[HPforGrownups] Adolescent Development in OOTP

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 101857

On 17 Jun 2004 at 13:51, Peter Shea wrote:

> For example, are we supposed to believe than Ron Weasley, as a
> healthy, ordinary teenage male, has not yet consciously become aware
> of his attraction for Hermione Granger or indeed any young woman? Is
> Hermione supposed to be so unaffected by her "coming out" at the Yule
> Ball that she completely retreats into her academic studies and shows
> only occasional (and ambiguous) interest in matters of the heart (as
> she does when she advises Harry about his relationship with Cho)? Of
> the principal teenage characters in the novel, only Ginny Weasley
> appears to experiencing the normal dating game for young teenagers. 

Possibly cultural differences at work again. Not *all* teenagers 
date, not *all* teenagers are actively interested in the opposite 
sex in any proactive way.

When I was at school, at my school and others I had contact with, 
the general attitude towards the idea of dating was that it was 
something you did when you were 18 and had the time. It certainly 
wasn't unheard of for someone to date, or to have a boyfriend or a 
girlfriend, and the attitude to that was 'the lucky (word of 
choice)' but it really wasn't a major priority. What we see at 
Hogwarts is a school were some of the kids are interested in such 
things with apparent regularity, others are interested on special 
occasions (such as dances) and others aren't particularly actively 
interested (though most of them probably wouldn't object if 
something happened).

Ron is 15... well, frankly, at 15, I'd say perhaps 1 in 5 of my 
classmates had reached the stage of being attracted to specific 
girls. A large enough proportion that it was no longer worthy of 
comment.

I really don't find Ron that surprising - I wouldn't be surprised 
the other way either. But what I see is Hogwarts is a school where 
while relationships happen, there's no incredible pressure to have 
one - and in those types of environments, quite a lot of kids don't 
start getting actively interested in romance until their late 
teens.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
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