Magic and Muggle Studies 101

 

At the beginning of this project, I was very excited to combine and connect my love for the Harry Potter series and my love for social justice. More specifically, I wanted this blog to take the social issues in the series regarding love, loss, friendship, social justice, happiness, and despair, and connect them to the social problems we see in our own society today. As I read on, from childhood to well into adulthood, I never stopped learning. The life lessons and connections I learned from the Harry Potter series have been invaluable, and I am so grateful to J.K. Rowling for giving me a story that helped me become the person I am today, and characters who I will never stop learning from.

Now, since it is time for you all to leave this muggle studies class and graduate from Hogwarts I want to share some thoughts, responses, and different obstacles I experienced during this project. I’ve had the best time, and the hardest time, writing some posts because they exhibit some of the most important life lessons to me. Perhaps my favorite lessons are that love transcends death, being brave in times of fear, and that brains=badass. I’ve also had the hardest time pinpointing the exact lessons I’ve learned over the course of my life. There were numerous to choose from, but I loved that I was able to share my values and aspects of my personality through this blog, which is something I didn’t think I would get to do. At the beginning of this project, I didn’t think I could write creatively because I tend to be a little more introverted. Imagination does not come easy for me.

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Another challenge for me to write this blog was to write in a way that would make sense to readers who did not follow the series. It is rather very difficult and frustrating to try to explain a complex plot that unravels into a beautiful story. However, it is a challenge that I am getting better at, and I have no doubt that my written communication skills have only gotten better since this project.

My hope is that your experience reading this blog has showed you the many beautiful and complicated characters, plots, and life lessons that have affected me throughout my life, and hopefully those messages came across in my posts. I also hope that you’ve experienced the same emotions that I have had while watching/reading, and have had to hug another person fiercely to get away from the intense emotions.

(P.S. the picture with Voldemort trying to hug Draco is hilarious)

Note from Pooja: Thanks for staying on this blog with me for the past few months. I’ve had the best time, as well as the hardest time, writing this blog. Thanks to all the viewers, readers, and likers. Hopefully you’ll open the first book or watch the first movie if you haven’t done so yet. In the words of J.K. Rowling, “The stories that we love best do live in us forever, so whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.”

Always,

Mischief Managed

 

Love!

Most of the time, it sucks! But when it doesn’t it’s pretty wonderful. But as we al know, that’s also not the only kind of love we experience.

There’s this kind.

But there’s also this kind.

It comes in many different forms, but the heartbreak of losing someone you love remains the same-painful and tragic. In Harry Potter, the biggest example of the most powerful form of love is with Snape, a bitter potions professor that acts cold with Harry throughout the series, and Lily, Harry’s mother. When Harry’s mother was little, her and Snape used to be best friends. Snape pined for her from far away, but when they were both accepted in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they were part of separate friend groups.

This is where Lily met Harry’s father, and they both fell in love. Filled with anger and contempt, Snape, just like his father and grandfather, became a follower of Voldemort. In the first battle against Voldemort, Snape heard that he was going to murder Lily and James Potter for standing against him. He turned spy and risked his own life with the darkest wizard of all time in order to try and save a woman he still loved from childhood.

My heart broke on the screen for a couple that never got the chance to be together, because no matter how hard he tried, he could not protect the only person he’s ever loved from danger. After Lily died, Snape was in anguish, but because Voldemort resurfaces years later, Snape risked his life to be a double spy. He deceived The Dark Wizard to protect Harry because he was at the top of Voldemort’s kill list. Harry isn’t even his son, but the son of James, a guy who bullied him during school, and Lily, the girl Snape fell in love with when he was 11. Still, until the very end, he risked everything to protect him. This story is seen in many movies, and has an underlying message-true love lasts…always.

J.K. Rowling said, “If you love someone completely, it can never be undone. Lily’s love for Harry granted him protections and Snape’s love for Lily shaped his path after her death. True love lasts forever. Just because a person dies doesn’t mean our love for them does, a comforting lesson we can take heart in.”

