Why need more? Re: [HPforGrownups] Stereotyping

[Joan Lau]

No: HPFGUIDX 84646

--- Kathryn Cawte <kcawte at ntlworld.com> wrote:
Kathryn:
> I think the problem is not that Molly is a stay at home mother with all the
> domestic and motherly attributes of a domestic goddess but rather that (at
> least until OoP) there were very very few strong female characters of any
> kind. In the wizarding world the impression was that as a woman you could be
> a teacher, a nurse or a mother. Hermione was the only schoolgirl we saw who
> didn't fit into a stereotypical giggling girly mould. In OoP Ginny was
> developed into a storng character, I'm reserving judgement on Luna and
> McGonagall became much more than just a teacher. Umbridge and Bellatrix gave
> us some female bad guys and a past female Minister for Magic was mentioned.
> I'm all for women following nurtut#ring professions or being stay at home
> mums if they want but that was the *only* image that we were getting and
> that was wrong, especially I feel in a childrens book. I don't think JKR did
> it deliberately I think it just happened but the book needed some strong
> female role-models.

Why do you think the book need more strong female role-models? 
It's not like there isn't any strong female characters at all in the Potterverse, there
are plenty already. Would adding more strong female role-models enhance the story or make
the plot better? 
Also, do you think if some of the existed characters in potterverse were written as
females, such as Lupin (I pick him because a majority of readers consider him as a
positive, nice, strong and perfect person), do you think the HP series will suddenly
become a better book just because Lupin was a female? Or how about Dumbledore? May be if
Dumbledore was a female than no one would complaint because he's afterall one of the
strongest (power and position-wise) person in the potterverse. Do you think the HP seires
will be much better with Dumbledore being a female than? 

So if Molly was written as a working mom, earning as much money, if not more, than
Arthur. Does that make the book suddenly all better? What can the fact Molly being a
working mom bring into the story? How can the fact she, a working professional, offer
more what Harry needs than what she has been already offering in the series right now:
motherly love? It really makes no difference to me, working or not working. 

Being a female reader myself, I can never understand all these complaints and criticism
about the need of more strong female role-models. (Hello? Hermione? McGonagal? don't they
exist? What more do you need? there are already almost too many characters in the
Potterverse already and many don't to get to be developed)  I'm just curious why do you
think there's such a "need".  Do you think it's giving wrong messages to little girls or
something? If you think so than can you cite evidence of how little girls won't grow up
as strong female just because they read HP? or is it more of a personal thing that you
feel you can't related to any of the character because none of the female character are
like you, even if you do find a character you feel related to they're males, so that
doesn't count? For me, that is never a issue as I don't care what the gender these
characters are, I can identify with any character regardless what his/her gender is. 

Joan 
PS: Kneasy, thank you for your post, I couldn't agree more. 




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