The Female Students (and other female charcters)

[christi0469]

No: HPFGUIDX 33249

 If the female characters in Potterverse have not eveolved by the 
end of the 7th book JKR will have failed to give a gender-balanced 
perspective to the series: however, I do see a lot of potential in 
the female characters we already have (and we will probably get more 
as the books progess). As Harry matures his understanding of the 
females around him will hopefully mature as well, giving greater us 
greater insight into their personality. I do admit that the in the 
books we have so far the female characters have not been given 
enough dimension, but I can accept the arguement that it is due to 
Harry's limited POV.

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "judyserenity" <judyshapiro at e...> wrote:
> "christi0469" wrote:
> About Pomfrey, you're right that she tells Dumbledore to leave 
> (although he mostly just seems to ignore her and stay anyway.)  
Every 
> college I've been at has lots of doctors in their infirmary, 
though. 
> I'm not familiar with boarding schools, but since no one ever 
seems to 
> get sent elsewhere for treatment, I'd expect Hogwarts' infirmary 
to 
> have a doctor.

 I went to a small private university that didn't have an on staff 
doctor, but it may have had a visiting doctor that I just didn't 
know about. My high school had over 2000 students and we were lucky 
to have a school nurse on campus a few days a week. If you needed 
medical attention on the days she was at another school the 
secretaries would do the best they could and call for EMTs if it was 
necessary (the nurse would have called EMTs if it was a serious 
situation as well). A professor would probably be able to get a 
doctor as quickly as we muggles could get an ambulance by flying off 
school grounds, apparating to the doctor, apparating back with the 
doctor, and flying back in. With my experience an on campus full-
time doctor for a thousand students would be unrealistic. And Madame 
Pomfrey seems to be able to handle serious situations, so perhaps 
the wizarding world requires fewer doctors per capita.

  And Mme Pince as the stereotypical librarian saying 
> "shsssh" all the time is exactly what I dislike about that 
character. 
>  She's nothing like the real librarians in my family.>

 I have to agree that Madame Pince is disappointingly stereotypical, 
but it is a librarian stereotype, not a female in general 
stereotype. My secret wish would be to find out she's really a wild 
woman, and that her stereotypical demeaner is just a ruse.

> 
>> Well, Fleur came in either 3rd or 4th out of 4 in the dragon 
task.  As 
> for the second task, she failed to deal with grindylows even 
though 
> she was in her 7th year, when the Hogwarts students had no trouble 
> with them in their 3rd year. (And Snape said in PoA "I'd expect 
first 
> years to be able to handle grindylows.") We just don't know how 
she'd 
> do in the 3rd task; JKR didn't give her a chance.  As for her 
being 
> picked as Beauxbatons' champion, I had assumed it was because she 
was 
> partly Veela and therefore more magical than the other Beaubatons 
> students, who were presumably all-human.  
> 

 I maintain that someone had to fail at the second task for Harry to 
be a hero, and Fleur was sacrificed because Cedric chose Cho and 
Krum chose Hermione. It was dissappointing that the only female 
champion had to fail, and it was also dissappointing that only 1 of 
4 champions was a female; however, I don't see an easy way for JKR 
to adjust this. The other Hogwarts champion had to be male for Harry 
to compete with him over Cho as well as the championship. Krum was 
introduced for the Hermione/Ron conflict, and I think that any other 
champion from Durmstrang would have been unrealistic. Giving Harry a 
chance to compete against a very competent and famous seeker was 
also important. This leaves only one spot for a female champion. And 
Fleur had to be sacrificed for Harry to prove his moral fiber. I 
think the first task was probably scored very closely between the 4 
champions, as I thought Fleur's performance would have been close to 
the other three (and we know that Karkaroff scores unfairly).

> 
> I'm surprised that so many people here object to my negative 
> descriptions of the female characters in the "Potterverse."  If 
you're 
> defending these characters in order to show that women really 
aren't 
> so fussy, weak, etc., remember that the women in the Potterverse 
are 
> fictional.  I don't see them as anything like the real women that 
I 
> know.  If you are defending these characters because you like 
them, I 
> am surprised.  I really like many of the male characters in the 
> stories, but practically none of the female charcters in the 
> Potterverse appeal to me much.

 I do like some of the female characters, especially McGonagall. She 
reminds me lot of me high school english teacher, who looked every 
bit as spinsterish but was exceedingly cool (for the lack of a 
better word). Being in the accelerated class, I had the priveledge 
to see her at her best. She was strict but allowed us to have fun, 
and shocked us by entering the classroom in a nightgown with her 
hair down to do the lady MacBeth "out damned spot" monologue. She 
was also married. I truly believe that there is a lot of depth to 
McGonagall that has yet to be explored. Prof. Trelawny remainds me 
of a professor I had in college who was just far to impressed with 
her own accomplishments. I hope Madame Maxime gets more fully 
developed, as I would love to see Hagrid have a chance at a 
relationship. Fleur could aslo turn out to be a very complex 
character, and I will be very surprised if Ginny doesn't turn into 
an important and potentially strong character. And we should learn 
more about Lily before the end of the series. It would not take much 
to make the existing female characters as complex and interesting as 
some of the male ones, but we just don't know enough about them yet.

Christi