behold, the disillusionment charm
I'm in full-on Harry Potter mode. Possibly the most buzzed I've been about The Big H-P since... well, probably since HP6 was released, but I always welcome the giddy literary excitement that thumps through my veins when I new HP book is coming out.
To prepare for this enormous, epic, incredible, over-the-top exciting, end-of-an-era event, I reread the beginning of Book 1 and am now rereading OotP (that's Book Five for those of you who haven't memorized the book abbreviations-- honestly, are you out having a life or something absurd like that?!). Also, on a sidenote, seriously, it is the end of an era--shit, y'all, how did this happen that Gilmore Girls AND Harry Potter both end the year that I graduated high school? Those have been my two largest obsessions, honestly, and it's a damn BIZARRE coincidence. I suppose stranger things have happened, but let's be real here, it's weird. (Before I joined the Gilmore Girls forum in eighth grade, I was crazy4harry! in a Harry Potter Message Board online-- it must have been in sixth grade; damn did I think I was cool.)
Anyway, back to what I was saying. So as you might have deduced, I'm a really big Harry Potter fan. But when I read HP, I'm in another world (clichhhhe, much?). Really. I remove my judgmental sidetalk, my snarky margin-writings, my bitchy mouthing back. I just let the book wash over me, let the mysteries tangle and untangle, let the magic be magical.
But then, my friend at school, who is way more obsessed than I am, recieved a collection of essays about HP for her birthday from some other of my friends. One essay in particular, "Is Harry Potter Sexist?" jumped out at me, as anyone who has even spent ten minutes on this journal should expect. I was alarmed. HARRY POTTER. SEXIST! MY BELOVED MAGICAL WORLD! SEXIST! SEXIST!! I HATE SEXISM! I LOVE HARRY POTTER! The cognitive dissonance (thanks, AP Psych!) was too much for me to handle.
So today, as I was sitting in front of the computer, I figured I'd see exactly what the deal was with this Harry Potter Sexism. Ever since I read the essay title in that book, and now that I'm rereading HP5, I have noticed things: like how Mrs. Weasley is super Typical 1950's Mom-ish, or so many of the powerful characters in the books are male--Voldemort and Dumbledore especially show the partiarchial makeup of power.
My Googling promptly guided me toward this 2000 Salon piece and a similar piece in 2001 in Bitch, a magazine I adore.
I was, in a word, defeated. My world of magic, tarnished by this! I'm still... disappointed, I suppose, but willing to... well, I suppose as one of the articles says, "turn on the off switch" when I'm reading the books and enjoy. Does this make me a bad person? A downright pathetic feminist?
I hope not, and it may be points off my standing as a feminist. With HP7 already standing ready for battle by the millions in publishing houses, I'm not sure what pointing this sexism out will do for the immediate future. Well, actually, that's a lie, it will make us more aware, but in this particular case, I really don't want the disillusionment to sink in. I want to keep thinking about HP like I did when I was eleven, and in third-grade, and living vicariously as a boy through Harry Potter (I realize this is a sexist statement). I want to go into the magical world and leave politics, in all their messiness, behind.
Is this so sinful? Possibly, yes, maybe. Okay, how about this? I read HP the first time through without an "adult" care in the world, to enjoy it, purely for pleasure, like the third-grader I was when the series began so many years ago. I can read it again, later, but in a different mood, without the lighthearted giddiness that envelopes me upon hearing "Deathly Gallows" (oh, what Harry Potter has done to us!). And then will I disillusion my years of obsession? It seems rather grim. Maybe this is the one area that I just don't want my feminist conscience to intrude. I can't spell it out any more than that. Wait, perhaps I can--spell it out, that is. Wingardium ignoramus!
To prepare for this enormous, epic, incredible, over-the-top exciting, end-of-an-era event, I reread the beginning of Book 1 and am now rereading OotP (that's Book Five for those of you who haven't memorized the book abbreviations-- honestly, are you out having a life or something absurd like that?!). Also, on a sidenote, seriously, it is the end of an era--shit, y'all, how did this happen that Gilmore Girls AND Harry Potter both end the year that I graduated high school? Those have been my two largest obsessions, honestly, and it's a damn BIZARRE coincidence. I suppose stranger things have happened, but let's be real here, it's weird. (Before I joined the Gilmore Girls forum in eighth grade, I was crazy4harry! in a Harry Potter Message Board online-- it must have been in sixth grade; damn did I think I was cool.)
Anyway, back to what I was saying. So as you might have deduced, I'm a really big Harry Potter fan. But when I read HP, I'm in another world (clichhhhe, much?). Really. I remove my judgmental sidetalk, my snarky margin-writings, my bitchy mouthing back. I just let the book wash over me, let the mysteries tangle and untangle, let the magic be magical.
But then, my friend at school, who is way more obsessed than I am, recieved a collection of essays about HP for her birthday from some other of my friends. One essay in particular, "Is Harry Potter Sexist?" jumped out at me, as anyone who has even spent ten minutes on this journal should expect. I was alarmed. HARRY POTTER. SEXIST! MY BELOVED MAGICAL WORLD! SEXIST! SEXIST!! I HATE SEXISM! I LOVE HARRY POTTER! The cognitive dissonance (thanks, AP Psych!) was too much for me to handle.
So today, as I was sitting in front of the computer, I figured I'd see exactly what the deal was with this Harry Potter Sexism. Ever since I read the essay title in that book, and now that I'm rereading HP5, I have noticed things: like how Mrs. Weasley is super Typical 1950's Mom-ish, or so many of the powerful characters in the books are male--Voldemort and Dumbledore especially show the partiarchial makeup of power.
My Googling promptly guided me toward this 2000 Salon piece and a similar piece in 2001 in Bitch, a magazine I adore.
I was, in a word, defeated. My world of magic, tarnished by this! I'm still... disappointed, I suppose, but willing to... well, I suppose as one of the articles says, "turn on the off switch" when I'm reading the books and enjoy. Does this make me a bad person? A downright pathetic feminist?
I hope not, and it may be points off my standing as a feminist. With HP7 already standing ready for battle by the millions in publishing houses, I'm not sure what pointing this sexism out will do for the immediate future. Well, actually, that's a lie, it will make us more aware, but in this particular case, I really don't want the disillusionment to sink in. I want to keep thinking about HP like I did when I was eleven, and in third-grade, and living vicariously as a boy through Harry Potter (I realize this is a sexist statement). I want to go into the magical world and leave politics, in all their messiness, behind.
Is this so sinful? Possibly, yes, maybe. Okay, how about this? I read HP the first time through without an "adult" care in the world, to enjoy it, purely for pleasure, like the third-grader I was when the series began so many years ago. I can read it again, later, but in a different mood, without the lighthearted giddiness that envelopes me upon hearing "Deathly Gallows" (oh, what Harry Potter has done to us!). And then will I disillusion my years of obsession? It seems rather grim. Maybe this is the one area that I just don't want my feminist conscience to intrude. I can't spell it out any more than that. Wait, perhaps I can--spell it out, that is. Wingardium ignoramus!