[HPforGrownups] Men/Women interests (was Re: Sirius, was Re: Ginny Weasley Quotient)

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 44927


On Friday, October 4, 2002, at 02:46 , GulPlum wrote:

> At 13:33 03/10/02 -0700, Susanne wrote:
>
>> I'm probably one of the few adult readers, who is more
>> focused on the trio and hasn't fallen for the charms of
>> Lupin, Sirius and/or Snape ;)
>
> At the risk of sounding sexist, from my experience of HP fandom, you 
> might
> want to change that to "... one of the few women ...". ;-)
>
> In all seriousness (and in defence of the above statement), in about 11
> months presence in one online HP forum or another, I have found it
> interesting that in "favourite character" polls and similar discussions,
> most men seem to choose from the Trio + Hagrid + Dumbledore; most women 
> go
> for Lupin, Sirius or Snape. Kids of either gender seem to choose from 
> the
> Trio alone.

<snippage>

Hmm...  I dunno about sexual fantasies etc...  I have always tended to 
prefer the sidekick, the hero's best friend, the Crown Prince's younger 
brother.  Perhaps this is a subconscious acknowledgment that I'm not the 
kind of female who gets the hero, perhaps it's something else.  But I've 
always found that for me to really like the actual hero, he has to be in 
severe difficulties.  Miles Vorkosigan springs to mind!  (Ah, dear 
Miles!)

So Ron is my favourite of the trio - though it's a close-run thing as 
all three are delightful.

Hagrid is well done but simply not a character type I find interesting.  
Dumbledore too - he fits neatly into the 'wise old mentor' category, but 
again, that type doesn't arouse any noticeable interest in me.  Samwise 
is much more watchable than Gandalf, perhaps because the mentor type has 
so much 'function' that 'personality' is almost a side issue for such 
characters.

Certainly  Lupin, Sirius and Snape are more interesting to me than just 
about any of the other characters.  Snape is, I am sure, a good guy with 
personality and image problems.  Lupin is handicapped in a most unusual 
way.  Both of them qualify in my book as 'tortured', although with 
Snape, I don't yet know exactly what is torturing him (and how 
intriguing is *that*!).  Strangely, though Sirius is the character who 
has *actually* been tortured, I find him less fascinating than the other 
two.  I think this must be because I perceive him as more traditionally 
masculine, and too much testosterone bores me.

Why exactly a character being 'tortured' in some way makes him 
interesting, I shudder to think.  Usedtabe I turned away in scorn from 
'hurt/comfort' in fanfics.  Yet lately I have been watching 'Angel' and 
musing that Wesley looks really delicious when he's being hurt.  Go on, 
I urge, hurt him again!

Hmm.

Pen
<I'll stop now.>