The success of the Harry Potter series is astounding. It's been over a fifteen years and we're still talking about it. Girls and boys, kids and adults, English majors and Chemical Engineering majors, book-lovers and movie lovers... you can't say who loves it more, because Barnes and Noble doesn't record each book-buyer's gender, occupation, age or media preference. You can do a survey online, but chances are, the ones that love it the most are the ones who will be reading it instead of taking surveys.
What makes it so successful? I believe, and this is an opinion I've been itching over for the past six years, that Harry Potter has "both-gender appeal." The MC is a boy. The title is a boy's name. Let's take a look at the cover:
The only "girly" thing here is a unicorn, but let's be honest - that is not the focal point of the cover. There is a boy wearing tennis shoes, flying on a broomstick, attempting to catch a ball that is flying through the air. They always say that you can't judge a book by the cover, but I remember doing just that when I was little. I immediately decided this book was for boys, but did that stop me from reading it? No. I was that girl that wanted to play football during recess and serve a mission when I was 21 and watch sports on TV and play with Hot Wheels, all to prove that I could be "as tough" and "as brave" and "as fast" and "as strong" as a boy.
But I still played with Barbies, pretended to make dinner on my toy kitchen, went to ballet class, and preferred the colors pink and purple. I recognized that I was a girl, but most of my friends growing up were boys (including my little brother) and so I naturally went along with their adventures, and they would go along with mine. But there came a time when his friends started teasing my brother for playing "sissy girly doll games" and so he stopped.
No one ever teased me for playing soccer and riding bikes and wearing tennis shoes. But they teased boys for playing dress-up and wanting to try ballet and wearing pink.
In a nutshell, it's okay for girls to like boy things but NOT okay for boys to like girl things.
J.K. Rowling was encouraged to use a name that wouldn't mark her as a woman. This was done in an attempt to appeal (cover first) to the male demographic. Men don't want to read a book written by a woman, do they?
That is, I believe, one of the main driving forces behind the success of Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling appeals to both girls and boys by appealing first to the boys.
I would like to research why Harry Potter isn't considered to be a "boy book" when it's main character is a boy, but why a book about a girl is often considered to be a "girl book."
Here's what I've been looking over in search of social media and groups to learn from and discuss this with:
There are a lot more to dig through, but there's at least my starting point!
Your idea seems really interesting, I would definitely read a paper about this kind of topic!
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