JKR prone to old preconceptions about females?

[smokyant41]

No: HPFGUIDX 41110


Darrin wrote:

>Molly Weasley. This woman might be the strongest in the books. She 
is the matriarch of a clan of mostly men and she rules the house 
pretty well, it seems.

Oh, I love Molly :-) Just thought I'd say that.

>-- Two things:

>1) Hope I come out of this relatively unflamed

Well, if you are, it won't be by me. I think that, as far as this is 
concerned, the post-feminist slant would have your head on a skewer 
(but then, for some of them, no matter *what* a woman does, she gives 
into the evil patriarchy.) I think, however -- having been here only 
a couple days, I hope I'm right about it -- that everyone in this 
group behaves maturely and will take your comments in the spirit in 
which they're meant to be taken.

>2) Parvy, Paddy and Lavvy really would suck as a name for a band

Yes, it would, but 'Lavender and the Browns' sounds pleasingly 
50ish :-)

And then Dina, in reply to Darrin's post above, said:

> I agree with you that Lily's sacrificing herself showed much 
strength on her part. But as you said yourself, I'd rather expect a 
mother to do that when she finds herself and her child in such a 
situation.

Well, I'd have to say that, if this is a stereotype, it's a pretty 
noble one. They're occasionally good things (and you have to balance 
this by saying that James, too, performed stereotypically -- that is, 
being the big, protective man of the household in holding off LV.)

That brings me to another point: while there is, I grant you 
some 'unfavorable' depiction of the female characters, some of the 
boys don't come off much better at all. Seamus blows things up, 
Neville is clumsy *and* forgetful (and gets bullied all the time), 
Ron is -- upon surface reading, to me -- the stereotypical Loyal 
Sidekick (aka Robin, Superdog.)Draco and Dudley are the emotional and 
physical bullies of Harry's world, respectively. And so on.
 
(Dina)
> But *why* aren't many females in those crucial positions you speak 
of?

Well, maybe Hogwarts is still trapped in that 'good old boys' world 
of academia :-) Kidding. Sort of.
 
(Dina)
> *g* I wouldn't have them any other way! But that still doesn't 
answer the question why there's no mention of Lily's friends...

Well, so far, they haven't been germane to the story (although, I 
agree with you -- there should be.) This only started to become clear 
near the end of PoA, but to me, JKR is initially constructing the 
series as a classical bildungsroman, in which the young male 
protagonist's search for identity is engineered primarily by a search 
for the identity of his father. Harry's primary attributes -- his 
bravery, the greater portion of his looks, his talent at Quidditch, 
and his trademark invisibility cloak -- are passed down to him 
through his father.

This is not to say that Lily isn't important -- I believe she's a 
very crucial figure. More will probably come of that in later books --
 there *are* still three more to go after all!

Dina:

> Agreed. But again those 2 houses aren't the important ones.

Not the important ones in the *book* -- I think that definitely has 
to be clarified. So far, there's nothing to say that 'yeah, Helga and 
Rowena were wasting their time, because Salazar and Godric were sooo 
much more important.'

Cedric Diggory was the Hogwarts champion had *he* was from 
Hufflepuff, after all. And both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw have handed 
Gryffindor some hefty defeats on the Quidditch field as well.

Dina continuing (re: Molly):

> Definitely. That's why I didn't mention her in my examples even 
> though she fulfills the female stereotype of being a housewife and 
> mother. And she's the closest to a mother-figure Harry has, IMO a 
> very important thing seeing how love-deprived Harry had to grow up.

But you're also forgetting that Dumbledore doesn't speak to her as a 
normal woman -- he speaks to her as a coeval. She's definitely 
someone who commands respect from everyone, not just her sons.

I'm sorry if I sound pushy and nasty, but I believe firmly that terms 
such as stereotypes -- in Molly's instance, at least -- are to be 
used advisedly. If, back during Voldy's reign of terror, Molly was at 
home with her kids watching the clock to see if Arthur was out 
of 'mortal peril' yet, that wouldn't make her any less brave or 
important as a woman Auror who has gone out and taken down scores of 
Death Eaters.

'Stereotype' has, for me at least, a terribly negative connotation, 
indicating that the person who is something should try to be 
something else, because what they are is inferior or undesirable. For 
Molly, that's just not true. I would say the same holds for 
McGonagall, Ginny, and Hermione, at the very least.

HF.