[HPforGrownups] darned right it's time to defend Ginny!

[ArtsyLynda at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 52445

Maria Kirlenko:

> I can't think ill of Cho because canon doesn't have anything bad on her. 
> Right, it doesn't, which meant that I didn't dislike *Cho*, I disliked 
> something about the Cho subplots, or something else connected to her.

Me:  I'm American, and when I read "pretty and popular" about Cho, I didn't 
think "evil cliquish girl" but "unattainable to Harry" -- she's older than he 
is, for one thing.  Didn't a lot of us (well, I sure did!) have crushes on 
people who were older, too handsome/pretty, too rich, too popular, too 
*something* for us?  Kind of an "ideal" dream date?  And maybe some of us got 
to go out with those people and found out they got zits (*spots* for you 
Brits :->) or had body odor or split ends in their hair just like the rest of 
us -- they somehow fell away from our idea of the ideal and became "real 
people" instead of the "ideal people" we thought they were.  Or, more 
realistically, if we did get up our nerve to approach them as friends or 
hopefully, dates, at some point, they turned up their perfect noses and went 
snootily on their way, too "good" for the likes of us (this was more my 
experience. . .*sigh* who said childhood was all fun??  not me!!)  

I think Cho is a nice girl who may like Harry as that "nice little boy who's 
a darned good Seeker on his team, and famous to boot," but still, a "nice 
little boy," not an object of romantic interest.  I think the author put Cho 
there mostly to show us another passage in Harry's growing up -- the 
"unattainable crush" (honestly, how many of us had posters of somebody famous 
in our lockers who we'd DIE if we met them in person -- or thought we would 
-- but we also were DYING to be their "significant other"?  Come on, be 
honest!!  heehee)  I think there's nothing wrong with Cho, and nothing wrong 
with Harry for having a crush on her, and I have no problem with the author 
including that story in the book.  Harry's being a normal kid, as is Cho -- 
and there's nothing evil about it, just normal hormones.  Most girls who are 
older (yes, even just a year older) than Harry, if given the choice between 
tall, handsome, well-liked, well-respected "big man on campus" (or at least 
in his House) Cedric, and shrimpy, in trouble a lot, rumored about a lot, 
wears funny glasses and has odd friends (that obnoxious know-it-all girl with 
bushy hair, yikes!! -- at least that's how the "popular" girls would see 
Hermione), famous-but-infamous Harry, would most likely choose Cedric, IMHO.  
At that age, they're so concerned with what their friends think of them, that 
Cho might actually have to think about it twice if Harry asked her first -- 
what would her friends say (at least Harry's taller than she is, but he's no 
Cedric).  I think we as adults sometimes forget that the dynamics that are 
being portrayed in the books are actually quite true to the ages being 
portrayed, and try to put our adult "spin" on the way people should react in 
a given situation.  JMHO.

Lynda 
* * *
"Don't let  the Muggles get you down." Ron Weasley PoA


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