Examining Discrimination and Stereotyping in Harry Potter

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“As the Dark Lord becomes ever more powerful, your race is set still more firmly above mine! Gringotts falls under Wizarding rule, house-elves are slaughtered, and who amongst the wand-carriers protests?”
“We do!” said Hermione. She had sat up straight, her eyes bright. “We protest! And I’m hunted quite as much as any goblin or elf, Griphook! I’m a Mudblood!”
“Don’t call yourself [that]—” Ron muttered.
“Why shouldn’t I?” said Hermione. “Mudblood, and proud of it!”
Like this excerpt from JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” the majority of the book series takes a clear stance against discriminatory practices. However, she also portrays serious stereotyping oversights throughout her work.
In order to have anything that is atypical,
Not only this, but over the course of the series almost every Antagonist is also a Wizard (Dolores Umbridge and Bellatrix LeStrange being the only Witches among them.) True to the promise of the first book, “there 's not a single witch or wizard who went bad that wasn 't in Slytherin.” (Sorcerer’s Stone) All antagonists are of course included in this umbrella, with the arguable exceptions of the Gryffindors Sirius Black, who was considered by the public to a be a dark wizard regardless of his actual affiliations, and Peter Pettigrew, who was just a sniveling rat….
While Harry and other “good” characters are kind and sympathetic toward house elves, there is no doubt they are severely oppressed. There are some who would even argue that House Elves are a metaphor for the historic oppression of women (Kellner). Some of the reasoning being that house elves are diminutive in stature, are restricted to conducting house work, are intended to remain unseen as they complete their tasks, and do not have surnames or a culture of their own, instead relying on the surname and culture of their masters... Or should I say husbands?
Perhaps an extension of this metaphor is the Suffragette like movement begun by Hermione in the Goblet of Fire novel. While the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, or SPEW, and its connected button campaign are omitted from the films, it is no less a commentary on civil rights for any oppressed group that might be represented by the House Elves. In the manifesto it reads,
“Our short term aims are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long-term aims include … trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they’re shockingly under-represented.”

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