Harry Potter Stereotypes

The classic Disney movies Peter Pan and Pocahontas have been staples in many American children’s lives. These seemingly harmless family-friendly films have taught many important life lessons and morals, however, the movies also tend to create racial stereotypes and insinuate the ideas of white settler innocence. The song “Savages” from Pocahontas and the song “What Makes the Red Man Red” from Peter Pan in particular portray these implications. Sherene Razack’s “When Place Becomes Race” explores the correlation and affect that race and space have on each other with in-depth analysis of what makes up each. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ““The Danger of a Single Story” explains how stereotypes are not only created by a story -which is not necessarily false- but also

The findings concluded that female representation in popular games of the time were strongly based on stereotype. Of the few games that contained women, a small fraction were leads while others were found to be standing behind males, as well as being depicted wearing stereotypically feminine colours, princess dresses, or very revealing clothing. Women were commonly portrayed as victims, “Damsels in distress” (Dietz 1998), or evil obstacles to protagonists. Violence and aggression in general and towards others were also noted in the research. A significant portion of this were classified as violence towards female characters. The research suggests that these implications of gender roles and violence could be detrimental towards girls and boys, as they may accept what they see

No matter what gender, making money by getting notes pushed inside your G-string is belittling. I could be wrong, but giving anyone the right to touch or even look at your private parts for a couple of dollars is definitely not a good way to boost your self-esteem. Magic Mike (2012), directed by Steven Soderbergh, justifies this argument with an inventive mixture of comedy, romance, drama and some surprisingly coordinated strip routines involving incredibly attractive, toned and tanned males. I feel as though women may enjoy this film more than most men. The film is energizing and original as it transforms the usual stereotype of women being displayed as sexual objects, reversing the gender roles.

After the 1950’s and the invention of the television, the view of how women should act has drastically changed. We went from the image of the everyday housewife in a long dress and neat hair to the concept of women being ditsy sex symbols, and occasionally to the strong female heroes who could hold their own against any competitor. As women on TV and in film have progressed, so has society’s view of women and our abilities.

In Jackie Horne’s article “Harry and the Other,” she explains that critics of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series indicate, “Rowling’s depiction of Dobby and his fellow elves contains uncomfortable echoes of many of the stereotypes held by whites of enslaved African Americans” (80-81). Discriminatory thoughts and actions serve as the base for stereotypes. Discrimination, defined by Ormerod as “an unfair action or behavior that results in negative outcomes for targeted social groups or their members” (“Social Discrimination” 1630), is evident in both the house-elves in the Harry Potter series and with African Americans in the United States today. Many individuals regard the commonness of discrimination in the modern world as a minor issue

The social constructs that have always been the backbone of society are being brought into the light more and more each day. Ideologies such as gender roles and stereotypes are two of the main focuses now being debated. The culture surrounding gender has always been incredibly concrete, the line between what was feminine and what was masculine always prominent. However, more often than ever, people are beginning to fight the norms that individuals are being forced to comply with. Some individuals, such as Monika Bartyzel, freelance writer and creator of the weekly feature “Girls on Film”, believe that representation of the princess culture is creating a stigma and a mold that young girl are being forced into accepting. On the opposing side,

Harry Potter, a series of novels by J.K. Rowling revolves around a wizarding world that centers on the life of Harry Potter fighting an evil wizard, Voldemort along with his followers. In order to do so, Harry is helped by his friends, such as Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley. As these novels are transformed into movies, clearly there have been some changes in the adaptation. On the third book, readers are introduced with a new character, Cho Chang who happens to be Asian and Harry’s first love interest. However, the movie starts to introduce her in the fourth film as she was portrayed by Katie Lieung.

Throughout the world women are depicted to be oversexualized among forms of media such as video games and comic books. The idea of oversexualization towards female characters is that they have been often drawn and animated in hypersexual ways. Even going as far as viewing them as a sex object, their revealing body images are eye candy through the eyes of men. Hence women found in comic books and video games are frequently emphasized by their excessive physical appearances, objectification, portrayal, and character role.

Feminist issues have always been controversial throughout history and gender topics remain debatable matters in the context of the democratic society of the 21st Century. Over and over again these representations are revisited, seeing just how many degrading representations the modern-day woman can overcome before finally adopting these stereotypes as the norm in her everyday life. It is almost like a game to see how many obstacles women can overcome; each obstacle yet another generalised representation of women in literature and film. Shakespeare exampled this through the classic, 1606 play, Macbeth, as did director Sam Mendes in one of the iconic James Bond films, 2012, Skyfall. Through classic pieces of literature and modern day film,

It only takes a second to attach a strong feeling or idea to a character in a movie, advertisement, or video game. Many characterization used are based on the assumed stereotypes, and are usually one-dimensional characters. Typically, these characterizations usually come from inherited family values, education, and the media. While stereotypes existed long before mass media, the media machine certainly helped to accelerate the cultural growth of all kinds of stereotypes. It is beyond this paper to answer why magazines employ these gender stereotypes, instead this research is designed to analyze

The Harry Potter series consists of seven books, eight in June of 2016. J.K. Rowling, the author, created an entirely new world. In this world, the wizards are the focal point and the non-wizards, otherwise known as muggles, are abnormal (Rowling 1998). Some wizards think muggle technology as fascinating while others think of it as obsolete to their magical abilities (Rowling 1998). She created this entirely different world than the one that we are used to. However, she did not differ from the real world in one aspect: women are not equal to men (Mayes 2006). Women still have to fight to be thought of as equal to men, which means they would rarely be seen as better or more powerful than them. Hermione Granger is an example of how women are

Children see the world with more innocence than anyone else; they have no prejudices, and they know little to nothing of war. Now, imagine a joyful child picking up a book on a Sunday afternoon, only to be affronted with stereotypes and racism integrated within the story. How can they retain their youthful innocence when their favorite stories teach stereotypes and close minded thinking? For children and parents, the act of learning to read represents an important milestone in the development of the child. Parents pride themselves on reading to their children every night. Early reading allows the children a chance to speak and interact with parents and allows them more hands-on experience with reading. Reading also begins

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.

Throughout history woman have been portrayed in novels, often with varying degrees of sexism and/ or realism. From the representation of Mary Magdalene in The Bible, right through to J.K Rowling’s Hermione Granger, story tellers and subsequent authors have seen fit to include such characters in their work.

Throughout history, female protagonists have existed in literature: Scarlett from Gone With the Wind, Jo from Little Women, and Katherine from Taming of the Shrew to name a few. All three show the strong female attributes that have inspired women throughout history. No doubt, literature today would be very different without credible female characters such as Scarlett, Jo, and Katherine, who have all made their mark on literature by inspiring modern authors to bring forth more powerful women who are set to change the way women are viewed in a male-dominated world. Heroines of the modern world like Melanie Stryder from The Host, Hermione from the Harry Potter series, and Tris from the Divergent series, have pulled girls, young and old, into