In our lives, the only thing we can do is love the  people we care about to the fullest, because we cannot escape the reality of death. Snape’s sacrifice was out of true love, and this still happens today. On the smallest level, I remember when my aunt passed away of cancer; her grandson, who was very young at the time, was devastated. Since I was also young, but older than my nephew, I took care of him and since then we have had a very strong bond. Snape might not have liked Harry at times, but he cares for him and continued to care for him because it was something that Lily would want. I know my aunt, wherever she is, would not want her grandson to be alone. Again, my experience is not the same as Snape and Lily, but love weaves in and out of stories of bravery and adventure, and that is why we love those stories so much. Also, some things do not work out like they’re supposed to. Snape and Lily never got the chance to be a couple, but their love is powerful.

In life, you might suffer a broken heart through unrequited love, or lose those you love most, but the books taught me that life goes on. It has to, and it will. The best thing to do is remember those people whose love has changed you, good or bad, and carry on.

“The stories we love best, live in us forever.” – J.K. Rowling

At the beginning of this blog series, I gave many reasons of why I love the Harry Potter series as much as I do. The biggest reason is because it taught me many lessons about the real world. Perhaps the most important lesson that I’ve learned is that love, in the end, always wins.

Now…naturally at heart, I am a pessimist. A glass is half-empty person.

But I never liked this about myself-I still don’t. And this is a lesson I am still trying to learn. Believing in love, and believing in a better tomorrow is something I have a lot of trouble with. Optimism did not come with my heart’s warranty.

But what I have learned from Harry Potter, and from what I have seen in real life, is that love is the only thing that unites every human being…it is the only thing that transcends death, and it is the only thing that will win against hate. You know the saying that goes, “True love is sacrifice?”…well, I agree with that. The whole HP series begins when Harry’s parents sacrifice themselves so he can live.

Voldemort tried to kill Harry too, on the same night he murdered his parents. But the reason why he was not successful was because by shielding Harry from Voldemort’s spell, Lily gave her son protection by a certain kind of magic that did not allow harm to the one on the receiving end of it-and that magic was called love. When Lily gave her life for her son, she gave him the ultimate shield. And it was then point onwards that Harry became known as the “Boy Who Lived.”

As most of you readers know, Harry grew up without his parents, but he never questioned their love for him. He has never not felt their presence in the most crucial moments in the series. It’s no coincidence that J.K. Rowling includes Harry’s parents throughout the movies. Here is a clip from the last movie, where Harry decides to give himself up to Voldemort, in an effort to get him to stop the mass murders of innocent people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ARrpjg1W_A

His parents’ love for him transcended death at that moment. Even before, when he couldn’t see them, they were always present with him because he remembered them in his heart. He remembered their sacrifice as an act of love and defiance against evil.

This is evident in the real world today. Every single time there is a mass shooting or a cataclysmic event, the first response is always love. In recent news, the Jewish synagogue shootings killed 11 people, including one Holocaust survivor. The response in the aftermath was overflowing with love and support from communities across different races, religions, socioeconomic statuses, etc. The local Muslim community raised nearly $200,000 in support of the victims’ families. People lined up outside blood banks to donate, and these banks stayed open until late. Thousands of people held a candlelight vigil in Pittsburg in which families donated warm food and drinks to those who were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the cold weather. People from across the world mourned these lives. In the aftermath, we all became one.

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The memories of the people whose lives were lost in an act of hate or injustice must be remembered forever. It is this memory that keeps them close to the people who are still alive…their families, friends, loved ones. When a person is gone, the love for that person never goes away. When something terrible happens, we all mourn together as human beings. Love unites us-it makes us stronger, and it is the only thing that can defy evil, that can defy death.

 

The midterm elections are coming up, and it’s the first time that I have actually cared about them.

Let’s be honest. Like most people of my generation, from the time that we were kids, we only looked at politics when a new president was elected-every four years. Now, however, young people are paying more and more attention to politics and getting involved. Election day is coming fast, and there are so many issues that we all care about at stake here. Immigration. Women’s rights. LGBTQ rights. Gun regulations. Climate Change. Democracy…it’s all on the line. We are seeing more fundamentally transparent issues while looking at politicians.

Not just Republicans, but Democrats as well are accepting money from lobbyists who own Congress. The biggest example is the NRA.

