"are you ready to be strong?"
More mulling about the ladies....Probably from the intersection of having just re-read DH and the approaching conclusion of DW5..............
One aspect of JKR's novels that I don't particularly care for is her treatment of the female characters. They're much more in the category of "types" than the more fully realized male characters; they also are far less active than the males. The women are on the periphery of the action throughout the books....A great contrast is Luna and Neville--two very similar characters, with their outsider status amongst the other students and their tragic pasts. Luna is the flake, eternally out of step with reality; Neville is inept and insecure, the Not Chosen One. However, it's Neville who develops over the course of the novels--he learns and gains confidence; he leads the resistance that's left at Hogwarts in DH; he's given the task of killing Nagini by Harry....Luna is just Luna, throughout. She gets to be captured and so sidelined; her character is static, start to finish.
Hermione is the one female who really does anything; she's the brains of the Trio....but....She's really not very interesting, to be honest. She's shown as knowing a lot--but not really enjoying it; it's not as if she shows the characteristics of a true intellectual, who's imaginative and loves learning for the sake of learning--not simply to have the highest average. We're never given a hint that that is part of Hermione: she's just the Know It All Girl.
And how does she end up saddled with Ron at the end? Ron....is a loser. He gets the SooperCooper treatment in DH--suddenly, but extremely sporadically, he has a functioning brain....and then, of course, relapses into his actual character of the dimwit who has no interest in any learning whatsoever. Ron, pretty much, is every guy portrayed in beer commercials. This is what Hermione gets at the end of the series: someone with whom she has nothing in common but Harry. All we've got is the 'type' of the brainy woman who marries her opposite, the dullard she can boss around unmercifully.
And poor Lily. There are such gaps in her character development....In a way, she's similar to Hermione: how in the world did she end up with her husband? But there's even less to go on with Lily: once she (inexplicably) hooks up with James, she virtually ceases to exist, until she steps in front of an AK. Lily isn't so much a character, a woman, as she is a plot device.
JKR tends to slot her women into very traditional roles. Not unrealistic, of course: this is the way the world is (unfortunately).....But she just goes with it. The realm of fantasy could allow her a far freer rein, but she doesn't take it. Nor is she offering any comment on the traditional roles. One of the aspects of BVS that I always enjoyed was the underlying commentary--the awareness of societal expectations and how we consciously and unconsciously abide by them and traditional roles.....Buffy herself was a constant and amusing commentary on all this--the fashionista who longs to go to the Prom and hang out at the mall, but who resigns herself to her duty/calling: the character herself comments wryly on her own attitudes, bringing the whole issue to the audience's attention quite deliberately.
One aspect of JKR's novels that I don't particularly care for is her treatment of the female characters. They're much more in the category of "types" than the more fully realized male characters; they also are far less active than the males. The women are on the periphery of the action throughout the books....A great contrast is Luna and Neville--two very similar characters, with their outsider status amongst the other students and their tragic pasts. Luna is the flake, eternally out of step with reality; Neville is inept and insecure, the Not Chosen One. However, it's Neville who develops over the course of the novels--he learns and gains confidence; he leads the resistance that's left at Hogwarts in DH; he's given the task of killing Nagini by Harry....Luna is just Luna, throughout. She gets to be captured and so sidelined; her character is static, start to finish.
Hermione is the one female who really does anything; she's the brains of the Trio....but....She's really not very interesting, to be honest. She's shown as knowing a lot--but not really enjoying it; it's not as if she shows the characteristics of a true intellectual, who's imaginative and loves learning for the sake of learning--not simply to have the highest average. We're never given a hint that that is part of Hermione: she's just the Know It All Girl.
And how does she end up saddled with Ron at the end? Ron....is a loser. He gets the SooperCooper treatment in DH--suddenly, but extremely sporadically, he has a functioning brain....and then, of course, relapses into his actual character of the dimwit who has no interest in any learning whatsoever. Ron, pretty much, is every guy portrayed in beer commercials. This is what Hermione gets at the end of the series: someone with whom she has nothing in common but Harry. All we've got is the 'type' of the brainy woman who marries her opposite, the dullard she can boss around unmercifully.
And poor Lily. There are such gaps in her character development....In a way, she's similar to Hermione: how in the world did she end up with her husband? But there's even less to go on with Lily: once she (inexplicably) hooks up with James, she virtually ceases to exist, until she steps in front of an AK. Lily isn't so much a character, a woman, as she is a plot device.
JKR tends to slot her women into very traditional roles. Not unrealistic, of course: this is the way the world is (unfortunately).....But she just goes with it. The realm of fantasy could allow her a far freer rein, but she doesn't take it. Nor is she offering any comment on the traditional roles. One of the aspects of BVS that I always enjoyed was the underlying commentary--the awareness of societal expectations and how we consciously and unconsciously abide by them and traditional roles.....Buffy herself was a constant and amusing commentary on all this--the fashionista who longs to go to the Prom and hang out at the mall, but who resigns herself to her duty/calling: the character herself comments wryly on her own attitudes, bringing the whole issue to the audience's attention quite deliberately.