How Do We Handle Harry Potter Now?
Potter #Potter
At this point, there’s as much of a cottage industry of pieces about how to grapple with the Harry Potter franchise in the wake of repeated retrograde comments from J.K. Rowling as there is official merchandise of Harry Potter. Lindsay Ellis made videos on this topic years ago, while countless great essays, including those from the LGBTQIA+ community who hold a deep personal love for those books, have been published on the subject. The ubiquity of discourse over this topic isn’t random, but rather a reflection of how enduring both the Harry Potter saga and systemically ingrained transphobia are in our society. As long as Hot Topic sells Sorting Hats and transphobia is a thing in our world, we’re going to have to talk about what to do with the Harry Potter franchise in the wake of Rowling’s comments.
Is it possible to still enjoy this saga now in the modern world? Can future generations find enjoyment in the world of Hogwarts? These are all complicated questions with no easy answers, beyond the fact that supporting and validating trans lives should come first no matter what.
RELATED: The Wizarding World Is Dead…Can It Ever Come Back?
The Past and Present of Harry Potter
The Harry Potter books, movies, and merchandise are not going anywhere. While instantly dismissible voices on social media may see any criticism of the franchise or its author as tantamount to a “book burning,” something as big as Harry Potter isn’t going anywhere from the pop culture zeitgeist. That’s not necessarily a referendum on the essentiality of Harry Potter as a work of fiction, just a reflection on how hard it is for these sorts of pop culture properties to vanish into thin air once they leave a momentous impact.
This also means that anyone’s special attachment to Harry Potter isn’t in jeopardy of vanishing, nor are you evil for clinging tightly to memories or merchandise associated with the franchise. I’m not saying that on a high horse, I’m saying that as someone who long wished they could board the Hogwarts Express. I grew up with fond memories of consuming the Harry Potter books rather than sleeping and rewatching those movie adaptations so many times with friends and family. Not only did I love this fictional universe, but my memories of it (the midnight screenings of the films, or bonding with friends over our favorite moments from the book) are intertwined with the people I love. I’m surely not the only one given what a deep emotional chord this franchise struck with the public. Plus, the saga’s story about a young boy ostracized from his family who ends up finding camaraderie and bonding with a found family has often struck a chord with specifically queer readers and viewers.
Our memories of Harry Potter aren’t going anywhere, but as for the future of the franchise and how the public handles it, that’s a different story. Because now Harry Potter is intertwined with a creator who fiercely clings to ideology and words that are perceived as transphobic. It’s not even like J.K. Rowling’s rhetoric is happening in a vacuum either, as members of the house of U.S. Representatives are now turning to her comments about trans women to lend support to transphobic legislation. The past of Harry Potter is connected to fond childhood memories, but the present and future of this franchise are unfortunately connected to dehumanizing ideology.
It’s important to recognize that on countless levels, especially when considering the onslaught of difficulties facing the trans community on a day-to-day basis. Legislation dehumanizing and erasing members of the trans community (particularly trans children) has increased considerably in recent years in America while global rhetoric towards trans lives has been just as bad. Rowling’s words aren’t responsible for all of transphobia but rather are a microcosm of how normalized this intolerance is on the global stage. That’s the kind of thought that makes considering Harry Potter’s future place in pop culture such a hefty but urgent thing to consider. The urgency of the matter is only exacerbated by how Rowling is still the primary creative voice of this franchise and stands to financially benefit from any new extensions of this universe.
What Do We Do Now?
Harry Potter isn’t the only beloved book series out there. The world of literature is dense with other great works that can enchant kids and adults alike, even just in the world of fantasy alone. There’s no way to erase Harry Potter from pop culture and that wouldn’t do anything to stop transphobia anyway (if anything, it would just turn the franchise into a pop culture martyr for the most repugnant people out there). But both individual people and pop culture institutions alike would be wise to start highlighting other fantasy literature sagas from other authors instead of Harry Potter. Just because it’s been in the spotlight for decades now doesn’t mean that The Boy Who Lived should continue being the de facto face of children’s fantasy literature.
There are ways that the everyday person can better handle the legacy of fantasy literature and media so that it isn’t all revolving around Harry Potter. However, just as a handful of massive companies are responsible for the vast majority of pollution on the planet, so too must we recognize how corporations handle the Harry Potter franchise going forward. Warner Bros. sending out a statement reflecting that it was “proud” to work with J.K. Rowling circa. June 2020 in the wake of her then-most recent round of transphobic comments makes the priorities of this massive corporation clear (the dire lack of any trans representation in any of its modern films also makes those priorities apparent).
Corporations with an excessive amount of power like Warner Bros. and its parent company WarnerDiscovery are helping to normalize making a dollar and trans erasure over the humanity of a vulnerable community. This studio placing a priority on a wide variety of trans narratives instead of squeezing out any remaining pennies from the Wizarding World saga (which doesn’t appear to be that lucrative any more per the box office returns of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) would go a long way to rectifying the problems now ingrained into trying to keep on plastering Harry Potter everywhere like it’s still 2004.
The Focus Must Be on Marginalized Artists
Better yet, we can shift the focus to fantasy literature that emphasizes perspectives and marginalized groups entirely absent from Harry Potter. Starless by Jacqueline Carey, for instance, or the anthology collection Maiden, Mother, Crone: Fantastical Trans Femmes (even more suggestions for trans fantasy and sci-fi literature can be found here) ensure that readers get all the fantasy tropes they love so much while experiencing them through a trans lens. Those are just the books that exist today! Further normalization of trans perspectives in art can lead to exciting new novels from future authors who recognize the exciting possibilities of placing trans people in fantastical scenarios.
Similarly, the works of Rowling have no real room for people of color (just look at how the two most prominent Black characters in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald eventually become solely exposition devices), but that doesn’t mean fantasy literature is devoid of narratives told from non-white voices. N.K. Jemisin alone has written countless fantasy and sci-fi works that have become some of the most acclaimed genre works of the 21st century. Other works, like The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna, offer further options for fantasy literature that can serve as cultural touchstones for the next generation.
The shortcomings found in the original Harry Potter books and especially in the rhetoric of J.K. Rowling allow us to see the shortcomings in one of pop culture’s most revered properties. But those flaws should also provide a springboard for people to ask “what else is out there?” In handling Harry Potter as a franchise for the future, maybe our answer shouldn’t be viewing it through a new lens but instead using it as a helpful guide to highlight other fantasy works. Let’s work to promote and underscore the importance of genre fiction that dares to explore the marginalized perspectives Rowling’s fantastical world fails to account for.
How do we handle Harry Potter now? Ironically, by not giving it much thought at all. This isn’t to say we should begin ignoring harmful elements from the original franchise nor erasing our fond memories of growing up with Harry Potter or turning a blind eye towards the impact of Rowling’s words. However, everyday people, and especially gigantic corporations, need to make sure that Harry Potter isn’t the beginning and the end of the mainstream perception of fantasy storytelling, especially when so many alternatives exist that revel in marginalized perspectives. Placing our attention on those other properties and the indisputable truth that trans lives have value while dialing back the presence of Harry Potter in the zeitgeist — that’s the best way to handle this saga in the modern world.