It gives thousands of dollars to Republicans in Congress to deregulate gun laws, which has sparked a nationwide debate over gun control. In this government especially, money talks. Money is what makes these so-called public servants cower and do more harm at the expense of the people they promised to protect. At the expense of children.

But what is more important is that underneath the money, there is fear-a lot of it. Fear of changing the status quo, fear of losing power, and most importantly, to fear each other. This is a powerful weapon to use against people, and this government is really good at it. The prime example of this is the migrant caravan that is coming to the United States. In headlines and tweets from media outlets that are feeding into Trump’s narrative are saying the caravan is riddled with diseases, filled with men who are invading our country. This ‘invasion’ is actually made up of a majority of women and children.

If people choose not to vote, or call out organizations because they are afraid of retaliation, then that is inaction. It is staying silent and complicit when it should be the time to come forward and demand justice. There is no such thing as an innocent bystander, and this truth can be seen in the Harry Potter series as well.

Voldemort is the villain throughout the series, and he has a secret that allowed him to come back from the dead multiple times. It is the secret that gives him so much power.

In the sixth film, Horace Slughorn is introduced as Harry’s new professor. It is later  revealed that Professor Slughorn was also Voldemort’s student when he was at Hogwarts. They were close-as close as a mentor and a student can get, and rumor had it that Voldemort told Slughorn his secret to gain power. This was dark magic, and professors were forbidden to teach this subject to students.  However, as an ambitious student, Voldemort convinced Slughorn to teach him about Horcruxes. These horcruxes were small and easily concealed objects that could hide a piece of a person’s soul. If their body was to be destroyed, a part of their soul would still live on. In other words, they could not die. And worst of all, Slughorn explained to Voldemort that murder was the way to rip apart your soul.

Harry begged his teacher to tell him this secret. Slughorn has kept quiet for more than a decade, and with the threat of yet another war against Voldemort in the near future, it was time to let truth have its day.

It should be the case in real life as well. Demand for the truth, because it gives people without power a fighting chance to save their future. Remember, there is no innocent bystander. Choosing not to pick a side or choosing not to ‘get involved’ is choosing not to do anything. So vote, and keep voting, and don’t be afraid. There are a lot of things to be afraid about in this world, but the truth should not be one of them.

Note from Pooja: This blog will discuss depression as it relates to Harry Potter and current social issues. If you are not comfortable with reading about depression and trauma, feel free to practice self-care and come back next week. From one muggle to another, take care of yourself and others<3

The way in which depression can affect a person goes beyond what science tells us. Science says that depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. This definition was taken from the NIH website, and in my opinion, it is a very technical term. The only way in which I can make sense of depression is by talking about the dementors from Harry Potter.

The first time that dementors are introduced is in the third installment, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban.. Here is a clip of the first interaction between Harry and a dementor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKhEFVAoScI

The creature in this scene is, as you’ve already guessed, a dementor.  In the clip above, it  is seen feeding off of Harry. This is how they survive-by feeding off another person’s happiness until they are left with none.

“Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them. Even Muggles feel their presence, though they can’t see them. Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself — soul-less and evil. You’ll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The worst part of them is that they target people who have faced the worst horrors in life, such as Harry. His life has been filled with grief, whether is was losing both his parents, growing up in a house that did not love him, or having had been in many life-or-death situations before the age of 13. In the clip above, Harry hears a scream after the creature feeds off of him on the train ride to Hogwarts. This was not a scream of someone on the train-it was his mother screaming, the night she was murdered. Probably the worst thing Harry has experienced was watching his mother being murdered before him.

Even though he was a baby, the dementor fed on Harry long enough for him to have a flashback of that night several years ago. Throughout this movie, it becomes clear that dementors are naturally drawn to him, and J.K Rowling claims that it is because Harry is the most vulnerable. It is because of this vulnerability that leaves cruel and evil dementors to take advantage of a person and leave them empty. Leave a person where their soul becomes void of anything good or happy or hopeful ever again.

