Playing Both Sides

When it comes to the Harry Potter movies, the norms expressed in today’s media are not shown as strong as other shows might portray them. However, these movies do express genders how they really can be in real life. In real life we don’t see girls like Megan Fox walking around or bump into Channing Tatum at the grocery store, we see average people doing their everyday things. The Harry Potter movies portray the normal person very well for example Hermoine Granger is a perfect example. In these movies Hermoine is Harry’s best friend and at some points looked upon as a geek for her knowledge of magic. Hermoine is shown as a powerful character that in some cases has actually saved the men in the stories. Though Harry Potter is the main character in the stories, Hermoine is shown as equal to him if not as powerful. These examples all go against what is usually constructed by media about women. Normally the femininity in media involves the girls being a sex symbol or they are portrayed as weaker than the men of the story while in Hermione’s case she is not portrayed this way.   There’s a part on the fourth movie called “The Goblet of Fire” where Hermoine is in a dress and Ron and Harry are surprised because this is the first time that we get to see Hermoine as more of a girly girl. Hermoine however is not the only girl in these movies that exhibits power over sexy looks. A lot of the female characters in these movies have more of a tomboy look and attitude in comparison with today’s media structure of femininity. Many of these strong female characters have saved Harry’s life once or twice also.

            Even though Harry Potter movies happen to go against the structured norm of femininity, these movies still follow the norm of heterosexual relationships. Throughout the movie we see many upon many heterosexual relationships. We see Harry’s parents, Harry’s uncle and aunt, as well as the Weasley’s. There is not even a mention of anything other than a heterosexual relationship through the movies the only relationships we see are heterosexual, even at the end of the last movies we can see the heroes of the movie end up in a heterosexual relationship. Some newer movies are starting to break the norm of heterosexual relationships but as it can be seen in the Harry Potter movies, it does itself follow the norm that is portrayed in the media that the heterosexual relationship is what is normal. 

More Than Just A Scar ϟ

Pretty much any person you talk to knows about Harry Potter and the story he holds, but do they also know how it contributes to the “Public Sphere”. For those of you who don’t know, a public sphere is a basically a common social standing where people can discuss the problems going on in society today. In Hodkinson’s book he talks about how media can encourage public engagement through an inclusive discussion forum. While talking about this he Hodkinson states that “Media should set themselves up as virtual spaces, then, in which members of society directly interact and engage with one another. Letters pages, phone-in shows and comment facilities on news websites all constitute examples of this, though, in practice, they are often rather limited ones.” [176]. Lucky for all of you Harry Potter fans, these very movies do just that. In Universal Studios, a theme park in Orlando, Florida, they happen to have a ride in their park just for Harry Potter. In this ride you get to tour Hogwarts and experience their world as if you are standing right next to the characters themselves. This ride contributes to the public sphere by allowing people that have the same interest in Harry Potter to enjoy the world they have grown to love together.

Another way that Harry Potter contributes to the public sphere is the values that it teaches. Granted we don’t particularly know Harry Potter for his friendship advice but if you really watch these movies you learn a thing or two about what it means to be a friend. In these movies, the battles can get really rough but luckily for Harry he always has his two best friends by his side and ready to help. In these movies Ron and Hermoine are Harry’s best friends and serve those titles well; no matter what task they are always there to back Harry up. Through thick or thin he can count on them and by allowing kids to watch this it can teach them just that. Kids are able to learn valuable lessons in friendship and loyalty from these movies and in turn use what they learn in real life towards a sense of community. Being the complex story that it is, the Harry Potter saga also teaches people that revenge and anger is not something that should be valued. It portrays these two concepts in such a negative manor by having them represented by the villain (Voldemort) in the story line. Throughout the story Voldemort is known for wanting his revenge on Harry for outstanding his power and in the end Voldemort loses. This shows kids that revenge and anger aren't two things that you want in your life and could ultimately end in your defeat. 

