Dolores Umbridge as a Case Study in Toxic Femininity

• In Event: “The Boy Who Lived” On: Politics, Populism, and Harry Potter

Abstract

The world of Harry Potter is a cornucopia of characters, quirks, and creativity. Each of J.K. Rowling’s characters is complex and nuanced, and often provokes a deeper engagement with specific concepts or traits, and their implications. This paper explores Dolores Umbridge, the principle villain of the series’ fifth installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. In particular, this paper offers an analysis of Umbridge’s toxic femininity that is woven into her character description, actions, and representations within the book and its film interpretation. I argue that the juxtaposition of Umbridge’s excessive femininity—visible in her obsession with pink and cats—and her sadistic desire to punish reveals the way that femininity can act as a cloak, designed to obscure the unsavory or downright offensive aspects of one’s personality. Read together with the desire to punish, Umbridge’s femininity itself becomes toxic. In its excess, it matches the tone and tenor of her sadistic impulses. This papers looks at the ways this toxic femininity manifests itself across the book and movie, and compares the differences in representation to offer a broad exploration of the concept. The paper includes a juxtaposition of Umbridge’s toxic femininity with the characters of Molly Weasley and Hermione Granger to further explore the logic of female characters within Rowling’s world, and to situate the concept within a spectrum of femininity, and its role in the Harry Potter universe. It also examines Umbridge in relation to the series’ primary villain, Lord Voldemort, exploring the difference between Voldemort’s populist roots and Umbridge’s elitist tendencies, and the way in which her toxic femininity works to reinforce this tendency. Umbridge’s relationship to femininity demonstrates that the world of Harry Potter offers a fertile ground to theorize the complex relationships and characteristics that undergird our own political reality, in addition to the fantasy series.

Author

• Danielle Hanley, Rutgers University, New Brunswick