Harry Potter and the Surveillance State Part 2
This article is the second part of a series reevaluating the status quo maintained in Harry Potter. If you have not yet read the first, we advise you to do so before reading this. If you’re up to date with the governmental and penal systems of the wizarding world, then let’s jump right back in.
Class Struggles
Even in an alternate magical universe, the class structures of society are upheld. Being poor is a source of ridicule and bullying as demonstrated by Ron Weasley’s school experience. Hogwarts, a fancy wizarding boarding school, seems not to have an institutionalised scholarship system. The only mention of a scholarship comes from a personal initiative from Dumbledore. It is also worth noting that the only recipient of a scholarship became the most evil wizard ever. It should serve as a warning not to empower those ungrateful poors. One last thing is that the wizarding world does not seem to present alternative routes for non-academic education, there are no apprenticeships or technical training. Thus the avenues to power and money are gatekept by a single elitist institution.
House Elf Slavery
House-elves are an enslaved magical species who are forced to serve wizarding families, yet most wizards view this as completely normal. The poor elves are conditioned into thinking that that is what they want and fear being set free. Despite the fact that some characters like Hermione Granger have NGOs to uphold elf rights, everyone has a dismissive and mocking attitude towards her. Similar to the real world, NGOs are defanged, tone-deaf systems that do not understand the populace they are designed to help. On the contrary, they seem to act as a pacifying tool designed to alleviate guilt and not implement systemic change. Hermoine is portrayed as an annoying, self-righteous activist, not as just a normal empathetic human. Dumbledore tells Sirius he needs to treat Kreacher well, yet he himself has a cohort of elf slaves in Hogwarts. So the sentiment is don't be cruel to your slaves, yet their enslavement is a reality that we have to accept. These sentiments parallel colonial justifications of slavery and are never challenged. Even after the defeat of Voldemort, there was no Elf emancipation and all talk of inter-species cooperation was superficial, normalising propaganda.
Fascism and Blood Purity
Although Voldemort’s ideas of blood purity are presented as the biggest evil that needs to be fought, and despite the constant reference to half-blood or muggle-born people as brilliant and successful, it is important to point out some facts that are taken at face value in the wizarding world. First of all, even before Voldemort’s reign, most leadership positions in the Ministry for Magic are held by pureblood families. Second, even the well-meaning wizards refer to muggle-borns as muggle-borns and not simply wizards or witches. Third, Muggle Studies is a subject akin to the early ethnography departments that used to measure skulls and study indigenous societies through the lens of cultural superiority. Even muggle lovers like Mr. Weasley are dripping with the magical world’s equivalent of Orientalism. He sees muggles as these crafty, exotic, insignificant beings. One last thing, despite the fact that wizards have magic that could probably cure cancer and they have contact with the muggle prime minister, there is never any effort put into utilising magic to further muggle society. Under the guise of maintaining secrecy, the wizarding world keeps its technology exclusively in wizarding hands. Although the exaggerated and explicit hate of blood impurity is frowned upon, the implicit and social aspects of it are ignored, unchallenged and upheld.
Having said all that, I would like to situate our position at Folkloric in this conversation. While we appreciate the creativity and magic of the world of Harry Potter, we believe that fantasy and speculative fiction need to question or reassess the status quo. Reimagining an alternate reality with the same inherent prejudices baked in seems superficial and indulgent. Our engagement with the weird and the magical is not only personal but also political. The speculative/alternate nature of creative endeavours allows a space for reassessment and a reimagining of the social and political status quo. In comparison to the real world, the fantastical can reimagine systemic and personal aspects of our contemporary life and strive to present alternatives. This does not mean that we believe all work should engage with politics, yet we believe that creativity is political.
[originally posted to Patreon on 23/3/25]
