Harry Potter and the Series of Many Faults

I love Harry Potter. I have made that clear in the past. However, I have also made it clear that, as I get older, my relationship with the series has gotten more and more mixed. I will not pretend that it does not have any faults just because I grew up on it and based much of my life on it. No, instead I want to embrace the fact that it has faults and show that I can be mature enough to address those issues. That is what this review is about.

1.      The Author

I am going to start with the gigantic elephant in the room: J.K. Rowling herself. She was once my hero but has now become the villain in my tale. She has done many good things for women in her life, yes, and she has encouraged reading and love among many audiences of children around the world. However, she is transphobic, something that I cannot condone. The lack of transgender characters in the series never seemed like a red flag to me, but the more that J.K. Rowling has spoken about transgender issues in a negative manner, the more it has bothered me. I know that I should probably separate the author from her work—and I try to—but it is still a negative point for me regarding the series.

2.      Minorities

How the books handle minorities in general has gotten under my skin as of late. Back when I first read the books, they seemed quite progressive. Looking back, though, they were no more progressive than any other books I have ever read. In fact, books like Rick Riordan’s works seem far more progressive in their handling of minorities. In Harry Potter, there are some Black characters and characters from around the world, but they are still in the minority and do not always play a big part in the story. J.K. Rowling even tries to claim now that Hermione “could have been Black”, but there have been mixed messages in the books, including a quote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban that describes “Hermione’s white face” and another from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that describes Hermione as “very brown” (The Harry Potter Lexicon). J.K. Rowling utilizes myths and legends from around the world, but now that I’ve become more expose to the world beyond my hometown, I don’t know how well she has handled that. And her claim that Dumbledore was gay—don’t get me started on that.

3.      Fat People

Fat people are villainized in these books. That’s just all there is to it. Dudley, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Marge, the list goes on. The closest that we get to someone who is “big” who is good are Hagrid and Madame Maxime, and they are not described as fat but as, literally, giant—part-giant, that is. As someone who is plus-sized, I take personal offense to this fact. Does J.K. Rowling have problems with people who are plus-sized? Does she think that being “fat” is a sin or something? True, Dudley started to take a positive turn towards the end of the series, but we hardly see him after that. Why is that? Do we not get to see a “good fat person” once they become good? It infuriates me.

To be honest, I could go on and on with the list of faults in this series. These are just the top three that come to mind. Writing it now, it makes me wonder why I love the books so much. Then I remember the magic, the friendship, the love of family and found family, and the tolerance that the books themselves—not J.K. Rowling—taught. I remember all those years of standing in line at midnight for a book or to watch the movies, the excitement and anticipation, staying up all night to read just one more chapter. So, yes, the books are severely flawed. I have come to accept that. But they are also something else: my childhood.

Author's Note: This work is for Sasha Desideri's "Geek Out! Upside Down" Challenge, the link to which you can find below.