Feeling guilty about being disinterested in or disliking Rowling's female characters

[torchedsong]

The title is self-explanatory. After rereading HP, I realized how let down I was about the dearth of interesting and/or likable female characters. As someone who has a long list of favorite female characters from various books, movies, TV shows, and video games, the women in the Harry Potter books leave me cold or bored

Comments

[t0ra_chan]

You're not being unfair about the way JKR writes her female characters, she clearly doesn't practice what she preaches. She once said that the wizarding world is supposed to be equal, but when you actually look at what she wrote, it's clearly not the case. Female characters, especially feminine ones, are always treated as lesser, unless they're no-nonsense like Hermione and McGonagall or tomboys like Ginny

[aikaterini]

/Female characters, especially feminine ones, are always treated as lesser, unless they're no-nonsense like Hermione and McGonagall or tomboys like Ginny

[torchedsong]

But since it's only girls who are doing those things, eh, whatever. It's not like they live in a world that's run by magic, where men and women are equally capable of performing magic.

I think this is another case of JKR not knowing what kind of tone she's setting for her story. On one hand, she wants to add fantastical or humorous elements where abuse, bullying, and violence can be viewed in a frivolous/funny/trivial matter. On the other hand, she also wants to introduce mature and heavy themes to make her books darker and more serious - therefore abuse, bullying, and violence shouldn't be viewed in a frivolous/funny/trivial matter.

The result is a mess of different tones. Physical violence between students can be funny and slapstick (Hermione sending the birds on Ron) or it can be threatening (Draco stomping on Harry's nose in HBP). I think it's a combination of JKR not knowing what approach she wants for her world, Gryffindors getting away with their bad behavior, and violence from girls being seen as "feisty" or "funny" because

[mary_j_59]

I agree so much with this! It always struck me that Hermione was abusive to Ron--both with the bird attack and with her hitting him when he came back to the tent in DH. Had he been shown doing likewise to her, no reader could have seen it as anything but abuse. But, somehow, Hermione gets a pass. Why?

It's pretty frustrating.

[torchedsong]

Female characters, especially feminine ones, are always treated as lesser, unless they're no-nonsense like Hermione and McGonagall or tomboys like Ginny.I agree, although I think it's not only feminine women that are disparaged, but women who are considered too "masculine" or unattractive. Umbridge, Rita, and Millicent come to mind as women who have unfeminine features and are seen as unattractive for it. The "correct" type of femininity is reserved for girls who aren't too girly but aren't ugly or too masculine either