Feminist stuff that I'd like to do
If I had the time and money to minor in Women and Gender studies, I would have been able to do some sort of project talking about fandom's regard for women with HP fandom being mentioned in it somewhere. Or if I could take my school's Harry Potter literature class, I may have been able to do something about women in HP mentioning fandom's regard for HP women characters.
I just wish I could do a feminist oriented project and get some grade out of it. -_- There's so much research I'd have to do, but at least I could use posts and comments made by everyday people online. Cause looking that stuff up would be easy as pie. Like comments made in this thread: Lily's Hypocrisy
"When Lily storms off and leaves an apologetic Snape alone outside of Gryffindor, she really seals his fate as well as her fate. Her inability to see beyond her nose, or his nose, as the case may be, is a huge mistake. I think the worse line in that whole passage is "I've made excuses for you for years." "Not only is it an indication that Lily always saw Snape as an inferior in a Wuthering Heights sense, but also it means she has been uncomfortable in their friendship for years and talked about him with other Gryffindors. It's a humiliation piled onto a boy who has all ready been humilated in a brutal way that day."
"Snape couldn't influence Lily. He showed the same loyalty to her, throughout his life--but arrogance pulled her in, after all. By the time she dumps Snape as a friend, she is no longer the little girl who was willing to give a ragged little boy a chance: she's as judgmental and self-righteous as the Marauders. She can walk away without a second thought from someone whom she considers beneath her now, who will not change to meet her standards of conduct, whom she perceives to be making poor choices."
"We never see Snape accuse Lily of anything; not even of fancying an arrogant bully...Lily is always the one who accuses him. From the first scene we see them together until the last, there is almost always something Lily criticizes Severus for. She scolds him for calling her a witch (in spite of him saying it in a friendly tone), for hurting Petunia with a tree branch (even if it was in response to Petunia's offense), for reading her sister's letters (something that Lily first must have allowed him) and thereby being the cause of Petunia not liking her, for hanging out with Avery and Mulciber (who probably were his classmates and some of the few people who let him hang out with them) and finally for being a budding Death Eater, basically for calling her a Mudblood (and it didn't matter that she had just seen him being physically attacked and humiliated by the gang she used to morally defend). But Snape never lashes out at Lily until SWM. And not even then does he address her directly, but he does apologize afterwards." (Because a man anyone can do whatever the hell they please as long as they apologize after each time. *rolls eyes*)
"Snape was probably right in his childhood claim that Lily was too (what, actually? Sweet? Innocent? Good-natured? Righteous?) to ever be thrown into Azkaban. (Are you trying to insinuate that she should have been thrown in prison?? O_o) But their friendship seems to have been generally on Lily's terms, with Severus doing the loving, forgiving and apologizing while Lily stands for judgment and superior attitudes...
By way of explanation, perhaps Lily simply took companionship and love for granted in a way Sev never could. She didn't share in his loneliness and couldn't read it in him."
"I do believe no-one is blinder than the one who doesn't want to see. I got a very strong impression that hormones played into Lily's words and actions in both the conversation after the Werewolf incident, in SWM and afterwards. To me, she seemed to be actively seeking excuses for getting rid of Severus by this time, rather than listening to her friend's version of any story. I believe Severus' back-tracking in confronting her accusations made him seem weak to her, while James' shameless courting secretly flattered and attracted her."
"In 'The Purgatory of Lily' (written by the username 'Escoger' at fanfiction.net) Lily arrives to the afterlife but is confronted with the fact that she actually hasn't scored very high on an ethic scale, in spite of her final sacrifice. As a result of this Lily has to go through a purgatory consisting in watching her life re-play a series of times but with certain things she has said or done slightly altered, such as not smiling when Severus underwear is exposed in SWM or not accepting Peter as a Secret Keeper." (Lily of all people needed PURGATORY???!! *major head desk*)
"I also liked the fact that the last version of Lily apologized to him instead." (Regarding the woman hating fanfiction mentioned above.)
"But I do think this version of him gave a nice contrast to the Snape, who actually scored 70 points on the afterlife scale (in contrast to Lily's 26). Finally, a lifetime of redemption and atonement counts, as opposed to a single heroic act!"
