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

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 164676

> 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).



Sherry:

This is actually something that's always bothered me about the criticism
around no strong female characters.  I can imagine that if the story had
been Hermione Granger and the ... we might have seen more interesting women
in the books.  But Harry's POV seems that we naturally see more of the male
characters.  I am not a psychologist and I don't have children, but I've
lived with friends who have three boys, at times when the boys were young
and when they were pre teens or teenagers.  They were closer to their mom,
more in tune with females in their lives when they were younger, and they
seemed to need to spend more time with their dad and other guys in their
teens.  I think it's a sort of natural part of Harry's age that as we are
seeing things through his view, we are seeing more male characters
developed.

however, having said that, I've never thought Minerva was a flat character.
She could be stereotypic in some ways, but as JKR herself has said in other
subjects, she is following a particular genre to some extent, it doesn't
matter to me that some of the characters are types and not fleshed out too
much.  I'm not interested in Minerva's, Molly's nor any other woman's back
story in the series.  I mostly care about Harry's journey.  I'd have liked
more back story on the marauders, but the story is about Harry's generation,
which is also part of why we may not have extremely developed characters in
the adult generation.  It isn't about them.  Unlike a number of people, I'm
not interested in Snape's or Dumbledore's back story either, except in
whatever ways it might relate to Harry's journey.

The only female I want to learn anything about is lily, and that's mostly
because I am hoping she will be revealed to have some flaw or other.  That's
what I can't find realistic:  we've had James knocked off his pedestal, but
we still have the "Sainted lily", as I call her.  if James wasn't perfect,
especially as a teenage boy, then I sure hope to see lily with a few faults
for a change too.  I mean, even her sacrifice in dying for Harry is
considered more important, or braver than that of James who died defending
his family.  So, yeah, let's see a little imperfection in perfect Lily.
Otherwise, the rest of the female characters don't matter much to me in the
overall story.

Sherry