That is just about the stupidest thing I've ever heard! And I don't think Hermione ever commented on how it felt to hit Malfoy in the book...I think that all these crazy critics and psychology people are using Harry Potter as a sort of scapegoat for random things that are wrong in the world! Hey, let's all go get some heavy, metal and sharp objects, hurl them at Professor Garbarino and blame it on Hermione! Great idea, right girls?(sarcasm by the way)

yea im sure ppl who kill other ppl have their good reasons as well...i mean everyone has good reasons for everything now a days dont they. im just saying that article was listing girls/women who have robbed, killed, and have had orgys, and not once mentioned that it was anyway related to harry potter. Thats why i think it's stupid. sure of course things such as harry potter can cause ppl to become violent. Games have. Ive heard of numerous accounts where young boys have commited suicide because of a game. However, theyve had proof of that. They never said that the two 14 yr old gurls killed the taxi driver b/c of hp. I think ppl often exaggerate things. even if they have their "good reasons". What if they got inspired by other movies. HP is a children's series. and like i said parents just need to teach their children what is real & what is not. what is right and what is wrong. ppl who have headaches and that their backs hurt, well that's their problem and in no way affects ppl. other than they have to pop a few advils. & btw this is put up for comments, opinions, and thoughts. dont critize others for "abusing" when your doing the same thing to a person who's commenting, and not only that ur pointing them out to make them feel bad. Walburga is only stating his/her opinion and your calling him/her dumb. your a hypocrite. Besides the point if your right or not or she's right or not it doesnt matter. thats why everyone has their own opinions. & ppl need to learn right from wrong. and you dont have be "obssesed" with hp to know that there's absolutely nothing wrong with the book. if you have a problem with it, then you shouldnt post here

Holy heck, that's just ridiculous. People are just jealous of Jo's talent. Besides, the guy you directed the movie had Hermione punch him, she only slapped him in the book! And she NEVER said 'that felt good'... and the boys were shocked. geez prominent US psychologist!!!

oh this is not even worth getting annoyed about, we all know anything this popular is blamed for lots of stuff like this ok Hermione hit one person once but i have to say i've never gone ooh Hermione hit Malfoy, thats a great excuse for me to hit anyone i dont like! This is just laughable really!

I think it's not bad if girls can feel free to express their emotions, instead of hiding and repressing them, which ist unhealthy. if they are a bit agressive, i think this can be an advantage for themselves, so they can't be overwhelmed that easily by other people, but they'll stick to themselves, however hard this can be. it's really good to have hermione who says what she thinks, even if she almost verbally attacks people sometimes, but she always has the cleverer things to say, so she is really right to do so. it's important to express yourself, and i think that normally girls do not really allow themselves to do that. but i can hardly imagine that girls are going to be violent, i mean really physically violent, because of the potter books. hermione's weapon ist her brain ! so if girls do learn anything from her, it's the use of their brain to state and stick to your opinion and your personality, to have the courage to do so, which i think is really really important, maybe especially for girls.

More breaking news: A prominent UK "psychologist" says reading the tripe of other psychologists about popular fictional characters such as Hermione Granger (to get attention/recognition/books banned/all of the above) could be contributing to an increase in violence among girls (against psychologists). ...alright, so I may have made that up...but you get the point ;)

This is getting ridiculous - How can such a good book be blamed for almost every problem the world encounters?! what'll Harry be blamed for next? the war in Iraq? I can just imagine our president adding Harry Potter to the "axis of evil"...........

I totally agree with Miss Kaye, but I must point out that there are so many factors at play when it comes to violence that trying to point one out is really difficult. There is nothing wrong with hitting. If a girl is in a tight situation and they are innocent then hit, kick and punch until your safe. Gabriano should have made sure that his sources were correct. Unfortunately this is going to be misinterpreted as JKR beliefs and ideas, when it really was the script writer's work. I also think that the Daily Telegraph is at fault for having written their article in such a way, they twisted his words in the title.

Why is Harry Potter to blame for the strangest things. Excuse me, but that's lame.

