death to capslock

Feeling guilty about being disinterested in or disliking Rowling's female characters

Sun, 27 Jan 2019 15:48:00 GMT

Posted by: torchedsong.livejournal.com

The title is self-explanatory. After rereading HP, I realized how let down I was about the dearth of interesting and/or likable female characters. As someone who has a long list of favorite female characters from various books, movies, TV shows, and video games, the women in the Harry Potter books leave me cold or bored.

Now, granted, the male characters aren’t spectacular either. Harry is passive, Ron is average, Draco is a waste, Snape is a mess, Dumbledore is also a mess, Voldemort is a standard villain, and plenty of other male characters are either boring or obnoxious.

And yet, as disappointing as some of the guys are, I can still find something about them interesting or engaging. I can see their potential or humanity, no matter how static, simplistic, or irritating their characterization is (well, maybe with the exception of James; I can’t stand him no matter how hard I try - and I’ve tried.)

Maybe I’m being sexist and judging the women too harshly. Maybe I’m not giving Rowling enough acclaim for trying to write a variety of female characters in a story revolving around a young boy. Maybe I’m excusing the poor characterization and lack of depth in the male characters when they’re far from complex either.

Whatever the reason is - it is what it is. Even as a young girl who enjoyed the books, I only gravitated towards Hermione and Luna. McGonagall was the sole female authority figure I found respectable. The rest?
( Read more... )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! DH Chapter 36

Sun, 30 Aug 2015 22:23:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

LAST CHAPTER OF THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

( The end is nigh! )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 21

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 18:24:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 21 )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 20

Wed, 10 Jun 2015 10:08:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

Only ten more chapters of this book!!!

[After Harry and Ron leave the hospital wing, they find themselves on better terms with Hermione]
( Read Chapter 20 )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 18

Mon, 08 Jun 2015 16:21:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

[Harry tells Ron and Hermione about his meeting with Dumbledore the next day]

( Read Chapter 18 )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 14

Wed, 03 Jun 2015 23:23:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 14 )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 10

Sat, 30 May 2015 11:07:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Some mention of incest in this one )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! HBP Chapter 7

Wed, 27 May 2015 16:24:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 7 )

As an added bonus, have a picture of Ginny with a giant Arnold!

( See the picture )

comments

Harry Potter Abridged! OotP Chapter 25

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:07:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

( Read Chapter 25 )

comments

I have another bone to pick with Beedle the Bard and Rowling's assertions about it...

Mon, 24 Mar 2014 22:37:00 GMT

Posted by: sweettalkeress.livejournal.com

So, it just so happens that I am currently in the middle of taking a class on storytelling at my college. As its name suggests, a lot of what we do in that class consists of, well, telling each other stories--with a particular emphasis on folktales and fairy tales. And the more I learn, the more blatantly laughable Rowling's assertion that her made-up folktales are better because the heroines are more active in seeking their fortune becomes.

See, a lot of real-world folktales involve heroines that are perfectly capable of seeking their own fortunes and doing what they want. This almost certainly did not reflect the reality, of course; and it is true that in a good many famous stories the heroines end up married (or whatever); but by this point in the class I've read stories about (for example) a cook who finds a way to outwit her master; a princess who cuts the head off a magical man to gain her freedom from him; and another princess who, after being kicked out of her home, figures out a way to support both herself and her man when he's sick, and not only heals him but makes them both rich. Hell, the story I'm preparing to tell right at this point in time is about a little girl who rescues herself from a monster without any sort of help from a man.

So, all told, not only is Rowling's assertion that Beedle the Bard deserves praise because it features more independent and capable heroines than real folktales arrogant, patronizing, and yet ANOTHER instance of devaluing the real world; it just plain has no base in reality, and seriously makes me wonder if Rowling has ever encountered any folktales at all beyond the basics like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty! Good to find new reasons to hate that book, I guess!

comments

Imaginary encyclopedia from Russian HP fandom

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:50:00 GMT

Posted by: sunnyskywalker

Ekaterina Sedia translated some Russian fans' article titles for a fantasy (as in, it unfortunately doesn't exist... yet...) encyclopedia of feminism in Harry Potter. Some sample titles:

- House Elves: Just Like Women, Only Ugly and Invisible
- Professor Vector, or Anonymity of Women in Mathematics
- Luna Lovegood, Tom Riddle, Harry Potter: Good Children Don't Get PTSD
- Conventional Man is Allowed Anger but not Grief. Harry Potter: The Masculinity Trap
- Remus Lupin and the "Good Cripple" Archetype

I thought this community might appreciate this list. Now, if only it were a real encyclopedia...

comments

Question About JKR's Male Characters...

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:18:00 GMT

Posted by: 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

Why I Dislike Straight!Harry Fics

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:21:00 GMT

Posted by: danajsparks.livejournal.com

In my opinion, Harry is a character who can be written convincingly as gay, straight, or bisexual. I've noticed, however, that I tend to dislike fan fiction that features Harry in a heterosexual pairing. For a long time, I believed that this was simply because I just generally prefer to read slash romance stories. But after reading several Severus/Hermione fics that I thought were absolutely wonderful, I decided to take a closer look at my distaste for straight!Harry fics.*

I realized that my aversion to these stories has less to do with Harry being in a het pairing and more to do with how these stories tend to treat certain other important characters. More specifically, I really dislike how Ron, Draco, and Severus are treated in many of these stories. ( Read more... )

*To be clear, I'm referring mainly to fics where Harry's relationship with a girl (or sometimes multiple girls) is a major part of the story, not stories where Harry happens to get a girlfriend along the way.

comments

Oh, TV Tropes...!

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 22:42:00 GMT

Posted by: 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

Miss Granger’s Intelligence

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:57:00 GMT

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

“When to her lute Corinna sings
neither words nor music are her own….

Not that it is done well, but
that it is done at all? Yes, think of the odds
or shrug them off forever!

… Bemused by gallantry, we hear
our mediocrities over-praised,
indolence read as abnegation,
slattern thought styled intuition…”

from “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law” by Adrienne Rich, 1958-60

( In )

comments

Marrying In: My Take on the R/H Ship

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:09:00 GMT

Posted by: terri-testing.livejournal.com

Marrying In: Pureblood Wizards’ Attraction for Muggleborn Witches

This is actually a response to the numerous posts about the Hermione/Ron ship in the responses to GoF 10: Mayhem at the Ministry.

Sorry, I’m very slow. But I think this is relevant to that debate.

( Who )

comments