Unconscious Sexism (Was: ESE!McGonagall (not what you think)

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 164656

Caspen:
I may be keeping this thread going past it's natural expiration date,
but I have to come to the defense of my favorite (albeit possibly
ESE/enchanted) Hogwarts teacher here.

Debbie:
Actually, I'm happy you revived it; I wasn't done with the topic myself, and
it's moving in the direction I was planning to take it.  In fact, JKR's
treatment of her female characters was the subject of one of my very first
posts on this list, lo these many years ago.

CassyV:
JKR says that although McGonagall is not Dumbledore's equal, she is
a `worthy' second in command:
[snip]
-McGonagall is a wise and powerful female leader (& quite talented at
dueling as we saw in HBP!)
-McGonagall (along with Lupin) is JKR's ideal teacher: respected (not
feared) by the students, determined to do her best for them, equally
determined that they should do their bests for her, strict and clever,
with high standards and a gift for communication, entirely without
favoritism (but with a shrewd idea of who the troublemakers are in her
class!)

Debbie:
I agree that she is all of these things (and the other things I snipped).
Yet this just makes it all the more jarring that she was not a part of the
first Order of the Phoenix.  Carol's list of weaknesses may all be true, but
all the Order members seem to have weaknesses that make them genuine
security threats, and Dumbledore has a history of offering people second
chances.  ESE!McGonagall, Enchanted!McGonagall, and
CarryingTheTorchForRiddle!McGonagall all keep popping back up because her
exclusion wants explanation.

Jeremiah:
 have a few issues about the possibility, though, but it would lead to a
Ever So Truly, Deeply Evil McGonagall and I'm not sure I can handle that
right now, however…

Debbie:
Well, in my more lucid moments I have a lot of trouble with ESE!McGonagall
myself.  But I think our point is that she is a character in need of a
compelling backstory, whatever it is.

Caspen:
Again I am sorry to say it, but I
have to question the accuracy, if not honesty (given that her own
sexism may be unconsious as well) of Jo's response in that interview.
Whom, of all the female characters in the books, but Hermione, after
all, and after all that time and all those pages since JKR gave that
interview, consistantly gets any significant page space in the books?
None. In fact, no other female characters in JKR's supposedly (and
self-proclaimed -- again see the summarized interviews post) 50/50
Hogwarts environment get any significant page space.

Debbie:
I think what's happened here is that while JKR's objective was to portray
the WW as devoid of muggle world prejudices so she could focus on
the prejudice against muggles and muggleborns peculiar to the WW.  But
another of her literary devices -- her use of stereotypes -- works against
this goal.  JKR's use of sterotypes allows us to mentally flesh out many
characters based on a brief description -- we *know* McGonagall because we
know her type.  Unfortunately, these types are drawn from our own society
which has traditionally limited women to a few roles.   As a result, if we
were limited to the major characters we would find it hard to believe that
there have been an equal number of female ministers of magic.

Even Harry, though fleshed out in his own very unique way, is drawn from the
stereotype hero's journey; JKR has said Harry sprung into being in her
imagination as a male character.  That's not surprising, given JKR's own
background.  Female characters are not typically the drivers of the action
in a journey like this.  (I'll give her credit for giving Hermione such a
prominent role.  Nevertheless, even she is drawn from the stereotype of the
young girl who relies on book-learning as a crutch -- perhaps because
society is conditioned to doubt her true talent, but it's still a
stereotype.)

Jeremiah:
However, I still see Ginny as being complex. She seems so sweet
on the surface and then you find out she's very devious and ingenious. I'm
sure Hermione wouldn't have Ginny as a friend if Ginny was boring and trite.

Debbie:
One person's interior vs. exterior is another person's personality
transplant.  In CoS Ginny played the damsel in distress.  Truthfully, I find
it hard to see HBP Ginny as the same character.  Yet her narrative function
in both is very one-dimentional:  she is Harry's love interest (and she got
to be a plot device).

> >>Jeremiah:
> I'm not going to do the "boys vs. girls" thing, but I want to talk
> a bit about the ladies you'd mentioned as being one-dimensional,
>
> I don't see Molly Weasley as one-dimensional. Not at all. I see her
> as extremely complex as a mother-figure.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Is she really complex though? I mean, Molly is the "harried mom"
complete with a total inability to get the "real point" (on going
war, etc.) and a tendency to see her children as cogs in her
household machine rather than people in and of their own right. I
see JKR milking Molly for comedy. I don't see her giving Molly any
sort of depth.

Debbie:
If McGonagall is Exhibit A, Molly is Exhibit B in my argument.  She is a
stereotypical harried mom.  It takes a lot of work to manage a houseful of
kids, and to do it with humor.  Stay-at-home moms have their hands full
taking care of the here and now, and often don't have time for serious
reflection.  Yet their ability to juggle challenging kids and a home gives
them plenty of complexity.  I think Molly is very complex.  I just wish
there were female witches with families *and* a career.  Our best example is
Mrs. Granger, a Muggle dentist who hardly qualifies as an exemplar of gender
equity in the WW.  There's also Marietta's mom, though I've always pictured
her in a very subordinate job where she could be intimidated.

Or, if we can't have a female character with a family and a career, I would
definitely settle for a compelling backstory.  Even better, we need at least
one adult female who is, as Julie so aptly put it:

"complex and multilayered, shaped by their often painful pasts, given
to questionable and conflicting decisions and actions."

As Lily is dead, it looks like we're pinning our hopes on McGonagall.<g>

Debbie


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