Wanted! Complex Female Adult Character: (was:Re: ESE!McGonagall...

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 164665

Alla wrote:
> 
> Why do we need the strong female character just for the sake of 
> having one? What if JKR felt that good story could be written 
> **only** with the male characters in it? Does she **owe** us the 
> presence of female characters in the story? I would say not at all. 
> Just as if she wished to write a story about women only, as long as 
> it is good story, IMO it is all that counts.

Julie:
I never said nor think that JKR "owes" us well-developed female
characters, I just pointed out that the male characters are for
the most part more well-developed and multi-layered than the 
female characters (especially the adult ones). I also noted 
that perhaps JKR is more comfortable writing the male adults,
at least in the context of this story. You are right that it is
her choice, and for whatever reason it is the male characters 
like Snape, Sirius and Lupin that sparked her interest the
most (in terms of plot involvement and back stories). 

I did note that I was disappointed not to see McGonagall or
one of the other female adults more fleshed out. That's 
because they are the ones that are least fleshed out :-)
OTOH, if that fleshing out took any page time away from 
Snape...

(Just kidding!)

Alla:
> One of my favorite book in my childhood and teens was " The 
> mysterious Island" by Jules Verne, where as we all know there are 
no 
> women, only couple of them are mentioned in brief narrative from 
> connected book. Do I care that there are no women in the story? Um, 
> **not at all**, because the story is fascinating to me.
> 
> Oh, and just in case I am most definitely a woman in her early 
> thirties.

Julie:
I admit I haven't read The Mysterious Island, but many novels
that featured male characters predominantly--Moby Dick, for
instance--did so because historically it was a man's world,
at least in novels about seafaring, war, the American West,
etc. Women didn't have much of a role in those parts of
society. But JKR's WW is an equal opportunity world. And she's
writing about the whole society, rather than about a couple 
of characters in an isolated setting (Okay, that's Robinson
Crusoe!). While she's under no obligation to portray male
and female characters in an equally dynamic manner, I can
see why some fans would question why she has chosen not to
do so. (Up to this point, anyway.)

Alla:
> Again, do not get me wrong, I would love to know more about 
Minerva, 
> I definitely agree that she is on supporting roles, but I would 
love 
> to know more about her not because she is a woman, but because I 
> grew to care about her as character.
> 
> I don't know, I just find myself  confused over this.

Julie:
Again, it's more curiosity for me about why JKR made the
choices she did. I do believe she has every right to
focus more thought and time on characters she likes to
write best without being labeled sexist for it. It doesn't
stop me from wanting more for the less developed 
characters however ;-)

Julie