Dr. Charlotte Proudman, a Cambridge academic and feminist who started the U.K. group Right to Equality, was criticized on social media after saying that the Harry Potter series was too White and patriarchal.
“I never liked Harry Potter. I didn’t even finish the first book. Potter is an English schoolboy genius living in a largely male, white fairytale land that looks like Oxbridge (for the elite). He’s a little patriarch that resorts to magic and violence to rule,” she wrote Thursday.
I’ve never liked Harry Potter. I didn’t even finish the first book. Potter is an English schoolboy genius living in a largely male, white fairytale land that looks like Oxbridge (for the elite). He’s a little patriarch that resorts to magic & violence to rule.
— Dr Charlotte Proudman (@DrProudman) March 2, 2023
Many people online disagreed with Proudman’s claim that the Harry Potter books and characters are worthless.
“That’s one view. Another is that the Harry Potter books engendered a love of reading amongst millions of kids (and adults) some of whom thereby expanded their horizons to become students of Cambridge academics when they might not have,” Simon Scarrow, a British author, wrote.
I’ve never liked Harry Potter. I didn’t even finish the first book. Potter is an English schoolboy genius living in a largely male, white fairytale land that looks like Oxbridge (for the elite). He’s a little patriarch that resorts to magic & violence to rule.
— Dr Charlotte Proudman (@DrProudman) March 2, 2023
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Stuart Hazeldine, a British screenwriter, said that J.K. Rowling, who wrote the first book in the series, was poor when she wrote it.
Hazeldine wrote, “Yeah, it would’ve been much better if a woman had written it with no money,”
A health and science reporter, Benjamin Ryan, tweeted, “I’ve never read or seen Harry Potter, but my goodness, this woman needs to lighten up!”
A comparative law scholar named Jaakko Husa pointed out that the main character in Harry Potter comes from a bad background.
Husa tweeted:
“Abused orphan boy living in a cupboard under the stairs, neglected by his guardians, haunted by a mad serial killer, a friend of oppressed students, refuses to take the most magical tool. Somehow he is ‘elite,’ ‘little patriarch,’ and ‘resorts to magic and violence to rule,’”
Rob Wilson, a writer and the head of the charity WheelPower, which supports wheelchair sports, tweeted,
“I’m no Potter fan, but everyone should be able to recognize getting millions of children to engage in reading is an outstanding achievement for @jk rowling – she deserves huge credit for that alone. The books have done so much for a generation of children from all backgrounds.”
This woman was a ‘Cambridge academic’
One of the poshest, whitest, elitist schools in the country – and here she is screaming about a fictional wizard https://t.co/t0K8q4UWMC
— Sophie Corcoran (@sophielouisecc) March 3, 2023
Last month, the author of the series, J.K. Rowling, fought back against attacks from transgender activists. When asked how the attacks will affect her legacy, she said in “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling,” “I’ll be dead.”
Rowling overcame depression, poverty, and thoughts of suicide before writing the famous series that changed how a whole generation thought about fiction. She overcame these problems and became one of the most popular authors ever.
