Harry Potter and cancel culture: Responding to fallen heroes

Abstract

In the wake of the ongoing turmoil caused by J. K. Rowling’s tweets expressing transphobic prejudice, hurt fans must decide what, if any, future relationship they will have with the Harry Potter series. This article argues that the books provide a training ground for young people learning to grapple with difficult issues like problematic heroes, and that engaging in two kinds of fan activities can enable fans to continue to find value in Harry Potter while simultaneously registering their objections to prejudice and bias. These two activities are literary analysis and fan fiction, and both empower fans to articulate the problems of social justice in sustained, thoughtful ways that other short-form mediums like social media do not.