The “Harry Potter fandom” is a revered community of Harry Potter fans of both the books and movies. Not only have these fans formulated wizarding communities, they have also individualized the Harry Potter world to find a place for themselves within the world of wizarding and witchcraft. Fans avidly read and write fan fiction, construct fan art, and communicate on these fan forums. However, the extent of the Harry Potter fandom is not merely limited to the web; annual fan conventions are hosted, while other fans engage in Oxford University tours of Harry Potter’s landmarks. As an avid Harry Potter fan myself, I ensured that my mother and me took a pit stop at Oxford’s sidewalks that inspired Harry Potter’s lightning bolt scar. Despite one’s liking of Harry Potter, it is well known that the Harry Potter series holds one of the most diverse, extensive, and “loyal” fan bases. According to the publisher, over 375 million copies of the Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide (Klimmt 253).
J.K. Rowling constructed empowering feminist characters throughout Harry Potter. Most popular of these icons, considered a gift to female fans, is Hermione Granger. Hermione was so much more than beauty and sexuality; she was vulnerable, emotional, strong, selfless, courageous, loyal, and brave. She has prized friendships, esteemed education, and has even found love along the way. However, there’s a full-fledged cast of empowered females: Ginny, Luna, Molly, and Professor McGonagall are only a handful of the selflessly brave women in this series. Yet, what is most appealing about them for the female fan community isn’t their brevity and strength, it’s the flawed, normalcy, and empathy within these characters. Their torturous and relatable stories have further empowered the female fan base; J.K. Rowling didn’t portray these women as simply perfect and beautiful, but more so as something strong and flawed. Fans not only explored their individuality within these characters, many have also grown alongside these women. For the overall fan community, their emotional relationship and connection with Harry Potter is more about the journey and evolution of the characters.
Reality, on the other hand, is not a world similar to that of Harry Potter where everyone is a feminist. Even in the world of Harry Potter, the empowered female characters also face sexism. From Ginny’s slut shaming by her brother Ron to Ron’s tainted image of Hermione after he discovers that Victor Krum kissed her, J.K. Rowling sites sexist trends throughout her novels. Perhaps for a bit of reality in the midst of her wizarding world extraordinaire. However, what is most important for readers and fans is the path in which characters like Hermione Granger are able to move past these moments. It not only empowers the females within the fandom, but it also is a lesson for us as fans that sexism clearly exists but it is up to us to look past such discrepancies and empower ourselves. For these reasons, Hermione Granger will always be revered for portraying relentless strength, intelligence, and feministic traits. What is most inspiring about Hermione Granger is that Emma Watson channels her inner Hermione in real life or vice versa. Emma is not only a proud feminist, but she is also the United Nations Women Goodwill Ambassador. Her world renowned speech on behalf of the HeForShe campaign, resonated amongst feminist fans; Emma represented the loyalty and courageousness of Hermione Granger in real life so why couldn’t fans do exactly the same? Fans on Tumblr even sited the recent election as a “battle at Hogwarts in the USA”. Galvanized by Emma Watson’s attendance at the Women’s March at Washington DC and J.K Rowling’s outright disdain for Donald Trump, Harry Potter’s fandom has transformed from being merely a fan community that’s passionate about wizardry and witchcraft to being a politicized fandom. Therefore, I will be focusing my research on feminism within the Harry Potter fandom. Tumblr, fan fiction, fan art, twitter, and the women’s march media of Harry Potter are the resources that I will be using to conduct and analyze the prominence of feminism within the fandom. However, my research will be not only focus on feminism within the fandom but the ways in which the feminist ideology transitioned to being fully politicized during the previous US election.
