Female Characters

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 41118

<Cyra, quoting Claudia in what I think is the overwhelming center of 
the thread


> Claudia says:  I never denied that. But despite their weaknesses 
the male 
> characters 
> are in the spotlight, are the memorable, controversial characters, 
> the females aren't.
> 


The main reason, as I see it, why there aren't more developed female 
characters is that there are more male characters - developed or 
undeveloped -- than female characters period, for one.

But why is that? 

A lot of it is the PoV. Harry is an 11-14-year-old boy in the books 
so far and how mature is that point of view usually? They usually go 
from barely noticing them to looking at them as weird beings from 
outer space to looking at them as sex objects. 

Frankly, I don't expect Harry to have a healthy perspective on women 
for a while yet. Maybe by book 6 or 7 he'll be serious about someone, 
like Percy is about Penny, but that's a while yet.

As a man, something I find fascinating is how well JKR writes a pre-
teen boys' perspective. She's dead-on with a lot of it (and the rest 
of it isn't really appropriate, such as why Harry or Ron, thinking 
about Fleur, REALLY can't come to the front of Potions class to mix 
the Forgetfulness Draught.)

Male authors are often praised or criticized for how well they write 
the women's point of view. JKR, in my view, deserves tons of praise 
for what she's done with boys.

Again, given the PoV, we're going to see inside the boys' dorm, the 
boys' cliques and just generally from a boys' side of the equation. 


Cyra presented a nice list of female characters, starting with 
Hermione.

I'd like to add something about Hermione.

In GoF, she seemed to balance the girly notions of dating with the no-
nonsense, "I'm here to learn" credo. 

She took one night to fix herself up, but couldn't be bothered to do 
it all the time, letting her hair -- and how much more stereotypical 
do you want that a girl fussing over her hair? -- go pretty much 
where it wanted to go.

What's another stereotype? Girls fall for jocks. Viktor Krum is an 
internationally known athlete. He could have any girl he wanted, and 
probably four of them a night if he wanted.

He chooses Hermione, probably half-expecting her to swoon like all 
the others did, and she apparently makes him go through hoops.

Hermoine didn't compromise on what she wanted in a date. And she 
didn't end up in those bushes like so many other Quidditch groupies 
would have.

 
> Minerva McGonagall:  Ever hear the phrase "Behind every great man, 
there's a 
> great woman."?  I feel this is the role McGonagall plays for 
Dumbledore.  He 
> confides in her (he didn't hesitate to tell her what was going on 
when he  brought Harry to the Dursley's), he respects & trusts her 
(he leaves her in charge of Professor Moody/Barty Crouch Jr), he 
depends on her (the school is left in her care when he was 
temporarily removed.)  


I think McGonagall could be better developed, but the only way to 
truly do that is to learn about her past. We really have seen many 
sides of MM's personality. She's more stern with members of her own 
house because she expects more (20 points away from Malfoy; 50 each 
from the Gryffndors); but she softens completely at the desire of Ron 
and Harry (they lied, but oh well) to see a petrified-Hermione; she 
wigs out over Quidditch, but not to the point where she overly risks 
students' safety (she refused to let Harry have the Firebolt at 
first) and she isn't afraid to question D-Dore's intentions to a 
certain extent.

> 
> Molly Weasley:  I have to disagree with everyone's assumption that 
she is the 
> stereotypical housewife/mother.  I would replace stereotypical with 
IDEAL.  
> It is very rare to see a mother and wife like her!  She is the 
obvious 
> matriarch of the Weasley family.  Arthur even defers to her.  She 
obviously 
> cares about her kids (blood and 'adopted').  She is brave and 
optimistic 
> beyond belief.  My reason for that is the number of children she 
has.  I can 
> easily say that at least four of them (Percy, Ron and the twins) 
were borne 
> DURING Voldemort's rise to power and I suspect Bill and Charlie 
were as well. 
>  I am not sure I would be willing to bring more children into such 
a bleak 
> looking world as she faced.  There is so much more to this woman, 
but I think 
> everyone gets my drift.


It is worth noting that the American feminist movement of the 1960s 
and 1970s didn't really make major gains in public opinion until they 
stopped looking down their noses at what they called "House-Fraus." 
They stopped seeing housewives as the Patriarchal Prisoners or 
whatever.

Molly Weasley has run a family of nine (and wants badly to take on 
Harry and probably would take Hermione) on a meager husband's salary. 
Frankly, Arthur is a 10th child.

Molly Weasley is not to be trifled with. Claudia and I agree on this 
point, but I will defend Molly being a strong female character every 
day.

 
 
> Lastly, thank you for this topic!  This one has been a lot of fun 
to follow!  
> Oh, and Darrin - I thought your post was brilliant.
> 
> Cyra

It's been a brilliant topic. I'm glad Claudia introduced it. It's 
been a lot of fun. :)

Darrin
-- JKR is doing an epilogue at the end of book 7, telling us where 
all the characters end up. Wanna bet Hermione ends up Headmistress at 
Hogwarts?