but get offended by the word "narcissist" to the point of ranting about it (in a past thread, not here).
I don't think either is offensive so I hope you fall on the side of "neither word is that big of a deal"
No, the word was invented in the 19th century by Lord Byron and his contemporaries. Nobody ever made a word based on Narcissus until Lord Byron. Ovid was writing about Narcissus thousands of years before then.
Narcissus was written about once in the entirety of Greek mythology in a story about. A story about how self-obsession is a curse.
Lord Byron described a personality trait where one exhibits self-obsession to the point of harm and needed a word for it. He referenced the most famous example of self-obsession.
That is how many things get their names.
No, Narcissus has a few different stories. There's Narcissus and Echo, Narcissus and Ameinias, Narcissus and Tireseas... You can argue that Tireseas is just foreshadowing for later on, but Ameinias isn't even mentioned by name in Ovid's version, which focuses more on Echo.
I think the key distinction between the story of Narcissus and modern cultural norms is that Narcissus' self-obsession harmed only himself. He started to death because he couldn't look away from the mirror pool. Whereas today, people imagine that narcissistic people are cruel abusers.
A much better mythological parallel is Theseus. Theseus abandoned Ariadne after she helped him, and kidnapped 12-year-old Helen of Troy to be his wife. Theseus was abusive and pedophilic and it was all about his ego. He did that stuff for personal glory.
So Narcissism is when your pride hurts yourself. Theseism is when your pride hurts others.
And if you think "narcissists" are abusers, I can tell you've just fallen for Cheistopher Lasch's ableist propaganda, because there's nothing in Greek mythology to support that.