You're not being unfair about the way JKR writes her female characters, she clearly doesn't practice what she preaches. She once said that the wizarding world is supposed to be equal, but when you actually look at what she wrote, it's clearly not the case. Female characters, especially feminine ones, are always treated as lesser, unless they're no-nonsense like Hermione and McGonagall or tomboys like Ginny.
When she took her break between GoF and OotP, I think the critisism of her books regarding her female character really got to her. People complained that apart from Hermione and McGonagall none of the female characters actually matter. All the important roles are filled by men: all the DA teachers, the rival, the mean teacher, the mentor, all the ministry employees including the aurors (the only female one is Bertha Jorkins and she exists and dies completely off-screen). Even with Harry's parents it's all about his dad: Harry looks like him (except the eyes), he played Quidditch like Harry, Snape's beef is with James, the Marauders were James' friends and so on. Lily was just there for her eye color and dying so Harry has a magical protection and a muggle family that could raise him.
And then OotP comes around and all of a sudden we get a whole slew of female characters, either new ones or the old ones get an upgrade. Umbridge is both a ministry employee and a DA teacher, Amelia Bones is another ministry worker, Tonks and Emily Vance are female aurors and Neville's mom Alice also gets upgraded to auror. In GoF she was just Frank Longbottom's wife and didn't even have a first name. As for the students, we get Lun, Cho gets a lot more screen time, Angelina becomes Quidditch captain and Ginny got a personality transplant. But it's clear that JKR never truly cared, because by the time HBP came out so much of this got undone. Emily Vance and Amelia Bones die inbetween books, Tonks becomes a sad sack because of love, Ginny just exists as a love interest Mary Sue, Luna's role is greatly reduced, Cho is mentioned only once, Angelina has graduated so Harry becomes captain, Snape becomes the new DA teacher, the new teacher is also another man and even Hermione is all caught up in relationship bullshit. Not a single female character does anything of importance in this book.
JKR should just admit that she has no real interest in female characters unless they are exactly like herself and that she has a lot of issues with girly girls and femininity.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2019-01-30 05:54 pm (UTC)When she took her break between GoF and OotP, I think the critisism of her books regarding her female character really got to her. People complained that apart from Hermione and McGonagall none of the female characters actually matter. All the important roles are filled by men: all the DA teachers, the rival, the mean teacher, the mentor, all the ministry employees including the aurors (the only female one is Bertha Jorkins and she exists and dies completely off-screen). Even with Harry's parents it's all about his dad: Harry looks like him (except the eyes), he played Quidditch like Harry, Snape's beef is with James, the Marauders were James' friends and so on. Lily was just there for her eye color and dying so Harry has a magical protection and a muggle family that could raise him.
And then OotP comes around and all of a sudden we get a whole slew of female characters, either new ones or the old ones get an upgrade. Umbridge is both a ministry employee and a DA teacher, Amelia Bones is another ministry worker, Tonks and Emily Vance are female aurors and Neville's mom Alice also gets upgraded to auror. In GoF she was just Frank Longbottom's wife and didn't even have a first name. As for the students, we get Lun, Cho gets a lot more screen time, Angelina becomes Quidditch captain and Ginny got a personality transplant. But it's clear that JKR never truly cared, because by the time HBP came out so much of this got undone. Emily Vance and Amelia Bones die inbetween books, Tonks becomes a sad sack because of love, Ginny just exists as a love interest Mary Sue, Luna's role is greatly reduced, Cho is mentioned only once, Angelina has graduated so Harry becomes captain, Snape becomes the new DA teacher, the new teacher is also another man and even Hermione is all caught up in relationship bullshit. Not a single female character does anything of importance in this book.
JKR should just admit that she has no real interest in female characters unless they are exactly like herself and that she has a lot of issues with girly girls and femininity.