5 things the Harry Potter movies got wrong

3. Beauxbatons & Durmstrang

The international schools of witchcraft and wizardry, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, only appear in one Harry Potter movie, but it turns out that screen time isn’t the issue when it comes to getting our backs up. The manner in which they are introduced is more than enough to do that.

In the books, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang have both girl and boy students. In the films, on the other hand, they are same-sex schools. This means that their respective traits when we are introduced to them are coded as feminine and masculine.

Beauxbatons enters the Great Hall, fluttering like girls do, with baby blue hats and gently sighing in the way that only gentle women do. Durmstrang, an all boys school, comes in banging manly sticks, doing manly backflips and frowning, which we all know is the true sign of a man.

Reader, we hate it.

The person who should be most angry about this is Fleur Delacour. She is chosen to represent Beauxbatons in the Triwizard Tournament. Of four champions, she is the only girl. The books make it clear that she is the best person, better than all the other boys and girls, in her school to do this.

The films make it look like the only reason there’s a girl champion is because there was no other choice. A girl had to represent Beauxbatons because only girls attend that school. It couldn’t possibly be because a girl is better than the boys there.

If the unnecessary stereotypes weren’t enough, they had to rob Fleur of her well-won victory over French wizards. That’s just rude.