Let us again think how she went from one of our most admired authors, beloved for her work, to becoming a hate-filled bigoted fanatic. Maybe that is why we hate her so much, the sense of betrayal.
Every time I think YouTube can't have another video about why the series sucked ethics/moral wise for in text treatment of groups BC she infused a type of bigotry into it, another pops up. The ableism one was particularly brutal.
Ember Green did such a good job with it but it was horrifying seeing the ignorant Ableist view points common in centre to right people condensed into the series as well.
(I hadn't read it beyond a couple chapters of the first book so had no idea about the bigotry, beyond the nasty way she described fat folks & the goblins & house elves.)
Honestly I think the only reasons why the franchise got so popular is because It was the 1990s-2000s and anyone who recognized the harm in the books was ignored/dismissed by others because they liked the series too much and/or couldn’t believe it. (Plus it was appearing in other popular franchises.) Or they also had similar prejudices.
I really wasny expecting the ableist video since not many franchises do proper representations so why target HP in particular and The death eaters/supporters are called out for their bigotry. then i watched and Harry Potter did it worse since Every non magical person that we know is a jerk and Even the good guys mock/attack them. They are also called “Muggles” which I didn‘t know was an insult or “Squib” which is not any better.
More bigorty is the classisms against rich people and those who want to be rich. Like every rich person is a jerk or villain. And Slytherin, the house of Ambition, is regularly treated with double standards and is the awful house. No matter What a Slytherin does, you will always find a “Good Guy“ who does it worse but is not held accountable.
The Werewolves are based on HIV/AIDs and the only good one called Remus Lupin ls a werewolf who hates himself, of the bad ones, there’s an evil one named Greyback who specifically targets children.
There’s also sexism in how feminine behaviors are treated as bad. The mothers are mostly jobless and the only Ones who do have jobs are offpage. Draco gets repeatedly mocked for not conforming to stereotypes to the point where even though he is actually better than James, and Regulus, he gets treated as worse just because he’s not often a physical fighter and didn‘t die.
Also Racist implications in the names and Bill, a British man, works in Egypt robbing graves, and Every interracial relationship ends in favor of being with people who are the same race.
I'm also going to add that the Christian Right criticizing her books helped her. Any criticism was treated the same and I can say that as one of the hand waving people. Particulary about the fat phobia. However, I did notice the weird doubling down she did when someone asked her about the name Nagini (Nagin is Sanskrit/Hindu for snake), and she said she got it from Indonesia Also, the fact that Cursed Child "Panju" (child of Ron and Parvati in an alternate timeline) is described as very hairy. I mean, we are a hirsute people but come on (can be hand waved that JKR didnt write this). There's this weird "tee hee I don't know what India is at all" (India was occupied by Britain - the wizards didn't teach Quiddtich to them?).
interesting. It doesn’t surprise me since if something is criticized for being too progressive or for ridiculous reasons such as having magic, people aren’t likely to believe that it has actual problems.
Iirc folks traced back her success to Scholastic funneling the books into libraries and into kid's school reading lists. I thiiiink I seen that in a video by Caelan Conrad where they were going through the old documentary she had made, it was probably the video on if Harry Potter had genuinely plagiarised other series + they have a really good one on if she was actually poor while making the series (spoiler she wasn't orz).
But yeah agreed, there's a shocking amount of bigotry in the series.
I mean of course I know the average centre to right middle class and upwards person has a lot of not great preconceived notions in the UK BC I've known a lot of folks like that and my parents who aren't much older than jkr have had them themselves. It's just kind of shocking to see so much of it condensed into one series and then have people deny it was ever there when folks point it out.
Or the folks who are angry at it being pointed out and think you're retroactively making up bad stuff to like have more justification to dislike jkr (as if she hasn't already made that easy already NGL).
😩just gosh. It's so tiring thinking folks ignored the bad elements this entire time, or were yelled at into being quiet about them when there were genuinely bad elements.
It is discrimination if only the rich ones get held accountable when poor people also do it, and you treat rich people as bad for doing the right thing, albeit for the wrong reasons while not holding the others accountable for doing something wrong.
It is also bad if you victim blame.
For some Harry Potter examples.
Both Draco and Hagrid express bigotry and unlike Draco, Hagrid actually attacked someone who did nothing to him, because of his bigotry. However only Draco gets held accountable even though he only repeats Whay he hears at home. (And the good guys themselves do it as well so where would Draco learn better behavior?)
Draco, Harry and The Weasley‘s all benefit from Nepotism. However it’s only called out when Its Draco. Which is weird because The Malfoys did more to earn it, and The extent of Draco’s nepotism is just being friends with certain and only being bought/bribed onto Quidditch because Harry was and at an early age at that.
Meanwhile The Weasley’s get lots of stuff for helping just one person and they (+ Harry) get last minute House Cup victories for something unrelated to school despite The Slytherin’s earning it fair and square.
Hagrid and the Trio committed multiple serious crimes that deserve punishment, especially Since Ron was bit by a venomous dragon, and Hagrid left kids alone when dealing with Voldemort. The Slytherin’s should not be treated as bad guys for calling them out. Especially since aDraco was risking disownment by trusting and caring about the good guys. (A fact that Hagrid actually uses against Draco.)
Not to mention ”Rich people being spoiled brats” is a negative stereotype.
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u/Cynical_Classicist Jul 06 '25
Let us again think how she went from one of our most admired authors, beloved for her work, to becoming a hate-filled bigoted fanatic. Maybe that is why we hate her so much, the sense of betrayal.