[HPforGrownups] Re: Pomfrey and Gender balance/strong women Madam Pomfrey in particular

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 15129

> Let me try again..
> Why are all the people who are in positions of leadership men?
> Why are the VAST MAJORITY of the characters who are pivotal, 
> important, in cental  roles  --- MEN?
> Why are the vast majority of the characters who are compelling, 
> exciting, cool -- MEN..?
> Sure, the 13% of characters who are women are wonderful, exciting, 
> amazing, and I love them..
> BUT why are all the important actors in the drama - MEN?
> After all, this is fiction.
> Why can't we envision a world in which some of the leaders and
> actors are WOMEN?
> Why are women too often relegated to the role of helpmeet, mother, 
> girlfriend, wife, crush.....?
> 
> NO ONE has answered the question -- where are the men who stay home
> with the children?
> where are the men who are basically the supporters of the women who
> act? where are men whose primary role is NURTURANCE?
> And who have no other major role?


Because these are the books she wrote and that's how she wrote them.

I'm not unsympathetic to your questions or your concerns but it's
really a lot to ask of one particular writer that she create a
perfectly balanced world in her fiction.  She's writing a story for
children and children under the age of about ten can identify with a
child protagonist who is negotiating a series of challenges and
obstacles in the adult world.

There was a thread here recently talking about whether HP is fantasy
or science fiction.  I would suggest it is neither: it is children's
literature of a sort the British seem to have a genius for and it
describes the challenges every child faces in growing up.  What are
Boggarts but the fears that every child has and needs to confront? 
What is the mudblood/pureblood controvery but the prejudice every
child experiences on the playground directed at him/herself or at
others?  

We have to make an effort to think like children again when we read
these books - back to the time when adults did all kinds of
irrational things that we didn't understand and magic might just have
been one of them.  Had JKR been writing books for adults, she might
have created something different.

But she didn't.  At least not yet.


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