Harry Potter is known to be one of the most famous and beloved fiction series of all time. With the original storyline that comes with the magic and awe of Hogwarts, it is no wonder that it is so popular. There are however many examples of injustices or inequalities that can be related back to our main class materials. Othering is often used in the series in order to create power dynamics between the characters.
There are two different types of Wizards at Hogwarts, the pure bloods which come from 2 wizard parents, and mud bloods that come from 1 muggle, normal, and 1 wizard parent. The purebloods often think of themselves as better than the mud bloods because they believe since their blood is ‘pure’ that they are more powerful and therefore possessmore skills for leadership. This is however not true since it is just a tactic used in order to create a system of power or a class system in some way. The main pure bloods are Voldemort and the rest of his Death eaters. This group often makes plots to kill all the mud bloods as a point to ‘weed out the weak’ among the wizard population. This is where the othering is used because the more dominant pure bloods are taking over and discriminating against the others since they are different and inherently ‘weaker’. In the end the death eaters face their downfall as most power-hungry groups do but it does create a big divide in magical society for the time being. The mud bloods are made to feel less than for a reason that is both untrue and out of their control. This can relate back to all the inequalities that we have studied throughout this course since it is all about discrimination between groups that cannot control the way that they are.
Written by Abby Doerr:
Hi there to anyone listening out there. My name is Abby Doerr. And this is the podcast
Unknown Speaker 0:05
yo is this sexist? Today we will be talking all about sexism in our world today, which I’m sure we’re aware, it’s a very big issue. Sexism can be defined as prejudice or discrimination based on sex or gender, especially in women and girls. Although sexism can happen to both men and women, it is more common to hear about this subject in relation to women. This podcast today is just going to be a general overview of sexism and how overall we have progressed throughout the years as an as well as what we as a society still need to work on today. I have a timeline pulled up from history.com. That shows a couple instances of some notable events and us women’s history. This first event occurred in 1776. In a letter to her husband, founding father, john adams features First Lady, Abigail Adams makes a plea to him and the Continental Congress to “remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them, then your ancestors do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could, if particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to formant a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” I really like this quote that Abigail Adams said, I think it is a very strong indication of the power that women hold and both societies back then, and society today as well. And this timeline in particular gives so many instances of strong women in the past that have done so much for our country to make women’s rights, a more talked about issue. Women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott,
Unknown Speaker 2:00
Sojourner Truth,
Unknown Speaker 2:01
Elizabeth Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Margaret Sanger, and so many more amazing women throughout the years that have worked to push towards women’s rights. Even women such as Amelia Earhart who have made milestones such as being the first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic, or Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Even to more recent times, with Hillary Clinton being the first woman to run against, be the first woman to receive a presidential nomination from a major political party. During her speech, she said, “standing here, as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s Mother, I’m so happy this day has come.” And some new recent exciting news. We now recently our new vice president elect, Kamala Harris is our first female Vice President, which is a huge step in our country. And I’m personally very excited about it. And I know there’s so many women out there that excited about this, because it’s a truly momentous occasion. And it is something that does not happen every day, as we see. And all throughout these years, these amazing women
Unknown Speaker 3:25
have stepped up to
Unknown Speaker 3:26
help change the world and strive for equality. That’s a very important thing that I think we often forget, is that there’s so many people that have come before us to help to build up to the things that we have today. However, obviously, the sexism is not magically solved now, because we are bringing more women into power, although it definitely helps. Women of all ages today still experience the hardships of being a woman in America. I think one of the more personal and scarier things that I have experienced with is being stalked or followed. Well, recently, in one of my first weeks in school, me and my roommate were followed, and recorded by a middle aged man, all the way from high street back to our dorm, which was very scary, especially because neither of us had our pepper spray on us, which is a very common female defense mechanism nowadays. And it was a very scary experience. And I think that was the first instance of something like that that’s happened to us. And it really made us stop and realize that this is a real thing. We hear stories about women being followed, and trying to be attacked by men all the time. But you don’t truly understand how it feels until it happens to you. And I think that’s something we both experienced. And this happens all the time. And I know from the same instance, there has been women that have been followed and recorded by the same man again, even after we reported the situation to local authorities. So there’s not much being dealt with things like this, there’s not much justice that women are receiving. And in a recent study, it was found that around 45% of women have said that they feel unsafe walking alone at night, which I know, there’s probably even more than 45%. Because I feel like every woman, in some degree, feel a little unsafe being alone at night, which is just something that has been instilled in us since we are young. This sort of fear of being alone, always saying you have to be careful, because there could be someone that’s trying to attack you. And this is really sad, because women should not have to live in fear that if they leave their house, their apartment will be kidnapped, catcalled followed, recorded, or, in extreme cases, even assaulted, which is perhaps one of the scariest things you could have to fear. I saw a video the other day. And I felt really, fits this topic. And it was both sad and a little bit humorous.
