Why Harry Picked Ginny, Rather Than Hermione, As A Romantic Partner

[gowdie]

Greetings! I originally posted this essay on a Harry/Ginny community and someone recommended that it would receive an interested audience here as well. It is a study of the mix of sexual attraction and humour in regards to Harry and Ginny

Comments

[ook]

Or perhaps Harry is just shallow and only likes "pretty" girls. ;)

[mickawber]

Yeah. That huge crush he has on Fleur is pretty embarrassing, isn't it? And he sure makes an idiot of himself every time Rosmerta comes near. Silly of him, really. And that time at the Yule Ball when he throws himself at Hermione? Humiliating. :-)

Cho and Ginny are both described in glowing terms because Harry is the point-of-view character. Yes, other characters refer to them as pretty. But every one of us is attracted to what we're attracted to. Other girls/women in the series are acknowledged as being beautiful, yet Harry doesn't respond to him at all in the way that he does to Cho or Ginny. What seperates these two from the others? And what differentiates Ginny from Cho? I think gowdie manages to explore that quite well.

[ook]

From what I recall, isn't it Fleur and Rosmerta who are described as "beautiful"?

BTW, Ron is the one who has the crush on Rosmerta and Fleur. Ron definitely has a thing for "older" women who are beauties -- it's Harry who goes for obviously "pretty" girls who are his own age. And this makes me wonder why Ron is considered a suitable romantic pairing for Hermione, when Harry supposedly is not. Ron is so much more obviously into beautiful women (and come to think of it, Ron's sense of humor isn't much like Hermione's either). So why is Harry/Hermione bad, while Ron/Hermione good? It doesn't add up.

I think that JKR just needed a convenient Mary Sue for book six. It's the whole James/Lily thing, I suspect. Ginny is supposed to be the new Lily. However, Harry isn't much like the old James (Sirius said so).

[gowdie]

I tried to cover the pretty part - I said that being pretty wasn't enough. I tried to acknowledge that Harry does consider Ginny pretty - and is quite fond of her appearance. However, he has always known she is pretty - but wasn't interested until he discovers the trait that really gets him sexually interested - her humour. Also - I try to acknowledge that he does consider Hermione pretty - but that even so, she doesn't catch his physical interest - so clearly there is something else that Harry is looking for in a romantic relationship. It's about the combination of the two - he wants someone that fits his definition of physically attractive AND who sparks his sexual attraction by appealing to his main source of pleasure - humour

[thalia_seawood]

Excellent essay!

I have to admit that I did not like Ginny in book 6 and I had been wondering why Rowlings all of a sudden gave us Perfect!Ginny. What you write in this paragraphy explains it. Yes, of course, as always we see the world through Harry's eyes - and Ginny is perfect because he's in love. Thanks for helping me to get it. :-)

As for Mary-Sue, I respectfully disagree. Mostly because I think Ginny does have faults. Harry just doesn't necessarily see them because at the moment he is overwhelmed by his attraction to her. He is in that, "Oh! She is so wonderful and perfect!" stage. But the objective reader can see that is part of Harry's bias.

[gowdie]

Wow - thank you!

[gowdie]

Here's the thing though, I don't understand how you can say Ginny doesn't have on page faults, since you have clearly found them. You don't like her - and that's fine. She clearly pushes a lot of hot buttons for a lot of people. But the point I'm trying to make is that Harry liking her and thinking she's perfect doesn't make her a Mary-Sue.

And I do get what you are saying about other characters - but I also think that's there. It's not huge - because Harry isn't spending a lot of time on it, he just wants to admire her - but it is there.

One example: Molly - who does not like Fleur - does not like Ginny calling her Phlegm. While Molly doesn't particularly approve of Bill's choice - she is trying to keep a peaceful house - and Ginny isn't helping. Hermione also tries to be more diplomatic - she doesn't engage in the name-calling.