This is how I define depression. It is like a dementor; it sucks on your soul until you can’t feel anything, or until your mind just starts to replay every bad thing that you would just about do anything to make it stop. However, just like depression, dementors can be combatted. And sometimes…you can win the battle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCECBnXZrH4

This link is a clip in the movie where Harry learns how to fight off a dementor. And in no way am I saying that depression can be gone or fought off with good thoughts or happy memories, because that’s ridiculous and not true. But there are some tools that people can develop in therapy or counseling that makes it a little easier for people to address depression in their daily life. For instance, I carry around a small rock that is assigned a message of what I need to hear the most that day/week. If I am feeling overwhelmed and there is a moment later in the day where I cannot cope with the feelings of hopelessness anymore, I twirl around this rock in my fingers and hope that it’ll remind me of something good that happened that day. But this is just one tool, and feeling hopeless is only one of many symptoms of depression. I also write a lot of poetry that gets me through the week, and I find solace in it.

And not too unlike myself, J.K. Rowling used writing to dig her out of her depression. Not a lot of people know this, but J.K. Rowling, before she became a sensation, was once living in poverty-not enough to be homeless, but enough to live off of only government benefits. By the time she was 25, she divorced her husband, was left a single mother, and she had lost her mother. Her mother’s death was an event that made her spiral deep into depression, at a time where she had only been working on the first Harry Potter book for six months. Her imagination, she says, is what brought her out of it. Her imagination is what saved her.

There is no answer to simple, yet impossible questions like “Does it get better?” or “How does it stop?”, because depression is not simple, and it does not answer to anything. But it can be fought. That’s what Harry Potter’s story, but more importantly, what J.K. Rowling’s story, taught me.

Light can overcome darkness.

 

 

 

 

Note From Pooja: This blog will be the first of a two-piece segment discussing different aspects related to mental illness, specifically PTSD and depression. If you find these topics to be sensitive to read, I request that you practice self-care and discontinue reading. From one muggle to another, take care of yourself and remind others to do the same<3

When a human being experiences trauma, it is scientifically proven that it changes their brain anatomy. There are three structures within the brain that will physically alter; the hippocampus, which helps with memory and spatial navigation; the amygdala (uh-MIG-da-La), which helps with processing emotions; and the cortex, which plays a role in cognitive behavior, social behavior, and personality expression.

The first time we experience any kind of trauma, our brains will go into a temporary ‘alarm state’ with feelings of intense fear and hyper-vigilance. We stop thinking so we can either fight or flight the dangerous situation.

However, when we are repeatedly exposed to trauma, this alarm state is overloaded. The amygdala will begin to malfunction, and soon enough it will alter permanently in order for the brain to become adapted to survive this trauma. This process, especially if a person is exposed to trauma at a young age, can risk core mental, emotional, and social functions that lead to a healthy development. One of the most common disorders that a person can develop after experiencing a trauma is PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

People who have PTSD undergo intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that can last long after the traumatic event has ended.

We relive our experience through flashbacks, nightmares, or hallucinations. We feel sadness, anger, fear, and detachment/estrangement from other people when this happens.

In the Harry Potter series, the central protagonist Harry, is exposed to numerous traumatic events while trying to defeat the darkest wizard of the time, Voldemort. In the fourth book, he experiences a series of horrific events that includes being kidnapped, tortured, and being forced to witness the death of a close friend right before his eyes.

 

 

 

Even before experiencing all of this, Harry had been exposed to many crucibles. When he was just a baby, his parents were killed while he was just a few feet away.

He was sent to live with his aunt and uncle, who created a hostile and unloving environment by doing things such as making him sleep in a cupboard beneath the staircase.

His first three years at Hogwarts also all have scenes where Harry is put in a life-or-death situation.

Heroic figure or not, all of these events are bound to have some long-term psychological effects.

And so they did. After witnessing Cedric’s death and being tortured in the fourth installment, the fifth book contains scenes where Harry experiences all of the four major symptoms of PTSD: he has continued and interruptive, intrusive thoughts; he avoids reminders of his friend’s death and does not talk to anyone about it; he has negative thoughts and feelings, which lead to him to detach and isolate himself from his closest friends; and he has reactive symptoms, in which he shows a lot of irritable and angry outbursts.

