Women in Rowling's Stories
*Rusty Bomhof
Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do?
*Rusty
RTJoby
>
>Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do? >
I think the person needs to get a clue.
Their first mistake is mentioning the book is written by a female for her
daughter.
If you are going to try to prove male chauvinism---it's kind of hard doing that
when the author is a female writing for her daughter.
The rest goes on to complain that "The women and girls in The Sorcerer’s
Stone are weak, whining, bitches," but then goes on to explain their features
of strength in a negative way.
They overlooked the female that was really good in the game of Quidditch.
Of course, I'm sure that they would find some way to see the glass half empty
rather than full on that one as well.
People see what they want to see.
The want to see females portrayed badly to give them something to bitch about.
Terry Eden
news:5eca94a3.01112...@posting.google.com...
> http://www.advancingwomen.com/womsoc/review_potter.html
>
> Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do?
Both articles make some good points but they fail to realise that the books
are [and I'm sure someone will correct my terminology] written from the
protagonists view.
To most boys of 11 (hell, to me sometimes!) women are periferal creatures
who's sole purpose is to be as annoying as possible :-)
Terry
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Pluto (M)
>
> Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do?
>
> *Rusty
Allow me to answer by copy-pasting the e-mail I sent to the reviewer ;)
"Good evening. I just got through reading your article on how "sexist" Harry
Potter is. I believe that you are sorely mistaken. I must ask, however... Have
you read beyond the first book? Because there are many strong female characters
in the stories. Hermione is one of them. Okay, so she freaked out at the troll.
That's natural. She didn't know it was there, and was understandably shocked.
Ron and Harry knew about the troll. Foreknowledge allows one to prepare
themselves at least /somewhat/. And you have to give her brownie points for
being the brightest kid in the school. No offense or anything, but a vast
majority of the girls I knew in school pretend to be less intelligent than they
are. You have to admire a girl who isn't afraid to show that she has something
between her ears.
"Hermione aside, there is also the Gryffindor Quidditch team. All three Chasers
(The only players besides the Seeker who score points) are girls. Cho Chang,
another girl, is the Seeker for the Ravenclaw team. Admittedly they're not
badass macho women, but come on. In the first book they're /eleven/ years old.
One could /also/ argue that its sexist to portray most of the boys as being
impetuous (Ron, Harry) Aggressive (Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle) Stupid (Crabbe, Goyle)
and incompetent (Neville).
"You also brought up Professor McGonagall. Yes, she's the Deputy Headmistress
and /yes/ Albus Dumbledore is the Headmaster... So? Maybe Dumbledore is more
qualified for the job. He certainly has more experience. (Rowling has stated
that he is 150 years old, whereas McGonagall is 70. That's a good 80 years he's
got on her.) And in the event that Dumbledore is unable to perform his duties,
McGonagall takes over. Besides, think of the time Dumbledore must've been
appointed as Headmaster. Book 2 shows that he was the Transfiguration teacher 50
years (+/-) previous to that book, but I imagine he has been Headmaster for
quite some time. If he were appointed to the position in the 1950's or 1960's...
Well, those were very sexist times anyway. Always keep timeperiod in mind when
making a judgement.
"As for Mrs. Norris... She's a cat. A cat that gets people in trouble with
Filch. Of course they hate her. They hate Filch too, it's just much easier to
kick a cat than a grown man.
In short, and I mean no offense by this, but I think this review was the result
of a knee-jerk reaction to what you read. I think it would be best if you
re-read the books and made a more unbiased analysis."
Michael Wilcox
> Allow me to answer by copy-pasting the e-mail I sent to the reviewer ;)
>
<Snip the well worded letter>
Tell us if and when you get a reply!
--
Michael Wilcox
mjw...@yahoo.com
Pluto (M)
"Michael Wilcox" <mjw...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ZdSL7.2308$WC1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
> "Pluto (M)" <plu...@flash.net> wrote:
>
> > Allow me to answer by copy-pasting the e-mail I sent to the reviewer ;)
> >
> <Snip the well worded letter>
>
> Tell us if and when you get a reply!
>
That's the general plan! :D No response yet though.
*Rusty Bomhof
Well put. The author of that article also forgets to mention the
amazing selflessness Harry's own mother shows before his death. If it
weren't for her, Harry wouldn't be alive to experience these
adventures in the first place.
*Rusty
Pluto (M)
Whoopsies, missed that'n.
David Hiskins
Nanny Ogg
>Pluto wrote:
>> Well put. The author of that article also forgets to mention the
>> amazing selflessness Harry's own mother shows before his death. If it
>> weren't for her, Harry wouldn't be alive to experience these
>> adventures in the first place.
>>
>> *Rusty
>
>Whoopsies, missed that'n.
Ah, but if you tried to tell that silly woman every single point she missed or
got wrong in her quest to prove how sexist the books supposedly were, you'd
have ended up with an e-mail longer than the average binary. ;-) You had to
leave something out!
Well done - very good rebuttal.
All the best,
Sarah
--
`If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, you'll be
taller than everyone else.' Kipling and _I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue_
`Unfortunately Real Life lacks a decent tourist information service' Adrian
Morgan
Nanny Ogg
>Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do?
Dunno - how ridiculous did you find it?
If you found it completely and utterly ridiculous, then, yes, I find it just as
ridiculous as you do. ;-)
Buzzk8
indeed...not only is it stupid in the context of what it's writing about but it
is enforcing the idea that feminism itself is whiny and petty...people like
this make a mockery of feminists and scare people away from it.
Frank Wustner
I think it's worse than that, even. What Andreas Ramos was doing was
cheapening he idea of sexism. When people continually cry bigotry where
it clearly does not exist, the rest of the public slowly but surely
starts thinking that *all* accusations of bigotry are just crying wolf.
