feminist ghosts?

[Serena Moonsilver]

No: HPFGUIDX 86876

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jwcpgh" <jwcpgh at y...> wrote:
> I was chatting with a listee offlist and she observed that there 
are 
> no female house ghosts in canon.  


The Grey Lady is the ghost for Ravenclaw...I don't think this in 
cannon but in an interview with JKR


She felt that this was part of the 
> larger pattern of the predominance of male characters (if I read 
her 
> right).  But it got me wondering.  Harry's conversation in OoP 
with 
> Nick gave me the impression that being a ghost isn't something to 
be 
> proud of, necessarily.  It implies that the person feared 
accepting 
> the reality of his death and whatever lay beyond that.  So maybe 
JKR 
> is paying women a very subtle compliment by suggesting that they 
are 
> more spiritually mature than men?  

Interesting question---still holds up as it does seem that there are 
more male ghosts than female ghosts...but it just may be coincidence 
too.


> 
> Myrtle is the only female ghost I can think of-and she clearly has 
> some, shall we say, unresolved issues.  I wonder if Bertha 
Jorkins' 
> ghost is wandering around out there somewhere.

Hmm...but who or where would she haunt?


> Is it a coincidence that none of the ghosts have portraits at 
> Hogwarts?

I've wondered about this to...I mean for the most part, the ghosts 
seem to have very little connection to the current world.  Other 
than the Podmore connection, I mean we never hear about what they 
did in their lives...possibly a comment on how much of what we do in 
our lives is insignificant in the grand scheme of things?


Serena