Gender in the WW

[festuco]

No: HPFGUIDX 143618

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "krista7" <erikog at o...> wrote:

> When? Are they prominent players now? (This is akin, to me, to the fact 
> Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister--fabulous, but where are the other
>  major women political figures, in her cabinet or afterwards?) 

We don't know about female heads of departments. We do know there are
quite a lot of women members of the Wizengamot. 

> Again, where is she now? Where are major women leaders
> in the WW? 

As her portrait hangs in the Headmasters office I assume she is dead. 

> She's a headmistress at an all-girls' school; my assumption--just 
> assumption here--is that the whole staff is female.

p. 215 GOF, bloomsbury edition:
'My pupils,' said Madame Maxine waving one of her enormous hands.
'Harry, whose attention had been focussed completely on Madame Maxine,
now notice that about a dozen boys and girls - all, by the look of
them in their late teens - had emerged from the carriage and were now
standing behind Madame Maxine. 

> I did mention the nurse because healing, stereotypically, is an
acceptable
>  "woman's job"--comes from the nurturing female idea. I also pointed 
> out that the female Aurors (example: Tonks) aren't really giving a good 
> example for women (right now in the books).

What's wrong with Tonks? You can call Pomfrey stereotype, sure. 

> up a sec to clarify my points. First of all, I was attempting to point 
> out a.) the plethora of female teachers is consistent with the 
> view that teaching children is a "female" job and 2.) of the women 
> teaching/working at Hogwarts, most of them fit fairly stereotypical
>  images of "women's topics." Beyond the nurse, there's
>  Divination (seen as fluffy) and Herbology (a "nurturing" teaching
job). 

I'm sorry, but you cannot have it both ways. There are female teachers
and male teachers. Now you can rant that casting a female teacher is
stereotyping, but I assume you would have far more to say if there
were no female teachers. So this seems to me prejudice on your part,
because it will never be any good. Female teachers is stereotyping, no
female teachers is... another kind of discrimination. 

As for the subjects: Herbology does not strike me as particularly
womanish. Nor does potions strike me as particularly manly. The male
divination teachers is already pointed out. 

> >>Ron refers to Hermione jokingly as a "scarlet woman"
> >>for
> >>being seen with multiple men in Rita's reporting,
> >>and I think
> >>that is *very* telling about the conservative gender
> >>ethos in
> >>the Wizarding World. 

Nope. What Rita does here is painting Hermione as a girl who is
playing with a set of famous boys. Not nice, not nice at all. If it
were the other way around and Harry were a girl who was breaking her
hart over this Herman boy who was leading her on while also playing
with Victoria the famous seeker Herman would have gotten just as many
ugly letters. 

Irene: 
> >Nope, it only tells us that Ron is a MSP. ;-) I'll
> >grant you that.

Nope, it tells that Rita is a vicious bitch. Because Ron only told
what Rita was doing here, and he was angry about it. 

Gerry