[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's Imminent Crisis

[Sandi Steinberg]

No: HPFGUIDX 35169

AV noted that Hermione is a "male-identified" girl.

Sometimes, it's a matter of our earliest friends/relatives also.  If 
Hermione (and like AV, I am positive H is an only child, and I'm one myself) 
had only boys as early companions, she is apt to be more comfortable with 
male companions. Most of my pals at ages 4-5 were boys due to a dearth of 
girls on the block!  Simple logistics!

I also agree that H is doing fine as she is.

As to

"Hermione, canonically speaking, has anything in common with Cho or Ginny or 
any other female character we've seen yet. Except for some of the female 
*professors* that is. This is also a pretty common pattern in gifted 
children, especially girls,"

I agree with the general premise but would add that H is a friend to Ginny 
and they seem to get along well whenever H is a Weasley houseguest; it's 
just that H's female friendship is not germane to the plotline thus far and 
so is underdeveloped.  Certainly, we never hear her put down other girls or 
be mean or airy toward them, a form of behavior very common in adolescent 
girls.  Nor do the Hogwarts girls seem to treat H like an outsider because 
she doesn't "hang with the girls>"  Except for Draco and his claque, the 
Hogwarts kids seem very nice and well adjusted on the whole.

As far as H's identification with female professors, it seems all her 
instructors have recognized the intellectual abilities that this student 
possesses.  Even non-faculty are impressed by her.  In 'Azbakan, Sirius 
calls her the smartest witch of her age he's ever encountered.

I really give H a lot of credit; she does her research and frequently, as in 
GoF, Harry's as well.

Sandi Steinberg
Arlington, VA