Stereotypical Sexism

[Lynn Allen]

No: HPFGUIDX 88458

>  Laurence wrote:
> > My point of view is that the space given for 
> > women in JKR's world is not better, and I would even say a little 
> > bit worse for what we have seen, than a European (or American) 
> > western country that I personally consider sexist.
> > 
> Carol:
> There may be elements of sexism in the WW, but that doesn't make JKR
> herself an "inconscient" (unconscious?) sexist. It only means that the
> WW is flawed by modern politically correct standards. These people
> have House Elves as slaves, some of whom are badly mistreated. 


Lynn Allen:
This may be slightly off the topic but as a first posting, 
I hope you all will be forgiving.

On the topic of sexism, and in fact many other
sociological trends, it has seemed to me that the WW
would always be far behind Muggle traditions,
primarily because lifespans are so much longer. Social
change happens when generations change, and if we look
at our own society's transitions, in the United States
women have had the vote for less than 100 years, and
the transition from an agricultural to an urban,
technological culture in which women have more ability
to perform "non-traditional" roles has taken place in
much the same timeframe, roughly four generations in
Muggle years. If wizards commonly live to 150,
Dumbledore's reported age, social change would be much
slower as the community elders would maintain their
dominant roles far longer.

     In the case of house elf slavery, we still don't
have a clear idea how long that institution or
practice has gone on, but slavery in America has only
been outlawed since approximately 1865, or six to
seven generations if my arithmetic is correct. (You
can of course argue that the social patterns
underlying slavery have lingered far longer, but
that's another topic altogether). Before we totally
condemn the wizarding world for its treatment of other
species/races, we may want to think about how hard
those changes have been in our relatively short-lived 
Muggle world, and consider that Wizards are more
conservative because of lifespan and culture. I would
guess that Victorian British society is more obvious
in the Wizarding World because so many wizards still
live who were around in that era. In any case, it
should not be terribly surprising that social change
lags, even if we are disappointed in the WW
institutions and traditions by today's standards.

     Of course the above statements are strictly my
humble opinion and not based on Harry Potter canon.
Comments or criticisms?

Lynn


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