Women in Harry Potter: Equal
The most important female character in the Harry Potter books is Hermione Granger. She is also one of the most important characters overall and is based upon J.K. Rowling herself. All of the books develop her close friendship with Harry Potter and Ron Weasly, the other two main characters. There is never any indication that she is regarded as inferior, either by her close friends or by anyone else, simply because she is female.
In fact, she is often depicted as superior when it comes to wielding magical powers. She knows more than Ron and Harry and is often called upon to perform spells which they cannot. She is confident in her own skills, doesn’t depend upon male characters to defend her, and stands up for herself whenever necessary. She is, overall, a very positive image of what it means to be a girl for both male and female readers.
Hermione is not the only positive female role model in the books. Other girls who appear in Hogwarts school are treated as equals by both students and staff â€" at no point is there any indication that girls are considered inferior. When battling the Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic in Order of the Phoenix, the girls play an equal role with the boys and do just as much to defeat the evil witches and wizards.
Equality also extends to the adults in the Harry Potter books. The second-in-command of the school is a female professor, Minerva McGonagall. She as well as other female professors are depicted as strong, knowledgeable, and caring. Negative female characters like Rita Skeeter and Bellatrix Lestrange are not portrayed as being inferior simply because they are female.
Women in Harry Potter: Unequal
Superficially, women in Harry Potter seem to be equal to the men but a closer reading reveals that they are not. At every stage, women are depicted in secondary positions of power and authority â€" women are never in charge in their own right or on their own terms; instead, their power is entirely secondary to that of the men.
Hermione Granger may be an important character, but she is still secondary to Harry Potter. At times she stands up for herself, but in the very first book she is depicted as frozen and unable to fight a troll which had entered Hogwarts; Harry and Ron, however, are able to act. Hermoine is portrayed as smarter than others, but her knowledge is used primarily for the benefit of others, not herself.
Professor McGonagall, too, holds a secondary position of power below Professor Dumbledore. Nowhere in the Harry Potter books are we introduced to a woman who is in charge of something. The closest examples of a woman who is in charge are the women who are in charge of their homes. Closely conforming to traditional cultural patterns, J.K. Rowling depicts just two family households: the Dursleys and the Weasleys. Both have a woman as housekeeper without a known career while the man is the breadwinner.
Subtle characterizations of men and women reinforce cultural stereotypes. Women, when not frightened, giggling, or generally emotional, are described as comforting, consoling, and providing emotional support to the male characters. They are also frequently insecure about their looks and how men will see them. Successful men, on the other hand, are consistently portrayed as brave, overcoming obstacles, and self-confident. Weak men are portrayed as failures, effeminate, and generally lacking the attributes of true masculinity.
Where it Stands
It is true that books do not explicitly say anything about female characters being inferior and there is no hint as to the existence of rules that would keep women in a subordinate status. That, however, is not the final word on whether men and women are equal. There are no longer any formal laws or rules which force blacks into inferior roles in American society, but it would be hard to argue that therefore blacks and whites in America are equal. There is more to equality than formal rules and laws.
Because of this, critics of the Harry Potter books have focused on the differences between how male and female characters are portrayed. Men are aggressive and adventurous, women are passive and afraid; men are self-confident, women are self-conscious about their looks; men are bread winners, women maintain the household; men act in leadership roles, women act in support of men’s leadership; men take risks, women comfort and console; successful men embody masculine qualities, inferior men are effeminate and/or failures.
These generalizations are not true 100% of the time, but they are true far more often than not. The world of Harry Potter which J.K. Rowling has created is very close to our own in terms of culturally conservative gender ideology. Indeed, it’s likely that part of the pleasure of reading the books stems from how comfortingly familiar they are â€" they don’t challenge or question people’s notions about what is appropriate for men and women.
Elizabeth E. Heilman writes near the end of her essay on the portray of gender and family in the Harry Potter books:
“Certainly, books such as these help to normalize a world in which most childcare workers and secretaries are female and most world explorers, engineers, and firefighters are male.â€
The absence of anything that challenges traditional assumptions means that the Harry Potter books serve to perpetuate stereotypes of both men and women.
No comments:
Post a Comment