Stereotypes, Sexism & Masterful Writing Reviewed

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 88255

There is a thread going on right now regarding how women (and girls)
are portrayed in Sexist ways in the HP series of books. I didn't
continue that thread because I don't have a direct response to
anything specific that was said by anyone who posted. So, I am adding
my comments to new thread.

Stereotypes-

Stereotypes exists because they are real. Girls DO giggle too much
(ask any guy), it IS in a woman nature to be nurturing and caregiving.
It IS in the nature of men to be hunters and adventures. Men bring
home the bacon, and women fry it up in a pan; that's a fact of life.

The problem is when we take something, a stereotype, that typifies a
group of people, and we try to make it define that entire group of
people, or when we take it a step farther and try to force all people
in a stereotypical group to conform to the stereotype. 

Making a generalization is a valid way of making a point, but failing
to remember that it is just that, a generalization, causes problems.
Any generalization, no matter how true and valid, will break down when
viewed or measure along side specifics.

Sexism-

Sexism, like racism, implies a form of oppression. We do see women in
the HP series conforming to stereotypical female roles, BUT, and this
is a very BIG BUT, we do not see them forced into those roles.

Mrs. Weasley is a 'stay at home' mom, but she is not forced by society
to live that role. AND, and this is a very big AND, we do not know
that Mrs. Weasley IS a stay at home mom. We see only a very small
window into her life, and we see it through the distorted eyes of a
small boy with very little life experience. That is, very little
experience in the normal life of a regular boy.

It is entirely possible that Mrs. Weasley has a very full and rich
life 'off-page'. However, since we have no information, we can draw
few conclusions about her life.

In addition, Mrs. Weasley is a very strong character. I can't think of
a living soul in the wizard world who wouldn't cower, or at least
cringe, in the face of Mrs. Weasley when she was in a towering rage.
It's clear that Mrs. Weasley is a strong forceful woman who doesn't
take any crap from anyone, big or small. She is not afraid to speak
her mind, and it is clear that she, without a doubt, rules the Weasley
roost.

Professor McGonagall, despite being very strict, is exactly the type
of teacher who gets voted 'Teacher of the Year', and she is clearly
respected by all her students. Why? Because she is 'firm but fair'.
She rules with an iron hand, but a hand that is tempered by fairness
and equal treatment of her students. And as loud as students might
grumple and complain, this is the teacher that most student maintain a
firm and quiet respect for.

So, my point is, that while we see women in typical women's roles, and
in many case, we see women engaging in stereotypical behavior, we DO
NOT, as far as I can see, see women forces into any of these roles. 

Women are on an equal footing in sports. Excellent players, male or
female, get on the team based on skill and merit. Men and women both
have a chance to be captain of a sports team. There are women on the
High Court of the wizard world, there are women in many government
offices, there have been women as Headmaster (Headmistress) of
Hogwarts, there are many women immortalized on the Chocolate Frog
Trading Cards, and there have been women in the office of Minster of
Magic, the highest office in the land.

And while I will admit that some women are somewhat stereotypical, so
are men. I think JKR has done a masterful job of showing men and boys,
just the way men and boys are in real life; we don't 'get' women, we
are obssessed with sports, we take on adventurous roles, etc.... And
we, men, appear equally in negative stereotypes; Mundungus, Stan
Shunpike, and Earnie Prang are definitely NOT on the short list of
candidates for position of Rocket Scientist at NASA. Tom of the Leaky
Cauldron, as much as I like him, is probably not a genius. Boys are
protrayed in a wide range of common stereotypes, because stereotypes
are real, they project real aspects of real life; bully, jock, nerd,
geek, freak, egg-head, wimp, ultra-cool, ultra-lame, etc....

Back to my central point, we can't make a claim of 'sexism', by JKR or
by the books, unless we see a degree of oppression; unless we see that
women are forces into certain role, and I just don't see that happening.

Back to Stereotyping-

...or more accurately a comfortable familiarity. So many of the
'things' in the wizard world are founded in 'things' that are common,
comfortable, and very familiar to us in real life. That is part of the
process that JKR used to maximize our imaginations; that's part of her
genius. I wouldn't call the HP series 'wordy' books; in fact, JKR
writes with an amazingly compact style, but by using things was are
already familiar with  and with very few words, she is able to
maximize how vivid her world is in our imagination. 

I like to use Ron Weasley as an example of this compact yet vivid
style of writing. First you must ask yourself, how vivid, how detailed
is the image of Ron Weasley in your mind? Can you see his face in
detail, do you know his voice, his facial expression, his demeanor,
his mannerism? Compare that vivid detail personal vision of Ron with
what JKR told us about Ron; red hair, tall, lanky, pointed nose, big
feet. 

Now you must ask yourself, how could you possible arrive at such a
detailed mental image of Ron, when you had so little to work with?
Answer: JKR has masterfully given you just enough data to stimulate
your imagination into filling in Ron Weasley with great and intimate
detail. Other authors that may have followed the advise of their high
school and univsrsity English composition teachers, and filled in
Ron's desciption in rich intricated detail could not have done the job
as well as JK Rowling.

JK Rowlings breaks MANY of that standard rules of English composition;
 (never user parenthesis), DON'T WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS, use rich
detail to create a mental picture, etc... etc... etc.... Yet she
breaks the rules to such great and masterfull effect, that we forgive
her her trespasses.

Just a few thoughts.

bboy_mn