sexism in the WW (Was I know Molly.....)

[moorequests]

No: HPFGUIDX 84250

> Erin wrote:
> > I think the WW is a lot less sexist than you're trying to make it 
> > out to be.  My Dad used to repeat this old saying sometimes, "God 
> > made men and women, Smith and Wesson made them equal".  Magic 
pretty 
> > much levels the playing field, wouldn't you say?  And it's not a 
> > recent invention, it's something they've always had. I don't 
think 
> > there's too much wife-beating going on in the WW.  Look at the 
> > founders of Hogwarts, however-many hundreds of years back.  Half 
of 
> > them were female, so that should tell you something right there.  
No, 
> > if there is sexism in the WW, it would be imported from the 
contact 
> > they've had with muggles.
> <snip>
> 
Carol wrote:
> 
> I agree with most of what you've said. There does seem to be
> very little sexism in the working portion of the WW (and Molly's
> decision to be a stay-at-home mom with lots of kids is her own
> choice). But it appears from Harry's glimpse of Snape's memories in
> the Pensieve that Severus's father was extremely abusive and both 
his
> wife and his little son were terrified of him. That's an individual
> instance of a man dominating a woman and a child, I realize, but it
> has nothing to do with the influence of the muggle world.



  It is interesting (and I picked this up on first reading) that when 
they're in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, and Molly's getting 
dinner, just like she always does, Tonks is the only auror who 
springs up and asks what she can do to help. This is after Tonks had 
a really long, hard day, too. I notice women in both the Wizarding 
World and the Muggle World tend to assume responsibility for the care 
and feeding of their families... and Tonks is even unmarried. 
Hermione knitting the hats in book 5 also brought this up for me.

  I'm not talking about blatent sexism here, but latent, and 
sometimes that's harder to ferret out and realize rather than the 
other kind. 

 -M.M.