[HPforGrownups] LONG: JKR preconceptions females>Edgy Hermione

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 41138

Claudia:
>There's Hermione who Harry can turn to in times of a crisis. She 
>provides the information - but when it comes to take any action she 
>either panics (the Troll-incident), forgets about magic (the Lumos-
>spell) or simply botches up her potion (the Polyjuice). In short, she 
>helps where she can, she's sort of an anchor but otherwise she stays 
>in the background.

*eyes Claudia* hum.  Well, I guess I must be content to just..you know..disagree with you here.  Violently. ^_~. (j/k about the violence...I don't *really* like the taste of other people's heads, honest.)

anyway.

a) The Troll incident was necessary to give the boys a reason to accept Hermione.  Furthermore, what would *you* have done...Ron is from a wizarding family and, to a certain extent, used to such things..and Harry is an exceptionally brave person when it comes to monsters.  Hermione had probably never seen anything like it in real life..no wonder she panicked.  Also, the boys do their share of panicking too..when confronted with Fluffy for the first time, let's remember *who* was too scared out of their wits to actually *see* what they were looking at and *who* was still level-headed enough to pick up significant details and figure out what they meant??

b)The Lumos Spell was, IMO, comic relief.  To the extent that the mudblood/slugs with Ron and the blowing up thing with Seamus are also.  

c) She did not 'botch' the Polyjuice Potion.  In fact, she completed a VERY difficult brew with perfect results.  The fact that she picked up a cat hair off a person (one would assume a hair from a person would indeed be person hair) has nothing to do with her abilities.  Also, JKR really needed to get rid of her for the polyjuice episode..I mean, if she had actually gone through with being Millicent...it would have been very apparent to Draco immediately after the fact that Millicent WAS actually still at home and he had been bamboozled.  *If* Draco had confessed (as the Trio were convinced he was going to), this would have been no problem.  As he didn't, however, having Milicent!Hermione present for the questioning would have meant BIG trouble for our kids.

Plus I bet it was also a bit of authorial chastisement for being such a badass about drugging C and G...I mean, Herm was getting a little scary there for a bit...JKR couldn't just let her get off completely free after everything she did.

d) who solved Snape's puzzle?

e)  who took charge and set Snape on fire (believing him to be attacking Harry)?  Pshaw on those who say Hermione can't stand to do anything bad to teachers.

f) Who petrifies Neville when he gets in the way?

g) who unhesitatingly preys on both Gilderoy Lockhart's AND Hagrid's sense of vanity (even though she is physically attracted to the former -- this breaks a rather large stereotype about females, doesn't it?)

h) who finally prods Mr. Binns into telling the class about the Chamber?

i)  who seems completely unharrased by the obvious danger to her LIFE in CoS and spends the most of the book (the bits in which she is still pliable, anyway) determinedly trying to catch the Heir?

j) Again she masterminds the entire Polyjuice Plot..including the drugging or Crabbe and Goyle.

k) Who figures out about the Basilisk when no one else has a clue?  Who takes that knowledge and very sensibly puts it to good use when by warning PC and using a mirror?

l) This really isn't applicable to anything..but I just was reading the part where at the end of CoS where she comes running up to Harry screaming, "You solved it! You solved it!".  What an adorable moment...the wayward student finally makes good. ^_^

m) who keeps the secret of the time turner, even from her best friends?  Veerrry responsible, that one.

n) who finally does what Ron has been trying to do from book one and smacks Draco across the face?  

o) who first sees Trelawney as a fraud (given the fact that so many here think she's too in awe of teachers -- it didn't take her any time to catch on to the old bat, did it?  She was bluntly disagreeing with the woman in the first class) and actually *walks out* in the middle of her class (I wouldn't be brave enough to do that).

p) who continually risks her best friends' ill will in the interest of their safety or what is right?  (I.e. the firebolt)  Not too many preteens would do that, you know.  It takes the best kind of bravery that *I* know of.  Hermione also faces down peer pressure rather admirably.

q)  I think the scene of on the last page of chapter 9 (Grim Defeat) of PoA is very telling.  Harry's in bed and Ron and Hermione are left to tell him what happened to his broomstick.  It's a very awkward moment and Ron and Hermione "looked quickly at each other."  When people exchange glances in situations such as this, they're usually deciding who gets the unpleasant business of spilling the bad news.  Guess who gets the job?

r) Who goes to get the Invisibility Cloak from underneath the witch's hump..to the great surprise and admiration of the boys?

s) Who, along with Ron, throws herself *bodily* at a convicted murder in order to help Harry?  Who helps stun Snape?

t) Who figures out that Lupin is a werewolf but has the sense, the decency, and, yes, a bit of courage, to accept the fact and keep it to herself?

u) she's got the will and the sense not to give into the very real temptation to try to stop Pettigrew from escaping while using the Time Turner with Harry.

v) SPEW is the biggest piece of character development in which Harry has nothing to do with that we've seen yet -- it was almost like a little Hermione Granger and the Repressed Elves side-story.  And -- it was all Hermione.  Against the world, apparently.

w)  who took charge of drill Harry for the Third Task?

x) who had the composure to remain BOTH boys' friend while they were hating eachother (Harry has yet to accomplish this).

y) ALSO, the whole Rita Skeeter thing...wow.  I mean, that was all her as well.  AND by the end she actually had the woman buzzing around in a glass jar.

z) The boys aren't the only ones to curse the evil trio at the end of GoF

I could go on...but I've run out of letters.  The point is, whether you agree with/like her or not, I really don't think you can dismiss Hermione as bland.

