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Response Paper on Muted Group
Theory
By Ananya Ganguli, 20140121092
“Although she writes under the pen name "J. K. Rowling", pronounced rolling, her name when
her first Harry Potter book was published was simply "Joanne Rowling". Before publishing her
first book, her publisher Bloomsbury feared that the target audience of young boys might be
reluctant to buy books written by a female author. It requested that Rowling use two initials,
rather than reveal her first name.”
From what we see above, we can infer that the famous author of the Harry Potter series, Joanne
Kathleen Rowling, could at the beginning of her career be considered as a muted person. This
does not mean that she did not have a voice, but because she could not use her first name
“Joanne” while publishing her book she was rendered silent. Her publisher was scared that
young boys, who were the target audience for this book, would not be willing to purchase books
about boys authored by someone female (Facebook, 2009)1. While the publisher was probably
right in thinking so, this further establishes that even in today’s world men prefer books with
male protagonists when written by male authors.
Now that we have described J. K. Rowling as muted, let’s examine this question:
