Oh, TV Tropes...!

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Quite honestly, the Harry Potter stuff on that site has gotten to the point where I can't read it because just about everything is fawning over how great and super-special-awesome the series is, oh, and how Snape is an evil douchebag who wanted to get Harry and James killed so he could keep Lily. But this... this makes me want to scream:

"Hermione... [is] one of the smartest and more pro-active females in the whole Harry Potter canon and English literature in general"

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!

How could they make such a claim?! Hermione is a better heroine than, say, Tiffany Aching?! How about Eliza Doolittle?! And I'm sure you could come up with other examples.

No, no, in Harry Potter it seems fairly obvious that the most powerful women in the series are antagonists. Sure, Hermione's perfectly independent and capable, but in the last several books it's like she becomes Harry's servant because he's too lazy to do anything himself!

God damn it, Harry Potter wouldn't bother me so much if everyone didn't insist it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Comments

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Totally agree here. I quite like TV Tropes, but their stuff on Harry Potter is just embarassing. The Just Bugs Me section in particular is full of the most ridiculous fanwank ever. (One person tried to argue that before the last battle in DH all the Slytherins disguised themselves as members of other Houses, and this is why nobody noticed any of them. Erm, right...)

"How could they make such a claim?! Hermione is a better heroine than, say, Tiffany Aching?! How about Eliza Doolittle?! And I'm sure you could come up with other examples."

Or even some of the girls in the Chronicles of Narnia series. If I had any daughters, I'd much rather they model themselves after Jill Pole or Aravis than Hermione Face-Slasher Granger...

Seriously, JKR, when a conservative Christian who grew up in the Edwardian era writes better female characters than you, you might want to start reconsidering your feminist credentials.

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

"Seriously, JKR, when a conservative Christian who grew up in the Edwardian era writes better female characters than you, you might want to start reconsidering your feminist credentials."

Seriously, JKR, you might want to consider working on your writing skills a bit, too.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

"Seriously, JKR, you might want to consider working on your writing skills a bit, too."

I think we established *that* fact long ago... :p

[wolf-willow31.livejournal.com]

Truth! ;)

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Amen! I think Jill and Aravis are awesome. So is Orual, warrior-queen and protagonist of Till We Have Faces, one of Lewis's lesser-known books for adults. So is Katsa, below, and Fire (in the book of that title by Kristin Cashore). There are lots and lots of heroines in English/American/English-language literature who outdo and are better role models than any of Rowling's characters.