Harry Potter, REALLY for Grown-Ups (well, PG-13 anyway)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 164480

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > <snip>
> > Personally I don't like the idea that an interest in sex is a mark 
> > of the immature but there you are.  And of course, Ron's interest   
> > is always couched in comic terms.  Whereas Harry is always more    
> > interested in personality than looks, bless him.  (Um, unless of   
> > course it's a guy. <eg>

> >>Bart:
> This also emphasizes Harry's resistance to mind control. One must    
> assume that an Imperious Curse gives a LOT more pleasure than viewing 
> an attractive member of the gender with whom one would normally mate. 
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I can see that as far as Harry not being in thrall of some attractive 
person.  And I think Carol was on to something when she suggested that 
Harry's resistance to Veelas had something to do with his resistance to 
Imperious.  But it goes beyond that I think.  Harry generally doesn't 
seem to even notice if a girl is attractive.  Not even in passing.  And 
that goes beyond a resistance towards mind control, IMO.  For me it 
does suggest that Harry's a bit backwards in that arena.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Oh, I totally agree that the comedy of this moment was great. But it
> > suggests that either Ron walks around with a giant bag over his head
> > and cotton in his ears, or the Gryffindor boys (of any class present
> > when either Ron or his brothers attended Hogwarts) have never
> > considered raiding the girls' dorm. Which is not very realistic,
> > IMO. (Nor is the fact that the girls haven't raided the boys dorm.)

> >>montims:
> I'm a Brit who went to an all-girls school, so I may be being dense
> here, but why on earth would the girls raid the boys or vice versa?
> We know they have house parties - in the common room - but I would
> find it very rude (as in badmannered) to have fellow students coming
> en masse into my sleeping area uninvited... If I am missing
> something, please explain.

Betsy Hp:
Well, it's a raid so it's not meant to be polite. <g>  Generally the 
whole point is to run into the dorms and get everyone shrieking and 
dismayed and run back out again, possibly with underwear in hand as 
proof of mission accomplished. It's not a mature act by any means, and 
probably ranks right up there with tugging on pigtails.  But as 
zgirnius mentioned, it's practically de rigueur for co-ed institutions 
here in the States.

Interestingly, at my boarding school, this sort of thing would *never* 
have happened.  They were pretty strict about boys and girls not going 
beyond the common room, and I think expulsions would have followed.  
(Though there was always the odd couple risking a sneak in through a 
window.  Or at least rumors of same.)  I kind of got the impression 
that loose behavior on the part of the school body might have gotten 
the school shut down. (Of course, this may have been our House Mom's 
attempt to keep us in line through fear. <g>)

But seeing what all the Trio and the twins have gotten up to, the fact 
that Hermione is totally allowed to hang out in Harry's dorm, Hogwarts 
seems pretty loose about that whole thing.  McGonagall is too far away 
to know if a girl has snuck into her boyfriend's bed and made judicious 
use of the bed curtains.  Which again, speaks a bit to the lack of 
realism on this subject in the books.

I don't begrudge JKR totally avoiding the subject (or mostly avoiding 
it anyway) but it does mean there's a disconnect, IMO, between 
Potterverse teenagers and real world teenagers.

> >>zgirnius:
> <snip>
> But I think it is entirely possible the stair thing is not mentioned
> by the older boys, so that Ron and Harry don't know. After all, it
> must be funny for them to see younger boys not yet aware of the
> problem get tripped up by it as well.

Betsy Hp:
I could possibly buy that... only that's a heck of a lot of discipline 
being shown by Ron's many older brothers.  None of them mention the 
funny story around little Ron just for a possible laugh later?  And if 
this were the case then I'd expect the older boys to set the younger 
ones up for a fall.  "To get in the club you have to go fetch all the 
girls' hairbrushes by midnight tonight!", etc. 

No, I think JKR just preferred to avoid the whole messy issue.

Betsy Hp