JKR and the boys (and girls)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 162355

Magpie:
> As to her being a frump, I don't think that's what Betsy implied.  
> Her point was that Hermione shows up at the ball far surpassing the 
> other young girls' abilities in these areas and that that strikes 
> her as a Mary Sue moment.  I tend to agree with her.  Hermione 
> sounds like a chaperone to me at the Yule Ball.  I've no doubt she'd 
> look nice in a dress but yes, I think there's a little author magic 
> turning her allegedly ordinary looking heroine into somebody who 
> seems to show all the other girls up--other girls who actually are 
> interested in fashion. 

Pippin:
Who, exactly, did Hermione surpass, aside from her usual unadorned
self?

This seems to be one of those instances where popular myth hijacks
the readers' imagination and substitutes another narrative for what
Rowling actually wrote. The Mary Sue moment is mostly in the eyes
of the beholder, IMO. There's nothing on the page to say
that Hermione has a nicer dress, lovelier makeup, or a more elegant 
hairdo than any other girl at the ball. She may look  better than Pansy 
Parkinson, but that's nothing new, at least in Harry's eyes. IIRC, he 
thinks Pansy has a nose like a pug. 

Certainly Roger Davies' attention isn't diverted from Fleur for a 
moment. Yes, Draco is speechless, but he could hardly be otherwise
when a student from Durmstrang, the school which, according
to Draco, doesn't admit 'that sort of riff-raff'  shows up with 
that sort of riff-raff for a date. Harry, OTOH, thinks his own date is
"very pretty indeed" whereas the unrecognized Hermione
rates only a "pretty" in his eyes. 

Pippin
who also can't find any canon that Ginny is blessed with natural
beauty beyond what is normal for a healthy sixteen year 
old girl