JK Rowling’s latest transphobic tweets have once again highlighted her exclusionary behaviour and put her in a spot. This isn’t exactly shocking because Rowling has faced ire for propagating transphobic and trans-exclusionary radical feminist opinions earlier as well. One look at the Harry Potter series can tell you how embarrassingly undiverse it is — afterthought, postscript revelations on Twitter about her characters do not count.
Declaring Dumbledore as queer and endorsing a Black Hermoine are the most prominent examples of Rowling retrospectively trying to add diversity in the otherwise white hetronormative wizarding world she first created.
Queer Baiting
The Harry Potter series has been constantly accused of queerbaiting— a marketing ploy used to lure an LGBTQ+ fan base by teasing the possibility of non-heterosexual characters, without the intention of ever developing it into an actual element of the story.
Here’s a classic instance of queerbaiting. Before Harry Potter and the Cursed Child — the play that tells the story of Harry Potter 19 years later — was even published, there was a tonne of fanfiction ‘shipping’ (when fans wish for two characters to be romantically linked) Draco Malfoy’s son Scorpius with Harry Potter’s younger son Albus. When the play finally came out, the bonhomie between the duo was far more intense than the relationship between Harry and his best friend, Ron, ever was.
Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, two characters from the series who were thought to be queer by fans, were married out of the blue and made to settle down as as a typical hetronormative family. Tonks, a Metamorphmagus — a witch who can change her appearance at will, was considered to be gender fluid. Lupin’s struggles as a werewolf were seen as deliberately framed to highlight the plight of HIV/AIDS patients. But even these prominently queer characteristics pointed out by Potter fans, weren’t enough for Rowling to properly assert and develop these traits in later books.
It’s not fair for Rowling to keep adding queer elements the Harry Potter fans root for after the books have been published in ways that suit her interest, but fail to actually bring diversity and inclusivity to her writing.
Let’s wait and watch what she does with Dumbledore and Grindelwald in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts films, where she has the opportunity to explore their sexual relationship.
Also read: Daniel Radcliffe, Eddie Redmayne, Beckham bring Hogwarts home with Harry Potter readings
Culturally tone-deaf wizard world
The wizarding world first created by Rowling is of, for and by White people. I don’t think there’s much to argue there.
The few non-White characters she does introduce in the books are underdeveloped lazy additions that highlight her prejudice.
Take for instance the Patil sisters. Remember their agonising outfits at the Yule Ball in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — dull, unflattering lehengas, which seemed like a mockery of Indian culture. A lot of us are still and will always be unforgiving of that travesty.
Then comes Cho Chang. In a world full of fantastical names like Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Dolores Umbridge, Nymphadora Tonks, Luna Lovegood and so on, Rowling settled on mixing two Korean surnames to portray the only visible Asian character. Rowling may as well have introduced another Karen or Susan type character instead of creating a token Asian character she clearly put no thought into.
Many defend Rowling by begging critics to judge the series according to the time period it was written in — the first book was released in 1997.
But the late 90s weren’t exactly the Victorian era. Besides, the last Harry Potter book was published as recently as 2007. Proving that time was never really the issue, Rowling was also accused of racism in her 2016 Pottermore essays about the History of Magic in North America. She was slammed for the way she wrote about ‘Native American wizards’, and was attacked for “using an ancient culture as a convenient prop”. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, her ongoing series, also lacks diversity. Casting a South Korean woman as Nagini — Voldemort’s pet snake, and her subsequent defense of the choice, served as another example of her blatant ignorance of the issue of cultural appropriation.
For a book that highlights class struggles, centres on the battle against a Fascist megalomaniac and constantly takes on prejudice and discrimination in the wizarding world , the lack-of-diversity and cultural appropriation problems are disheartening.
J.K. Rowling’s transphobic tweets don’t make me question my love for Harry Potter one bit, like Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe fears. Potterverse has been shaped as much by fan fiction as it has been by the books. So, in this case, I have no qualms separating the art from the artist. Rowling may have given us the boy who lived, but we were the ones who made him immortal.
Views are personal.
