Gender balance/strong women

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 14955

Joy wrote:
 
>> I just wanted to say, although the moderators will probably yell at
> > me, that I think Susans analysis is right on-target.
> 

Penny said:

> Ahem.  *Why* would the Moderators yell at you for this?  *I* agree!
> Susan's analysis is excellent, which is just what I told her last
> October when she first posted it.  :--)  I don't necessarily agree 
> in  full with all her conclusions, but I can't object to the logic 
of her analysis.

I'm not yelling either.  This is an important topic, IMO, and well 
worth exploring again.

I think I also responded to Susan's original post, and the main point 
of which being, IIRC, that she felt that the female characters were 
being sidelined.  It's hard to ignore the fact that most of the main 
players are male, but I suggested that there were reasons why the 
female characters were less prominent (primarily the fact that we see 
things from Harry's POV).  Like Penny, I don't disagree with Susan's 
observations; I just don't see it as evidence of sexism on JKR's part.

When it comes to strong girls/women, we definitely have Minerva, 
Molly, Hermione and Angelina at the forefront there, plus Rita 
Skeeter and Madame Maxime.  The main area that bugs me is the 
wizarding government - isn't the hapless Bertha Jorkins the only 
woman mentioned in connection with the MoM?  To me, that's an 
indication of a patriarchal bias. 

I guess we shouldn't conclude that sexism in the canon = sexism in 
JKR.  I think she has more than a few surprises up her capacious 
sleeves in relation to social inequalities.  

Neil (still in New York, and possibly entering this thread at 
entirely the wrong moment).