What's in it for Witches?

[Emma Hawkes]

No: HPFGUIDX 44006


This is a lengthy post, especially as an introductory post - I can 
only say that I am very excited to have found HPforGrownups as I have 
been looking for detailed analysis of Harry Potter for some time. 

I have attached an essay I wrote  in 2001 for a local fanzine, Fables 
and Reflections.  If you want more detailed on Fables and Reflections 
(an excellent zine, if I do say so myself) you can get details at 
lilyc at iinet.net.au. 

Hoping to get to know you all,

Emma


Harry Potter: What's in it for Witches?


Part of the attraction of the Harry Potter stories is that the 
universe which Rowling so lovingly describes is one of wish 
fulfillment.  Harry arrives at Hogwarts to find that he is special 
and revered, that magic is real, that fabulous feasts literally 
materialise before him at the table, and that he has a totally 
unsuspected talent at a sport he had never previously heard of.  Who 
could resist such a wonderful world?

Other sorts of wishes are fulfilled at Hogwarts as well.  To begin 
with, it is a world which is apparently almost without prejudice and 
discrimination.1   Aside from an understandable anti-Muggle sentiment 
(which closely mirrors fannish prejudices against mundanes), there is 
no overt prejudice in the world of wizards and witches.

On the other hand, it may be that there are less obvious forms of 
discrimination in the magic world.  I will not touch on issues of 
race here (other than to say that the black and asian Griffyndors 
make Rowling's magic world refreshingly multicultural), sexuality 
(Hogwarts is staunchly heteronormative), class (Hogwarts is very much 
an English public school) or the treatment of sentient non-human 
characters (other than to say that Hermione is clearly on to 
something when she protests the inequitable treatment of sentient 
non-humans who are not given the same rights as humans),2  but I 
would like to talk about gender in the Harry Potter series.3

The great joy of Rowling's universe is the fabulous use of incidental 
detail and descriptions of the wizardly world.  These details give a 
fascinating glimpse of the structure of the magic world and it is 
possible to chart the working lives of some of the witches and 
wizards.  In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the following 
jobs are undertaken by adult human protagonists:

				Wizards				Witches

								Nurse
								Robe Maker
				Gameskeeper
				Apothecary
				Wand Maker
				Innkeeper
				Teacher				Teacher
				House Head			House Head
				Headmaster			Deputy Head
				Banker
				Dragon Tamer
				Civil Servant
				Dark Lord

This is an interesting list.  Witches have a limited range of 
employment possibilities, none of which stray too far from what is 
normal in contemporary Britain.  Witches may have authority over 
children, but the top jobs are reserved for men (headmaster, Dark 
Lord).  Although, frankly, I wouldn't hail a Dark Lady rather than a 
Dark Lord as a feminist break through, it would be nice if some women 
got to speak with authority or even work for the Ministry of Magic.

So what are these witches doing with their time?  They're certainly 
not career-driven professional witches.  Consider, for example, 
Arthur Weasley's description of senior members of the Ministry of 
Magic.

'That was Cuthbert Mockridge, head of the Goblin Liaison Office... 
here comes Gilbert Wimple, he's with the Committee on Experimental 
Charms.... Arnold Peasegood, he's an Obliviator - member of the 
Accidental Magic Reversal squad, you know.... and that's Bode and 
Croaker... they're Unspeakables [from the Department of Mysteries].'4

While Bode and Croaker might perhaps be witches, the Ministry of 
Magic is certainly not a femocracy.  The only witch shown working 
there is the incompetent and forgetful Bertha Jorkins.

And witches are not spending their time with their children.  With 
the exception of the overflowingly maternal Molly Weasley, very few 
of them are full-time caregivers or mothers.  The Harry Potter books 
abound with orphaned, semi-orphaned and uncared-for children (as with 
most children's literature).5  Most mothers are either dead (Lilly 
Potter, Nevil Longbottom's mother, Bartie Crouch's mother) or 
curiously absent (Narcissa Malfoy).6 

What else might be occupying these witches?  It is possible, I 
suppose, that they are busy with housework.  Hogwarts has House Elves 
and so do well-established, wealthy, magical families, but there is a 
definite class edge to the presence of House Elves.  The Weasleys 
don't have a House Elf at The Burrow and apparently all the housework 
is undertaken by Molly Weasley.  Perhaps we are to assume that the 
apparent absence of witches from the public sphere results from the 
witches dedicating their efforts to better housekeeping?  (If we are 
to assume this, then the otherwise inexplicable popularity of 
Gilderoy Lockhart, writer of household instruction books and five 
times winner of  Witches Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile award, starts 
to make sense.)

Or perhaps the witches have not retreated into the private sphere. 
Perhaps there are simply fewer witches than wizards.  While the 
incomplete list at Harry's sorting names nine boys and eleven girls 
(plus two of indeterminate gender), other details of the wizardly 
world suggest that there are just not many witches around.7   Not 
only do we see more wizards than witches, but we see more monuments 
to wizards than witches. Most of the talking paintings at Hogwarts 
show men; almost all the named ghosts are men.  The magic world teems 
with unmarried men (perhaps unable to find an elusive witch?). 

If magic is somehow linked to androgens, then the Weasley family 
structure makes more sense.  The ratio of six boys and one girl is, 
perhaps, indicative of the ratio of wizards to witches in Rowling's 
magic world.

It's not possible to make a final judgment about the Harry Potter 
series, as it is incomplete, but here's hoping things work out better 
than that for  the witches in Rowling's wonderful magic world.


Notes

1. J.K. Rowling described the relationship between the Muggle world 
and the magic one as on of '[u]neasy co-existence'.  'Harry discovers 
that life in the magical world mirrors, to a great extent, life in 
the Muggle world. We are all human. There's still bigotry and 
small-mindedness (unfortunately).' J.K. Rowling, Interview with 
Scholastic, 16 October 2000, 
http://www.scholastic.com.harrypotter/author/
index.htm.
2. Rowling explores the status of sentient non-humans at length in 
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Great Britain: Bloomsbury, 
2001).
3.  I don't want to get involved in the acrimonious and fairly futile 
debate over Rowling's representation of girls at Hogwarts, which 
essentially devolves to an argument about whether Hermione is a prig 
or a heroine.  Christine Schoefer, 'Harry Potter's Girl Trouble' 
(January 12 2000), archived at 
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/01/13/potter/index.html.
4. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Great Britain: 
Bloomsbury, 2000) 79.
5. Alison Lurie, Not in Front of the Grown Ups: Subversive Children's 
Literature (Great Britain: Cardinal, 1990).
6.  Most fathers are dead (James Potter, Nevil Longbottom's father), 
in hiding (Sirius Black) or evil (Lucius Malfoy, Bartie Crouch).
7.  The sorting hat names nine boys, eleven girls and two children of 
indeterminate gender in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.  In 
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire it names six boys, four girls and 
one child of indeterminate gender.





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