Sexist Themes in Harry Potter?

On our way to Maine last week me and my parents began talking about this.
Look at Hermione, she's the brightest witch of her year and you would expect great things from her, but instead she marries Ron and has kids.
Lilly Evans: Another promising witch, but instead of putting her abilities to use she settles down and has kids.
Tonks: An Aurar, who gets marries, has kids, and then gets killed off.
Fleur Delacour: The only woman in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, eventually gets married and has kids.
Anyone see a pattern here?

Ok, I was just putting this idea out there! 'Harry Potter' is a brilliant series (even if the epilogue wasn't very satisfying). Even though most women do get married, some do not. I just think that one or two female main characters shouldn't have settled down, so that younger kids won't grow up thinking that they will definitely get married, and they don't have a choice.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Her-mee-own on August 4, 2009 at 6:39am: Just because they get married and have kids doesn't mean they're not still important people

Hermione- has a high-ranked ministry job, not to mention she played a huge part in the defeat of Voldemort
Lily Evans- probably would have an important job, had she not been in hiding from voldemort, and she also was as active as any male member of the OOTP
Tonks- Was an auror, had a high position of the OOTP, which was the cause off her death
Fleur- I remember something about her wrking in gringotts, but she has to go into hiding from voldemort. Who knows what she may have done after his defeat.

So no, I can't say I agree.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jade on August 4, 2009 at 6:42am: I know they were important, but what kind of message is it sending, that you can have a high ranking job and do all these things, but in the end all women will get married and have children!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Her-mee-own on August 4, 2009 at 6:55am: Can they not do both?
And not all women in Harry Potter have children.
Professor McGonagoll, Madame Maxime, Luna Lovegood... need I go on?
But in life, the majority of women have children, and it is the same in HP, but why is that a bad thing?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jade on August 4, 2009 at 7:41am: It's not that it's bad, its just that pretty much every main female character gets married and has kids, as if thats the only possible conclusion to the story.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jade on August 4, 2009 at 7:42am: Oh, and you never find out what happens to Luna, so you can't say that she never settled down. That really annoyed me about the epilogue, because you find out what happens to everyone else, and she was one of my favourite characters.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Her-mee-own on August 4, 2009 at 7:51am: Oh, wait luna did have kids.
She married newt scamanders grandson, and became a wizard naturalist. She became quite famous for finding new species. If that's not impressive what is?
And most of the main male characters also settled down and had kids. Having kids is not a conclusion, these characters had many ther acheivements.
It isn't twilight, they didn't just have sex all day after they got married, most of them made important contributions to wizarding society.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Madi on August 4, 2009 at 7:54am: Luna actually married a guy named Rolf.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jade on August 4, 2009 at 7:57am: Really? Was that in the book, I don't remember it?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Her-mee-own on August 4, 2009 at 8:00am: It wasn't is the book but JKR said so in an interview or something; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Randi on August 4, 2009 at 4:04pm: So JKR just continues the fantasy outside of the books? Something is wrong there.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jade on August 4, 2009 at 4:06pm: Not really, it just shows how deep her characters are.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Randi on August 4, 2009 at 4:12pm: No, it's one thing discussing background, like Dumbledore being gay. It's a whole other thing talking about issues that she left out entirely.