[HPforGrownups] Re: parental roles in HP books

[weildman]

No: HPFGUIDX 136295

Um, parental roles are not a JKR issue; they are a common western issue.
Dig through fairy tales and classic stories and you will always find sainted
mothers. Most often the child only comes into real risk when the mother is
absent or dead.  Mothers never commit misdeeds- it is always the father or
stepmother.  Fathers are free radicals literature.  They can be either
saints or devils, helper or hinderers.  

Petunia is a rare exception to the mother saint model.  Her treatment of
Harry is typical of Hero-Surrogate Mothers relationships but her
mistreatment of Dudley is atypical- but not without precedence (the
Cinderella story of step mother and sisters relationship follows the same
basic pattern of indulgence). 

Molly is an interesting maternal character because she is so flawed, so
real.  Her over-reactions and over-protection or her children is
understandable but harmful and thus luckily thwarted by Arthur and the sheer
number of children.  She has taken responsibility for Harry and subjected
him to her paternal logic.  The biggest difference between Petunia and Molly
is the absence of malice by Molly.  Petunia's hate of magic and dislike of
Harry infects her family and harms Dudley.
 
Most of this pedestal writing is due to the intrinsic belief that women have
a maternal instinct and will always act in what they believe is their
children's best interest.  Men do not have the same kind of culturally
assigned parental assumptions and father characters are therefore able to
act independently of a supposed biological imperative. 

We the readers are so used to this format that we typically react poorly to
challenges to such beliefs.  JKR is simply working within the confines of
her society and enculturation.

-trevor