Double standards for male and femalle characters? Was: Re: Mother Molly

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 125306



Phoenixgod:

<SNIP>

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.

Alla:

Very interesting, as usual. Let see if it fits for me. I love 
Hermione in general, but I absolutely agree with you - she IS 
demeaning and insulting to both Harry and Ron sometimes. She usually 
thinks she  knows what's best and quite often she does(that is not 
her fault, that's JKR's, who often uses her for exposition :o)), but 
quite often she does NOT know what's best for them. For example, I 
was NOT surprised at all when Harry did not listen to her and went 
to MoM anyway. Hmmm, Hermione, Harry tells you that his closest 
father figure is being tortured in his vision and he wants to go and 
save him and the best you can come up with is that he has "saving 
people thing". That was not very tactful and not very effective, IMO.

Oooo, you know what it means? You probably do. It means that Ginny 
will be much better partner to Harry than Hermione. :o) You agree 
with me, right?


Phoenixgod:

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'.

Alla: 

Let's put it this way . If Cho was a little bit older and Cedric was 
her boyfriend for longer ( say they both were in their twenties), I 
would not be very understanding of Cho. (I'd expect her to mourn 
Cedric for some time) As it is, she is only sixteen, and I think the 
reason she wanted to date Harry was 
partially because she wanted to know more about Cedric's last 
minutes.
So, what am I getting at? If Cho was a boy of the same age, I would 
perfectly understand it.

Phoenixgod:
 
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.

Alla:

Probably, BUT that is if you honestly think that Molly and Arthur 
relationship is an abusive one. I find Lupinlore's explanation in 
his "Weasley types" post to be quite fitting , I also argued that in 
the important matters, Arthur is perfectly capable of handling 
himself.

So, if the roles were reversed and Arthur was budgering and 
lecturing Molly, BUT she would still be able to held her own in the 
important matters, I would not consider such relationship to be 
abusive one.

Again, there are quite a few moments when I want to slap Molly, but 
as another poster argued  she is a Mum with all their flaws and good 
qualities.


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


Alla:

Not for me, definitely not. :)


Just my opinion of course,

Alla.