Thank you :] & your right Walburga there are alot of factors and to try & point one is hard thats why it's odd to me to attack books when there are more bad things than that, like i said b4 in the 1st page of comments, if a guys being a you kno what of course hes going to get hit. why not, i mean ive hit a guy and im not violent. he just really deserved it and shouldnt have been a south end of a donkey. for lack of better words. and Gabriano should have made sure indeed that his sources were correct.

lets laugh with this for a century !!

Ok, This is rediculous. Lets break this stupidity down shall we. "A prominent US psychologist says popular fictional characters such as Hermione Granger could be contributing to an increase in violence among girls." OK first in all of the current 6 books and films. Where does Hermione Granger become violent? Yes she slaps/ Punches Malfoy. But that's about it. "We'll add this to the list of other things Harry Potter has been held responsible for possibly causing: headaches from causing kids to read for extended lengths of time," OK, first the books were praised cause it got kids reading again. Now it's be bashed for doing what it is supposed to do? I guess they want the kids to go back to playing violent video games and watching all the sex and violence on TV. "back problems for forcing kids to lug around the monstrous fifth book," Lets see.... Carrying 1 average size book arounhd compared to 7 Big assed School Text books 5 days a week back and forth to school! Oh yes, It's Harry Potter that is causing all the back problems of the kids. "chauvinism," " " This is so stupid! "devil-worshiping," Oh the psych must be catholic. Where in any of the books does it show Harry worshiping Satan? Man some people are so stupid! "fatism (discrimination against obese people)," Where, other than Dudley do we see a fat person being made fun of? Besides, regardless of him being fat. He deserves what he gets cause he is a rotten, mean, vicious child. You don't see them discriminating against characters like Hagrid or Professor Sprout. Again looks like people are grasping at straws. "postPotter depression" (how we feel after we finish a book and settle down for the multi-year wait for the next installment)" Ok, I'll give them that! But the rest of a load of bull. All the peopel who believe this crap needs to get back on the short bus and go Du du da da!

Also, It just another excuse for people not to take the blame for theselve. Put all theor problems on a author created something who made her one of the richest women in the world!

No, no, no, Emerson! Harry Potter does not cause Global Warming! The decrease of pirates causes that! Chack out www.venganza.org for the wicked graph that proves this.

Actually I can see the link between Harry Potter and global warming: what is the carbon footprint of Harry Potter??? He he he

see i told u it was the school books giving us back problems. good post oh marvelousone. you really are marvelous (haha say it in an joking austin powers voice & itll be funny) everything i agree with.

Dont forget that HP can cause people to bleed to death. Paper cuts anyone?

Walburga thats brilliant!!! of course, if anyone doesnt like a certain ship or someone they like dies then they cut themselves with that page! of course! thats why you see in used book stores they harrypotter ones always have drops of blood on the pages. haha i love it.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *deep breath* hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha - possibly the most ridiculous thing i've heard since Jo was accused of being 'fatist'

Quick Question - Why Harry Potter and not any other series? I mean, you want to see girls being violent? there's a lot more than a punch or a slap in series like The Lord of the Rings.... etc.... why is it that everything gets blamed on Harry Potter..... it really is infuriating...... Poor Jo, half the worlds problems are being blamed on her masterpiece, and she has to deal with this on a day to day basis......

Well this must mean that women can't handle strong female influences. We are just too dumb to realize it is fiction. Ladies, let us be honest; if we don't have a doormat to follow, we tend to go off the deep end and then we start hitting people. Oh, will this violence never end?! Will we ever learn?

Just the one punch and Hermione's influence is causing people to kill people? is the world insane? I suggest that the psychiatrist stops blaming HP and goes and finds the real causes of violence such as 18 horror movies, not a tame Harry Potter character!!! i ask you!!!! these psychiatrists need to see a shrink themselves!

You know, you guys just ignore any criticism directed towards Harry Potter. Fine, but that's retarded. I think mugglenet is a little too pro-HP to take seriously when Harry Potter books receive criticism. If you disagree with this message, save the trouble of responding, I'm not even going to read the responses.

These are the people who a living out of mocking and ridiculing other peoples' works cuz they can't stand the fact that they themselves are not half as good as the peole giving this stuff. Here, JKR. Its like that series of "AWESOMELY BAD" shows on VH1. Sick, isn't it?