A Whole New World

There is vast number of us out there that have dreams of this world having magic in it and how cool it would be to be able to do magic, but sadly were stuck on a dull planet where the closest thing to magic is the closest chemistry lab. Luckily we have movies like Harry Potter that lets us envision our world if it did happen to hold some kind of magical potential. It would be cool to have some aspects of this world be merged with ours but not exactly all of them, especially the giant spiders part, but none the less it does give some little kids hope that somewhere out in the world there is magic and more to life than what we see. Now some may ask how Harry Potter supports this belief, but it can be seen right in front of your eyes when they talk about “muggles” in the movie and they exit our world and enter the magical world by crossing into the platform 9 ¾ to catch the train to Hogwarts. These movies show kids that Harry and his friends can leave this world and enter a completely new one where magical things happen that many kids dream of. Of course you may be thinking “what’s wrong with letting their imaginations work a little?”, my answer is that nothing is wrong with this but at the same time when they learn that this is not a real place and that there really isn't any magic in this world (that we know of) it could really upset these kids and cause them to not want to watch the movies any more. This idea basically is like when kids find out Santa Claus isn't real, Christmas then kind of loses the magic that you felt in it as a little kid. This dominant ideology of there being magic in the world, created by the movie, also caused a lot of issues with parents values by challenging what they believed in and showing their kids “witchcraft”. This concept caused a lot of problems for families that were close to their religion especially the Catholic religion.  So by putting this idea of a world of hidden magic within our world seems like an idea that would be great to have in a story line but at the same time could cause a lot of problems for the producers of the movie.

ϟ I never thought of it this way! ϟ

Im sure we have all heard the story of the "boy that lived" aka Harry Potter (The Hero, who restores normality) and how his story goes but just to make sure I will sum it up. It all starts when Harry's parents were murdered by the mass murderer/wizard Lord Voldemort(The villain  who disrupts normality). From this point on Harry is forced to live with his aunt and uncle in a closet under their steps. Life for Harry is not that great with his relatives until one day when it is announced to him that he is a wizard. Continuing on in this story Harry attends Hogwarts: the school for witchcraft and wizardry while fighting for his life,with the aid of his friends Ron and Hermoine (The helpers who accompany the hero), as Lord Voldemort and his "death-eaters" regain power and try to eliminate the one threat that still survives to Voldemort's power, Harry.  Along Harry's journey he encounters many friends and foes alike, for example Professor Dumbledore (The donor, who gives the hero a gift to enable normality to be restored). Along with Dumbledore we come across Ginny Weasley(The princess), Hagrid(the dispatcher) and Draco Malfoy(the false hero). Now to many people im sure that this story line might seem boring or not that great but it really is. My idea on the appeal this text has on its viewers is that it opens up a whole new world to people, a world of magic and a place that, for some of us, exists in our dreams. This text is full of creativity and imagination that intrigues the minds of the viewers and in no doubt grasps their attention. This text as a result shows that the viewers of this text are imaginative and think beyond what exists in this world alone. It shows that the viewers of this series would love nothing more than to exist in a world where they could go on adventures just as Harry does, maybe without a group of wizards trying to kill them, but none the less exist in a magical place. These movies also show the dedication of such fans because who would go see every movie out of every eight that have been made. The fans of this text were most definitely grasped by the story line of this movie and it is shown by the dedication and partially by those few fans that can quote every line of the movie.

Harry Potter Interacts

The world of Hogwarts has always left its mark on today's new products and inventions but for some people maybe more than they have realized. There is no doubt in my mind that the Harry Potter movies have caused a huge impact on today's world. Yes, the books are what the movies have originally branched from, but the movies are what really enabled the series to expand to what it has. Anywhere you go today there is most likely at least one person that has heard of the Harry Potter series. Whether it be a lunch box, shirt or even a video game, Harry Potter has become a huge piece of today’s entertainment. A main reason for this could possibly be because of the video games and toys made based off of these movies. The amount of interactivity that goes on between Harry Potter movies and the fan base is phenomenal. There are toy wands made to look like the ones from the movies that even make the sounds of spell being projected from them. To me I see this as an attempt to allow the fans to feel like they could be a part of this place and enable them to become more fascinated with the movies. The amount of technology in today’s world allows us to become, in a way, a part of the world portrayed throughout these movies. Fans are especially allowed to enter this “world of Hogwarts” through the video games that are able to be made from modern technology. These video games allow you to play as a character from these movies and do as they would. This is a big step in media’s attempts to interact with the fans and to keep their interest to return and buy more of this movie’s products and in the end support their favorite movie. By being able to interact with this fantasy world, the fans in turn stay loyal to these movies because it gives them a sense of importance to something they might enjoy. So in turn not only are these products a good thing for the fans to stay involved but also good for the producers of this movie because they make the money from the products and keep fans entertained with their product.