Quidditch: ‘Spelling’ Out Gender in Sport

To a legion of Harry Potter fans, quidditch is a magical sport involving flying wizards and witches, fierce competition, friendship, and fun. Following this spirit, a modified version of the game (minus magic) emerged at a U.S. college in 2005 and is now practiced in more than 25 countries on 6 continents.The International Quidditch Association (also real) is responsible for the governance of the sport, with the unusual mission of “improving gender education across all sports and communities, promoting equality and diversity, and fostering a love of reading across all ages”. If the association between sport and literature may sound odd, even more so is the commitment to gender “literacy” and its implications for the regulation of the game.