184. Harry Who?
I am currently pondering the idea that women have to be way more dangerous than men to seem as dangerous as men, in the same way that women have to be smarter than men to seem as smart as men. This thought is inspired by this blog post, which made me wonder whether Hermione is more dangerous than Harry but gets less recognition for it.
I think I’m probably going to submit this to Sonorus, a Harry Potter feminism zine. The deadline is 1st August, in case you want to join in. Thanks for the heads-up, Kirsty!
ETA: I stand corrected. SPOILER WARNING. Blunajana reminded me of Hermione’s blackmail:
“Rita Skeeter isn’t going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her… I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn’t supposed to be coming into the grounds… Rita Skeeter is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn into a beetle… I’ve told her she’s to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can’t break the habit of writing horrible lies about people.” source
According to Blunajana, Hermione discovered Rita’s sneaky ability after the Triwizard Tournament, caught her, and kept her in a glass until the end of term. So it was a week. Blunajana KNOWS HER STUFF, guys. I bow eternally to her epic expertise.
I suspect it depends in what way the woman is dangerous. If its remotely sexual, or even hinted as such she doesn’t need to be anywhere near as dangerous as a man would. Similarly a man can be incredibly sexually dangerous without being viewed as such.
But yes, your point stands regarding women who kick ass
Ahhhh, the whole deadly seductress thing! Yeah, definitely. Hermione was certainly not a deadly seductress. I think there’s a term for that… But I don’t remember it. When it occurs to me at 3am I will pop back and reply again!
femme fatale? Also, J.K. because *obviously* boys wouldn’t buy it if they knew it was Joanne…
Yes! That’s the word. 🙂 Thank you!
Also, re: JK, if that is true it is really sad. 🙁
Well, I don’t know. Thinking about it, I am just passing that on without knowing the source, so it might be a different reason entirely, and someone has just assumed it and spread it around as fact. Which I dislike. I retract that bit.
Understood. 🙂
Actually it was her publisher in the UK that suggest she use JK instead of Joanne and according to her website it was so the book would apeal to boys more.
Damn. I am somewhat unhappy to be right.
That *is* really sad. Removing gender is not the way to gender-equality. 🙁
Don’t forget what she finally did to Umbridge, as well; whether it was just a rendition of the Wild Hunt, or the “classical” centaur response, she turned Umbitch out into the forest knowing the centaurs would take offense.
That is very true! Hermione has made some tough and seriously dangerous decisions. But she was in a time that required it. I often wonder about the mental health of all the Hogwarts folks, to be honest.
I did see most of the final film while occasionally thinking ‘my god, they are all going to have some serious PTSD’. :S
Yeah, what’s with that in movies? Loads of destruction and death and near-death and constant fear, and then afterwards everyone’s like, “brilliant, shall we go and have a drink?” Most of the time people don’t even acknowledge that most of their friends are dead.