Also read: J.K. Rowling releases first two chapters of her new book ‘The Ickabog’ online for free
Splash splash your opinion is trash
Isn’t this taking a work of FICTION too seriously ?
Don’t people have better things to do ?
This is just a peice of fiction..why would anyone accept anything logical from a fictional story that is just purely based on a fantasy world. It is ok to talk against her anti-trans comments and all but criticising her just for not getting something racially or logically correct from the stories and a fictional fantasy world that she created is just extremely dumb, people are supposed to focus on the plot and stories and not on what is politically correct lol. I’m not tryna defend Rowling but the way you’re criticising her her fictional creation is just dumb and biased..wtf lmao. Maybe you should think before writing on something, it’s all just a little common sense?.
Are you really this stupid or are you just pretending? How can you call yourself a journalist/writer? Most of the 90s films/books didn’t have queer characters so are they all homophobic and irrelevant? HP books are the best series books ever written and an uneducated fool like you can’t change that. Get a life!
Did… She actually read these books? Some of the coolest characters in it were poc- dean thomas, lee jordan, angelina thompson… Kingsley…. Characters that were way better than the trio a lot lol
Also… Um…. So…. HIV/AIDS is… Gay culture now according to this author? That’s… Definitely not a harmful stereotype. Yikes.
And she’s not the costume director for the movies lmfao why are you mad at her for the costume choices?
Like none of this was about her tweets at all it was this person complaining her favorite fanfics didn’t become cannon lol
The Print should not have dignified this trash piece by providing it space in its publication.
I really don’t understand why people are writing such rude comments. As a mother and South Asian, I actually had the same thoughts. There is no diversity. All the lead roles are white. I wish they had atleast casted actors from other races and cultures.
J.k.Rowling is an English white woman, she wrote books from her own viewpoint at a time when there wasn’t all this screaming about diversity. Would you admit that there is no diversity in other non-white cultures? Let’s for eg take the Indian Bollywood movie industry – written by Indian writers, acted by Indian actors, largely for Indian people- NOT much diversity there is there. There are plenty of examples throughout Asian countries of this kind of homogeneous representation…..take the Korean K-Pop industry – yep ALL Korean boys and girls….not much diversity. And the same is repeated throughout so-called non-white nation and cultures around the world…they are NOT forced, bullied nor shamed into artificially representing everyone in their cultural expresions of who they are, but are celebrated. So what I’m seeing is that “diversity” is only forced, bullied and shamed upon the largely white European countries, and upon the West, while everywhere else is allowed to continue in their own cultures. So it is a TEARING AWAY and TEARING DOWN OF CULTURES OF COUNTRIES WHERE THE ANCESTRY IS OF SO-CALLED WHITE ORIGIN – English, French, German, Italian, and so on…they are forced to suppress and kill their cultures to ACCOMODATE THE WORLD pouring in, as are the western countries like USA, Canada, Australia etc but for eg. Asian countries ( for now) are still largely allowed to keep their individual, homogenous cultures purist with no screaming, bullying, shaming voices demanding more Italian, French, Australian, English, Spanish, Scotish, Serbian, Russian, Polish, Swedish representation. Interesting….
I was with you until you mentioned Australia and the USA etc as examples of predominantly white countries. Sorry but no…those countries should be showing more diversity as the indigenous population are actually poc and they are very multicultural. The UK is too but I can appreciate that the natives are atleast white in most European countries.
This really annoys me. This is how our world is becoming that people attack children authors and accuse them of being prejudice because they aren’t an activist. If we aren’t an activist we’re are prejudice.
It never comes into people like SHUBHANGI MISRA mind that Harry Potter was a children’s book in the 90’s nowadays you could put diverse characters in books then they would have been a big no no.
You can work out that there are diverse characters in the book and its left open to your interpretation. I think Tonks and Lupin were probably gay; they never sat right as a couple with me, they got together as a relationship of convenience and wanted children like many gay people.
I grew up loving Harry Potter and very confused over my sexually and identity JK Rowling was an hero to me as I could escape the madness in my head!
