[the_old_crowd] More random jottings - on a theme

[Shaun Hately]

From: "Jim Ferer" <jferer at ...>

> I agree with you that kids think of a whole lot else besides sex. The
> modest amount of sex in DH only points out how oversexed most of what
> we read in books and see on screens is. It is cultural.

I have to say I agree.

I finally started my first proper teaching job two weeks ago, and it's 
keeping me very busy so I haven't been as free to discuss HP as I would 
like, but this is an issue that does move me to comment. I find it rather 
fascinating the focus that so many readers of these books seem to put on 
issues of romance and sex - as if they feel there is some mandate that the 
Harry Potter books should contain sex and/or romance - as if they feel that 
this is a *required* part of a book, or at least, a required part of *these* 
books.

I've no real problem with the romance we see in the books - I don't think 
that it is out of place. I also wouldn't object if the books had had more 
sex in them. Teens/adolescents can have romances. Some of them do have sex. 
It wasn't, by any means, unrealistic for JKR to have romances in these 
books, and it wouldn't, by any means, have been unrealistic for her to have 
sex in the books.

*But* I do think it would have been just as realistic if there hadn't been 
the same level of romance, and I do think it's perfectly realistic that 
there isn't a major sexual focus.

It's not abnormal for adolescents to be romantically engaged. It's not 
abnormal for adolescents to be sexually active.

But it's also not abnormal for adolescents to not be involved in romance, 
and it's not abnormal for them not to be sexually active. Plenty of teens 
don't have these things as a significant part of their lives.

I went to a boarding school in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I had plenty 
of opportunities for romantic entanglements, and some degree of opportunity 
for sexual relationships. So did all of my peers. But only a minority of us 
actually dated anybody and only a minority ever engaged in any sexual 
activity (well - at least any sexual activity involving two people). Those 
who did - well, fair enough, there was nothing particularly strange or 
unusual about them... but I don't think any of the rest of us thought there 
was anything strange about the fact that we didn't. It wasn't that we 
weren't interested in the concepts, or we didn't understand them... it was 
just that our priorities were - and were expected to be - our schoolwork. 
Other things could wait - our schoolwork couldn't.

I look at the world of Hogwarts and that's pretty much what I see... the 
students are at school to learn. Their schoolwork - their OWLs and then 
their NEWTs - are their priorities. Some of them find some time for romance. 
There are sometimes organised activities - dances, etc - and some of them 
take those opportunities. I doubt every single sixth and seventh year at 
Hogwarts is a virgin - but I don't think it's unrealistic to suppose that 
the significant majority of them are. Because among my peers at school, that 
was the case - not all, but most.

And so I wonder at the idea that there's something unrealistic about the way 
JKR depicts teens... I don't think it's the only realistic way to depict 
them, but I do think it is *one* realistic way.

The Wizarding World also does seem to me to be somewhat old fashioned and 
traditional in a number of ways - and this may be one of those ways. Of 
course, sexual activity between teens is hardly unknown in any period of 
society - but it was less prevalent at many periods than it is now. We need 
to think about that, I think, in looking at this issue.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at ... | ICQ: 6898200
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia