TW: This article contains mentions of transphobia.
J.K. Rowling’s controversies
Nearly 25 years ago, author J.K. Rowling published the first of seven “Harry Potter” books — a classic series set in a breathtaking universe of wizards and magical creatures. Rowling’s acclaimed saga and the Warner Brothers film adaptations made her a multimillionaire. Now, many say her words on social media make her a transphobe.
In 2020, Rowling drew public criticism for her Twitter reaction to an article that used the language, “people who menstruate.” The phrase is meant to be inclusive of transgender and nonbinary people who also get periods. However, Rowling tweeted, “I’m sure there used to be a word for those people,” referring to the word “women.”
Rowling’s implication that cisgender women are the only people who menstruate sparked hashtags like #JKRowlingIsOverParty and #JKRowlingIsDead. She was also scrutinized for promoting an online shop selling buttons that read, “transactivism is misogyny.”
Rowling authored an essay in response to the tumult, writing, “any man who feels or believes he’s a woman” may take advantage of traditionally cisgender female areas, such as changing rooms.
Such “gender-critical” viewpoints that claim to “protect” cisgender women, according to scholars and activists, harm transgender people seeking access to gender-affirming spaces. In contrast to these views, a UCLA study found no link between bathroom safety and transgender-inclusive policies.
The fandom response
Rowling’s statements culminated in a rift between her and many LGBTQ+ people who fell in love with “Harry Potter.” One fan, a nonbinary Vox staff writer, wrote an article describing how and why they boxed up all their Rowling books.
Similarly, fans on TikTok are distancing themselves from Rowling. One transgender TikToker and book binder is re-binding their “Harry Potter” book collection, removing all mentions of Rowling’s name. Others recommend alternative methods for buying “Harry Potter” items to keep Rowling from earning royalties, including buying from small businesses that sell unlicensed merchandise online.
The effort to ostracize Rowling from the fictional world she created serves, in some fans’ minds, as a reclamation of characters and stories so beloved they go beyond the original intentions of the problematic author.
For instance, players from Mizzou Club Quidditch said they see their club sport as an opportunity to foster both athleticism and inclusivity independent from the version of Quidditch Rowling imagined.
Quidditch: fantasy versus reality
In the books, Quidditch is a game in which players ride on flying broomsticks. The “Chasers” attempt to throw a ball called the “Quaffle” into one of three hoops guarded by the opposing team’s “Keeper.” One goal is worth 10 points. Players must avoid two “Bludgers,” or smaller balls that the “Beaters” on each team whack around with bats.
The “Golden Snitch” is the smallest object used in the game. “Seekers” must search for the tiny, flying ball, and once a Seeker catches the Snitch, the game ends. The team whose Seeker catches the Snitch earns 150 points and usually clinches the game.
MU senior Vincent Reyes, a third-year Beater and the head captain of Mizzou Club Quidditch, described the main differences between the original Quidditch rules and the rules of their league. US Quidditch is the real-life organization for non-magical youth, high school, college and adult teams.
“Quidditch in the books [is] a lot more complex … because it is fantasy, so they can just make up things,” Reyes said. “With the real-life version, it [must] be a functional game.”
To make things “functional,” players use PVC pipes for brooms, the Quaffle is a volleyball and Beaters don’t have bats. Instead, they pelt Chasers with dodgeballs. The Snitch is not a ball, but a person. Snitches enter the game 20 minutes in and try to “avoid capture” by both Seekers. Catching a snitch is also worth significantly fewer points, so the game doesn’t hinge on the Seekers.
The Quidditch games USQ cultivates are dramatically different from Rowling’s depictions of Harry Potter’s games as “the youngest Seeker in a century.” However, freshman Beater Audrey Shively said the differences don’t stop there.
“The game we play is created by fans, and it’s a pretty widely accepted thing amongst [the] fanbase [that] there are a lot of people [in it] who are a part of the LGBT community,” Shively said. “[They] recognize that [Rowling] was … terrible, but [they] made the characters their own in all these various ways.”
Quidditch was built by fans with perspectives that differed significantly from Rowling’s — Shively said it is indeed a “reclaiming of the fandom by the fans.” Quidditch is continuously building a new identity.
“There have been 15 rule books,” Shively said. “At a certain point, we are more building off [USQ’s own] rule book when we change or tweak something … I highly doubt they’ve referenced the original material in a long time.”
Quidditch’s future
Reyes noted USQ plans on changing its name from “Quidditch” to either “Quickball,” “Quadraball,” “Quicker” — the list of “Q” names goes on.
“Quidditch is officially starting to separate itself from ‘Harry Potter’ stuff to distance [itself] from J.K. Rowling,” Reyes said.
In 2020, USQ released a statement supporting transgender and gender-nonconforming people in the wake of “hateful statements made by J.K. Rowling.”
“It was definitely the last straw for [USQ] … to [say], ‘Okay, this is what we need … We’re changing the name and now they can’t tell us what to do … with Quidditch,’” Reyes said.
The creation of non-magical Quidditch to fit fans’ needs was a subtle way to “separate the art from the artist,” but USQ’s plan to change its name entirely is a more conspicuous display of the same phenomenon. Similar to Reyes and Shively, freshman Chaser Eleanor Pederson supports a separation from Rowling.
“I found a lot of comfort in ‘Harry Potter,’ just [because] it was like a place I could escape to,” Pederson said. “She has taken that away from people just by coming out with her views.”
Shively described her own complex reckoning with Rowling as well.
“I’m personally a part of the queer community … and I really loved ‘Harry Potter’ growing up,” Shively said. “Once I was old enough to realize [Rowling’s faults], it was really heartbreaking because I also met a lot of other people in the queer community through ‘Harry Potter.’”
“Title Nine and Three-Quarters”
USQ said it welcomes all gender identities in its league. Reyes explained that there is a “rule in the [USQ] rule book that is actually called [Title] Nine and Three-Quarters,” a nod to both “Platform Nine and Three-Quarters” from the “Harry Potter” series and Title IX, which legally protects people from discrimination on the basis of sex.
Title Nine and Three-Quarters contains a “gender maximum rule.” USQ teams may not have more than four players of the same gender on the field at once. Therefore, a mix of at least two genders must be present on a team. Rowling’s version of Quidditch is also co-ed, but Title Nine and Three-Quarters attempts to tackle the reality of the non-magical world where gender inequality in sport participation cannot be easily written out.
Though it poses notable issues for teams at single-gender institutions vying for recognition, Title Nine and Three-Quarters was created, according to USQ, to promote gender diversity and, ideally, increase attitudes of acceptance and inclusion within teams.
“Quidditch’s main focus … has always been about inclusivity and making a sport that’s available to everybody, not just another contact sport for guys to play, you know?” Reyes said. “Technically … the best Quidditch player … in the ‘Harry Potter’ universe was a woman.”
The parameters of Title Nine and Three-Quarters also allow for nonbinary and gender-nonconforming players to exist outside of the “male” and “female” gender categories. In that vein, transgender USQ players are allowed to compete as the gender they identify as, and they are not forced into a gender category based on their sex traits. In comparison to other sports’ restrictions on transgender athletes, this rule is rather unique.
Reyes also said Rowling likely “wasn’t thinking about” transgender athletes when she created Quidditch, but “[USQ] is a place for trans athletes to be unscrutinized.”
Sophomore Isabelle Wright, a first-year Beater for Mizzou Club Quidditch, illustrated the resistance against Rowling’s nominal ownership of all things “Harry Potter” — Quidditch included. Between fans’ reclamation of the series, USQ’s disavowal of Rowling and its inclusivity policies that attempt to make positive change, Wright said “Harry Potter” fans are “not under [Rowling’s] control anymore.”
“We wouldn’t have [Quidditch] if it wasn’t for her,” Wright said. “[However], it’s no longer the same game that she created.” Edited by Camila Fowler | cfowler@themaneater.com