I'm not just talking about her being a TERF specifically (I know she was liking various transphobic tweets long before she was officially outed), but also her just being super shitty and neolib in general even by normal lib standards.
I've heard it goes back as far as the Harry Potter books themselves which, full disclosure, I haven't read for myself (Seen all the movies tho). I've heard from people who have tho that there's apparently shit in them like a subplot mocking Hermione for trying to stand up for House-elf rights (Who don't want to be free anyway of course) and Harry basically becoming a cop at the end (As part of the organization that pretty much just allowed Voldemort and the Death Eaters to take control again).
But to me personally, in hindsight, the moment when alarms really should've been going off is when she lazily retconned Dumbledore as being gay and Hermione as being black while acting like she totally intended those characters to be that way from the beginning.
Obviously the problem isn't them actually being gay or black, it's that it's very transparent in this case that she just wanted brownie points and pats on the back for having diverse characters without actually having to do any of the work.
I'm not saying every time Dumbledore/Hermione were in a scene that they needed to go "Say Harry, have I mentioned that I'm homosexual/of African descent today?", but you'd think those aspects of themselves would at the very least be alluded to at least once in the span of 7 fuckin' books.
The fact readers could go through the whole series and never notice those supposed aspects of the characters says it all imo.
(Also, in Hermione's case specifically, you think she would have said something about Emma Watson being cast as her and not a black actress if she really did have that planned all the way back then.)
Anything else I missed? Perhaps from actual Harry Potter readers that know something I don't?
I remember thinking that possibly this was a fantasy thing where the house elves's biology is linked to wanting to be slaves to humans. But the fact that Dobby chooses freedom without suffering any biological consequences means that its actually just ideology and that the house elves could be freed without suffering. The wizards who are meant to be the good guys have full knowledge of this and still keep the house elves in slavery. That's some fucked up shit from JK.
side addendum:
I always thought Bellatrix Lestrange was Black. I have no idea why I thought that.
In the movie there is a huge star of david on the floor of the hooknosed goblin bank that can be seen in a couple shots
Hermione’s activism thing had potential in that it was a way for Hermione to overcome a character flaw (being arrogant). She “protested” in the way that you would expect a 13-year-old British girl who’d grown up seeing her parents be mildly politically active might. She did not ask the house elves what they wanted or include them in her plans. Her demands were a vague “bad things are bad”. Her demonstrations were literally a single person shouting slogans. TLDR: Hermione’s a lib and it would have been nice to see her grow out of it.
But in the end iirc it’s more just played up for laughs and dismissed. It theoretically culminates in the death of Dobby, who is much more present in the books, but her work does little in the end. A big tell: Dumbledore handsomely pays the only house elf who’d thought to ask for a wage upon first request. All the slaves just forgot to ask because they love working so much 😬
Rowling’s world was frankly begging for a more political plot, but it ended up with a shallow Fascism Bad aesthetic. Its explorations of power are basically that wielding power isn’t a good idea (but also some people are naturally talented and the people who are popular in high school should run society)
They enslave animals for like no fucking reason when they can just use magic.
Also they still have like poor wizards with hand-me-downs even though people can literally just create whatever they want from nothing
when i watched the first movie and the greedy hook-nosed goblin bankers had a giant fucking star of david on the floor of their bank it absolutely stunned me that there was no discussion of this at the time, for the longest time i thought i must have hallucinated it
Like how Griphook betrays Harry for no reason and locks him in Bellatrix’s vault? Like cartoonishly greedy
Specifically:
"Cho Chang" as the only East Asian character.
A black character called "Shacklebolt"
The only Irish character "Seamus Finnigan" is known for blowing things up (in the films at least, don't remember books) and alchohol
The hook-nosed goblin bankers, coincidentally in the films there is a star of David on the floor of the bank.
I'm sure there's loads more I don't remember right now, but yeah once you look into it it's pretty bad.
Even as a kid, the way that people were sorted into houses seemed weird and off to me. Like it is at least heavily implied that it's genetics that determine what house you get into. (Maybe this is explained further at some point, idk.) But also it's tied to character traits, but the books seem to say that these character traits are pre-determined and your house doesn't change.
So people are born with these sets of traits that don't change that determine what house they get into. The house system reinforces these differences, forces any small difference that might only matter a little to matter a lot by soft segregating people. Even if some characters in the book try to claim no house is better than others, it's pretty clear that some are. And the points system and competition between them having consistent winners and losers seem to reinforce this.
The way the house system works sounds bad when first presented, it's feels eugenicy. Instead of leaning into it and saying "see how bad this is" or making it good and work out anyway, J. K. Rowling makes it bad and says "this is how it's supposed to work, actually this is good" when it's clearly awful.
Reading it as a kid I kept expecting the house system to be a huge central conflict and for its problems to build into some huge crisis that is solved by the main characters, but instead it just stayed simmering in the background, clearly causing all these problems, but no character ever saying "this is a problem". I was very disappointed that it was never addressed.
They try to handwave the unfairness of the sorting hat with the fact that Harry Potter gets to pick his house, but surely it can't go both ways, right? Harry was pure-blooded and had the opportunity to join the supremacists who undoubtedly have a majority of political and economic power, but turns down the privilege. Even if Hermione really cared about strength and loyalty or whatever, she would never be allowed in Slytherin due to the conditions of her birth. The epilogue talks about the same thing, basically praising that the system has downward social mobility
Harry wasn't even pure blooded. Neither were half the people in the wizard supremacist house. Makes no goddam sense
I mean, there has been a non-negligible number of mixed race and white-passing people who became aggressive white supremacists. It’s ultimately about creating a hierarchy with you on top.
Ooh, I don't remember so I'm not going to guess. Wouldn't really surprise me though.
