Harry Potter is Anti-Woman

[Valerie Frankel]

No: HPFGUIDX 181009

Tigerqueen makes some very good points. I'm currently writing a book 
on how the heroine's journey works, and many books, like Narnia, 
Duane's Young Wizards, and The Golden Compass show both journeys, 
perhaps favoring the girls a bit more, even. (There's a booklist of 
these at www.calithwain.com if anyone's interested).

Harry Potter offers saintly mothers and "victim princess types," 
without many others. Harry rescues Fleur and Fleur's little sister in 
book 4, Ginny in book 2, and various frightened kids in the later 
books. Hermione needs boys to rescue her in book 4's lake scene and 
book 3's dementor scene, to say nothing of the troll attack where she 
and Harry become friends. 

Anyway, we definitely have mostly "angels in the household" like Mrs. 
Weasley and Lily Potter. When does Molly do interesting magic? Only 
for her family (even Dumbledore seems impressed by her clock). Her 
big battle scene, complete with suspicious language, comes because 
she's protecting her daughter. One gets the impression that if her 
kids weren't at Hogwarts, she'd be at home rolling bandages during 
the final battle.

Bellatrix, of course, is the bad woman. She is the anti-mother--just 
look at her. No children, comments that she values Voldemort above 
everyone, even her own husband (btw, has anyone even SEEN Mr. 
Lestrange?); she breaks up Neville's family by torturing his parents, 
and she's eager to kill her married and pregnant niece, Tonks. She's 
also eager to kill Neville, and we see her in the final book battling—
once again—children. Voldemort, despite his legendary attacks on 
Harry, seems more interested in powerful wizards like Dumbledore and 
Kingsley—in other words, adults. Bellatrix is a type of Lady Macbeth, 
determined to kill all her young enemies before they can grow up. 

Indeed, Tonks, Fleur, and other "powerful" women, or at least equals, 
give up their independence and settle down. Minerva tries, but she's 
not very feminine, and we never see her moment as the all-powerful, 
unequalled headmistress defending Hogwarts in book 7 (several 
teachers help her gang up on Snape and her protective spells aren't 
significantly better than the other teachers'). 

Girls have limited options for Halloween: spacey Luna, walking-
dictionary Hermione or only-appears-in-a-few-scenes Ginny. Still, 
there a lot of series out there, with as many great fantasy books for 
girls as there are for boys. So let's ready the Inkheart and Coraline 
costumes, and make sure girls feel powerful too.
Valerie Frankel
Author of Henry Potty and the Pet Rock:
An Unauthorized Harry Potter Parody
www.HarryPotterParody.com