Specifically, these outbursts are directed towards people who refuse to believe that Harry was actually captured by Voldemort and saw Cedric get murdered. Even Harry’s friends, who are supposed to stand by him, are questioning whether or not if what Harry experienced actually happened. This is problematic, in many ways. First, and this is very important, we must believe all survivors. The impact and the prolonged stress that Harry has endured his entire life to cope with the loss of his parents, his up-bringing, his near-death experiences in school, and being kidnapped and tortured to the point where he can never forget the pain-is heartbreaking and incredible. And anyone who is brave enough to talk about their traumatic experience, Harry Potter or not, IS telling the truth.

In recent news, Dr. Ford spoke out against Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh and recalled a situation in which Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her. In front of news outlets from all over the country, Dr. Ford heartbreakingly shared her story that was received differently by many people. There were supportive and empathetic reactions from allies as well as other survivors, but then there were also angry and doubtful reactions to her testimony. Senators asked her if the assault really happened, and even when Dr. Ford spoke with sincerity and absolute conviction, the senators were still hesitant to believe her. Social media was overloaded for days with videos and reactions from people viewing or re-watching the testimony country-wide. After all of this, Dr. Ford was left vulnerable. She didn’t have to speak out-no survivor has to speak out-but she did. She spoke about experiencing all of the same symptoms Harry did, and she told the whole world. AND to answer the senator’s question of whether or not she actually remembers the sexual assault, of course she remembers the trauma. No one can completely forget what happened to them, no matter how hard they try. It is impossible. 

So, to any person that you may come across who is dealing with PTSD or trying to cope after facing trauma, always meet them with empathy. Believe them. Support them. That is what is most important.

 

How many people have had someone say to you, “You are young- what can you possibly know about the world?” – or at least some version of it?

Out of all the cynical and pessimistic comments I have heard older generations say about me and my generation, this is by far the one I absolutely hate the most. No offense to the older people, but their decisions and actions during their time in the world have had a negative impact in our current socio-political society. Take climate change for example-all scientists right now are claiming that climate change could have been stopped 30 years ago. Because that did not happen, the world is seeing more and more natural disasters that are creating destruction and taking lives. The older generation’s decision not to help save the planet will deprive the younger generation AKA us to have a chance to save the world for ourselves.

It also boggles my mind that young people are not allowed to vote until they are 18, because every election is about children. If children are going to be a part of the world someday, they should have a choice in what kind of a world they want to live in. Now, because of decisions made by generations before us, our future children might run out of water.

This is just one example of how young people are disadvantaged by the decisions made for them. However, young people are becoming more aware of the issues surrounding them and have been fighting for their rights.

This trend is shown throughout the Harry Potter series as well. In the fifth book/movie, there is a woman sent by the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge to change fundamental school policies and practices at Hogwarts.

One of the biggest changes she makes is that there is no use of magic allowed. (First of all… WHAT?!) Um Hogwarts is a school of magic………..

But because Fudge is corrupt and paranoid, he does not want the kids to be able to defend themselves because they might shift the power away from the older people currently in power and create change. Even the school’s headmaster, Dumbledore, is being smeared by the ministry to even allow professors to teach students how to defend themselves against dark witches/wizards.

Watch how Harry, Hermione, and Ron decide to take action against Umbridge

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THzGOOVElCs

So what did the kids in Harry Potter do?

They form their own illegal club called Dumbledore’s Army, and they enlist Harry to be the teacher to teach them different spells and ways to defend themselves.

Here are two clips of how Harry helps his peers fight back-(don’t have to watch the entire thing, but it’s fun!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEOuMCd5e9I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZHuf819-Pw

In our current real world, I see this drive to create change and help other young students in the Parkland students.

They are leading this country to create change and shift power away from older people who do not want to lose their status in order to better the country from young people. School shootings have risen over 300% in the last few years alone, but powerful organizations such as the NRA make selfish decisions to benefit themselves while leaving young people vulnerable to violence.

