:::: One Part FANDOM RETROSPECTIVE, One Part ANALYSIS ::::
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play that premiered in London, 2016. It was met with praise by theatergoers and disdain, even hatred, by those who read the script. Today, there is a...
It's a dumb joke, I know. Cut me some slack, I gotta lighten the mood on this one.
Before I jump back in, I want to say that if you, my dear and precious reader, think it might be difficult for you to set aside a mistrust of people who disagree with your views, and feel compelled to defame and/or insult them, I'm going to suggest you just skip this section. If you're sticking around, but often feel a knee-jerk reaction to pre-judge and presuppose racism or bigotry, I'd ask that you first hear me out.
And please don't conflate my views on canon with a misguided belief that Hermione should ONLY be played by a white person. The books are OS-Canon (Original Source). Her race doesn't change in the books, and I plan to prove that the color of her skin is not as ambiguous as it is now claimed to be. In other categories of canon (JKR or WW) however, where the rules are a little more flexible and differing interpretations is part of the fun, the character of Hermione Granger can be (and maybe should be) racially fluid.
Where we left off: the casting of the famously talented, dark-skinned Noma Dumezweni as Hermione had sparked fervent discussion and even downright hatred on both sides of the fanbase, to which Rowling claimed a side and responded that Hermione's skin was never specified as white and that any adverse thinking was a result of idiotic racism, even from her most ardent fans.
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As was previously mentioned, Hermione was never depicted with "frizzy" hair in the Harry Potter books, contrary to JKR's false declaration of canonical proof. The earliest date I could find on record where Hermione was described with "frizzy" hair, which could conceivably indicate a race other than caucasian, was from an article in late 2010.
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After 2010, "frizzy hair" only occasionally showed up in the fanon lexicon. In the seven years since, it has become synonymous with the characterization of Hermione. The actual synonyms of Hermione's "bushy" hair (as described in OS-Canon) are: shaggy, curly, big, straggly, wiry, bristly, and scraggly. Whereas the common synonyms of "frizzy" include words like: tousled, nappy, stubbly, crisp, afro, permed, and kinked. While there is some crossover between the two, frizzy is most certainly not a synonym of bushy.