Unknown Speaker 6:05
Because this
Unknown Speaker 6:06
woman showed off the difference between her keys and her husband’s keys. Her keys, of course, had all sorts of different gadgets, has just pepper spray, and these rings that had points against them. And all of these things that are made for women to defend themselves against an attacker. Of course, then compared to her husband’s keys, his were very bare, including only his keys. This is the real difference between the ways that men and women think in this sort of instance, women have feel like they have to carry these Wolverine claw contraptions made so they feel safe. And guys are like, Well, I have my keys. That’s all I need. You know, you’re all good. But in all seriousness, there’s almost no awareness on this topic. We don’t have workshops for young girls to go in to learn how to defend themselves, and to learn, what’s the proper way to use pepper spray so that you don’t harm yourself? Or what’s the best thing to have on your keys, or what’s the best thing to do in a situation where someone tries to grab you, or someone tries to take your purse, which I think is a very serious problem. Because most women I know, I wouldn’t know what to do. If someone came up to me and tried to assault me, I think the first thing I would do is just panic, which I think most young girls would say that that’s what they would do as well. So I think having workshops that would help to make awareness for this would be very important. And another issue that’s around young girls in school dress codes. which I know personally, I came from a Catholic co Ed high school where we had uniforms. So the girls wore skirts and polo shirts, polo shirts, and the boys wear khaki pants and a polo shirt as well. We had these meetings one semester given by our dean of students about dress code and just to check on up on us. And every time without fail, the girls were always told that their skirts were too short, they needed to touch our knees, they needed to make sure that we had solid shorts or leggings underneath of our skirts. So that if you someone was to be looking up your skirt, they wouldn’t be able to see which I think the issue rather than girls having to put on shorts would be to teach people just not to look up girls skirts. But you know, that’s another issue. The shirts, on the other hand, had to cover our shoulders because shoulders are very distracting as we know. And the shirts had to be buttoned up because you couldn’t see down your shirts, because once again, we can’t just train people to be decent and not look down another person shirt. The boys how humorously were only told to shave their faces, which is kind of ironic, since most of them did not even have facial hair, because they were 14. And it makes you wonder why there’s so many regulations for girls. And boys get this one thing. And most of them doesn’t even apply to them. Because most boys that are that young can even grow facial hair. And I just wanted to address these things in particular because they’ve affected me so recently and affect so many young girls, and that is truly where sexism starts. And that is by neglecting to teach young adults of our world proper ways to treat women. Both men and women I think need to hear these sort of personal stories. I need to hear all these women that have experienced sexism in order to truly learn and to prevent this from happening in future generations. I think we must teach young boys to respect women and treating them as equals not as objects as well as teaching and empowering young women to see themselves as powerful and equal to men. Because I believe if we do not truly believe in equality then it will never happen. So, and all of this to wrap up, I really want to thank everyone who turned out for tuning in the session of yo is this sexist and we will see you next week for some more enthralling topics.
The other day, one of the scariest moments of my life happened. Me and my roommate were followed and recorded by a random man from High Street to our dorm on campus. That was the first time while being at college that I truly felt endangered and it had only been a month since we have been here. One of the scariest parts about this is that I know this is not the last time I will be followed. I also know that the same man was later found following many other women around campus. This is an issue that has grown so much in our society, yet no one in power ever seems to do something to prevent it from happening again. Women being targeted and recorded is almost seen as normal in our current world. Normalizing fear of harassment for women is a growing and is not something that will ever stop. Many girls fear of walking alone at night because they know there is a chance they will be catcalled, objectified, assaulted, raped, or killed. While this does happen to men too it does mostly happen to women. According to an article written by Stop Street Harassment, 45% of women have said that they feel unsafe walking alone at night, compared to 27% of men. That survey was taken in 2014 and I cannot even imagine what the numbers would be like now in 2020. This sort of issue is one that I cannot believe is still happening in our world. Our society has just accepted that women shall be objectified for the man’s benefit for too long. We know that this will not suddenly stop, but we do need to bring more awareness to these issues and teach young girls to defend themselves. To go along with that, we also must stress to young boys that girls should be valued and not seen as a prize or an object.
This week during our modules we will be watching the film Persepolis which is based off the novel we read this past week. A common theme seen throughout the film is sexism especially regarding women and what they can and cannot wear. During one scene the community comes together to discuss women and how they dress. They are told to wear tighter trousers, longer cowls, with no hair exposed and no makeup, including a veil. This veil was originally optional for women to wear however during the revolution, women were strongly reprimanded if they did not wear one in order to show the way women in Islam were treated to those on the outside. Not wearing the veil was viewed as provocative. (Abu-Odeh).
During the Revolution, women were not only told what to wear but their bodies were controlled as well. When they were out, they were often stopped by the “morals police” to ensure that they were accompanied by a male counterpart. If not, they were often arrested, harassed, and even physically examined to ensure that they were still virgins. Women in Islam during this time were constantly looked at by men for them to determine if that women were pure because naturally women were considered ‘sin-provoking’. (Esfandiari)
This type of control even went so far as to have regulations inside of their homes. Women could not be alone in the house with any man other than her husband, brother or father. They also always needed to be wary of having their exposed at any time since that was also seen as vulgar. (Esfandiari). Overall, women in Islam during the time that Persepolis took place, were controlled and suppressed beyond imagine. Their bodies were under control as well as their sanity.
Odeh, L. A. (1993). Post-Colonial Feminism and the Veil: Thinking the Difference. Feminist Review, (43), 26. doi:10.2307/1395067
Esfandiari, H. (1997). Reconstructed lives: Women and Iran’s Islamic revolution. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.