Why Snape appeals (mainly) to women

[Judy <judyshapiro@directvinternet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48340

eillim said that Snape is:
> a fine example of a Bryonic hero, 
> full of angst, tortured, definately a 
> misogynist, with a mysterious past....

I've been wanting to post on this thread, but haven't had the time.  I
*have* to defend Our Severus against the charge of misogyny, though! 

I doubt that I'd like Snape if he were a misogynist.  (That's someone
who hates women, for anyone who isn't familiar with the term.) 

Generally, Snape seems angry at *men*, not women.  Sirius, Harry,
James, Lupin -- he rails against all of them, but never against Lily.
 (I'm one of those who thinks Snape was in love with her.)

He also seems respectful of the abilities of the female teachers,
saying nothing (that we see) against any of them, not even Trelawney.
On the other hand, he makes no secret of the fact that he thinks some
of the male teachers -- Lupin and Lockhart -- are unqualified to
teach. 

The only evidence I see that Snape dislike women is:

1) He is sometimes mean to Hermione. 
Counterargument:  He is meaner to Neville.  Also, it is possible that
his behavior towards Hermione is due to a desire to impress the Death
Eaters' kids of his hatred of "mudbloods."  He also no doubt dislikes
anything that disrupts his teaching plan, whether it's Neville melting
 cauldrons, or Hermione answering questions that he intended to be too
hard for the class.

2) There are no girls on the Slytherin Quidditch team.
Counterargument:  We have no idea that Snape has anything to do with
this.  Maybe no girls were interested, maybe there's an old house
policy that only boys can play, maybe Marcus Flint gets to make the
decisions on his own. etc.


eillim added:
> I also think that part of the appeal 
> is that there are many blanks 
> that we can choose to fill in for ourselves.

Here, I agree completetly.  I think one of the main reasons people
disagree so much about Snape is because we have different guesses
about his back story.  Was he always a bitter, hostile person, or did
something really bad happen to him?  Was he the one who tried to save
James and Lily from Voldemort, and would he have succeeded if James
had been willing to let Dumbledore serve as Secret Keeper?  Is there a
"good reason," such as needing to impress the Death Eaters, for his
hostility to Neville (the son of a famous Aurur) and Hermione (a
muggle-born)?  How sympathetic he is depends greatly on one's beliefs
about these sorts of questions. 

and, eillim said:
> Finally, I wondered if the fact that Krum's physical appearance to 
> Snape is of any particular significance.  ('sallow skin', 'hooked 
> nose').  I did trawl through the messages but couldn't find much on 
> this.

It's been discussed, but the search function here makes things hard to
find.  Many posters, myself included, think JKR is hinting at a past
sexual relationship between Snape and Karkaroff. Karkaroff is
described as looking at Krum and Hermione dancing with the same
expression as Ron, and Ron is presumably jealous. Karkaroff also seems
to be trying to ply Krum with wine when we first meet him.  So, the
idea here is that perhaps JKR is hinting that a young Snape would have
appealed to Karkaroff.  I've mentioned that Karkaroff is the *only*
person in canon that Snape addresses by first name, suggesting some
sort of previous close relationship between them.

-- Judy Serenity, also a huge Snapefan