Even though not all generations are perfect, it is important to remember that our decisions have consequences for those that come after us. If we want to better this world for our own children, then it is up to us to fight for what is right. Young people might not have a lot of influence on the system, but I have seen real world examples where young students such as the ones in Parkland, Florida, have created a movement that spread across the entire country. They organized the March For Our Lives that made its way onto national media outlets with celebrities and big organizations giving money by the thousands to help them. In Harry Potter, Harry and his friends are in the fight for their lives to protect what is important for them, similar to how in our world, young people are in a fight to protect democracy and the planet. No matter what generation you are from, make sure you are on the right side of history, because in a few decades from now, you don’t want to be remembered as THAT generation-the one who didn’t do what was right, the one who ruined the planet, the one who lobbied for pro-gun politicians, the one who let Voldemort into power…whatever it may be. Think about what kind of world you want, and then use your voice to make it happen. It can be that simple.

 

 

 

Even in my favorite fantasy world, there is no escaping corrupt government institutions, politicians, and media sources. Besides from Voldemort, who is the clearly identified villain in Harry Potter, there are several other villains in the series who hide behind the mask of a politician, a person of power from within the government, or a news source. The government in Harry Potter AKA the Ministry of Magic, is comprised of several departments that mimic our own, and are all overlooked by the Minister of Magic, who is like the president. 

Fudge is a good example of a masked villain. When he is first introduced, he seems like a fit and reasonable leader and, just as any politician, promised to help those in need- including Harry. However, in the fifth movie, Fudge turns on Harry and uses his power to deny the fact that Voldemort has returned after 14 years since losing his powers, even when there there is enough evidence that he has returned.

After Voldemort lost his powers while trying to kill Harry when he was a baby, he vanished for years before resurfacing again as a human. In the years that he was gone, the world was trying to forget the devastating war that he waged. Not knowing whether he was truly gone or would return again, people remained fearful and traumatized. The fear he left behind was embedded so deep into people’s memory that they were scared to even say his name. They called him ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.’

It is this fear that controlled Fudge to deny Voldemort’s return. To think about a war so bad happening again was more than he could handle, and unlike what a real leader would do, he turned against Harry and called him a liar.

Not only does he use his power at the ministry to convince his colleagues that Harry Potter is the enemy, he uses his influence at The Daily Prophet, the primary newspaper in the wizarding world, to spread lies about Harry to the public. The Daily Prophet can be compared to Fox News, a media outlet that President Trump often uses to spread his agenda to his supporters, all the while casting other sources as ‘fake news.’ Fudge, quite similarly to Trump, also disputes other media sources, such as The Quibbler. He calls them fake after they write about their support of Harry Potter, just as Trump does with any news source that criticizes and/or disagrees with him.

 

In our world, this type of corruption is something that happens so ubiquitously at this point that it is not surprising anymore. In our current situation, Trump is a prime example and is similar to Fudge because they both do the same thing: they use their power in their position of the government and their influence on media sources to turn the public against one another after refusing to believe evidence-based facts and truths.

How has Trump done this?

• Refuses to believe climate change exists despite having factual evidence that it does.

• Refuses to believe that immigrants are good for this country despite the overwhelming evidence that they significantly contribute to the U.S. economy. He turns people of this country against one another by influencing his power at Fox News.

• Refuses to believe that women should be respected and are intelligent despite the statistics that show women own more masters and Ph.D’s than men in this country.
• REFUSES TO BELIEVE SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS’ ABILITIES TO REMEMBER THE TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES THEY HAVE GONE THROUGH DESPITE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT YOUR BRAIN KEEPS AND STORES THOSE MEMORIES FOR YEARS.

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Another masked villain in the form of a person of power in the government is Dolores Jane Umbridge, who is strikingly similar to Betsy Devos, the current Secretary of Education.

Don’t be fooled by their appearance. These women are terrible people.

They both mandate and create laws that are in the best interests of the government and the people in power rather than the children.Perhaps the greatest example of how these two are similar is that they both are denying children access to their education.

Betsy Devos is calling for massive cuts to federally-funded universities’ student aid programs. By taking away financial aid, students who are lower income cannot hope to get an education.

Umbridge, on the other hand, prohibits the practical use of magic inside classrooms at Hogwarts and is limiting their access to a real wizard’s education. Umbridge also uses her power as a teacher to enforce the government’s agenda and smear Harry’s word that the Dark Lord returned.

Click Here to Watch a Clip

This next clip follows the latter.

