[HPforGrownups] female characters - very long and very opinionated

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 3486

At 00:36 10/14/2000 EDT, Susan wrote about the male bias in HP:

I agree that there is a focus on the males in the HP books. However, I don't
agree that Hermione is the exception among the female characters, although
she is the most evident exception.  There is strength in the other female
characters, it is just more subtle or implied.  

In my view there are three main reasons for the bias: 

a) As Steve Bates said, the books are written with Harry as the focal point.
I think this explains why male bonding features and female bonding is
absent.  Frankly, it would be great to see more of the interaction between
Lavender and Parvati (which undoubtedly goes beyond giggling in classrooms)
or eavesdrop on a late night chat between Hermione and Ginny or hear
Angelina Johnson enthusing to her mates about a Quidditch match. Sadly, we
don't get much of that, because Harry doesn't get much of that.  

b) JKR has chosen at least one setting (Hogwarts) which harks back to a
traditional, gender-rigid environment - the boarding school.  I've always
felt that these books had a nostalgic feel about them that suggested the
1940s/1950s, rather than the later C20.  That vision blends with images of
an even deeper tradition, harking back to the times when goblets, robes and
flaming torches were de rigeur. In my opinion, this stripping of modernity
is one of the keys to JKR having created such an alluring alternative
universe. It is also the very thing that appears to have dictated some of
the female roles (Molly Weasley - 1950s Matriarch; McGonagall - 1940s
schoolmarm, Rosmerta - medieval serving wench, Trelawney - 1950s seaside
charlatan).  In this context, exceptions to the rule make quite a statement
(just as they would have in the 1950s).

c) Perhaps JKR wanted to avoid making too big a 'gender reversal' statement
in this setting and preferred to imply equality and female strength
incidentally.  The unisex nature of Quidditch, mentioned by Sister ML, is
one of these, but there are others (to my mind, the fact that Molly Weasley
is clearly much stronger than Arthur).  

You make some undeniable points, Susan. Women are pushed into the background
and held to sterotype. Apart from Trelawney, only McGonagall appears to have
any major emphasis among the teachers.  True, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena
Ravenclaw founded the two 'also ran' Houses.  Lestrange does seem to be the
only female deatheater.  Yes, the "vast majority of the cool, powerful,
efficacious characters are men/boys" and despite what I've said above, that
needn't have been so. 

I think it's important to be able to imagine the things we *don't* see.
We've noted before that some of the characters are only sketched out and I
think this allows the reader to fill in the missing parts of the jigsaw to
their own design.  Sadly, we don't know too much about Cho, Angelina,
Parvati, Fleur, Ginny et al, but I'm willing to bet that if we did read some
scenes from *their* perspective, we'd see that they weren't just arm
decorations for the Yule Ball. In that case, despite the tradition of the
boys asking the girls to the Ball, the boys appeared naive and clumsy and
the girls came across as more mature and in control... that was my reading
between the lines, anyhow.

I don't know that JKR is male-identifed as such, because she has said that
she identifies with Hermione. We could ask why she chose a male lead?
Perhaps it was to avoid having the book cast as reading for girls, but maybe
it was simply because that was the story she wanted to write and how she
wanted to write it. It certainly hasn't lessened the appeal of the books to
women and girls.

Like you, I hope to see more of all the female characters - dead, alive or
otherwise - not to mention several of the minor characters of both sexes.  I
think that will happen now Harry has changed from boy to adolescent.

Neil

PS - Good point about the term 'Animaga', although it would make McGonagall
sound like she should be battling head to head with Godzilla.

            Flying-Ford-Anglia

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   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

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