Why Snape appeals (mainly) to women

[snazzzybird <carmenharms@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 47978

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Porphyria Ashenden 
<porphyria at m...>" <porphyria at m...> wrote:
<snip>
> 
> 
> Of course what I tried to stress in saying that Snape is a cast-off 
> animus (for you Jungians out there) is that he's exactly what women 
> don't get to be. Snape isn't effeminate at all; he's tough, 
> aggressive, competitive, hardnosed, unforgiving, exacting, etc. 
> 
> But on the other hand, there are some feminine (or yin) aspects to 
> Snape's depiction, aren't there? For one thing, I find it 
intriguing 
> that his craft is the one most often associated with (female) 
> witches; brewing in a cauldron, as opposed to the traditional 
> depiction of wizards with their really big staffs. In fact, he 
> disdains 'silly wand waving' (because of its overly phallic 
> obviousness?), instead praising the 'subtle' art of potions with 
> their more sneaky, devious ways (and feminine symbolism
<snip> 

Now me:
The paragraph above reminded me of something that I had wanted to 
post a few months ago (and can't actually remember why I didn't).  
Namely, that the description of Snape sounds... familiar.  Okay, he's 
got a big nose, long greasy black hair, a sallow (or greenish) face, 
he wears long black robes, and he's associated with cauldrons and 
potion-making.  Doesn't this sound like the classic *witch* of the 
Halloween or fairytale variety?  Think about it!  At least before HP, 
that was the mental picture most commonly associated with the 
word "witch".  And in the Potterverse, there are *no* witches who 
look like that -- but one wizard does!  I thought at the time that it 
was JKR's little joke... but I didn't know what she meant by it.  
Porphyria's theory shines a whole different light on it -- as in, 
maybe it wasn't a joke at all.

--snazzzybird, who has been a hopelessly devoted Snapefan since Book 1