Are There Any Transphobic References In Harry Potter Movies And Books?

After three months of rereading and rewatching the Harry Potter books and movies, there are no clear indication of any transphobic references. Trans people aren't mentioned at all. It's that simple.

There are a couple of scenes in the movies where someone uses Polyjuice Potion to temporarily masquerade as a person of a different sex, like Crabbe and Goyle disguising themselves as girls in "Half-Blood Prince" or Fleur and Hermione becoming Harry in "Deathly Hallows", but nobody really seems to think there is anything particularly off-putting about this.

That said, there are a few scenes and descriptions that, when you read them knowing about JK Rowling's stance on trans, kind of read a little weird. Like others have mentioned, Rita Skeeter can come across as a mean-spirited parody of a trans woman, with the references to her masculine traits like large hands and a square jawline clashing against her super-feminine clothing and mannerisms, and fake-looking hair. Not to mention, she spends much of the book in a shape not her own, spying on school children.

Nobody really is certain if Rowling actually intended for Rita to be trans. It might her subconscious coloring her writing here, but she wants to make sure Rita reads as thoroughly unsympathetic, and so she lets the narrative mock her appearance: look at this mannish woman pretend that she's feminine.

It's a very common tactic for her to make fun of people's looks if she wants them to come across as unsympathetic; the sympathetic characters don't tend to be supermodels either, but they're generally described in more neutral terms or not at all. So that one of the unsympathetic female characters is mocked for having masculine traits. It sort of a moment of ealization when you know JK Rowling's attitude with trans people.

So any transphobic content in Harry Potter is more inferred than actually stated.

Such benefit of the doubt cannot, however, be given to her adult novel, "The Silkworm", which does include a trans woman character, Pippa, and that portrayal is a little brutal. Some might have forgiven that Pippa is portrayed as violent and emotionally unstable, because the book is full of nasty and unlikeable ciscender people too, but it is noticeable that Pippa's appearance is also mocked with her large hands and protruding Adam's apple.

While Pippa's problems as a trans person are alluded to they are mostly played for laughs, and Pippa's mostly just presented as pathetic. The main characters do display some sympathy, but they do so in a very condescending, patronizing way while also mocking her, treating her with contempt, and (this is the big one) alluding to prison rape in order to get her to cooperate.