Lavender Brown - help needed

[career advisor]

No: HPFGUIDX 160329

<<Rita stated:  
 
 I need help. As you probably know HP lexicon has recently updated
 bios of minor characters in HP books (Seamus, Rosmerta, Ernie, 
 Griselda and many others). It was a great read and I highly 
 reccommend it for everyone. One thing really bugs me:
 Lavender Brown's page. Lavender, as shown on the fanart by Marta T
 (http://www.hp- lexicon.org/ wizards/brown. html), is a white girl
 with blond hair, while the actress who played her in the third movie
 (Jennifer Smith,
  http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Image:Lavender_ brown.jpg) is black. I
 remember reading an article in Polish press when the first movie
 came out, that JK Rowling personally supervised the process of
 casting young actors to make sure they all look the way she
 imagined her characters (I don't know if she supervised the casting 
 for third movie). Now I find myself wondering, how Lavender looks 
 like after all? I cannot recall Lavender's description from the 
 books since I do not own original English version. I was trying to 
 find anything myself in my books (Polish version) and I found 
 nothing.>>

Rita, I don't think this has been discussed before, at least not much. Also since it mentions the movies it might belong on the movie discussion board, but the  reason you can't find a description of Lavender, in the books is because there is  none in canon. Part of JKR's style is  very sparse with descriptions of the appearance of char'. She tells you more about how the food looks then about the appearance of background players and even some of the major char. Lavender has never been described. 

However, even before the movie's came out, fan fiction convention had turned Lavender into a skinny blond.  In fan fiction at least before HBP Lavender was one of the most written char'.  (She is still popular) Most fanfiction was written by young teen girls and most pictured themselves as Lavender and not Hermione or Ginny. 

Jackie Smith's portrayal of Lavender is a bit part and a lot of fans did not even realize that Lavender was black who saw the movie. The closest thing to canon we have for Lavender is the movie,  so I would say the Lavender is black, esp because as you say  JKR has some pull with casting. 

I doubt Jackie Smith will be back for HBP, as she hasn't been in any of the movie's since and since a Lavender is not in the DA picture for the movie she prob won't be in that. Which means if Lavender is cast at all, the casting may shake up her fans. If Lavender is cast as 'black' that will actually 'bother' here most avid readers who are white femalke teenagers and assume Lavender is lilke them. My guess is that the producers won't cast Lavender to avoid all this and  will  either just give the  veteran actress who plays Parvati or give the part  Lavender plays to a new 'introduced char' who will be blond.  I doubt the prod are brave enough to have two interracial romances that go sour in the same movie.     

But that is not my main point and if you want to follow-up on it, please do so on the movie chat  group. My main point is what does it say about our society that Lavender evolved this way in fanfiction. It is almost considered violating canon in fanfiction to write her another way and most fanfiction authors assume that  'canon' Lavender is this way. But we don't know what she looks like and the closest thing to canon is the movie in which she is black.  

Why do so many girls want to be Lavender instead of Hermione, when Hermione is heroic. Aren't readers supposed to identify with the hero?

DA Jones