HP, inconscient sexim from JKR?

[olivierfouquet2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 88248

Hi all, 

Two themes really here : first the essay, second sexism in JKR's book.

Starting with the essay, I honestly think it is not a very good one. The author has 
taken just about any mistakes commited by a woman in HP and used it as argument.
 
But that is not sexism per se, what he should have done is comparing the proportion 
of mistakes done by men and mistakes done by female. If one is significantly higher 
than the other, then it is sexism. 

I think it is quite easy to see that men do countless mistakes in 
HP, so most of the rationale is ruined. 

Moreover, since everything is seen through 
Harry's eyes, it is natural that men come first. As Pippin pointed 
once, the sex of the fabulous chasers that ensure Irish victory at the Quidditch world 
cup are not explicitly given, and one has to read carefully pronouns to discover that 
two of them at least are female. That is typical of the Harry/JKR duality, when one 
suspects sexism, it is necessary to see if it is from the character of the author. This 
article fails to make the distinction.

But the important discussion is the second theme, a bad article could bring a relevant 
point.

Sexism has of course been discuted countless times on the board, though I won't 
blame anyone for not finding it, the archives are quite impossible to read.

Personnally, I don't understad how JKR could be blamed for picturing passive female 
character, especially after OoP. What about Umbridge, McGonagall, Hermione, 
Bellatrix, Ginny, Mrs.Weasley, Luna ? In fact, it could be argued that male characters 
are passive : Sirius broods, Harry is angry, Ron is unsecure, Dumbledore is absent, 
Hagrid is not there or wounded, Lupin is almost never there...

>Apart from Hermione, most girls at Hogwarts are pictured in a rather
>negative, stereotypical way - look at the Patil sisters and Lavender
>Brown, or, for that matter, Cho Chang. Girls swoon in front of
>Lockhart. Girls swoon in front of Krum. Girls adore Trelawny's silly
>Divination classes. Girls are cry-babies. They are gullible, they are
>giggly - JKR /almost/ makes you prefer Milicent Bulstrode. Surely
>there must be a middle way between Hermione Granger and Lavender
>Brown.

They are not ! Harry sees them as such.

Girls characterisation sounds realistic to me, not to say that girls giggle all 
the time, but rather than a fourteen year old struggling with his feelings and the task 
to invite an older girl will certainly have this impression. Likewise, Lavender looks 
frivolous, bt Harry does not know her at all. The public persona of Ron is kind of 
immature too (cares about food, jokes and Quidditch). Lavender did join the DA and 
did help Hagrid hold a furious Hippogriff.

However, among all post I have read on the subject, there is indeed one that brings a 
valuable argument about JKR's inconscient view of women, or more precisely on 
motherhood. It can be found in Elkins' writing analysis of the Crouch family, and is 
quite old already. It is about the characterisation of Winky and of the late Mrs.Crouch 
by Crouch Junior. I will not try to sum it up because the argument is quite complex, 
but worth reading and much more subtle than the contraveritas article.

All the best, 

Olivier