Last year Rowling outed herself as a TERF and queerbaited fans with a gay relationship that never materialized in the books or films. And don’t get us started on the whole “wizards shit their pants and magick it away” thing.
Now, fans are calling Rowling out on the names and locations of her various wizarding schools. The conversation started when Twitter user @gayrauder tweeted the map below:
according to this, which wizarding school should you attend? pic.twitter.com/9aE6dkujAK
— (@gayrauder) February 29, 2020
Okay, so let’s break it down:
The United Kingdom: Hogwarts
France and Western Europe: Beauxbatons
Scandanavia and all of Eastern Europe: Durmstrang
Italy: Shit out of luck/magic
America, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean: Ilvermorny
Central and South America: Castelobruxo
Most of Africa: Uagadou
Russia: Koldovstoretz
North Africa and the Middle East: School #9
Most of Asia/China/India: School #10
Southeast Asia/Pacific Islands/Australia/New Zealand: School #11
Japan/Korea: Mahoutokoro
Let’s be real, this breakdown is banoonies. Europe gets four schools, but nearly ALL OF AFRICA shares a single school? ALL of the Middle East has set aside centuries of geopolitical unrest to go to school together? Perhaps the most egregious is the idea that countries like China and India, which account for 36.17% of the world’s population, are just lumped together in one unnamed school. But really what did we expect from the author who named her sole Asian character Cho Chang?
Fans were quick to call out this Euro-centric nonsense on Twitter:
There are so many things wrong with this map holy shit
— Bernie Experience Requiem (@RealDaddyMarx) March 2, 2020
Are we gonna talk about how Rowling just trimmed the name of Burkina Faso’s capital for the African wizarding school?
Sankara would be laughing.— Red Blacksmith Ⓐ☭ (@MazdakThePriest) March 1, 2020
Britain and ireland a population of less than 80 million = 1 school
china and india population 2 billion plus =1 schoolthis just furthers my evidence that wizarding society in world is hilariously incompetent
— Lord Pelagius (@paulclayton9) March 2, 2020
Imagine the student:teacher ratios at School #10!
— CernigliDUH (@CernigliDUH) March 2, 2020
And the South American one is called “Castelobruxo” which literally means “Witch Castle” in spanish/portuguese
— Gugunet26 ️ (@gugunet26) March 3, 2020
Oh my god
Jk Rowling made up a Japanese wizarding school
The name of which translates to “magic place”
But in a way that is grammatically incorrect
And she’s provided a pronunciation guide!
The pronunciation guide is wrong
— Katie (@ZiziFothSi) March 2, 2020
Most genetically, culturally and linguistically diverse place on earth. One school.
— Thom the Boglord (@ThomasB73729298) March 2, 2020
Population supported by each school
Hogwarts: 66m
Beauxbatons: 157m
School #10: 3 billion— microwave_steak (@microwave_steak) March 2, 2020
Granted, Rowling probably didn’t realize when she started writing these books that they would soon garner a global following. And no one is expecting her to be a one-woman global cultural expert. But why not take the criticism of American school Ilvermorny’s colonialist perspective and learn from the experience?
Why not hire and/or consult cultural experts to build wizarding worlds that are respectful of local myths and folklore? Or better yet, enlist a world’s worth of globally influential authors to build out their own schools? This entire affair feels like a half-assed job. It’s like she literally typed “magic + school” and let Google Translate do the rest.
Do better, Rowling. We seem to be saying this a lot as of late.
(via Daily Dot, image: Warner Bros.)
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