Harry Potter

After reading Coppa’s article, Women, Star Trek, and the early development of fannish vidding I must say that I was honestly quite surprised. I had no idea that vidding had begun as a response to the oppression of women in mainstream movies/shows. In the past, whenever I would come across videos which applied music to various scenes from shows/movies I always found it kind of silly. However, I was impressed by the Edward vs. Bella vid, and definitely gained a greater respect for vidders as it seems like a time consuming and tedious process.  I liked the point which McIntosh was trying to convey through this vid as he was trying to resist gender stereotypes by portraying women as being powerful, strong and independent.

            However, I do not feel that all vids are as intellectual and deep, and in fact most of them are trivial and serve to reinforce gender stereotypes. For instance, in this Harry Potter vid, the vidder attempted to create a new trailer for Harry Potter by reconstructing scenes in order to make it appear as though Harry Potter and Hermione are in love with each other and about to start a relationship. Thus, vids such as these serve to reinforce the subjugation of women in romance texts.

In the opening scene Hermione seems flustered when she sees Harry Potter, reducing her to a disempowered subject when she is in the presence of a male figure. In the second image she seems distressed then jumps into Harry Potter’s arms portraying her as a dependent female who needs a dominant male figure as support.  Later, the scene of her walking down the stairs in a pink dress reduces her to an object of the male gaze.