Blog: What the Heck is With the Malfoid Meme?
Generally, I am not a fan of fanfiction. In theory, it’s an excellent way to learn how to write stories and characters, and it serves as a creative outlet. Heck, when I started learning how to write stories as a small child, I was largely writing fanfiction. And, in some cases, the fan’s work may even be so good that it rivals the original work that it was based on.
In practice, however, as beneficial as fanfiction might be for developing writers, it has become largely synonymous with degeneracy with how much of it is smut. Just look at 50 Shades of Grey, which started as a Twilight fanfic, but ended up becoming a best seller infamous for being porn geared towards women. Or the Harry Potter fanfic My Immortal, which has become a meme for its poor grammar and spelling, laughably edgy main character, and, naturally, smut-laced plot lines.
I could go on with even more examples of famous fanfics – some of which have even been published as books- that give fanfiction a bad name. However, within this quagmire of filth are a few hidden gems. A recent example of this was The Other Bennet Sister, a delightful Jane Austen fanfic available on Amazon that focuses on Mary Bennet, the often-forgotten sister of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. It’s a fun, cute story that does justice to Jane Austen’s work and explores a character who plays a minor role in the novel, giving her her own voice and storyline.
However, besides The Other Bennet Sister, there is a new fanfic that has taken the Internet by storm and that is the Malfoid trend. At first, I had no idea what the heck it was or why I was getting recommendations for it on my For You page. I thought it was just another Harry Potter fan coming up with a gender-bent Draco Malfoy x Harry Potter fanfic, which is nothing really special. That ship has been a thing for years. I had no idea what the hype was about or why major streamers like Nux Taku were reacting to it.
Then I went on a deep dive after hearing about how important this Malfoid movement has become to Gen Z men.
Apparently, the Malfoid trend started when a fan artist drew a picture of Draco Malfoy as a female and named her “Malfoid” back in 2024. The name itself was interesting because in internet slang, “foid” has come to mean “biological woman.” Thus, it’s been argued that Malfoid isn’t necessarily a gender-bent version of Malfoy from the books/movies but is her own new character that replaces him.
From there, the original Malfoid picture has gone viral as people have used her to create the ideal heterosexual fanfic between her and Harry Potter, that in many ways improves upon the original story. The entire dynamic is changed between Harry and Draco, now that Draco is a biological female. Malfoy’s petty and effeminate actions make more sense in the context of the character being biologically female, and in the case of a relationship between Malfoid and Harry, the fandom says that it makes a more compelling love story than the one we get in the books or movies.
As for this love story, it has been surprisingly wholesome. Though fanfiction is notorious for being disgusting, any sexualization of Malfoid by the internet (particularly by OF girls) has been largely rejected by the men who are the primary fanbase of this trend. They love the story for its traditional gender roles, compelling romance, and culmination in marriage and a family, and see the sexualization of Malfoid as a middle finger to that. One X user even went so far as to say:
Another X user also explained in detail what the Malfoid trend rules are, saying:
Okay. So let’s lay out the rules then.
- Malfoid was born female, has always been female, and at no point was ever male or has memories of being male. Since being born, she has grown up as a girl, and Heiress of House Malfoy.
- The tags name is Malfoid. not galfoy, not Drarry (Gayyyy), not Malfoy. Malfoid. We are not changing it. If it offends you, that is the POINT.
- Malfoid is about a resurrection of the Mytho-Poetic romantic love story. The kind of story where a noble man and noble woman come together to complete one another. There’s some mutual saving involved, and it is principally a chaste and wholesome relationship.
- Sexifying, pornifying, slutifying characters within the Malfoid tag runs directly counter to the intentions of rule #3, and if you think that the Malfoid movement is the place for your slut like whorecrux behavior, you are wrong and need to go be a slutblood somewhere else.
- Malfoid is not a “GENDER BEND”, because there was no male Draco at any point. Malfoid is the wholesale replacement of Draco as a character with a female who is occupying the same space, with a similar (But not identical) attitude as Draco. Malfoid is a “Gendered replacement”. There’s no transforming men into women, Malfoid is not Transgender as she was born Female and always have been.
- The Malfoid tag is not about swapping all the characters genders, making a Harem anime, or producing a show of Harry having lots and lots of women to choose from because suddenly his best friend or dark arts teacher are suddenly female. This runs counterproductive to rule #3, as it dilutes the chasteness and wholesomeness of the Mytho-Poetic Romance that is predicated upon the singular love between two singular people.
- Malfoid is considered a “Cultural Moment” within a sub-culture that is very large. If you are only here to s*** on everyone’s parade by saying how irrelevant or insignificant fan culture is, or how fanfiction is a waste of time, or any such nonsense… you can save your breath, we’ve all heard it before. Go and spend your efforts at demoralization and deconstruction elsewhere.
- The Malfoid change to the story is integrated, adaptive only in how it enhances, fulfills and maintains the overall story of Harry Potter. Adaptations that improve narrative beats, enhance lore integrations or resolve standing plot points that weren’t resolved or were resolved in a dis-satisfying way are preferred over vast departures from this sort of canon repurposing of the fiction. While the purpose is NOT to deviate out of the genre or feel, sheer fun and humor is welcome, provided they attempt to adhere as best they can to rules 1-7.
- Malfoid is traditional in its romantic sensibilities, and by this nature, is ostensibly a RIGHT LEANING movement. There are many conservative and religious values wrapped up in the narrative tropes and underpinnings of the story, in and of itself, as well as the romantic resolutions between Malfoid and Harry.
Now, does this mean that there is absolutely no sexualization of Malfoid within this trend? No. Unfortunately, while doing research about this topic on X, I ran across several posts where the character was absolutely hypersexualized (which is disturbing given that the character is technically a minor even in the fanfic). Thankfully, most of the comments were reacting with disgust towards the creator putting the content out there.
Moving on from that, however, the love of the story for its overall wholesomeness has caused the tagline of this fanfic to be “Yearn.” It is an encouragement for men to yearn for the good in the world and the things beyond themselves. It’s not there to fulfill a man’s fantasy as we so often think of it. It’s become a cultural wakeup call to get men to rise up and fulfill their higher fantasy of providing for and protecting a woman. It accomplishes this by being a traditional romance story, where both the man and woman are virtuous, and through their love, defeat evil. Malfoid, though still portrayed as powerful, is still in need of Harry.
Even better is that this story is not only inspiring men and women to put themselves out there and work to become the best they can be, but it’s also helping them become creative again. Almost everyone in the new Malfoid fandom is getting in on writing fanfics, adding to the story, and even creating short episodes of what a Malfoid T.V. show would look like using AI. And, frankly, the AI episodes of the Malfoid saga really make me think Hollywood is doomed because while you can tell its AI, people have been given the power to make the adaptations and stories that they want to see for a relatively low price.
Until next time,
M.J.
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