[HPforGrownups] Re: Ginny Haters

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 152171

> Joe:
The only issue Ginny has is that the world doesn't know what to do
with people who stand up for themselves.


> This isn't for BetsyHP but more of a general question. Does anyone
> else think it is a bit odd that Ginny gets taken to task for
> responding to Smith being a jackass but people will bend of backwards
> to defend Draco almost killing two people while he attempts to kill
> a third.

Magpie:
Not really.  The acts of these characters are apples and oranges, and when 
people talk about them they're talking about them in context of the story. 
Draco's story is about someone who romanticized and lived a bad life and now 
is suffering the consequences.  The story is about if he can learn he was 
wrong, admit it, and become a better person or will be destroyed.  That's 
very different than Ginny's individual scenes. Perhaps the same people who 
like Draco's story would be equally annoyed with him if he were presented 
the way Ginny is.  As if is it's made clear he's anything but cool, even if 
he, too, occasionally is speaking the truth.  It's like the way people can 
watch The Sopranos with Tony as the hero and yet root for the mob boss to 
get put away on Law & Order.  It's the story that creates a different 
standard: Draco's is a story about a kid who might destroy himself and might 
not, so there's some reason to root for the latter.  Ginny's story is far 
less about actions and consequences in that her own actions don't really 
have any.  So you either enjoy them vicariously or you don't.

Now, if we're talking about someone who actually wants to claim that Draco 
is only a victim and just standing up for himself in canon, then that's 
probably just a case of the way fandom often acts, where they have a 
favorite character and so always twist everything to make that character the 
victim.  But that's annoying whether it's being done for a "bad" character 
or a good character (it's just sometimes more obvious when it's a bad 
character).

The thing is, the world does know what to do with people like Ginny--they 
stand up for themselves right back. They decide Ginny's being a jackass and 
some of them would decide to hand her brand of righteous justice right back 
at her.

-m