A-Infos (en) US, Anarchist journal, Intersections #5 - Muggle Reviews: Fixing Fantasy by Ariel Wetzel

When I was a young teenager browsing the bookstore, I initially passed up a new book 
called Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. When I finally read the novel a few years 
later, the quirky characters and richly imagined world of Hogwarts sucked me in like any 
good fantasy does. I appreciated the epic proportion of J.K. Rowling’s imagination, and 
eagerly waited to see how the struggle between Harry and the villain Voldemort would 
unfold. It was easy to identify with Harry because I was accustomed to accessing 
fantastical worlds through the eyes of the typical hero, a straight white male. ---- While 
reading and watching the Harry Potter stories can be quiet pleasurable, they (like all 
media) teach subtle messages about how masculinity, whiteness, capitalism, and 
heterosexuality shape relationships.

These messages are revealed when looking at what the
directors of the Harry Potter films chose to
emphasize and omit in their translations.
For example, in the latest film, Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a good
thirty minutes of the movie develops
romantic relationships amongst Harry’s
teenage cohort at the expense of several
plot-developing flashbacks and side-
characters present in the novel. While I
was pleased that sexuality in teenagers
was presented as normal, the courtships
were always between boys and girls. In
Half-Blood Prince, Harry develops feelings
for Ginny, a talented witch, athlete, and
fighter. Ginny’s brother Ron (Harry’s best
friend) is initially over-protective of his
younger sister, but by the end of the film
grants permission for his sister to date
Harry. The romantic relationship is a
bonding moment and exchange
between two men.
In contrast, there is only one
acknowledged homosexual character in
Harry Potter, Professor Dumbledore,
the headmaster of Hogwart’s and
Harry’s mentor. Dumbledore’s sexual
orientation is only revealed “off
camera” by J.K. Rowling after the
release of the final novel. It is great to
know that one of the most powerful
wizards happens to be gay as well as a
talented teacher and mentor, but he’s
never allowed to have an explicit, “on
camera” romantic relationship in the
way that heterosexual characters are.
Perhaps the final films, the two-part
movies that will retell the final Harry
Potter book, will develop the romantic
back-story between Dumbledore and
the dark-wizard Grindelwald.
Even casual Harry Potter fans lament
the cutting of their favorite scenes and
characters in the pared down movies.
The loss I find most unfortunate is that
of racial diversity. It is unfortunate
the lead characters in the books are
all white, but a number of side
characters of color get to be real
characters with heroic moments and
human flaws. In the films, characters
o f c o lor ar e c on d en se d in t o
stereotypical, token background
characters or omitted all together.
Rowling also creates and challenges a
culture of racism amongst the “pure
blood” wizards by having Harry be a
hero of mixed wizard and Muggle
(non-wizard) heritage.
Some things seem missing in the
Harry Potter franchise all together.
While there are clear class divisions
between rich and working class
wizarding families, where are the poor
people? How does the economy
function? We’ve got hints at an
exploitative side of wizarding society
with the revelation of house-elf slaves
cooking and cleaning for wealthy
wizarding families, but Hermione’s
Society for the Promotion of Elvish
Welfare (S.P.E.W.) club turns into a
joke that mocks her legitimate
objections to slavery. S.P.E.W. is left
out of the films all together.
On the bright side, the previous film,
Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix, features youth agency and
anti-authoritarianism as Harry forms
a rebel group to challenge a corrupt
government and its propagandist
press. As Rowling herself said in one
interview, “You should question
authority and you should not assume
that the establishment or the press
tells you all of the truth.”.
_________________________________________
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