From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 08:11:36 -0500

Thanks, Monica, for raising such provocative issues about the female roles in Harry Potter. This is a topic that's been discussed elsewhere
- on Childlit, as you mentioned, and also in Salon.com Magazine in an article called "Harry Potter's Girl Trouble" at:

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/01/13/potter/index.html

There is also an interesting response to this article in another Salon.com article called "Hands Off Harry Potter: Have Critics of the Harry Potter Books Even Read Them?" at:

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2000/03/01/harry_potter/index.html


J.K. Rowling herself weighed in on this issue in a recent interview in the London Times: " What irritates me is that I am constantly, increasingly, being asked 'Can we have a strong female character, please?' Like they are ordering a side order of chips. I am thinking
'Isn't Hermione strong enough for you?' She is the most brilliant of the three and they need her. Harry needs her badly.

"But my hero is a boy and at the age he has been girls simply do not figure that much. Increasingly, they do. But, at 11, I think it would be extremely contrived to throw in a couple of feisty, gorgeous, brilliant-at-maths and great-at-fixing?rs girls."

Complete interview can be found at:
 

It seems as adults we're more likely to focus on Mrs. Weasley and Professor McGonagall as the female role models in the book. Young readers of "Harry Potter" seem much more interested in Hermione, Ginny, and Cho. The "Girls of Harry Potter" website ( www.ladycho.cjb.net ), created by a 13-year-old fan gives some insight into how some girls view the female characters.

As you can see, just with these few examples, quite a range of opinions have been aired on this topic and we trust that CCBC-Net will continue to be a forum for those who want to discuss children's literature in more depth.







Kathleen T. Horning (horning at education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706 608&3930 FAX: 608&2I33
Received on Mon 18 Sep 2000 08:11:36 AM CDT