More on this point, I feel sorry for Fleur. I get why she is annoying - but she is the first woman to come into this house, to marry one of Molly's beloved sons, and she is reviled. And I think it

[peachespig]

gowdie addressed most of your points, and I agree with everything she says. But I would add something about Ron and Harry: I think you are right that Ron has had more of a thing for pretty women in general, in particular for women who are perceived as attractive by the general populace, and regardless of whether or not he knows them well. Harry on the other hand, regardless of who he acknowledges is beautiful, only has had any kind of crush on Cho and Ginny - not on "pretty girls" in general, just two very specific people. This makes Harry's approach a little more mature than Ron's at this point

[ook]

Ah, but where is the closeness between Ron and Hermione? All we've ever seen them do is argue and fight with each other -- other than Gryffindor and Harry, they have nothing in common. There certainly isn't the closeness or trust that we see between and Harry and Hermione. I don't see that much closeness between Harry and Ginny either (but Ginny does understand Harry well enough to leave him be after he drops her after the funeral).

[mickawber]

Actually, I think gowdie had a good point concerning Ron and Hermione as well--they both enjoy debate, something Harry actively hates. Ron's sense of humor is definitely there (Hermione's is too--but it's more subtle and ironic), and is more like Harry's than like Hermione's. But it's not as well-developed (or as occasionally brutal) as Ginny's or the twins. Ron enjoys a good laugh, but he's not a joker the way Ginny and the twins are.

And Ron does find Hermione beautiful at the Yule Ball, just as everyone else does. I think that that's a wake-up call for him. She's his best friend, and he enjoys spending time with her (they continue to spend time together even when Harry and Ron aren't talking in GoF, before the ball, and when Harry is angry at both of them at the beginning of OotP). Suddenly he realizes that she's not just a girl, but she's a girl. That doesn't make him shallow, just a little thick. I mean, come on--he gives her noxious perfume for Christmas. For Ron that's a strong statement. Unfortunately, between the Slug Club and

[mickawber]

(Sorry. Once I get started

[delicfcd]

From what we know, Lily was more like Hermione than like Ginny--looks aside. (And the only similarity in their looks--fanon notwithstanding--is their hair, which is actually described in very distinct terms--Ginny's hair is 'blazing', a bright red, while Lily's is 'dark', which is to say, bordering on auburn.)

THANK YOU. My god, does that whole 'Ginny is like Lily so it's all Oedipal and stuff' thing piss me off. The only Oedipal thing Harry's ever done was solve a Sphinx's riddle. ;)

[katiemorris]

My gut feeling is that Lilly is like neither Ginny NOR Hermione. We haven't seen a lot of her in canon to judge her character, but in the PoA film, there is an exchange between Lupin and Harry where they discuss his mother which is very interesting. Remembering that JKR said the film actually foreshadows canon to come in one place I wondered if this could be it. Lupin says something along the lines of: "Your mother was the kindest person I ever knew," and tells Harry how she always had time and kindness for people who were underdogs. (I don't have the film in the house or I'd quote verbatim). But the general impression is one of a really lovely, kind, supportive and caring human being.

And the person in the books who is most like that is, in my opinion, Harry himself. I think he has his father's looks and his mother's character. Especially her compassion. She behaved, in that scene in the penseive, almost exactly how Harry himself would have behaved had he been there.

[mrs_bombadil]

I agree. I think that if Harry/Ginny is supposed to be anything like James/Lily it's not only Harry as being more like Lily, it's Ginny as being more like James.

[mickawber]

BTW, I didn't mean to imply that Lily was actually that Hermione-like--just that she appears to have been more like Hermione, personality-wise, than like Ginny. Though all three do righteous indignation pretty well when there's cause...

And I agree with you about the ties between Harry and his mother. We keep hearing that Harry "isn't his father"--for better and for worse. (Mostly for better.) I think that the corrolary is that he is in fact a lot like Lily.