I personally don’t like shoving gender issues in kids and teens faces. To me it learning and accepting your identity is maddening enough without extra ‘labels’ they was must adhere to.
I say to all people like SHUBHANGI MISRA you preach acceptance and tolerance yet use as a tool to bully. You don’t understand people outside your ‘world’ who have had different experiences of life to you so therefore you label them as a hater.
I’m sorry but fiction and fantasy worlds exist primarly because of the writers trying to reach the readers, not beacuse fanboys and fangirls must be pleased at all costs. An Author has his own ideas, we should appreciate them even if we don’t share exactly the same ideal background. We should be listening to the things that an Author writes…You all keep showing this judgmental attitude according to which you shall have points of view (no one asked you for) even before having a complete idea of the Writer’s will. Maybe you should listen more, and READ more, instead of showing pictures in which you hold some random book in your hand. Have ever even asked yourself what reading is?
Why should J. K. ‘s literature be written all according to the acceptance of everything in every case, with no space at all for real diversity, which is the freedom of the Author to express also a controversial position? You’ re so dumb and acritical you’re accomplishing the oddity of letting sexual diversity become the new guinea pig of your need to have a mainstraming attachment to the more complex social discussion.
Keep your inability of having dialectic skills to yourself. You are damaging the world and normalizing the false myth of the things divided into good and bad at all costs and the disastrous idea that righteousness is achieved only by the unity of intent. I’d want my rights, as a sharer and bearer of a diversity, respected by the actions but I’d never force anyone yo think exactly what I think. It would authoritarian and utterly fascist.
Democratic respect for diversity is very difficult and not mainstream at all: it means being able to respect diversity even when this diversity attacks mine, in a way. As long as we don’t obliterate each other, we should be able to respect our different thoughts.
Do tou really want to start a crusade against all the writers who offended someone? And also, how old are you? If 1997 isn’t an Era ago, then I don’t know where were you when the world historically and drastically changed faster than it ever did.
Please, try to pass your time with more prolific activities.
Don’t judge something if you’re not well aware of it’s diversity.
Through your article it’s quite evitable that you’re just judging JK’s world on the view of movies and had never read the book series.
Talking of diversity?! Characters like Dean Thomas was brownish in colour and had a major role in battle.
In book 4th, the diversity of outside Hogwarts world was seen.
Now fantastic beast series is showing various different countries.
Dumbledore? That’s her own choice how she wants her characters! Her own story! Her own ideas and opinions!
And what has Cho Chang for tho create discrimination. All other different writers have both fantastical and real-works names introduced.
This article is clearly a bunch of nonsense.
I don’t jestify jo but don’t forget Harry Potter was written in the 90s if it was written today she would have made the characters more diversed people should stop looking for mistakes in everything it gets really annoying
The world jk Rowling has created with Harry Potter is fictional. It has captured the hearts and imagination of children and adults a like world wide. It has engaged millions to read and ignited a world of imagination. It is an escape for many from the doom and gloom many live in reality. The author of this articles views are of no interest to me. Sad that they can’t just read a good book.
This article is a trademark of being superficial journalism where nuanced understanding is required. The article starts by calling JK Rowling a transphobe and her tweets transphobic. What is transphobia, dear author? Transphobia is denying a person their gender, not saying that biological sex is immutable, and changing gender doesn’t’ change sex. So she isn’t transphobic but you are unscientific and demonstrably stupid. Any biologist worth their salt will tell you that humans are dimorphic species.
TERF- This word invented by Trans activists to denote anybody who doesn’t agree with them is wrong. Feminism is for those born females, which means in includes Trans-men. Thus feminism cannot exclude trans. That is another self-goal performed by you.
What a shameless propaganda you have engaged in against a woman who is voicing concerns of women, lesbians, and gay people. Shame on you. You are also uninformed and JKR is right about her concerns. Support for her will grow soon and you will be eating your words meanwhile you can revel in your stupidity.
Wow your journalism is composed of policing and labeling people who actually made a difference like JK Rowling. I dont know how ypu are able to live with yourselves.
Can the author of this article do the world a favour and never write again?
