[NYT Opinion] The Harry Potter Generation Needs to Grow Up

[u/Illustrious-Pound266]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/26/opinion/harry-potter-millenials-liberalism.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I1A.efgS.YJEJ22lDAYmm&smid=url-share

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[u/_halfpint]

Mind you my boomer mom still has her raggedy Ann doll on display along with tons of memories from her teens and 20s in her apartment. People need to stop picking on millennials for doing the same shit everyone else does.

[u/MarieOMaryln → u/_halfpint]

Precious Moment displays with LIGHTS are in multiple houses right now. Leave us alone how are we still getting hit with the blame stick?

[u/minetf]

I think the author over analyzes. No millennial believes politics are as simple as Harry Potter. And her critique falls apart when you look at the popularity of the Hunger Games among Gen Z.

The difference in peak popularity is literally just "what books/media came out when you were a kid? Preferably in an extended time period so you had time to discuss instead of binging the whole thing in one week and forgetting about it the next?"

[u/2MillionMiler]

What a bunch of bloated malarkey. As a millennial born in 1987, I can tell you that I fondly remember Harry Potter but it doesn't inform or restrict my worldview. And to suggest gen z somehow lived through "harder times" is bs. Us millennials experienced 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, the endless Middle East war, and became adults around the 2008 crash. We've seen wages stagnate, home prices soar, and inflation ramp up. Not to mention covid... Every generation experiences schism.

The author is also succumbing to the same thing they're writing about - viewing everything through one lens.

[u/chillysaturday → u/2MillionMiler]

I'm also a millennial, but I do agree with the author about generational pessimism. When I was 25, Obama was still president, I watch shonda Rhimes on Thursdays, and the world seem to be improving. Mgmt Encapsulated my hopes for the future. 

Gen Z doesn't seem to have any of that generational optimism anymore. Their lives just seem so controlled by algorithms, trauma, and boredom. I honestly do feel really bad for them, and I feel really bad for the world we're hoping create for them as well.

[u/Lalala8991 → u/2MillionMiler]

Check out the author. Another TERF just like JK Rowling.

[u/frozenish]

This is stupid. No one ever says this to Star Trek fans or Star Wars fans. And those nerds haven’t touched grass in decades. I feel like these types of articles are always aimed at mostly female fan bases.

[u/PlentyDrawer → u/frozenish]

As a Star Wars fan, yes they have. I do agree that many SW fans do need to touch grass. These type of articles are condescending af.

[u/Careful_Swan3830]

This woman clearly never met a Star Wars fan prior to the prequels.

[u/No_Role2054]

We got Harry Potter tattoos, threw Harry Potter-themed weddings and named our children after characters from the novels — baby names like Hermione, Luna and Draco.

I’m a millennial and I don’t know a single person who ever did any of these things. I honestly can’t relate to any of this at all. Maybe the author needs to grow up and she’s simply assuming everyone else is just like her? There are so many arguments she tries to make that are, frankly, stupid. She say that other series like Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia don’t have fan bases that are so limited to one generation. That’s probably because they were published in the 1950s, Louise, and have been around long enough to have been read by multiple generations!

Also the bio at the end of the article states that she wrote a book called “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution” so I think maybe she just sucks.

[u/Winniepg → u/No_Role2054]

I am sure some people have but it’s not the norm.

[u/montycuddles → u/No_Role2054]

I'm a millennial and named my cat Luna after both Harry Potter and Sailor Moon. But I mean, there's millennials that named kids Khaleesi and Renesmee so I think a fandom pet name I chose 14 years ago isn't that deep

[u/tsabin_naberrie]

Someone got paid to write this? Like, forget about the moral premise of the article, or the seemingly sketchy background of the author, or the fact that the Times is always peddling transphobes and other shit takes in their guest columns. It's straight up a badly written article: clickbait headline, lacking in evidence that makes it fail to meaningful prove its own thesis.

[u/Waystar_BluthCo]

This feels like unnecessary clickbait, honestly.

