Utopian vision vs realism in fiction

[ftah3]

No: HPFGUIDX 33393

Luke wrote:
> Perhaps part of the reason this is a concern is that, although HP 
> does not seem to condone sexism, it never has an opportunity to 
> overtly reject it either, because so far no instance of sexist 
> treatment has occured in order to be commented upon, either pro or 
> con.  This then makes the lack of "sufficient" good female role 
> models seem more problematic to some, since the stance on gender 
> roles is thereby made even more vague.  I concede this is a valid 
> concern.
> 
> But while I would never undermine the importance of role models, I 
> think the overall stance of the books is much more important, and 
> therefore I think that while HP may not be *winning* any feminist 
> battles, with its arguably too-vague stance, it is probably not 
> *losing* any either.  

What surprises me is that little has been made of the fact that there 
is a distinct lack of sexism or inter-human ethnic racism overall in 
the HP books.  Malfoy & Co don't pick on Hermione for being a girl; 
they pick on her for being a mudblood (and they pick on her looks; 
but they do that to Ron, as well).  And in the wizard world, 
ethnicity seems to begin and end with magical ability, human v. non-
human, and national affiliation (re the comparisons noted between the 
Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, & Durmstrang students).  There's zero need to 
call out ethnicity of any other kind in the books, because it has 
nothing to do with the events described, and isn't in fact 
(apparently) an issue in the HP world.  And in so many cases we get 
so *little* description of named characters that the only thing 
keeping the reader from imagining ethnic diversity is possibly, dare 
I say it, our own preconceptions.  I mean, we don't need to be led 
around by the hand in order to envision so many other things; so why 
do we need ethnicity spelled out in marquee letters for it to become 
part of the picture?

<snipping Luke's well-said and polite comments on the idea that 
little boys like HP because of 'traditional gender roles' therein>

> No, I am more inclined to believe that little boys read HP for 
> precisely the same reasons that little girls do, and for the matter 
> of that, many of the same reasons we ourselves do.  

And I, as a little girl, read both Trixie Belden and The Three 
Investigators avidly, as well as a mish-mash of other books which had 
male or female characters.  My son is three, and his favorite 
movie/tv characters are Cowgirl Jesse from "Toy Story 2," the mean 
Carnotaur from "Dinosaur," and Power Rangers.  It has nothing to do 
with gender roles and everything to do with who is noisiest, most 
effusive, and runs around madly the most.  And I completely 
understand, because I also like noisy, actiony fun in a lot of my 
fiction, never mind if it's a male or female doing the 
exploring/detecting/heroing.

Mahoney