Click Here to Watch a Clip

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What I have learned about the government from Harry Potter is that when someone shows you who they are, believe them-not by their words, but by their actions. It is difficult to see a person as a villain, especially people who appear to be harmless like Umbridge and Devos. In an article she wrote on her website Pottermore, J.K. Rowling explains why she introduced Umbridge as a character in the series. She says, “A love of all things saccharine often seems present where there is a lack of real warmth or charity,” Rowling writes, adding that Umbridge was “one of the characters for whom I feel the purest dislike”, and that “her desire to control, to punish and to inflict pain, all in the name of law and order, are, I think, every bit as reprehensible as Lord Voldemort’s unvarnished espousal of evil”.

It is also difficult to tell if a news source is biased or not. Whatever political views you may have, it is always important to find news that can give you the full story, and not just what you may want to hear.

So are all governments corrupt? Unfortunately, it is all we have ever known, but the most important thing to remember is that there are people from within corrupt systems who are trying to do some good. There are people within the media industry who are trying to uncover the truth. It is up to us to learn as much as we can about people and the world so we can decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So.

Let’s talk about feminism.

While growing up, it was rare to see a movie in which the female characters were intelligent, bossy, sassy, brave, beautiful, intimidating, and kind-hearted at the same time.

It was rare to see a girl that came to save the day, or a girl who had all the answers. It was rare to see a girl that didn’t need to be worried about her looks because she was confident enough with her brains and ambitions. It was rare to see a girl who wasn’t afraid to fight for what was right. In my experience, female characters on TV that were too nerdy, too bossy, too smart, and too ambitious, was a bad thing.

Girls that were smart were always unattractive, and if they were attractive, then they’d be portrayed as dumb. Girls that were bossy and/or sassy were not ‘well-mannered’ and then are called aggressive and bitchy. As a young girl watching TV, I found these things to be true. When I found out I was more brains than beauty, I thought I had to choose-and I chose brains. When society told me it was easier to be soft-spoken, I listened. And when the TV showed me that boys were always going be the ones to save the day, I believed then that girls wouldn’t.

Then comes this fierce, beautiful, ambitious, sassy, and awesome character that showed me that I was wrong. Let me introduce you to Hermione Granger, THE most badass witch in the Harry Potter series.

 If it was up to me, I would have renamed the entire Harry Potter series after her. Because let’s be honest…

For real.

How did she break some stereotypes about what girls should be?

From the very beginning, Hermione was never afraid to show people her stank face, but it was her unapologetic attitude that really spoke to me. In the movies, Ron continuously makes fun of her intelligence, but she never apologizes for the way that she is.

Sure, she might get a little cocky about it, but her love of books and knowledge showed me that being a nerd was nothing to be ashamed about, or apologize for. She is not soft-spoken and tells it like it is, and I appreciate that so much because when I was younger my mother would yell at me for being rude to others if they ever made fun of me. 

She also always stands up to bullies, and she never hesitates to defend her friends, or for something that she believes in.

 

Maybe punching the crap out of Draco’s face wasn’t the best way to show her passion standing up for what is right, but it definitely was a scene to remember.

Remember when I said I chose brains over beauty? While Hermione was the biggest nerd at her school, like I was, she also embraced her outer beauty. This is something that I, unfortunately, learned too late. It is somehow etched into our brains that embracing beauty meant letting go of your pride. It’s my experience that a lot of smart and ambitious girls thought beauty was a weakness. This is something I still struggle with today, and I wish I watched more movies with characters like Hermione.

 

The biggest realization for me after watching Hermione in all eight movies was that girls can be the ones to save the day. Because of her intelligence, unapologetically sassy demeanor, and her bravery, she made it possible for Harry Potter to win against evil. She does not get enough credit for it, but Harry and Ron would have been dead ten times over if it was not for her.

And although Hermione shatters many stereotypes of what it means to be a girl, I wish that society was more comfortable with putting more bold women on the screen. I was influenced by a lot of things TV was telling me who to be and how to act, and these things affected me a lot, to this day even. My only hope is that when I am a parent one day, my daughter will have characters to look up to, and Hermione Granger will not be the only one to show girls that smart=badass.