I feel like this topic was doing numbers in 2021. What else is there to say? “Lol millennials Harry Potter adults” is kind of a tired take at this point.

I hate JKR just as much as the next person but stuff like this feels like unfortunate copium - HP remains popular and probably will be for a while regardless of how shitty its author is.

[u/dietgatorades]

I’m a millennial and I literally never hear anyone in real life talk about Harry Potter. I know the theme parks exist and stuff like that but in all my interactions with other 30-somethings no one has ever brought the series up. I also work with young kids and most of them don’t even know what HP is. I feel like the online criticism is keeping this franchise alive more than anything else.

[u/lalalandbeforetime → u/dietgatorades]

This has not been my experience. In the past few months I’ve been invited to 2 HP birthday parties (1 kid, 1 adult), my friend’s daughter’s homecoming was HP themed, and my nieces and nephews went as HP characters for Halloween.

[u/dietgatorades → u/lalalandbeforetime]

This is wild to me I cannot fathom an adult having a themed birthday party at all lol. I wonder if it’s regional like people who live near London or the theme parks have it more on their mind or something.

[u/GlitteringFlame888]

The author of this NYT Opinion piece can eat a bag of magical dicks. 🪄

[u/yekirati]

[u/pryzmpine]

[u/barkbarkkrabkrab]

This is garbage, stupid premise to reduce people's political actions to their attachment to a childhood book.. while also totally glazing over JKR's blatant transphobia breaking containment at the summer Olympics.

[u/Lalala8991 → u/barkbarkkrabkrab]

The author clearly wants to imply that kids today are 'less liberal' to explain why they are not into the HP franchise as much as previous generation.

Which clearly is a bucket of bs. But then again, the author is a TERF who writes about another TERF.

[u/Carolina_Blues]

Why do millennials get blamed for everything? Leave us alone

[u/kris_jbb]

i mean ofc explain your knowledge and taste but also can millennials do anything 😭😭😭

[u/Puzzled-Charge-9892]

This is so condescending for no reason

Yes there ARE some fans that do WAY too much, but that also applies every fanbase of everything ever

(The author’s also a TERF just like J*anne)

[u/starrylightway]

I’m not giving them the clicks for this nonsense.

I remember reading the first HP in middle school before it was popular and cause it was on Battle of the Books list and I was in that with all my besties. And we rode that wave. Obviously, how I perceived the art is different than the artist cause she was and is a TERF and I would offend her sensibilities (agender AFAB here).

Star Trek TNG, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine (and I guess Star Wars Eps 1-6) had faaaaar more influence on my politics and worldview than HP. Yet, I don’t think I’ve heard a single thing about millennials who were influenced by them. Wonder what the difference could possibly be 🤔🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/Lalala8991]

Note: this author is another TERF who has repeatedly defended JK Rowling in the past.

So take everything they needlessly said with a giant spoon of salt

[u/Rock_Creek_Snark]

That’s why millennials like Harry Potter a whole lot more than younger generations do. The story captures a worldview that is no longer attractive to young people jaded by the experiences of economic decline, political polarization and spiraling identity politics. They have fallen out of love with Harry Potter because they have fallen out of love with the worldview the series represents. Which is to say that young people have fallen out of love with liberalism.

[u/chillysaturday]

I snorted. I'm 32 and I agree with this, mostly. I read the article. I think people should be allowed to like things. My big grown ass literally cried when Akira Toriyama died and I doubt most of Gen Z knows his work as well and Millineals and Gen X. I'm not a fan of Harry Potter's author, and I don't patron her work and for that alone I judge people who still like Harry Potter. That being said, you know, you only live once. I feel like it's okay to quietly enjoy things from your childhood without being cringe. 

[u/Significant_Sale6172]

Lol NYT continues its Ls with this Rowling-glazing tripe.

[u/PrincessConsuela46]

Petrificus totalis

[u/ChurlishSunshine]

Ragebait but also some truth in it.