OK, this may be a ridiculous, frivolous complaint, but the use of the word 'Muggle' as an insult in both HP verse and fandom, is starting to put my teeth on edge. Last time I checked, nobody in the fandom - including holy creator JKR - is capable of pulling a rabbit out of a hat, much less shooting sparks out of a wand. There's this air of incredible condescension towards Muggles despite the fact that we ALL are Muggles.

I just read a thread on the IMDB where people were gleefully discussing how Harry and Ginny's children could torment Dudley's children, because Dudley's children would be Muggles and hence unable to defend themselves. It set my teeth on edge. These books are supposedly a "plea for tolerance" and still everyone - the creator included - act like ordinary people should be treated like some sort of zoo exhibit. Muggles should be protected and not tormented, but kept also mindwiped, drugged and docile. When Michiko Kakutani published the advance review of DH, there was a slew of comments calling her a Muggle. That's like trying to insult someone by calling them a "human." And Cho's husband is just an unnamed Muggle. That's like saying "Cho married some Asian dude." X-men comics did a much better of portraying humans with super powers, who were still human. JKR's world is very separatist.

I haven't really noticed that, but that's very interesting. I'm pretty sure that 'muggle' is derived from a word meaning 'fool'... so when someone says 'muggle' maybe they mean it like 'fool'... or they really do mean 'ordinary,' 'unspecial'... perhaps 'unchosen.'

It seems like your basic otherizing. Most otherizing is based on fictional, nonsensical differences as well (points to Nazis, eugenics, Tutsi v. Hutu Rwandan genocide).

God, wouldn't it be sad if JKR's legacy to the world is the insult 'muggle?' That, instead of promoting tolerance or whatever BS she thought she wrote, she actually contributes to the deepening of human division?

Obviously, I'm hoping that doesn't happen.

But I can't cast off this suspicion that JKR is rather arrogant, even if she does try to hide it...

[smart ass mode ON]
I take it you've never seen a magic show then.
[smart ass mode OFF]

Sorry, I couldn't resist and believe it or not I did try, I really did. But then I decided somebody had to say it and I might as well be somebody.

I remember reading this fanfic once - it was either Harry/Parvati or Harry/Hermione (I can't recall off the top of my head) - in said fanfic one summer Harry gets out and away from the Dursley's and has positive interactions with other Muggles, and in that fanfic there comes a point where he actually starts hesitating when it comes to calling his father figure Muggle a Muggle because (in that fanfic) the writer was showing how that was all an implied insult. On the other hand, it wasn't a major plot point or anything just a small blip in the overall ff which I thought was good.

Shame Rowling didn't address that in the actual canon.

There's also another point I saw once, this one may have been on a message board rather than happening in a fanfic, but either way the point stands. Someone said (either using the Grangers in a fanfic or just saying it) that if they were Muggles parents of a witch/wizard they'd actually prefer dealing with Lucius Malfoy over Arthur Weasley, because said Muggles couldn't call Weasley on his biased bullshit because it would make them look like the bad guys instead of getting Arthur's head out of his ass, because it would look like they were being mean instead of Arthur Weasley being insulting to Muggles in just as bad a way as Lucius Malfoy, because at least Malfoy is honest about where he stands, where Arther is not. He pretends to like and be trying to understand them, while actually thinking they'd make nice pets.

As for the real life insults, sadly it really can be laid at Rowling's feet, whether she meant it or not, she does come across as thinking of Muggles the same way Arthur Weasley does, which is nicely ironic since as pointed out she's as much a Muggle as anyone.

Remember when Jo appeared on the Simpsons, and called Lisa a muggle?

Glorious. JKR must be really proud of that.


I once liked that; I thought it was a fairly realistic portrayal that even those with the best intentions might still be prejudiced. I was, of course, waiting for some sort of resolution/realization/recognition that this was a flawed way of thinking.

I don't know how far JKR is in line with Arthur's thinking, but some of the things she said/written reminds me very strongly of the White Man's Burden. It's like she genuinely cares about "lesser peoples" (be they house elves/muggles/real life example), and thinks they're equal to whoever. But she doesn't really practice that; JKR still condescends.

Something about Hufflepuff being a benevolent slave owner really pissed off.


She did? But was that really her?

It was her voice. Jo WAS a guest on the show. if your'e asking me if she wrote the skit, I have no idea. But if she didn't want to say the lines, I'm sure she could have refused to be on the show.

Yeah, word. And Erin, we have some freaky mind connection. Because I was just thinking of this very subject last night.

Stuff like this gets me thinking about the endings of some Square games, namely Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy VI. Has anybody given thought to the idea that the Potter world world might be better without magic and wizards? I mean, are we sure that magic really even improves the quality of life for people? Students treat their magic classes like any other real class, the magical world is just as corrupt at the real world, and with the hero Harry Potter's insistent desire to make as few waves as possible, he's carved out an existence more humdrum than any postal worker.

I'm not saying there's not flaws in this idea; even I think my reasoning sounds eerily similar to the plot of X-Men. And yet, the mutants in X-Men were always striving to coexist with human and use their powers for good; the wizarding world is more like Magneto's little sect, with Dumbledore calling the shots much like Magneto himself.

It started with Arthur. He is nice but dim. Arthur's attitude was excellent comedy, but it is horrific and fascistoid when the entire Wizarding World regards us Ordinary Humans as Pets and not People at all.

What bugged me was the way Snape treated Petunia. Now, Pet is no prize, and I am not trying to be an apologist for her actions later, but I could see after that sort of why she thought magical people were freaks. He was a freaky kid, and he did hurt her.

Which was all DD's plan for the "greatrer good" = magic is might.

DD's plan needed Petunia to hate Magic and bully Harry the Pig for Slaughter.