You should listen to the shrieking shack podcast. It's a Harry Potter reread podcast that's really good. The hosts give detailed analysis of all the problems with the world building, characters, plot structure, and writing. They point out a lot of things that went way over my head as a kid, most notably how transphobic the depiction of Rita Skeeter is. They also go into the history of the fandom, as well as where it is now that everyone feels a little embarrassed about the whole thing. Plus, they had a news segment at the start of each episode, and the show was coming out at the same time as all the terf stuff came to light, leading to some great bits. Really recommend it.
Just to add to the slavery topic: Harry himself inherits a slave from his godfather, who looks after his fucking mansion.
Yeah but he's a bitter one who enjoys being a slave, so no one cared at all. Myself included, that shit went right through my empty 16 year old head.
Super wizard prison where demons torture the inmates by stealing their happy memories until they go mad or kill themselves was pretty fucked up. I think they got rid of the demons eventually but because people kept escaping. Certainly seems like she'd have some uh interesting opinions on criminals and retributive justice.
Certainly seems like she’d have some uh interesting opinions on criminals and retributive justice.
There's a passage in (I believe) Prisoner of Azkaban where Uncle Vernon says that violent criminals should be hanged and it's pretty clear we're meant to disagree with him, so make of that what you will.
The fact that she had no understanding at all of what fascism is made it clear to me that she was a neolib. For people who are meant to be the representation of Hitler and co, the death eaters and Voldemort barely even scratch the surface of evil. They murder a few people and they were going to try get rid of any mudblood people, but that's about it. The British government at the time in real life were doing far worse shit in the Middle East. Harry should have been taking down Tony Blair instead, he's a far bigger threat.
Gonna be that guy and point out that technically the books are set 1991-1998. Though, I have no idea what John Major was up to.
Saw that video of the Yogscast people talking about fucked up aspects of the HP world and they had a point about their justice system sending people to the endless mental torture prison for relatively minor offenses, like Hagrid and the hippogriff biting Malfoy. They also came up with a fantastic fan theory that Hogwarts was trying to get Hagrid arrested so they wouldn't have to pay his huge pension.
As far as I can tell the only prison for wizards in that universe is Azkaban, which is kind of like an Alcatraz inspired prison island with these scary creatures called dementors that can play back your most fearful memories to you and suck out your hope. Basically Abu Ghraib for dorks.
I got a bit confused because I looked it up and apparently the hippogriff was sentenced to death so it's even worse (kind of?) lol
Btw what is that video you referenced?
Well the dementors are also constantly trying to kiss people without consent and they are super uggos.
What reference? I mentioned Abu Ghraib because that was a prison in Iraq that was known for extreme torture and interrogation that got leaked. I'm just comparing it because for some reason JK Rowling had no middle ground in her head between a gentle slap in the wrist and sending people to the worst punishment imaginable.
I was 12 when she announced Dumbledore was gay, and I had only just realised gay people existed (after watching an agatha christie show with lesbian murderers) I think that was a good move for young children to find out about LGBT stuff from non-traditionally gay coded characters (despite the complete lack of textual evidence he is in fact gay)
Hermione being black was more of a 'who gives a shit, they can be black if they want? vibe
The worst HP shit was the SPEW garbage. So Lib it becomes conservative. Just insane that she wasn't FORCED to put that subplot in. Just conservative "This chick be mouthing off about civil rights for people who are totally fine!!! She's so goddamn shrill"
Also, if someone more versed in HP lore can help me out- why the significant lack of diverse female characters personailty-wise ? She's a female writer and I can only name like 3 women who aren't bitchy villains or bland love interests? Keep in mind there's 100s of characters she's written
I want to say internalized sexism. Like the reactionary women who don't want to be that girl. She seems to project all of the worst traits she dislikes about women onto most of the characters. It's actually kinda strange if you think about it. Then there are the ones portrayed as good, but in a backhanded way. Here's the ones I can remember off the top of my head:
Harry's aunt - bad and mean. Described as bad looking.
Hermione - good and smart. Described not as bad looking, but it's still fixated on appearance.
Ginny - good and Harry's love interest in the end. Described as pretty.
Ron's mom - good and maternal. Described as overweight, but in a pleasant way.
Cho Chang - shallow and mean when it comes down to it. Described as pretty at first, to my recollection.
Luna Lovegood - quirky and weird, but nice. Described as strange, but pretty.
Professor McGonagall - good and strong. Described as older, but generally respectfully.
Fleur - shallow, and maybe dim but not bad. Described as especially pretty.
Tonks - bold and clever. Gets with a much older man. Described as having different colored hair with some insults now and then.
Bellatrix Lestrange - evil and described as mentally ill. Described as pretty, but her looks were damaged by magic prison.
Ms Umbridge - sadistic with a fake front of pleasantness. She's the one with the centaur encounter I mentioned in my other comment. Described as overweight and unpleasant looking.
Rita Skeeter - a nosey and invasive reporter. She's described as having features considered masculine like hand size and she goes out of her way to sneak into places to spy on them for her journalism.
The oracle teacher - runs against Hermione's logical approach to magic. Shown as a fraud and airheaded in a transparent way. I can't remember how she's described, appearance-wise.
Moaning Myrtle - a sad ghost girl who cries all the time and invades personal boundaries.
Voldemort's mom - sad and lonely and magically brainwashes a man to marry her. She's been inbred for the sake of preserving the bloodline, and Rowling describes an appearance reflecting that. There are tons of horrible implications with her background.
Love the effort put in! Yeah Ron's mum is probably the standout female character- I dig your idea it might be internalised misogyny. Maybe at some point she was Hermione being devoted to activism, which she retroactively thinks was embarrassing. (Why bother stirring a fuss!)
Love the complete lack of effort with morally bad=bad looking