Why does a book need “diversity” for it to be accepted?
JK Rowling spoke sense, something Misra doesn’t possess.
It’s all nonsense all she did was point out science. I don’t care what you do but you can’t change science however much you want. So grow up.
I agree with you
Everything must be politically correct mimimi ? stop the hate against fantasie Worlds. And i think the Saris from the Pravati Twins are pretty, why hating the culture? India clothes are extreme beautifull
Yes very true!!!
Guys let’s just report this page. No one cares what a useless person like you thinks about the franchise. You are a pile of shit that’s all. This is the most useless and worst article I’ve ever read. Keep your opinions to yourself. No one wants to hear what you think you immature trash heap. Fkn cheap loser.
Where is the barf bag?
Then don’t read her books. She doesn’t have to conform to anyone else’s opinions. That’s the definition of freedom.
Have you actually read the books or is this based on the movies you have watched?
This is the dumbest thing I’ve read in quite a while.
I don’t see anything wrong with an undiverse world. It’s a fucking fiction book series, it’s not real. It’s not set in 2020 so stop expecting it to have ideals of 2020 when it clearly wasn’t made or set in 2020. We don’t need a lgbtq+ community in the Potterverse. It’s perfectly fine as it is.
Why it’s only black Hermione, why it can’t be a black Harry or James and Lily for that matter? Malfoy and Harry’s boys are into a relationship is something really fascinating.
You look for so many reasons to blame JK. That is how it looks like for me. Queer baiting?! People would write fanfics over just any big series story like Harry Potter. Also, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the conflict is based on racism- the one between witches and non-witches. Sure, it’s not the case in real life but I think it makes a metaphorically beautiful strong point of view. And you accuse her for creating her universe as a white world?? I’ve never heard this mentioned before everyone got crazy over POC being mistreated. But you know what, racism has been in this world for forever. And it’s not only against POC. Now I feel like the ones going so strongly over the “Black lives matter” pandemic are creating a sort of racism themselves. People say that if you are neutral and don’t say anything, you’re a racist. How’s that so?! Maybe some of us just don’t want to come out saying stuff for our own personal reasons. Why can’t we choose not to be racists AND not to go screaming over “Black lives matter”?
Maybe some people are like this, that’s how they express. And maybe JK felt like making her wizarding world just the way it is because that was HER idea, HER view of it. I can only thank and respect her for that and I still believe she couldn’t have gotten a better cast for Harry Potter. She made a wonderful job and she created a world to come back to for all of us kids that needed one and you’re now saying what about her?! If you don’t like it, go make yourself a better story, cast whoever you want and sink into that world of yours. But stop just accusing people just for having their ideas freely expressed and made out into beautiful outcomes.
I’m sorry but I don’t exactly feel your “love for Harry Potter”, the one you say you are not questioning.
“The entire Harry Potter series is set from 1991 to 1998”. Does anything else need to be said? How many people were openly gay in 1998? Just because you don’t like the truth doesn’t make it less true. In reality, a school in 1998 would have approximately zero openly gay people. I grew up in Las Vegas and went to school in the late 90s. I didn’t know any people that professed to be anything other than heterosexual. That’s just how things were.
Racial diversity? England was 91% white in 2001, and even more white in 1991. the amount of diversity in characters already defies reality. Are you saying no one should write a book about a predominately white community, because that’s racist? Under that philosophy, then I guess all Japanese anime featuring school students is also racists, because what the heck?? no diversity! Everyone is Japanese! What were they thinking! That countryside school in Japan should have black students! 😛
Racism and related issues are a problem, don’t get me wrong. However, does that mean we need to scourge our childhood books and see which ones contain racism so we can condemn them? I don’t think so. How does that solve anything? I think there are better ways to approach the problem.
This is shit.
No faggets in my Harry Potter
How easy it is to look in hindsight at one aspect of a children’s book series that grew so big in the era of Power Rangers, Dawson’s Creek, Friends, and The Real World… Yeah, JK’s forte is not in culture research -not then and not now. So yeah, maybe you should separate the person from the work, which again, is a children’s book series, and not a treatise on race and gender equality.
