* Lycanthra

[Jinx]

No: HPFGUIDX 3988


----- Original Message -----
From: Rita Winston <catlady at wicca.net>
To: <HPforGrownups at egroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 5:02 AM
Subject: [HPforGrownups] ?4JKR(robes) * Crookshanks * Galleons2$ * 150 years
* Lycanthra


> *** Lupe de los Lobos? Lycia Ulf? I want Lupin's mother to be named
> Ida. It would work for the Marauders' friendship relationship if the
> Lupin character were a female friend with lycanthropy, but it
> wouldn't work for PoA's social agenda, formerly known as the moral
> of the story, which is that the kindest, most gentle, best teacher is
> the one who is hounded out of the school for being a dangerous
> werewolf: an anti-sterotyping, anti-bigotry message. But our cultural
> stereotype that expects women to be kind and gentle (to children,
> anyway) means that the kind, gentle woman teacher, fitting the
> readers' habitual expectation, would not be noticed and therefore the
> moral would not be noticed.

Not necessarily.  I don't think it's Lupin being kind and gentle that
necessarily marks him out, it's that he's the first decent DADA teacher
they've had, esp. compared to Lockhart in the previous book.  Also, he knows
how to repel a Dementor, which is a vital thing, and is what cements the
friendship between him and Harry and gets him noticed (his first scene
involves him getting rid of the dementor on the train, then there's the
anti-Dementor lessons).  Also having Lupin as a woman may well have made a
more dramatic impact when the werewolf identity was revealed.

> If you want to do some gender-bending, imagine if the Sirius Black
> character were Scylla Black!

My mind just flipped.  Anyway, that makes her sound like a British TV
presenter and 60's child star.

Jinx