Actually, it's just come to me but having actually written all this down...especially considering points e, f, g, j, n, r, and y, the case could be made that Hermione has got Edge.  I mean..she's downright ruthless at times.  You've got to watch out for those quite bookwormish types, you know.  They always turn out to be the homicidal maniacs.

>Lavender and Parvati are of little interest, the 
>only thing they seem to be interested in is Divination and 
>their looks, again of course everything from Harry's PoV. 
>Last but not least there's Cho but other than being Harry's 
>crush there's not much to say about her, either.

I would like to point out that for every ridiculous female character like Lavender and Pavarti, there is a ridiculous male character such as Neville or the Creeveys..Or Crabbe and Goyle..who definitely have their own very negative stereotype going on.

As for Cho, she *does* show the kind of bravery I so admire in Hermione, in that she refuses to ostracize Harry even though the rest of her Housemates and her boyfriend's Housemates are doing so.  Again, withstanding peer pressure at that age is very, very hard.  Teenagers are not always gentle with those who refuse to follow their unwritten rules.

>Let's summarize: Females are the characters supporting the 
>male heroes

I would like to point out that in THIS case, just about *everyone* is supporting Harry.  Male or female.  And it's not fair to try to compare any of them to Harry, because Harry's...Harry.  It's not because he's male but because he's just very special in ways we have yet to be told.


>They like to gossip, care for their looks, and almost always 
>talk way too much. 

This isn't Hermione.  It isn't McGonagall, Sprout, Pomfrey, or Hooch either.  Nor is it (from what we've seen of her) Cho.  And as much as I hate to admit it, it isn't Ginny either.  The girl can keep a secret.  In fact, the only people I can see that fit this description are either BAD (i.e. Petunia) or formulated as slightly comical foils to the more respectable females...i.e. We are SUPPOSED to be disdainful towards them...just like we are SUPPOSED to think Colin is annoying (notice he isn't a fanGIRL, which would be much more in stereotype), Crabbe, Golye, and Dudley are stupid hippos, and Neville is hopeless.  Some examples of these foils are Trelawney to McGonagall and Lavender and Pavarti to Hermione.


>What about Lily's friends? I can't imagine that she didn't 
>have any female friends who wouldn't care for Harry as 
>deeply as Remus and Sirius do. Thus they could take on a 
>similar role. 

I believe that just as PoA was sort of James' book...a future book will be Lily's.  JKR has hinted that we will learn more about Lily soon.  I think the reason that James got to go first is because finding out about Lily in PoA would have "given away" too much of the plot too early.

>And what about female villains? There's neither a female 
>student nor a female teacher at Hogwarts who openly opposes 
>Harry the way Snape or Malfoy do. And I didn't hear of 
>female Death Eaters yet, either...

Milicent Bulstrode?  Pansy Parkinson and her "Gang" who continuously torment Harry about Rita's articles?  What about Rita herself?  And Petunia? Penelope Clearwater seems to be a bit of a villain...she makes a bet with her boyfriend that she KNOWS he can't possibly pay should he lose. ^_~ Perhaps she was planning to extract sexual favors from him instead.  I think you underestimate Rita, as well.  She's got tremendous power in the wizarding world.  She abuses it, yes...but the power is there.  NO ONE wants to stand up to her...it finally takes Hermione to bring her down.

As for female death eaters....I can't believe you missed the infamous DeadSexy!Mrs.Lestrange..who is as defiant as they come...probably loony, yes..but damn, she's got spunk. However..you're right..there is a lack in females DE's...but, we are talking about an *evil* organization very into purity of blood, which, in my mind, goes hand-in-hand with patriarchy.  Plus V's definitely not too impressed with women (which has already come back to hurt him once)...but he's also racist.  I think it's pretty clear that both his "isms" are facets of an EVIL person who is going to get what's coming to him.   

JKR has proven so far that she is more than able to make her male characters 3dimensional, they all have so many shades of gray that it's very hard to simplify them by saying "X is the good guy" but "Y is the bad guy". Let's just take Snape: Overall he may be a good guy but within Hogwarts he's certainly the "villain". 

Well..Petunia.  In a sense she's as BAD as they come..but I think she has accepted responsibility for Harry and takes that seriously.  She might hate it..as Snape hates his own need to protect Harry..but she does it anyway.  This is not the last we've seen of her. 

>Or Sirius who certainly has the best intentions but he's 
>prone to acting irrationally and thus putting lives in 
>danger or even playing one person against the other. And the 
>effects of Azkaban remain yet to be seen. And Remus being a 
>dark creature but nevertheless having intact morals...

I think I've already shown Hermione as a case of a good person who gets a little scary sometimes.

Wow.  That was long.  And I'm not even finished with this topic yet.


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