Talk about the halo effect backfiring.
Hahahahahaha far left- wing fanatics lol
Harry Potter had a huge impact during millennial childhood days. Stop ruining our memories for your gender queer propaganda. Snow White is white for a reason, she is a folklore from Europe. Chanakya is a Hindutva Legend for a reason, he pushed back the mighty Greeks. Whitewashing history is not going to help you.
Can we stop with the making-authors-write-about-what we-want-them-to-write-about thing? Guess what? If you dont like the way someone writes or what they write about- you are welcome to put the book down and walk away! Why, why do we have to impose our way of thinking on someone else? I’m not saying that it’s necessarily ok to be anti-trans or racist, but now people are just fishing for those details in these books. Which never would have happened without the tweet. By the way, since when does everyone have to have the same opinions or beliefs? Why do we care so much what other people believe?
You don’t NEED diversity. It’s about the story and you can’t randomly throw an African-American in because people want to. That doesn’t add anything. And ehat’ s wrong with Cho Chang? Harry Potter is a white, Briitsh name. And we especially don’t need sinning queer ones. ?
Are you an idiot or will you just make up anything? There were people of colour in her book’s, if you actually read the books you knew Dumbledore was gay and the movie’s have people of all colours in them.
Parvati was wearing robes not lehengas as potrated in the movies
Views are personal? So, you say this but don’t let her have her vision.
Isn’t this type of sites supposed to be neutral and bias-free? This scream so much agenda.
One of the worst articles I’ve ever read
Jesus. It’s a flipping book. I dont think when she wrote the first book she was expecting her work to be under the scrutiny it is now 20 – odd years later. Just because your not completely inclusive does not mean you are prejudice towards the groups you do not to write about.
I’m sure if she wrote the books now there would be more diverse characters, but in the age of 1997 when the phrase gender fluid wasn’t even in the dictionary, we cannot judge.
You are also choosing to decide someone’s entire opinion based off a tweet. You have had an entire article to say your peace.
Whiners gonna whine.
Hi,
Do you have nothing better to do than to point out that a book written 20 years ago isn’t diverse enough for you. I dont think J.K. should have ever tried to change the narrative to appease the LGBT community to avoid articles like you. Why does any one have to include diversity or LGBT in something if it might not be relevant to what their writing or what they have experienced. You talk of inclusion but point the finger at those that dont fit your list of what you want. Is everyone supposed to change history so it doesnt offend you?I think it’s sad.
Have a great day,
Chantelle
This is clearly a prejudiced person who doesn’t understand the context in which harry potter was written nor the time. The lgbtq+ community has only been extremely vocal in the past decade. The harry potter series was written last century. As for the racial inclusiveness, is it racist to imagine characters in your story the same race as you?? I don’t think so. Because we tend to imagine characters in our race as an involuntary form of identification with the characters. I’m an indian and my stories are about indian people. Am I racist for that?? I hope not. Of course Rowling tries to include nore people in her further works as people who are straught and older than a certain age tend to be unaware of various gender identities. My mom is touching 50 and the only non straight gender she knows is transgender. That is natural. She does her best to include gay people many years after writing the novel. I appreciate her for that. Her comments also aren’t transphobic at all. She claims that women have periods and only women because transgender people don’t experience the same traumatic experiences that women do when they get their first periods at a really young age. Nowhere is she saying that transgender people are lacking in discrimination or is she actually discriminating against them. They are not subjected to periods the same way natural women are and that is scientific, heck psychological fact. In this attempt at being ‘ woke’, the author forgets to extend the same basic human empathy that she accuses Rowling of not extending. When Rowling has.