 

Notes from Pooja:

• Muggles are people who do not have any magic and are not to be affiliated with, or exposed to, the wizarding world.   E.g. You and I 😦

• Voldemort is the villain in the Harry Potter series.

 

Yes. Even in the wizarding world, nationalism and xenophobia are as present and tangible as ever. There are different sociopolitical hierarchies that witches and wizards can fall under. At the very top of the level are purebloods-folks who are born into an all-magic family with two magical parents. After that, there are half-bloods, which, as you may have already guessed, are those with only one magical parent. Muggle-borns, or the people born into a ‘regular’ family with no magical parents, fall into the next category. Even lower on the hierarchy are squibs. Squibs are witches and/or wizards who are not magical, but they come from a magic family. Finally, at the very bottom, there are muggles, or ordinary folk who are shielded from the magical world. They live their life without magic, and do not/should not know that it even exists.

Pureblood families believe that magic should stay within all magic families, and that those with inferior blood were unworthy of magic in their life. These people are the most privileged in the magical world. They hold important seats in the Ministry of Magic (government of wizarding world), have a lot of wealth, and they also own elves as house slaves to do all their work. As if owning slaves was not bad enough, they’d oftentimes mistreat them. In fact, elves are forced by their owners to wear rags and can only be set free when presented with a gift from their master.

However, purebloods also act this way-even towards other witches and wizards who do not have blood purity, such as half-bloods and muggle-borns.

They’d often call muggle-borns ‘mudbloods’, which means dirty blood.

As for muggles, purebloods view them as less than human. They are not part of the wizarding world so they are seen as irrelevant and dispensible, which is shown several times in the series when Voldemort rises to power again and his followers start to offhandedly murder them.

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We see this behavior in our own society today. White supremacy, although heavily based on race, inherently deems one class of people ‘better’ than others simply because of the color of their skin. When talking about the issue of immigration in this country, white supremacists develop a nationalistic view and want to keep the opportunities and rewards of the so-called American Dream strictly to white Americans because they are the most deserving. In recent news, white supremacists have targeted and murdered people they considered to be less than. Charleston, black churches, and mosques are only some of the many places that white supremacists have taken lives.

The KKK, which is a white supremist group, can be related to the Death Eaters in Harry Potter. In the series, the main antagonist is Voldemort. His entire agenda is to keep magic within pureblood families, and eradicate everyone else. He has slaughtered thousands of men, women, and children who were magical creatures, half-bloods, muggle-borns, muggles, and allies. His followers, also known as Death Eaters, support Voldemort’s reign of terror. Throughout the series, they seek to help him achieve his mission of creating the perfect wizarding world by murdering people with the abomination of inferior blood.

 

There is also a connection between muggle-borns and immigrants. In the books, there is evidence that shows muggle-borns excel in academics and in their careers later in life. Maybe it is because they did not grow up with magic and they crave that knowledge and acceptance. This is also the reason why immigrants value education so much; it is a privilege they’ve never known, and they have to prove their worth to society by getting educated and getting a job. Muggle-borns strive to excel in wizarding school because other wizards discriminate against them, calling them uneducated and poor-even if those things are completely out of their control. The same stereotype can be applied about immigrants in this country.

As for me, my parents had it drilled into my head from a very young age that education was the way for me to prove myself to the world. Doing well in school meant getting a job, which automatically counted as success. There are lots of stereotypes I’ve heard about my family growing up, and being uneducated was the one I heard the most.

Like Hermione(herm-eye-o-knee), I crave knowledge wherever I can find it, and I relate to her as a character because coming from an underprivileged family meant working twice as hard in order to be accepted.

In Harry Potter, blood purity is introduced as early as the first movie. In the beginning, it is introduced in a school setting where Harry has to decide who to become friends with. As the movies progress, the issue of blood purity becomes part of the plot of something as evil as genocide. This social issue of nationalism and xenophobia cannot be connected to only white supremacists. It can also be compared to Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and countless other people and constructs that want to preach hate over love. World history has an ugly past, and it can still be a part of the present. It is continuing on in our own society. But the thing is, in Harry Potter, good has always won over evil.

Will it be the same case for us?