Bookishness,(wasnapies, cross over fanfic, female characters,ETC)

[Rita Winston]

No: HPFGUIDX 3608

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Simon J. Branford" 

> The Malfoy (I am assuming that it is Draco) / Harry interaction

I think she meant Lucius, suggesting that it could have been an 
arrogant, elegant, rich MOTHER who escorted Draco to Knockturn Alley 
-- but Arthur wouldn't get into a fistfight with a WOMAN....
> 
> In the UK, especially when concerned with school and schoolwork,
> reading is definitely seen as the feminine option.

The USA is famous for being an anti-intellectual country, where 
people are mocked for being bookworms, eggheads, highbrows, etc. I 
have longed noticed (being twice your age, I have had a long time in 
which to notice) that braininess and bookishness are considered 
neither masculine nor feminine. A boy who does his homework (or 
a Presidential candidate who has written a book) is mocked as 
being not a 'real man', therefore of being (everyone, please 
forgive the term) a 'faggot'. Thus, one could think that homework is 
considered feminine. (Which would even have some plausibility, as 
statistics indicate that girls get better grades in school than 
boys and continue on to college at a higher rate.)

However, a GIRL who does her homework is mocked as not being a 'real 
girl' and accused of being (another term to excuse) a 'dyke'. Because 
she is assumed to have two masculine traits: not obsessing over her 
appearance (the 'librarian in glasses' stereotype) and being 
independent. Thus, one could think that homework is considered 
masculine. 

What REALLY gets me is when I see on the news that black students 
in primarily black schools (we have plenty of de facto segregation 
here) nowdays are mocking their peers who do homework for 'acting 
white'. That is so ridiculous! White schoolkids hate good students 
just as much as those black kids on the news! Some black adult 
commentators mourn that, in their days, black students always worked 
hard in school and respected peers who did well in school. If so, 
they were being DIFFERENT from the white majority!