Mother Molly

[phoenixgod2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 125279



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "xcpublishing" 
<xcpublishing at y...> wrote:

> Nicky Joe:
 
>It's very difficult to write good female characters.  Even when you 
> think you've got one down nicely, people will always see her in 
> different ways.

I don't think that is unique to female characters. JK is still 
mystified by the Draco and Snape love.  Every writer faces the 
possibility of readers seeing things in their characters that they 
didn't mean to incude, or didn't think they had. People read things 
through the lens of their own experience and focus only on certain 
parts, or construct backstories to explain things about a characters 
that need explaining. It just is what it is.

  Take Hermione - some people see her as quick, 
> intelligent, and loyal.  Others see her as obnoxious, bossy, and 
> annoying.

In fairness to Hermione, she is both of those groups. I just 
personally find the second more annoying than I find the first 
admirable.  She acts too much like a second mother to Ron and Harry 
which I find irritating when its done by a peer. Hell, I'm still 
trying figure out why anyone would want to be Hermione's friend and 
subject themselves to her on a regular basis.

  The same goes in the RW.  If a woman is strong an 
> confident, others can see her as domineering and opinionated.  If 
> she's quiet, she's seen as mousy or timid.  I once wrote a female 
> character that I thought was strong and confident.  My friend told 
me she was bitchy and self-absorbed. 

I think that in the HP books (I can't talk about your character in 
particular Nicky joe since I haven't read her) JK writes with broad 
strokes, exaggerating everyones characteristics, because she is 
writing a children's series and wants to make sure that kids *get* 
the core characteristics of each of her characters. Thus making 
Hermione overly bossy and studious, to the point of ridiculousness, 
Cho, a giant human hosepipe, and Luna borderline autistic. Then we, 
a group of overanalytical adults come along and read too much into 
the exaggerations, which are really just there to make sure that we 
all see certain characteristics.

At least that's what I think she is going for.

>You can't win!  Look at all the > varying opinions of all the 
>females in HP - Hermione, Molly, Ginny, > McGonagall, Cho, Luna.  
>None of us see any of them in the same way.  > I don't think it's 
>misogyny, I think it's more that we hold females > to different 
>standards than males.  Frankly, males have a lot more > leeway.  
>Females make a wrong move and we have 70 different names for > 
>them, none of them flattering.

There aren't just varying opinions on the women. DD, Snape, Draco, 
Harry, Lupin, Ron, and James, are all debated just as hotly as the 
women. There aren"t many unfied opinions on this list other than 
Voldemort is a bad guy.  I don't believe varying opinions is a 
dymanic born only of female characters or some kind of double 
standard between men and women characters. Or at least solely of a 
double standard (I'll get to that in a moment). People are just 
going to see chararacters differently and I don't think we need to 
look to a larger societal reason why. 

That having been said, I think there is a bit of a double standard. 
I think that female characters get away with things that male 
characters would not.

Hermione is down right demeaning and insulting towards Ron and Harry 
sometimes. Imagine if it was Hermes talking to Harriet the girl who 
lived and Rowena the redhead sidekick. I guarantee that female 
readers would be up in arms over girl characters being talked to 
like that by a male character, especially if the male character is 
almost always shown to be the one who is right.

Imagine if Cho were a male and he decided to start dating again 
after his girlfriend died three months earlier. People would be up 
in arms over a boy who was clearly being a 'playa'.

Molly would be the worst. Imagine if Arthur talked to his wife and 
children the way Molly did. Imagine him taking Molly to task in the 
middle of the hosital or forgetting two of his children, or being 
rude towards female friends of his children. Groups like NOW would 
be in arms over the glorification of an *abusive* relationship.

But hey, they're women so it must be alright.

In conclusion, I don't believe that the way female characters are 
interpreted necessarily has anything to do with sexism or double 
standards, and when either is present, women characters can actually 
benefit from them instead of fall victim to them.

phoenixgod2000, who wants to see lots of replies when he gets back 
from the hospital.