Question About JKR's Male Characters...

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Some comments I've seen about JKR's writing have led me to the thought that possibly, one reason why certain characters in the story have to keep insisting on their manliness and not doing anything "girly" like crying, etc. might have to do with the fact that Rowling just isn't good with writing men, and so resorts to stereotypes to do the job, except when writing "evil" feminine men like Snape. You know, kind-of like how Rowling wants Harry to be not-gay, but probably can't imagine being attracted to a woman, and so he ends up seeming gay by discussing the beauty of various men.

Any men in this community care to weigh in here? Part of the reason why I ask is because I sometimes doubt my own abilities to portray men convincingly in the stories I write :P

Comments

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think Slytherins in general are perceived as feminized - with the association with water/emotion/guile. As far as I remember Severus and Draco are the only male characters who cry in canon. Also the emphasis on the cauldron and dislike of wand-waving.

[madderbrad.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay, I can see some of that. I think you're getting down to the 'personal interpretation' setting on the microscope though. Maybe I'm new-fashioned, but I didn't think it was thought unmanly these days for blokes to cry (if under sufficient stress). And the phallic wand imagery has never factored into how I see the HP books (I personally think readers have to go looking for it, with that imagery in mind).

Still, I see now how readers could hang the 'feminine' thing on various hooks that are in HP, so thanks for helping me out!

[oryx_leucoryx]

I remember a fan - a pro-Rowling guy with much love for literary analysis - summarizing Severus' first year speech as 'size doesn't matter'.

While early on it isn't immediately obvious how much Rowling *intended* wands to be phallic symbols and cauldrons as womb symbols we have the very Freudian 'Weighing of the Wands' in GOF, the Celestina Warbeck song about how she wants her cauldron of hot love stirred in HBP and the endless wand jokes in DH (with Hermione's commentary about wizards boasting about having bigger wands).

You may be 'new fashioned' but Rowling's world is somewhere between Dickens and Agatha Christie.

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

Don't forget LV stripping Lucius of his wand, or Umbridge's "unusually small" wand.

[for-diddled.livejournal.com]

Or Ron's wand being broken for most of Book 2. Or Harry feeling all impotent and emasculated after Hermione (a girl, no less!) accidentally broke his wand. (Though given that he was on the run from Voldemort and his wand was his only means of defence, I suppose he can be forgiven for this.)