Nel Question #9: Gender - Perfect Sense

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 127499


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Laura Ingalls Huntley 
<lhuntley at f...> wrote:
 
> 
> 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*.)

Hickengruendler:

I don't really see problem. IMO, all these stereotypes have some truth 
in them. I literally went to school with Parvati and Lavender. 
Whenever I'm reading about them two former female classmates come to 
my mind. They are just like clones of them, all down to the giggling. 
And even if they were not exactly like that, that's certainly how all 
the boys in our class saw them, therefore Parvati and Lavender are IMO 
pretty realistically written. The problem would be, if all the girls 
were like Parvati and Lavender, but they aren't. Angelina is a 
stereotype, too, (although more humanized than Parvati and Lavender), 
but a totally different one. And we shouldn't forget that those are 
minor characters. JKR can't give them all the same development, and if 
she uses stereotypes to describe the minor characters, I quite frankly 
don't see any problem. I haven't read a book in which the author 
didn't use a stereotype. And out of the main or semi-main characters, 
those who started as real stereotypes, were the ones who IMO developed 
the most, for example Neville.