[HPforGrownups] Cho and reader response WAS darned right it's time to defend Ginny!

[Maria Kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 52455


Lynda wrote in response to my message:  

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 <snip> 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!!)  

Me:

Well, I never said anything about popular people in my post, so I assume you're commenting on Elkins' message I quoted in it?

Just for the record, I'm not American, and although I spent several years in the US when I was in school and am studying here in college right now, our associations with these concepts are a bit different.

I never regarded Cho's beauty and popularity as menacing or unpleasant. I have no bad memories regarding popular girls, and, frankly, I don't care about the fact that she's pretty and popular. But I am absolutely sure that some people do.

As for my opinion on popular guys... I stayed away from them. Always. Not because they were popular and therefore unattainable, but because I intensely dislike the extreme casualness and informality that most popular boys seem to possess. It, um, irritates the hell out of me.

But I see none of it in Cho, although it's difficult to compare popular boys and popular girls - they're so different in their attitudes. 

Maybe the Brits on the list could help us out? How is beauty and popularity looked upon in the UK? How do popular teenagers behave and what do 'normal' kids think about them? And what is the difference between popular girls and popular boys? How are they different from Cedric and Cho? 

Lynda:
<<<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.<<<  

Oh, sure. She's really very nice to him, and IMO she likes him a lot (or else she's just extremely nice to everybody, which also is very possible), but she isn't interested in him romantically. Which isn't at all strange.

Lynda continues:

<<I think the author put Cho there mostly to show us another passage in Harry's growing up -- the "unattainable crush" <<<

Yes, IMO she did just that. And I, frankly, don't care for this subplot and this 'passage in Harry's growing up,' which is *exactly* what irritates me and causes me to displace my irritation onto Cho Chang in person.

<<<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.<<<

Good for you, then!

<<<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 <snip> 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 don't read Cho that way. I don't think Cho's friends could influence the way she'd behave. Frankly, she seems *very* independent. After all, she never wore the "Support Cedric Diggory" badge even though her friends did. That girl, actually, seems perfect, just like Cedric "Spare" Diggory. I think that Cho would have went to the ball with Harry, had he asked her first, 

<rant> and I rather wish that that had happened, and Harry had realized that Cho isn't his cup of tea and we'd been spared his annoying (to me) moping. <end rant> 

But you're right. Harry has a crush based on appearances, and if we don't think it's wrong for him to do it, we shouldn't accuse Cho of going to the Ball with a cute and popular boy, and I don't recall anyone accusing her of that, actually. On the contrary, there's convincing evidence that Cho and Cedric's relationship was much more than a crush, although we don't know if it became that serious before or after he asked her to the Ball.

<<<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.>>>

<giggle> It's funny you mention it, because when people analyze actions of Potterverse kids from an adult perspective, they always get replies that say "Ron's only 14!" "Ginny's only 11!", and these are *very* valid points, IMO, although 'normal' kid behaviour is pretty hard to define. It's hard to get away with putting an adult spin on kids' actions.

Maria



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