The Female Students

[Elizabeth Dalton]

No: HPFGUIDX 33134

Catching up after a couple of day's absence...

Cindy wrote:

> In fact, there are a lot of female students who are cheated out of 
> personalities in the HP books.  Other than Hermione, the women 
> students (from memory) are Cho, Fleur, Lavender, Ginny, Pavarti, 
> Angelina, Katy and Alicia.  Four play Quidditch, two like Professor 
> Trelawney.  Other than that, we know next to nothing about what these 
> young women like to do.  I know that JKR can't flesh out every minor 
> character, but I'd like to see a few given more substantial 
> treatment.   
> 

This is a general problem I have with the books, and given that the author is 
female, I have to say I'm pretty disappointed about it. Ok, sure, she originally 
saw Harry as male and it just didn't occur otherwise to her until she was 
underway writing, and his personality was fixed.

But Hermione comes off (in the first book) as the annoying "token brainy female" 
stereotype. She gets better (lots better), but other female characters don't. 
McGonnagal is evidently Dumbledore's deputy Head and right hand (Snape gets the 
left, in my mind, so he can be "sinister"), but gets shortchanged in the 
personality department. She's generally strict, occasionally she's sentimental, 
and she gets really agitated about Quidditch. She's nowhere near as interesting 
as Snape, Dumbledore, or even Filch. Hooch has her little flying lesson and a 
few referree scenes. Sprout seems well-drawn, but perhaps because she's a 
Hufflepuff, she's never given any big dramatic scenes. Mme. Pomfrey gets some 
good tart lines, but is still cardboard. Meanwhile, we have Lockhart, Lupin, 
Sirius, and Moody/Crouch racking up the interesting characterizations on the 
male side.

Then we have Lavender and Parvati, who are almost caricatures, fawning over 
Trelawney (who *is* a caricature) and giggling. Ginny *does* come across as six 
years old in the first book, and while she's ok in the next few, not until we 
get to GoF does she really seem to have any depth, and then only in one scene. 
Cho seems interesting from a distance, but we know next to nothing about her. 
Angelina, Katy, and Alicia, as Cindy points out, play Quidditch, and one dates 
either Gred or Forge, either of whom is easily more interesting per the book. 
Even Bill, Charlie, Victor, and Cedric are drawn in with more detail than most 
of the female characters.

Even historically, we've heard far more about James than about Lily.

I know Harry is a boy, and his close friends, therefore, tend to be boys. It 
makes sense that he knows more about Neville and Dean than Lavender and 
Parvati-- he shares a room with the other boys of his year. But why are all the 
female teachers so shortchanged? Is it in part that Harry, as a boy, doesn't pay 
as much attention to his female teachers, so we are seeing them through his 
filter? 

Or is my overall impression wrong?

Maybe I should make a complete character list and evaluate depth on each side... 
would that qualify me for a L.O.O.N. nomination? ;)

Elizabeth
(still enjoying the books, but puzzled by how Rowling has shortchanged her 
female characters so badly)