Don’t say Quidditch anymore! This activity, inspired by the sport practiced by sorcerers of Harry Potter, was renamed quadball by US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch, two North American leagues. The stated objective is to no longer be affiliated with JK Rowling, the controversial author of the literary saga.
Quidditch, born in the pages of his novels published between 1997 and 2007, is a sport that is played on flying broomsticks, with several balls. As CNN reports, two college students in Vermont came up with a real-world version in 2005, in which players run around on the ground astride broomsticks.
The concept has since become popular and nearly 600 teams have emerged around the world, according to the administrations concerned.
“An Important Moment”
The International Quidditch Association, which oversees the various national organizations around the globe, intends to follow in the footsteps of the US Quadball and the Major League Quadball, these two organizations bringing together several teams that have now been renamed.
“The IQA is delighted to join the USQ and the MLQ in changing the name of our sport and encourages this change among its members all over the world”, declares one of its representatives in a press release relayed by Variety.
“We enter this stage with confidence and look forward to all the new opportunities quadball will bring. This is an important moment in the history of our sport.”
This name change was announced last December by the USQ and the MLQ. At that time, the new appellation had not been found. JK Rowling “has been increasingly singled out for her anti-trans stances in recent years,” they said in a statement.
“Our sport has a reputation for being one of the most progressive in the world in terms of gender equality and inclusiveness, due to its rule which states that a team cannot have more than four players from the same sex on the pitch at the same time. Both of our organizations feel it’s essential to live up to that reputation.”
Another reason put forward
They had also spoken of their difficulties in obtaining sponsors and broadcasts, because the rights to the word “Quidditch” belong to Warner Bros., producer of the films adapted from the books.
“We wanted to make it clear that (this name change) comes from these two reasons, declares today one of the spokespersons at the New York Times in an article relayed by the Guardian. “We didn’t want to judge which reason was more important.”
Long adored, JK Rowling fell out of favor in 2020 by posting a tweet deemed transphobic. The author had relayed an article evoking “people who have their period”, commenting ironically: “I’m sure we had to have a word for these people. Someone help me. Feum? Famme? Feemm ?”.
She thus drew the wrath of certain Internet users, who reminded her that transgender men could have their period. She has since multiplied tendentious statements on the subject.