Stereotyping - Point of Exception

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 84700

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kathryn Cawte" 
<kcawte at n...> wrote:
 Until OoP we only saw women as
>>> mothers, teachers or barmaids. Oh and a dressmaker - all 
very stereotypical women's professions. I wanted someone to do 
something about it - not JKR, but someone in the ww - it seemed 
to me that poor Hermione had better want to teach or marry and 
breed because otherwise she was going to be stuck for
 options.<<<

Ah, you fell for some  of JKR's little tricks. <g> Madam Rosmerta 
is not just  a barmaid. She owns the Three Broomsticks: "scared 
away all my customers" she complains to Fudge with an edge in 
her voice. -PoA ch. 10

At least two of the QWC Irish Chasers whom Harry regards as 
"superb" are female also, though you have to keep a close eye 
on the pronouns to spot them.  JKR is subtly playing on her 
readers' own sexist assumptions: a flashily dressed woman in a 
bar can't be the owner; star athletes are male.


I think as  readers we want JKR to hold up a Mirror of Erised to 
our own desires. We wish we could be part of the wizarding 
world and want to see the things we identify with in the 
characters. I admit I felt  a touch of ethnic pride when "Anthony 
Goldstein" became a Ravenclaw prefect. 

But the books aren't about Jewish identity and they aren't, so far, 
about female identity either. They are very much about Harry 
discovering what it means to be a man.  Harry tends to notice 
men more than women. He isn't interested in women's lives yet; 
certainly he doesn't think much about how their lives are different 
than his because they're women.  

Pippin