Should of seen this one coming. A few months ago there was a Today show report saying that young girls are becoming too violent. They were showing clips from movies and one of the movie clips was Hermione punching Malfoy in PoA. So of couse some shrink with nothing better to do is going to point their finger at the Harry Potter books. Just like the people who say that the Harry Potter books turn people on to the occult. Or that there kids do nothing but read, even though ten years ago the parents who are now saying that their kids do nothing but read now were complaining then that all their kids wanted to do was play video games all the time. It's ridiculas that people will always want to have something to complain about. That they will complain when there is nothing to complain about. I have better things to complain about than having to wonder if Harry Potter is making young girls violent.

That story is so pathetic. Don't forget, Harry Potter can also be blamed for an increase in the people in Hell.

What a load of wrong, wrong, wrong, and wrong reasons. How does Harry Potter cause violence to rise??? It started as a childrens book, and now people from the age of ten and or up are reading it. Without Harry Potter the southern states reading rate would go down , well let's just say alot, and the amount of kids who read out of school are a very tiny group.

Ha ha - so why girls and not boys... Hey boys, watch out - SHE'S BEEN READING HARRY POTTER! RUN HIDE

I guess it's not just the internet that has trolls, looks like psychology has them too.

Ridiculous....Maybe we should all start blaming our actions on reading books...lol

The only one I agree with is the postPotter depression coz that's what I'm going through right now even though it was made up.

It's indeed rubbish. But I do like Emerson's comment to the article.

ehh, have they ever read the books? Hermione being volent? they need to go back and read the books again...

What the hell does HP have to do with this f**ing sh*t? What does hermionie have to do with a 16 year old female mafia member? Its stupidly dumb

Harry Potter makes girls violent?!?!?! Why I ought to beat the #(&%^# outta your *#$@%* *%##* and make you *%^#* in your *#$%^*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >.< Besides, I beat up my boyfriend all the time, and Harry Potter's got nothing to do with that! *holds said boyfriend in a headlock* Wait...is that...EMERSON!!! Emerson, Emerson, *insertfangirlsqueelthere*!!! What do you say I take the next flight over to the U.S and beat you up instead. It would be my honour *blushes*

this is the stupidest thing i herd! what a load of rubbish

i'm so embarassed that article comes from an AUSTRALIAN newspaper. i thought that english press was supposed to be the most attacking. that article was absolute garbage.

okay... this is why i think adults are more stupid than kids... for one thing, where in HP is there a devil?! another thing is that parents used to have to force kids to read... now the are yelling at them to stop!?! and also, how does HP lead to fatism?! it doesn't make since!! and since when is Hermione Granger violent?!?!?! ...i read my father this article and he said people are nuts... you ever think that psychologists need there own psycologists? and also, people are not forced to carry around the books! everyone has the right idea to comment this and agree that its a load of rubbish!!

I can't believe!!What an amount of (excuse for the expression) bullshit!!!

i agree

with both waterfaerie and emersons babe

hahahahahahhaha What a joke.

Funny - I was a victim of a swarming by a group of 9 girls. I don't think any of them read HP, in fact I'd be surprised to learn they could read at all.

Yeah, girls in big violent gangs read Harry Potter. Now I get it, no wonder I've been actings so violent lately. aaahhhh this is too funny.

That is some of the weakest evidence I've ever seen. The article has no point! No defense! It's just listing possible ways girls are and have become violent. To ricecracker: Some religious groups believe that the Harry Potter books will lead to worshipping Satan because you are practicing magic and it will ultimately lead to 'unnatural things'. As in, against God's way. It's paranoia.

If Harry Potter really did all that people say it does all of us would either be dead, in a hospital, or in a locked fluffy room in a mental assylum...

If Harry Potter really did all that people say it does all of us would either be dead, in a hospital, or in a locked fluffy room in a mental assylum...

... *snort*

that US psychologist is madd! i mean, all that is just rubbish! nothing's true! well, about the postPotter depresion.. maybe a bit, but that's because i really get into the book. and it's still healthy!. i'm not a freak =S i love Harry Potter boks! and i'll defend them with everything i can! ¬¬ that devil-worshiping .COME ON. honestly...

Emerson? Does this mean he's out of college? (Yes). Yay, more funny posts for the summer, that's what the sit has lost since he left for college. It's true look at the archives.