So...yea. I quoted and bolded some bits I felt were really important to mention. I know this may be a lot, but there's a lot more in the threads if you're willing to dig through it. You know, maybe doing a project on how fandom judges female characters may not be such a good idea. After having to dig through and post all this, I think I need a drink.
I just wish I could do a feminist oriented project and get some grade out of it. -_- There's so much research I'd have to do, but at least I could use posts and comments made by everyday people online. Cause looking that stuff up would be easy as pie. Like comments made in this thread: Lily's Hypocrisy
"When Lily storms off and leaves an apologetic Snape alone outside of Gryffindor, she really seals his fate as well as her fate. Her inability to see beyond her nose, or his nose, as the case may be, is a huge mistake. I think the worse line in that whole passage is "I've made excuses for you for years." "Not only is it an indication that Lily always saw Snape as an inferior in a Wuthering Heights sense, but also it means she has been uncomfortable in their friendship for years and talked about him with other Gryffindors. It's a humiliation piled onto a boy who has all ready been humilated in a brutal way that day."
"Snape couldn't influence Lily. He showed the same loyalty to her, throughout his life--but arrogance pulled her in, after all. By the time she dumps Snape as a friend, she is no longer the little girl who was willing to give a ragged little boy a chance: she's as judgmental and self-righteous as the Marauders. She can walk away without a second thought from someone whom she considers beneath her now, who will not change to meet her standards of conduct, whom she perceives to be making poor choices."
"We never see Snape accuse Lily of anything; not even of fancying an arrogant bully...Lily is always the one who accuses him. From the first scene we see them together until the last, there is almost always something Lily criticizes Severus for. She scolds him for calling her a witch (in spite of him saying it in a friendly tone), for hurting Petunia with a tree branch (even if it was in response to Petunia's offense), for reading her sister's letters (something that Lily first must have allowed him) and thereby being the cause of Petunia not liking her, for hanging out with Avery and Mulciber (who probably were his classmates and some of the few people who let him hang out with them) and finally for being a budding Death Eater, basically for calling her a Mudblood (and it didn't matter that she had just seen him being physically attacked and humiliated by the gang she used to morally defend). But Snape never lashes out at Lily until SWM. And not even then does he address her directly, but he does apologize afterwards." (Because a man anyone can do whatever the hell they please as long as they apologize after each time. *rolls eyes*)
"Snape was probably right in his childhood claim that Lily was too (what, actually? Sweet? Innocent? Good-natured? Righteous?) to ever be thrown into Azkaban. (Are you trying to insinuate that she should have been thrown in prison?? O_o) But their friendship seems to have been generally on Lily's terms, with Severus doing the loving, forgiving and apologizing while Lily stands for judgment and superior attitudes...
By way of explanation, perhaps Lily simply took companionship and love for granted in a way Sev never could. She didn't share in his loneliness and couldn't read it in him."
"I do believe no-one is blinder than the one who doesn't want to see. I got a very strong impression that hormones played into Lily's words and actions in both the conversation after the Werewolf incident, in SWM and afterwards. To me, she seemed to be actively seeking excuses for getting rid of Severus by this time, rather than listening to her friend's version of any story. I believe Severus' back-tracking in confronting her accusations made him seem weak to her, while James' shameless courting secretly flattered and attracted her."
"In 'The Purgatory of Lily' (written by the username 'Escoger' at fanfiction.net) Lily arrives to the afterlife but is confronted with the fact that she actually hasn't scored very high on an ethic scale, in spite of her final sacrifice. As a result of this Lily has to go through a purgatory consisting in watching her life re-play a series of times but with certain things she has said or done slightly altered, such as not smiling when Severus underwear is exposed in SWM or not accepting Peter as a Secret Keeper." (Lily of all people needed PURGATORY???!! *major head desk*)
"I also liked the fact that the last version of Lily apologized to him instead." (Regarding the woman hating fanfiction mentioned above.)
"But I do think this version of him gave a nice contrast to the Snape, who actually scored 70 points on the afterlife scale (in contrast to Lily's 26). Finally, a lifetime of redemption and atonement counts, as opposed to a single heroic act!"
So...yea. I quoted and bolded some bits I felt were really important to mention. I know this may be a lot, but there's a lot more in the threads if you're willing to dig through it. You know, maybe doing a project on how fandom judges female characters may not be such a good idea. After having to dig through and post all this, I think I need a drink.