In defense of Hermione (was: Almost normal)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 115520


> Susanne wrote:
> > Also, Ron does not seem threatened or annoyed by 
Hermione's brains whatsoever, in the books, and there are 
plenty of important jobs out there that don't require you to have an 
outrageously high IQ to be successful and helpful to
 society.<<
> 
> toto:
> 
> But he does. In PS, that was the whole point about bullying her. 
And through the years, he has reserved the right to make fun of 
her and  make her feel extremely bad (e.g. POA and her crying). <

Pippin:
 In PS and PoA, it wasn't her intelligence he objected to, it was 
her interfering ways, along with, in PoA, her refusal to take 
responsibility for her pet. Of course Hermione doesn't *mean* to 
be interfering. She's been socialized to help without being 
asked, like mama's little angel, and doesn't realize that to people 
like Harry and Ron, who are  hoping to prove themselves, her 
help comes across as patronizing. 

Ron does tease her about her overachieving sometimes, but no 
more than she teases him about being clueless.


> toto:
> 
> It is sad but true. There is the male mentality about "doing" 
 something that makes you better than others. Ron is a very 
good case  (Mirror of Erised, GoF and Krum) of just that, and he 
won't take  being a "failure" easily. <

I concede that Ron probably has all the  "normal" prejudices in 
the wizarding world,  in fact, he's our indicator about which 
prejudices are shared by most wizards and which aren't. What 
we    don't know is whether  in the wizarding world it's thought 
normal for the male to be the chief breadwinner in a household.  
In the WW, women  have been working  in paid jobs alongside 
men in sports, government and education for hundreds and 
hundreds of years, so wizarding society has probably adjusted to 
it.

In any case,  the question may not arise. Hermione seems to be 
leaning toward political activism for the downtrodden as a 
career. That isn't likely to pay well.

Pippin