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[zevazo]

My friend Marissa is missing the "Let-me-make-it-better" gene.

Now, when I think about that statement, it isn't really true -- she reacts to most characters just as most women readers react to them -- but she also shows a curious lack of sympathy for some people.  Take Draco Malfoy -- she went from "I hope he actually scores points someday" to "Oh,

Comments

[gyutto]

here from the daily_snitch :)

I think your theory has certainly hit the mark. But another hidden part in both parts of the theory is the element of control and power. The average woman, pitted against the average man in a fistfight (excluding any weapons or dirty tricks), would probably lose for physical reasons. So what recourse does a woman have to get her way in life? Negotiation. Furthermore, from the mothering perspective, as mothers, we are going back to a time when the male in question depended and needed you, and was for a time, also physically inferior. That dependency gives the female the upper hand in the relationship.

I think this explains a bit of the "dissapointing GoF graveyard scene" scenario. Not only did Lucius not suffer enough, this is a confrontation based on physical/magical power. There is no room in this scenario for female communication and comforting, thus putting the characters in our emotional clutches. So in this situation, I think that dissapointment stems equally from the inability using the fear of the character in question to shift the power dynamic in favor of "female powers" (i.e. communication, love, and comforting).

On the other hand, characters such as Remus and Sirius find themselves in situations that cannot be remedied by the traditionally male-associated characteristics of [physical] power. Remus is impoverished, a minority (lycanthropy), and injured, and Sirius is without family. What a perfect opportunity to use one's female powers of comfort to take control of the situation.

This is just looking at it from one angle...but I definitely think the hurt/comfort theory has something to do with the male/female power dynamics that exist in real life, as opposed to those that we can construct from these fictional scenarios wherein we can easily be heroines.

[zevazo]

Hey, thanks for kicking it off! I do agree that it's partly a power "thing." Do you suppose there's also an element of ... I don't know ... you know that joke that goes, "Women are like computers, they remember everything you've ever said and can bring it up against you at a moment's notice"? Could it also be partly a matter of, "I now have power saved up for later, if necessary?"

I'm now thinking of Nora in A Doll's House, if you've read that. She knows of her husband's vulnerability and is saving that knowledge for just-in-case.

[gyutto]

exactly! a woman's best weapon is often her mind...seeing a person emotionally vulnerable often gives you more info about that person than you'd get in a physical confrontation. And we store that knowledge away, for use in future strategizing for purposes good or evil. :)