Gender balance/strong women/victims

[Schlobin at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15070

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rina Stewart" <rina at l...> wrote:
> Susan wrote:
> 
> <<But why would you want to be argumentative for the argument's 
sake...>>
> 
> Why shouldn't I? There's nothing wrong with a good debate.

Sure. except that argument for argument's sake is pointless..

 
> 
> <<Would you disagree that women have historically been defined by 
their 
> relationship with men (mother, daughter, wife, etc.), but that men 
> have not?>>
> 
> No. Why would I do that? All I was saying is that both men and 
women in this series are defined by their relationship to men. For 
every women defined by a man, there's a man defined by a man. 


Well, we have a profound disagreement. In my opinion, women should be 
valued as women, not in relationship to men.

I love these books, and think that JKR is phenomenal. I think if she 
read some of the analysis she would rethink some of her assumptions.
I believe that because I admire and respect her. Her books have depth 
and texture and analysis. 

I believe that because she has created Hermione, and many other 
female characters, that she believes she has not favored men in her 
books. If she saw our comments and the analysis that essentially only 
13% of the books are about women, she would take a deep breath and 
reconsider. She IS brilliant. 

My guess is that although she might have "bristled" at criticism that 
there are not enough strong women, she probably rethought the whole 
thing. I would conjecture that that might be the reason that she made 
the next DADA professor a woman. I have tremendous faith in her and 
respect for her. 

I also think that everyone will be influenced by Maggie 
Smith's portrayal of Professor McGonagall INCLUDING JKR. She is 
actively anticipating the movie and I think her imagination will be 
colored. 

I too thought Maggie Smith/Richard Harris were perhaps a tad aged 
until I saw the JKR interview where she discussed how old they were...
it's quite fascinating..that these old folks have such an active 
relationship with young people 11 - 18. I think it's great.

I too really like Molly and Ginny Weasley. I hope that JKR will round 
out their potential. 

I am troubled by the threads that dismiss Ginny Weasley as a "victim".
Unfortunately, women and girls are victims of child sexual abuse, 
adult sexual abuse, adult battering, largely by men through no fault 
of their own. 

Dumbledore is quite clear (and therefore JKR is quite clear) that 
adult wizards and witches have been fooled by Voldemort and that 
Ginny is not to blame because she has been victimized. There is 
nothing about her character or personality that causes her to be 
victimized.

In fact, she was picked by Lucius Malfoy as a victim because she is 
the daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley who are active combatants
against Voldemort/Malfoy and their allows. If they had not been 
effective enemies of Riddle/Voldmort/Malfoy, Malfoy would not have 
bothered. Lucius Malfoy maliciously set up Ginny Weasley to discredit 
her parents. 

I think that characterizing her as a 'victim'is essentially victim 
blaming. She did not choose to be targeted by Voldemort and she did 
her best to resist.

how do we compare neville longbottom with ginny weasley? 
Some are characterizing ginny as a "victim", but not neville.
why not? might it have to do with ...gulp..gender?

susan