When you try hard to blame someone for something like this you’re gonna find something to use. You’re clearly biased for whatever reason. Hermione is purposely not analytically described so anyone can relate to her. Dumbledore is gay. Other people in the story probably are too , we just don’t know about it because they’re not known by their sexuality or race , as they shouldn’t be, they’re simply known just like everyone else. This ‘article’ has nothing to do with what she said , and it’s purpose is to throw dirt . Shame on you
an artist can write what she wants to- and she doesn’t have to pander to “diversity” authoritarians like you who wants to control what she writes/thinks. you people are brainwashed socialist nutheads, who’d beeen sending people to gulag for being enemies of the state back in 50s. Get over your”progressive” thought police ideas. Wanna make a “diverse” universe? write it yourself. We live in democracy and we don’t have to bow down to your desires cause they are simply opnions and not the law.
There’s one thing I can’t get: if gender is not biological reality but rather a social construct, then it means one can question their own or somebody else’s gender. Because questioning social constructs is perfectly legitimate, right? So why can’t J.K.Rowling question it? Please explain.
Bro you look like someone who has seriously never read the books and bases her judgement on trending hashtags. Get a life, and maybe a brain?
A well written piece, good work! If I may make an addition, Potterverse could have rivalled Tolkien’s Legendarium with a little bit of planning. After the original 7 books, Rowling had ample opportunity to create the history and back story that the series deserved, she didn’t. Instead of handing out random tidbits and superficial extensions, she could have worked on solid stand alone works within that universe, if not another series. Cursed Child ruined the arc, and many fans like me refuse to recognise that as canon.
I was really looking forward to Fantastic Beasts, hoping for a proper narrative on the War waged by Grindelwald. Because let’s face it, Voldemort was a typical villian, just another bad guy with issues set on world domination. Grindelwald could have been much more! So far, the series have been visually amazing but rather poor on the storyline and generally disappointing with all the messed up details.
Really wish that someone with a greater vision and understanding of the real world could take over…
I’m sorry to say this, but i don’t understand why you should judge an author and her books based on the diversity of the characters of her books! Que imagined them the way she did and we love them as they are. I wouldn’t have wanted J. K Rowling to add some black, asian and transgender or homosexual characters just for the sake of it. Just because there are important issues to talk about, this doesn’t mean that literature should become a mean to win certain battles!
Leave J K Rowling alone and focus on your own dark side! Everyone has one!
This article is really insensitive. I really would prefer it it was removed.
So what? Joanne Rowling wrote what she could at the time. Who cares whether it lives up to today’s arbitrary moral standards or not. You know whatever you write today will look dumb tomorrow. Hell, it looks pretty dumb today!
Get over it. Find a real job. You’ll be happier for it.
Bullshit!… you guys are ruining pop culture, how many white characters did you see in Black Panther? How many blacks did you see in The Hobbit?… Just because you don’t like JK Rowling doesn’t mean everything about her is bad, go to Pottermore you ignorant folks, you’ll find separate Asian and African wizardry schools with detailed descriptions. Write some actual news, stop bullshitting around
این نامردیه تمام سال هایی هری پاترودوستانش در هاگوارتز گذراندن تمام خاطراتشان همانند خاطرات خودمان در ذهن ما جای گرفته است ماباآنها در هاگوارتز بودیم باجاروهای پرنده پرواز کردیم وحفره اسرار را کشف کردیم با دیوانه ساز ها جنگیدیم وسپر مدافع درست کردیم دردرمسابقه ی سه جادوگر شرکت کردیم وشاهد بازگشت ولدمورت بودیم وارد انجمن الف.دال شدیم ومرگ سیریوس رابه جان خریدیم پشت دستهایمان را باکلمات من نباید دروغ بگویم کبود کردیم وشاهد قتل اسنیپ بودیم جان پیچ هارا ازبین بردیم و باولدمورت دوئل کردیم به گذشته رفتیم و ویرانی خانه ای آشنا را دیدیم وسکوت
کردیم تا آینده آنطور که بایدباشد
این چنین ما با داستانهای هری پاتر زندگی کردیم وهمه این هارا مدیون خالق آن هستیم
The fact that she says the term people who menstruate is wrong doesn’t make transphobic, it is wrong when you speak about gender violence you can’t say that term to say that population is at risk because elderly women who do not menstruate can also suffer from gender violence and trans women who do not menstruate can also suffer violence from a male partner
A clearly biased and one sided opinion. Take a hop. :/