anti-SHIP: Ginny griping

[moongirlk]

No: HPFGUIDX 35234

Just a quick couple of comments.

> SANDI SAID:
> >It's Hermione, the intensely academic bookworm who is atypical of 
girls of 
> >this age.  Ginny is much more feminine and is will ing to wear her 
heart on 
> >her sleeve and take the risk of rejection or ridicule; Hermione 
only does 
> >that when she tries to participate in Snape's class, not with 
boys.  
> >Socially, she's a bit of a late bloomer, I think.
> 
--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Laura Huntley" <huntleyl at m...> wrote:

> *swells to twice her normal size, which is still pathetically 
>unthreatening* Contrary to popular belief, the average teenage girl 
>*is* capable of better attributes than being "feminine" and 
>emotionally easy to read.  <snip of list of Hermione's many virtues 
and something of a rant on femininity and intellectuality and their 
non-mutual-exclusivity>

I agree with you completely that there's nothing wrong with 
Hermione's personality or her bookishness.  I also agree with Sandi's 
initial statement that Hermione is atypical.  She's rather 
extraordinary, and therefore Ginny somewhat pales by comparison, 
being much more... ordinary, as preteen/young teen girls go.  I think 
(not trying to put words in anyone's mouth) that Sandi's main point 
was that there's nothing wrong with Ginny being the way she is 
either, but alas it's always a risk to try to defend one character by 
comparing them to another (just ask those involved in the Great 
Snape/Sirius debate).

I think Hermione rocks, and I know that my fondness for Ginny is 
based on very little but...
> 
> Agh.  Furthermore, I believe that Hermione certainly showed a 
mature, responsible attitude to the contorted, if juvenile, romantic 
relations in GoF.  While Ginny *did* manage to pull it all off with 
considerably more dignity than the boys, she also had a relatively 
easy time of it all.  Hermione, on the other hand, had to deal with 
the whole Victor/Ron thing *and* that Rita Skeeter article about her 
and Harry.  If her calm and mature reaction to that article doesn't 
show lack of concern for romantic ridicule, I don't know what does.  
IMHO, Ginny, in the same situation, would have been an emotional, 
embarrassed wreck about the whole thing, causing the situation to be 
worse than it actually was.

Ok, I can buy that that's you're opinion, but I'd love to hear how it 
was formed.  What makes you think that while she was able to handle 
turning down Harry (puppyluv of her young life) in an honest and 
gracious way in order to honor her commitment to Neville, keeping 
Hermione's secret, watching her crush with someone else and drooling 
over someone else still at the ball and being trod upon yet 
continuing to dance with Neville, but she would be a wreck if she had 
to deal with a somewhat similar situation with two different boys and 
a tabloid rumor?

<snip>
> 
> If all teenage girls were like Ginny, I would probably be driven to 
>suicide.  For me, at least, being friends with a person like Ginny 
>is extremely emotionally stressful.  You just can't trust people 
>such as she to have a grasp on their own emotions or what they 
>really want and/or need.  Therefore, they are constantly putting 
>themselves in situations that will inevitably bring pain and 
>suffering upon themselves and, potentially, the people around them.  
>I am constantly thinking "I told you so." about people such as she.  
>Not only are they unable to take care of themselves, but they insist 
>on making the same mistakes over and over, regardless to the 
>attempts of others to help them.  They also have the extremely 
>annoying habit of begging for this help once they have gotten 
>themselves into trouble (again) and generally being weepy and self-
>pitying after they have become deeply entrench in an undesirable 
>situation (for the millionth time in a row).  I'm not saying that 
>one ought to close oneself off, emotionally, from the world in order 
>to remain unhurt, but some people *seriously* never learn.

Dude, woah Nelly and what the-?

Are we still talking about Ginny or is there some (major) projection 
going on here?  Who are these "people like Ginny" and how exactly are 
they like her (and what did they do to you, you poor thing?)? 
 
The major objections I've seen to Ginny are that she's:

1. Giggly and childish (which I think is what Sandi was trying to 
address and saying that's not so abnormal for a girl her age).

2. Whiney and weak (which I personally address by handing over a copy 
of GoF and saying "where?" because in my copy she's grown up quite a 
lot and is no longer that way, if, indeed, she ever was to begin 
with, which I don't really buy, as I think it's normal for a child to 
be a little weepy after, well, you know, posession, unwilling chicken-
murdering, friend-petrifying and near-death experiences and all).  
OR...

3.  Underdevelopped as a character (walking scenery was a recent term 
I liked) and not really worth our attention until she's developped 
enough to be interesting.

It's this third scenario that I understand as a reason to not care 
for the character because I admit that some of my fondness for her is 
possibly extratextual, or at least as much inferred as implied.  
Under this scenario, certainly she can't be this diabolical and 
dangerous person that "people like her" are, so I'm really lost.  

So please can you explain what you mean by "people such as she", 
because maybe there's a new category to add to the "reasons I hate 
Ginny" list.  Or to be more precise, I guess basically my question 
is - huh?

kimberly
who'd like to add to somebody's prediction list that Ginny will turn 
out in the end not to be a bit of animated scenery, a whinging baby, 
a giggly child or an emotional torturer of her friends and family, 
and that some of the people who haven't already written her off might 
even end up admiring her.  I'm no Trelawny, and I haven't got any tea 
that's not in bags, but I'm giving it a shot, anyway.