[HPforGrownups] Nel Question #9: Gender - Perfect Sense

[Laura Ingalls Huntley]

No: HPFGUIDX 127476

Steve (bboyminn):
> These books are absolutely biased, there are distorted to a male
> perspective, and are male-centeric [period, full stop, absolute end of
> sentence]. Yet, how could they be other than /male-centered/ when the
> central point-of-view character is a male; further, a very young male?
> Instead of complaining that the books are male-centered, which of
> course they well should be, people should be marveling, as I do, that
> a female author could so thoroughly and accurately capture the
> male-mind. Speaking as a former boy (current man), JKR got it
> amazingly and wonderfully right.
> I speculate some of the things about the portrayal of girls that
> people don't like, are simply respresentations of the things that
> catch Harry's eye. Logically, the aspects of girls that catch Harry's
> eye are not the ways that they are the same as boys, but the way in
> which they are very obviously and, from a boy perspective, strangely
> different than boys.
> I don't see what the problem is, it all make perfect sense to me.

The problem is that these "ways in which [girls] are very obviously ... 
different than boys" are fallacies and silly stereotypes.  I submit 
that the very reason *why* JKR writes Harry-the-boy so well is because 
she is really just writing a kid.  Of course, Harry is an individual, 
as are we all, so some of his experiences/reactions/emotions will seem 
more familiar to some of us than to others, but I don't really see any 
of his traits as specifically gendered.

The issue of gender stereotyping arises in the *other* characters in 
the series.  When we move away from Harry himself, we find that in 
JKR's world, there are a certain set of traits that belong to girls 
(i.e. giggling, relationship know-how) and a certain set of traits that 
belong to boys (re: phoenixgod in his post on this subject).  While 
this typification is by no means offensive enough to ruin the series 
for me (obviously), I do think it's worth examining and questioning.

Laura (who hasn't posted in *ages*.)