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.
