Weekly Discussion: The Women of Harry Potter

[victoriasong]

This is basically a discussion on the women portrayed in JK Rowling's world of Harry Potter. From the good to the bad, to the minor characters, to the major characters such as Hermione. Give me your thoughts and feelings on what you think JK Rowling's portrayal of the different types of female (there are SOOO many) in Harry Potter.

Comments

[annielumiere]

I like that J.K. tried to show that a girl is more than her looks, but sometimes she would be a little slut-shaming tbh, with Lavender and Parvati. It's not a black-and-white situation, women can be pretty and take care of themselves and still kick ass.

There, I said it.

Still, I love how many awesome, different and complex women we've had. Madame Maxime, Cho, Bellatrix, Neville's grandma and Petunia are some of my favs because of their flaws.

Btw, I do not agree with one of the articles. Umbridge being raped? When did they say that? I do remember her being left with the centaurs and later in the nursery, but I always thought she was held a prisoner and maybe attacked... was I only a naive little girl when I read that?

[mango_bango27]

The Umbridge being raped theory comes from the legend that centaurs are based on, because apparently it was part of the mythology that centaurs raped their prisoners as punishment.

So lots of people assume that since JKR knew the mythology so well she intended for that to be a part of it.

[annielumiere]

Ugh... true. I still refuse to consider this. Those centaurs used to be very emotionals, used to drink a lot and were ingorant; completely different from J.K.'s

w/e, if she called a frightening creature from the Underworld Fluffy, I'll just assume this is one of her changes.

[mango_bango27]

Yeah I don't think we're supposed to get rape out of the scene, but I do think it could be problematic the way it was written.

[fleurdelacour]

I feel like Fleur gets a lot of hate for insulting hogwarts or w/e in goblet of fire but then you turn around and draco is 100x worse in every way yet fandom forgives him and I feel that is definitely because shes a woman

thoughts

[piepeloe]

I think it's partly because some of the characters in the books hated Fleur. And while it might have been a bit too vitriolic and open, I do think it was realistic. Fleur wasn't just pretty, she was also clever enough to be a champion. Then she made the mistake of being the first real 'in-law' of the Weasley family. I'm sure some of the older boys had introduced girls before, but this time she was a fiancée. And then usually as an in-law you'd try to be as polite and gracious and appreciative as possible. Fleur pretty much compared everything to France and found it lacking.

This is all pretty normal, realistic behavior. Fleur not really settling in. Molly and Ginny (and Hermione) not being very welcoming. But since we're used to the latter being pretty friendly, and now they're not, most people tend to go along with them. I think.

[absolutelyfatal]

No, I think she just wrote Fleur poorly as the only female champion, she was obviously the weakest and then she gives her less-than-good attributes of being snobby, etc.

Fleur wasn't a main character throughout the books so you don't see her "grow" like I saw Draco grow. I still get shade thrown at me because I like Draco. I see a lot more people liking Fleur. (Not talking about the insane Draco fangirls here.) lol.

But then again, that's really pitting female against male, I like Fleur but in earlier books I don't think JKR is the greatest at writing good, strong secondary females.

[fleurdelacour]

I disagree so, so strongly that rowling didn't portray growth in fleur

we see her growth from a self-centred teenager with a lot of raw talent to someone who becomes rather selfless (especially in the way she refuses to abandon bill despite how much outward beauty is engrained in her psyche) while remaining confident in herself (ignoring the horrid insults she gets from the other women)

I mean originally fleur is outwardly hostile in response to her homesickness yet remains to fight a battle that isn't hers to fight (she could have easily returned to france and not joined the order)

also the way her charms cheapened the looks of everyone around her in GoF and in DH at her wedding her glow radiated to everyone else in the room

I don't see fleur as weak at all - narrative-wise there isn't really a challenge she could have won without throwing off the balance of points iirc and harry saving her sister became important to the storyline to show her fierce loyalty to those who have protected her family etc

[mango_bango27]

I love that there are so many different women in the Harry Potter series who all have different strengths and weaknesses

[annielumiere]

You should be proud of this comment, bb.

[fleurdelacour]

yes yes yes yes on the fleur part

especially considering her biology as not fully human herself and how its likely biologically engrained in her to find/notice physical faults in other people (idk I assume I really want to learn more about veela ;_;)

and bills face being ruined yet she doesn't care

thats not the same fleur from GoF for sure omg I love her growth and how she retains her strength at the same time :33

[lopop7]

fleur is flawless as is this comment<3333

[acidpops7]

Hermione is everything I want to be.

[mango_bango27]

I just read some of the links.

I disagree with some points in the second link, but I disagree with waaaay more of the rebuttal.

This is from the criticism of how the characters were treated.

Dolores Umbridge - (is raped by centaurs in order to be taught a lesson. and this is laughed at.)

I don't agree that Umbridge is definitely raped. It is a possibility but I don't think that is what we are supposed to get out of the book.

But this rebuttal point is making me angry.

Umbridge was not a good person. She was a racist, cruel and condescending person. She tortured CHILDREN. She attacked a man in the middle of the night in his own home. And that was only in the 5th book. We aren’t talking about the 7th book… She was given a healthy dose of justice for her actions with emotional scarring.NO NO NO. When the point is criticism that a character is raped, IT DOES NOT MATTER HOW HORRIBLE THAT CHARACTER IS AS A PERSON. Why is this even being brought up as part of the argument? The argument is whether or not she was raped, not whether or

[victoriasong]

In the case of the rebuttal (the person you're quoting is the person who comments before the Cersei pic/gif is actually talking to.)

But yes, I definitely agree with your point of rape and how it shouldn't be a discussion of whether she "deserved it" or not.

[mango_bango27]

lol I missed that entire section oop

apparently they said exactly what I was thinking

[absolutelyfatal]

Yea I still don't believe JKR did that to even the worst (beside Voldemort) character in the series and this is all coming from Mythology that centaurs are rapists so that's just "racist".