Working mothers, was Did the Slytherins come back

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 181838

Montavilla:
> And I'm not trying to bash JKR about her portrayal of
> either mothers or non-mothers.  I'm just pointing
> out that she seems to be a lot of power into mother
> love--the other side of which is that women without
> children tend end looking inconsequential and those
> who divide their attention between work and children
> end up with bad kids.

Jen: I wanted to add Alice Longbottom to the list of working moms.  

I was pleased that JKR didn't decide to cast only moms who got paid 
for their work as the powerful ones in the story, including leaving 
some ambiguous such as Luna's mom.  It also struck a positive note 
for me to have mother love portrayed as something powerful and 
important, since there are plenty of negative portrayls of the 
suffocating mothers who wound with their 'love.' 

As for inconsequential women without children, McGonagall, Bellatrix, 
Trelawney & Umbridge all played consequential roles in the story.

Montavilla:
> But, one can't help noticing a disturbing trend in HPB, in which the
> female characters tend to fall apart if romantically thwarted, or
> that throughout the series, motherhood is shown as the most 
> powerful, ideal state for a woman. 

Jen: Hehe, I thought they were all falling apart in their various 
ways.  The guys looked a little different doing it, but Ron got all 
manly because he'd never kissed anyone, and Dean was down after Ginny 
broke up with him (didn't he shatter his glass when she & Harry 
kiss?).  Cormac turns lecherous when Hermione rebuffs him.  Harry's 
got his roaring monster, lol.  I'm not sure anyone got a pass in HBP 
when it came to being thwarted by romance, much as I wish JKR would 
have canned about 3/4's of it.

Jen, glad that JKR didn't explain Slughorn's two perfect Felix days.