Previous Research
Remarkably, the Harry Potter fandom has a diverse array of scholarly resources. While one source focuses on the demographics of Harry Potter fans, other sources primarily focus on gender, sexuality, feminism, and ethics. Across my sources, one thing that they can all agree upon is the importance of social justice, morality, love, and friendship within Harry Potter. Moreover, these sources address the fact that Harry Potter fans take it upon themselves to fill in the gaps of anything they believe is missing or should be expanded upon in their fandoms. For example, homosexual desires are often “shipped” and expressed throughout fanfiction and fan art, while a wave of feminism can be seen throughout such fan fiction and art. Hannah Schmid and Christoph Klimmt explores parasocial relationships that Harry Potter readers from diverse cultures have developed. She specifically conducts her study on Harry Potter fans from Germany and Mexico. An overall sample of 2551 Potter fans from Germany (individualistic culture) and Mexico (collectivistic culture) completed an online questionnaire assessing their parasocial relationship with the character (Klimmt 258-259). Ultimately, this study proved that the fandom is beyond similar despite cultural divergences. On the other hand, Kristina Busse discusses the prominent role that media texts play in channeling feminism throughout a fandom. Female fans predominantly created stories and art in the 1960s, according to Busse, expressing their deep passion and commitment to their fandoms. These women create the narratives that the media ultimately lacked to express (Busse 104-106). However, other sources question whether or not the Harry Potter series is feministic. Meredith Cherland discusses the sexism that Ginny faces by her brother Ron, who refers to her as a slut. In her perspective, the female characters are continuously changing, sometimes they’re characters of strength while other times they’re expressed as weak and formulaic of the stereotypical feminine prototype (Cherland 273-278). Shira Wolosky delves deeper into the morality of Harry Potter, expanding upon feminist moral theory within Harry Potter. Love is continuously placed as the overcoming power of evil throughout the series, while trust and friendship are the empowering forces to conquer such evil. Personal relationships are the core of feminist ethics; however, these relationships have translated into civic commitments in Harry Potter (203-209). Molly, Lily, and Narcissa place love above power throughout their lives; protecting their children is their sole responsibility and goal. Although these authors argue from various perspectives, they can all agree that the Harry Potter books represent gender in ways that are highly complex.
On the other hand, Catherine Hall’s Reading and [w]rocking’: Morality and musical creativity in the Harry Potter fandom, addresses the ever so popular wizard rock, which absorbs and expands upon “Harry Potter” through music and lyrics. These fans are well known as fandom activists, applying Harry Potter’s heroism to prevalent real world issues (Hall 197-200). Although Hall’s article focuses on the fandom community of Harry Potter, Cherland’s article also touches upon the galvanized Harry Potter fandom. Cherland argues that the poststructural theory offers hope for women who are marked as inferior, stating that, “fans therefore take it upon themselves to produce new story lines and new language patterns where gaps and silences exist” (Cherland 279). Hall similarly argues that the band, Harry and the Potters, encourages activism through music and performances. Wizard rock, similar to the fanfiction described in Cherland’s article, provides an opportunity for musicians and fans to explore their connections with Harry Potter, allowing these fans to apply their attitudes in their work (Hall 204-204). Furthermore, Hall’s article draws from a substantial amount of historical evidence. Harry led a youth movement which parallels historical events in the real world that identifies with wizard rock musicians and fan communities. Hall references the Civil Rights movement, the feminist movements, and campaigns for LGBTQ rights (Hall 196). Similarly, Cherland references the enlightenment and humanism throughout her article to legitimize her argument, while Kellner defines and portrays liberal feminism, Marxist feminism, and multi-cultural feminism both in history and in Harry Potter (Cherland and Kellner).
However, there are certain gaps between the conversations across scholarly articles. Authors haven’t reached a firm conclusion regarding Harry Potter’s inclusion of feminism; they identify moments in the novels where characters are sexist, empowering, and feminists, however these articles flip flop on this matter. Furthermore, few scholars have addressed the recently politicized Harry Potter fandom. As a result of the recent election, Harry Potter fans have become increasingly galvanized. The feminist ideology has diffused across the fandom in waves, while fans manifested their loyalty for the empowered female characters of Harry Potter onto the streets of the Women’s March. The totalitarian-like statements of Donald trump has roused not only the fandom, but also its author J.K. Rowling; Harry’s entire battle throughout these novels has been against evil and totalitarian regimes, and for a lot of Harry Potter fans, Voldemort and Trump are parallels of each other. By analyzing the fandom’s Tumblr, fanfiction, fan art, and signs at the Women’s March, I can assess the certain topics that are politically galvanizing the fandom. Furthermore, by looking at the fandom’s reaction to J.K. Rowling’s recent twitter feuds and Emma Watson’s prominent participation in the Women March’s, I can further analyze what’s inspiring or disheartening the fandom.