Innuendo, eye rolls

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 24681

Mindy:
> One of the lovingly refreshing things about the HP books is that it is
devoid of any lurid details and has absolutely zero sexual innuendo or
encounters. It makes it appropriate for children to read as well.

I think "absolutely zero" is pushing it a bit.  As people have pointed out, Roger and Fleur, canoodling in the rosebushes, Percy kissing Penelope, men's reactions to the veela, Myrtle peeking at Harry in the prefect's bath... there are plenty of examples.  What I think you mean is the discretion and light touch with which JKR handles the subject.

For my part, I'm always a bit disturbed when I see people happily thrusting their 4 year olds in front of programs where people are beating each other up and shooting each other, and then whisking a teatowel over their 13 year old's eyes at the first hint of anything sexual on screen.  I was also appalled when I visited Stellenbosch in South Africa and learned that students' parents (this is *university students* we're talking about) have banned condom machines on campus because it "encourages immorality".  Even worse, the 20 something tertiary educated friends I was visiting were half-shocked and half-impressed that I carry such immoral contraceptive devices with me, and didn't even know where to buy them, despite the fact that they were all sexually active!  In a country with a 10% HIV infection rate!!  We are talking *death* here!  I told them about Australia's Sodom 'n' Gomorrah style "remember to use a condom" ads on the back of public toilet doors and on television, and they were boggling.  There's something to be said for Australia's down-to-earth no-frills secular society...

I'm definitely of the "ignorance is dangerous" faith.

OTOH (and this is getting both controversial and off-topic: perhaps replies should go to the OT list!), I'm also rather depressed by the excessive sexualisation of the Western world.  Manufactured singing groups made up of out of work models doing dances composed of pelvic thrusts and sensual posturing in skimpy lycra clothes.  Eight year old girls on diets and wearing makeup.  The growing perception that any activity other than shopping (to get clothes and products to make yourself sexually attractive), movies (where you mostly go to ogle attractive actors), net surfing (where you look at sexy pictures and get into online innuendo) and going out to bars and clubs to pose and pick up is UNCOOL.  This bothers me not because of anything to do with "immorality", but because (a) there is, amazingly, more to life than sex, and a lot of potentially interesting, stimulating things teenagers would once have done (*hobbies*?  You have *hobbies*??  Oh my god, you need to get a life) are disappearing, and (b) the images of sex and sexiness presented by the media are a long way from reality, and leave the average child hitting puberty in a very awkward position: not really knowing much about the actual process of sex (how to do it, whether to do it, how to avoid pregnancy and disease, how to cope with the accompanying emotions) and feeling totally inadequate compared to the bodies and activities they've been seeing on-screen since they were children.

As I mentioned long ago, one of the things I liked best about American Beauty was its illustration about the legacy the sexualised society has left us: the poor pretty teenager who's internalised the message that to be sexy is the pinnacle of life and makes her special and envied and a model, and gives her power over men, who boasts and uses her body to posture and flaunt, but as soon as a man seriously tries to take her up on her invitation, she's terrified and feels that she has to follow up with a great "performance" which she doesn't have a clue about...

Cynthia:
> I didn't look forward to Lockhart and found him kind of annoying.  Which suggests to me that perhaps he's 
just not written quite as well.

I actually thought Lockhart was a great example of an "alternative" villain, and rather well-written (if a touch over the top for humour value), much better than Crabbe and Goyle in particular (I've often whinged about them) and Voldemort.

As for eye-rolls, the part which annoyed me the most were the Veelas.  Ron saying "Did you know that I've invented a broomstick that can fly to Jupiter?" or whatever was a bit unconvincing.  Also (she says, reaching for her bullet-proof vest), I thought the school song was a pretty lame piece of poetry which doesn't scan very well, even allowing for the fact that it's Dumbledore's little joke.  I liked "Ford Anglia to the rescue!", and can tolerate Barty/Moody's speech at the end of GoF under the author's imperative cop-out clause: we needed to know what happened.

Tabouli


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