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Thursday, Jan 8, 2009
Hands off Harry Potter!
BY CHRIS GREGORY
(03/03/00)
I used to refer to myself as a feminist. After all, I believe in equal rights. Then I watched "feminists" pounce like understimulated kittens on every innocuous issue possible -- and now Harry Potter? A book which I plan to read to my daughters because of the intelligent Hermione, formidable McGonnagall and unflappable Sprout? I'm sick of nitpicky whistleblowers giving feminists a bad name. Lay off Potter and lay into something valid. There's no shortage of valuable feminist issues, find yourself one.
-- J. Melmed
Poor Chris Gregory. If she had done her homework and paid attention to the previous Harry Potter reviews, she would know that today, good literature depends on two simple factors.
One: Agreeability. Be sure that all characters are acceptable to all people, everywhere. While this tends to eliminate the tradition of conflict and plot, it is essential to being well-liked by even the most reactionary, self-righteous dunderhead.
Two: Equality. The book's characters must, when plotted on a graph with factors such as sex, values, likes, dislikes, etc., present a perfectly straight line, even if this would never happen in the real world.
Once Gregory understands this, I am sure she will, as I do, excitedly anticipate Harry's next adventure: "Harry Potter and the Mathematically Balanced Distribution of Sex, Class, Race and Creed."
-- T. Faust
Thanks to Chris Gregory for setting the record straight about the alleged sexism in Harry Potter. As the mother of a role-playing-mad 6-year-old, I have to say that J.K. Rowling has rocked my world. When we play Pooh, I have to be Kanga. When we play Pokimon, I have to be Ash's midriff-sporting girlfriend, a character so vapid I refuse to remember her name. When we play Star Wars, it's Leia (not bad) or Amidala (wicked bad -- sometimes I beg to be R2D2 instead).
But when we play Harry, I can be Hermione, Harry's super-smart dust-it-up equal, or Professor McGonagall, if I'm in the mood to lay down the law, or Ginny Weasley, if I feel like sneaking in a little maternal affection under the guise of schoolgirl crush, or my favorite (and one Gregory forgot to mention): Mrs. Weasley, whose dishes begin to "quietly wash themselves in the sink" at the wave of her wand. Who says fantasy is just for kids?
-- Tracy Mayor
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