Abstract
This chapter reads J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter as a positive model of masculinity whose main asset is his absolute lack of attraction to patriarchal power. In order to challenge previous readings contending that the series ultimately promotes hegemonic masculinity, the chapter examines the many ways in which, throughout the seven novels, Harry Potter systematically threatens patriarchal masculinities. Although it might be claimed that Rowling is merely substituting one model of hegemonic masculinity by another one equally idealized and constricting, Harry’s characterization as a flawed and ordinary boy evades the imposition of unrealistic expectations. The Harry Potter series thus celebrates Harry’s anti-patriarchal masculinity, at the same time that it avoids alienating its readers with an excessively idealized, archetypal hero.
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Notes
- 1.
Subsequent references to Harry Potter book titles will be abbreviated.
- 2.
I here concentrate exclusively on Rowling’s original seven-book series. The play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016), written by Jack Thorne, will not be taken into consideration on the grounds that despite Rowling’s claims that it should be considered canon (see Rowling 2015) since she suggested the plot, it contains too many inconsistencies in relation with the original novels, as well as plenty of out-of-character moments that would confuse rather than enlighten the present discussion.
- 3.
I am well aware of the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling’s transphobic remarks on Twitter but my position is that they do not invalidate her anti-patriarchal discourse in the series, whose last book, besides, was published ten years before the polemic erupted in 2017. In a post published in her blog in 2020, Rowling herself summarized the events and showed a variety of concerns regarding the (in her view) negative impact of trans activism on women’s lives (for a rebuttal of Rowling’s argumentation, see Montgomerie 2020). In any case, although addressed to cisgender (heterosexual) men, Rowling’s anti-patriarchal injunction in the Harry Potter series to eschew power for domination and embrace goodness is, no doubt, of general application beyond this demographic.
- 4.
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Llompart, A. (2023). “Some Wizards Just Like to Boast that Theirs Are Bigger and Better”: Harry Potter and the Rejection of Patriarchal Power. In: Martín, S., Santaulària, M.I. (eds) Detoxing Masculinity in Anglophone Literature and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22144-6_9
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