Harry Potter and the underage drinking of wizards

In one scene, Harry, Ron and Hermione order butterbeers at the pub, and Hermione ends up with a frothy mustache. While it’s never been entirely clear whether butterbeer is alcoholic, it seems to have an effect on the normally uptight Hermione, who acts tipsy walking home as she throws her arms around the boys.
As the mother of a 10-year-old Harry Potter fan, I was taken aback by the reaction of the young people in the theater. They snickered at Hermione’s goofy grin and, later, guffawed when an inebriated Hagrid passed out. While I don’t think my daughter fully understood what was going on, I wondered how other parents, educators and addiction experts would react.

Liz Perle, a mother of two teenage boys and the editor in chief of Common Sense Media, which reviews books, movies and Web content aimed at children, said she was bothered by so many scenes showing alcohol as a coping mechanism.

“Hermione is such a tightly wound young lady, but she’s liberated by some butterbeer,” she said. “The message is that it gives you liquid courage to put your arms around the guy you really like but are afraid to.”

Naturally not everyone shares a worried perspective:

Other parents were less concerned. Daniel Isaacs, a New York advertising copywriter, said his 9-year-old daughter didn’t notice the drinking scenes. “The Harry Potter universe is not our own,” he said. “Trying to put 2009 American norms into play seems kind of silly.

“Plus, in a world where dark wizards are kidnapping or killing people on a regular basis, a little under-age drinking is the least of their problems.”

But for me, of course, the most priceless quote in the article comes from the movie studio responsible for this madness:

Warner Brothers, which released the movie, said the drinking scenes were “open to different interpretations.”

“One of our main objectives in bringing the Harry Potter films to the screen has been to remain as faithful to their original source material as created by J. K Rowling,” the company wrote in an e-mail message, adding that the wizarding world “should not be held to the same standards as the real world.”

I don't remember this kind of outcry over all the pipe weed smoking in the LOTR films, but I guess it's a little harder to identify with those characters. Regardless, as a non-parent, my opinion on this topic is borderline useless, but the discussion is thought-provoking regardless. The article cites a few studies that purport to show a relationship between smoking & drinking in the movies, and subsequent adoption of that behavior by kids, which no one would likely argue is something we want to encourage; but eliminating such depictions from the arts in cases where they have meaningful roles to play seems ridiculous on the face of it. Aaaanyway, not my problem. But in the mantime, Slashfood went trolling through a Potter fan site to find a good butterbeer recipe, so have it!