I don’t want to ruin anyone’s childhood here, but putting the quality of her books aside, they are very mean-spirited at times. That was one of Ursula le Guin’s main critiques of them.
There’s plenty more I could say, because Joanne is also incredibly lazy with her writing when it comes to diversity (see Kingsley Shacklebolt, Cho Chang), and her books are incredibly dedicated to maintaining the status quo and not improving things for the underprivileged. But the more obvious examples of bigotry, off the top of my head, are:
Slavery isn’t that bad actually: Hermione is characterised as an SJW for caring about the slavery of house elves, the house elves like being slaves and are happier being slaves except for Dobby. One of them even falls into alcoholism (wonder where she got that from)? Rowling later wrote an essay defending this choice.
(Also, instead of freeing his slave at the end of the books, Harry talks about how much he wants his slave to make him a sandwich.)
Antisemitism: Jewish stereotypes with the goblins. Need I say more?
Transphobia even back then for women who don’t conform to beauty standards: Rita Skeeter’s features are described as “mannish” and her appearance is insulted along these lines on multiple occasions.
Fatphobia: evil characters are the size of “small killer whales” and are “pigs” while good characters are “plump” and “chubby”.
Child abuse for the greater good: Dumbledore leaving Harry with the Dursleys is fucking mental.
The goblins are really a movie thing. The movie cranked it up to 11. In the books very little is said describing a goblin as swarthy, having a clever face with long fingers and feet. It’s wild how much a criticism of the movie has blend into the books. Additionally multiple characters have a hooked nose in the books. Snape, Krum and his father. However these never get brought up in the movie or is seen as Jewish coded for the individuals?
It’s as wild as people going on about Orcs being coded as racial caricatures holdovers for black people.
I don’t want to ruin anyone’s childhood here, but putting the quality of her books aside, they are very mean-spirited at times. That was one of Ursula le Guin’s main critiques of them.
Curious what examples you’re thinking of.
The treatment of Harry by the Dursleys was over the top, but what else?
There’s plenty more I could say, because Joanne is also incredibly lazy with her writing when it comes to diversity (see Kingsley Shacklebolt, Cho Chang), and her books are incredibly dedicated to maintaining the status quo and not improving things for the underprivileged. But the more obvious examples of bigotry, off the top of my head, are:
Slavery isn’t that bad actually: Hermione is characterised as an SJW for caring about the slavery of house elves, the house elves like being slaves and are happier being slaves except for Dobby. One of them even falls into alcoholism (wonder where she got that from)? Rowling later wrote an essay defending this choice.
(Also, instead of freeing his slave at the end of the books, Harry talks about how much he wants his slave to make him a sandwich.)
Antisemitism: Jewish stereotypes with the goblins. Need I say more?
Transphobia even back then for women who don’t conform to beauty standards: Rita Skeeter’s features are described as “mannish” and her appearance is insulted along these lines on multiple occasions.
Fatphobia: evil characters are the size of “small killer whales” and are “pigs” while good characters are “plump” and “chubby”.
Child abuse for the greater good: Dumbledore leaving Harry with the Dursleys is fucking mental.
Good points, you’re right the Goblins REALLY stood out, and the casual attitude towards slavery with the elves was unnerving.
The goblins are really a movie thing. The movie cranked it up to 11. In the books very little is said describing a goblin as swarthy, having a clever face with long fingers and feet. It’s wild how much a criticism of the movie has blend into the books. Additionally multiple characters have a hooked nose in the books. Snape, Krum and his father. However these never get brought up in the movie or is seen as Jewish coded for the individuals?
It’s as wild as people going on about Orcs being coded as racial caricatures holdovers for black people.