[HPforGrownups] Re: Gender/what we may ask of a writer

[Jen Faulkner]

No: HPFGUIDX 15150

On Sun, 25 Mar 2001 meboriqua at aol.com wrote:

> Unfortunately, we live in a world where the majority of high positions 
> ARE held by men.  It sucks and I hate it, but it is so.  Would as many 
> people have bought the whole idea if Hogwarts and MOM were run by 
> women?  Just like people are reluctant to vote for a woman for a high 
> ranking position, people tend to be more interested in men's sports, 
> in men as heros, in men with power, and women with looks.  

The question of Fudge or Dumbledore as a woman is an entirely different
one, in a way, from the question of Harry as a girl.  While I think
girl-Harry may indeed have reduced popularity (certainly initially) by
casuing the publisher to label the series as 'girls' books' rather than
'children's books', I don't think having a Cornelia Fudge nor an Alba
Dumbledore would've been detrimental to the series' popularity nor in
any way unbelievable. We already have Minerva MacGonagall as deputy
headmistress, and I doubt that in 2001 anyone's head would've exploded
at the notion that she was the actual headmistress instead.  And as for
the MoM -- Britain, unlike the US, has elected a woman to serve as its
chief executive.

(Reminds me of that joke from around the time that Major succeeded
Thatcher, about the little girl saying, "But he can't be prime
minister; only girls can be prime minister.")

--jen :)

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