It happened long ago here in the U.S. with racism, and I've seen sexism
going down the same path. Accusations of bigotry no longer have the same
power to them. With all the wolf-crying that has been going on, even the
real cases of bigotry are usually dismissed as more alarmist claptrap.
To someone like me, who abhors bigotry in any form, this is nothing less
than criminal. People like Andreas Ramos are hurting the fight against
bigotry far more than they are helping it.
--
The Deadly Nightshade
http://deadly_nightshade.tripod.com/
http://members.tripod.com/~deadly_nightshade/
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|the fate a man makes for himself." |
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Kim Moss
had been made for sexism reasons, but Mother Christmas was wearing a dress.
Is this not sexist to assume that women/girls always wear dresses. I am a
girl and I NEVER do. How stupid! What I would like to see is male
celebrities showing off their legs!!!!
"Frank Wustner" <see...@for.email.org> wrote in message
news:see-sig-CFD26E...@news.mindspring.com...
Danel
Michael Wilcox <mjw...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ZdSL7.2308$WC1.2...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net...
properly. I know - I've tried it before with other sites, such as
www.crossroad.to. Sensible comment gets in the way of their self-righteous
blather.... Love how they keep calling Tom Clancy books "macho war-porn"....
If you do get a reply, please make sure that you tell us...
Has anyone seen www.crossroad.to newer articles? They're making even less
sense than usual.
--
Danel
----------------------------
[Steps slowly and carefully away..]
Igenlode
> It was in the Sun newspaper several weeks ago that a Mother Christmas suit
> had been made for sexism reasons, but Mother Christmas was wearing a dress.
Doesn't Father Christmas normally wear a long gown anyway? :-)
--
Igenlode
'The Day the Stories Went Dark' - story now on-line at
http://curry.250x.com/HoedownII/
Chris Share
(littlemi...@hotmail.com) said...
>It was in the Sun newspaper several weeks ago that a Mother Christmas suit
>had been made for sexism reasons, but Mother Christmas was wearing a dress.
>Is this not sexist to assume that women/girls always wear dresses. I am a
>girl and I NEVER do. How stupid! What I would like to see is male
>celebrities showing off their legs!!!!
Yeah but men's legs are always minging. Ditto old women's...
Some younger women have nice legs... nice rest of em too :)
<goes off to drool at certain people>
I'm glad I'm not in the US, I'd still have 2 years ebfore I could get
drunk...
chris
Richard Eney
Chris Share <ch...@caesium.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>On Wed, 28 Nov 2001 16:46:52 -0000, Kim Moss
>(littlemi...@hotmail.com) said...
>>It was in the Sun newspaper several weeks ago that a Mother Christmas suit
>>had been made for sexism reasons, but Mother Christmas was wearing a dress.
>>Is this not sexist to assume that women/girls always wear dresses. I am a
>>girl and I NEVER do. How stupid! What I would like to see is male
>>celebrities showing off their legs!!!!
>
>Yeah but men's legs are always minging. Ditto old women's...
>Some younger women have nice legs... nice rest of em too :)
><goes off to drool at certain people>
Was it really that long ago that a certain famous US football player was
in an advertisement for nylon hose? He had great legs... and it wasn't
just the brand of stockings that made them look good, either.
I think it's absurd to object to showing a woman wearing a dress. Many
women do wear them, after all. Except in SE Asia, where what we perceive
as a dress is a man's garment and women are forbidden to wear them; women
there have to wear what we perceive as trousers.
=Tamar
Unknown
>Was it really that long ago that a certain famous US football player was
>in an advertisement for nylon hose? He had great legs... and it wasn't
>just the brand of stockings that made them look good, either.
"Broadway Joe" Namath, former quarterback for the NY Jets and a noted
womanizer, did a series of commercials for Hanes nylons...
But, this was at least 20 years ago... <g>
V.
Leuce
http://www.advancingwomen.com/womsoc/review_potter.html
Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do?
*Rusty
It's definitely stupid. And a man wrote it too, did you notice? What is it with
men who think they understand how women want to be represented in this
world?(Most anti-abortionists who go off the deep end are men as well, proven
by the numbers.)
Anyway, I personally found Hermione to be very brave and strong and smart, and
since she's never been afraid to demonstrate these facts at every possibly
opportunity (regardless of being ridiculed by boys), then that makes her a
female character to ADMIRE by children. She uses her wit when others can't be
bothered.
Leuce Melanthe (a women, by the way)
Cat
>
>*Rusty
yes, yes I do
cat
six strings , 2 swords and A LOT of leather , ....it don't get any better than
this.
Pluto (M)
"Leuce" <le...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20011208095540...@mb-ca.aol.com...
>
> http://www.advancingwomen.com/womsoc/review_potter.html
>
> Does anyone else find this article as ridiculous as I do?
>
> *Rusty
Uhhh, this was posted a'eady... In fact... didn't you post it?
Cirrus Kain
guy"?
Sounds to me like a certain someone doesn't want to be thought of as a weak
sissy-ass for associating his macho self with "women's issues".
The joys of hypocrasy.
-Cirrus Kain
--
AIM: CirrusKain
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Nanny Ogg
>It's definitely stupid. And a man wrote it too, did you notice?
I did, though only when I went back to take another look. At first I'd ASSumed
it was a woman who wrote it.
> What is it
>with
>men who think they understand how women want to be represented in this
>world?
I suspect he just thought he'd make some decent money for writing an article
that talked about how awful Harry Potter is. And, since the feminist magazine
in question were apparently happy to publish it, I suppose those women at least
must have been happy to be represented in such a way. :-(