Sexist Themes in Harry Potter?

[Jade]

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.

[Alex]

It's less that HP is sexist than that it reads like a Victorian-era book, not a modern one. That extends to the male characters too, though- in the actual books*, there are no homosexuals, no transvestites, the teachers (excluding Hagrid) seem to have no life outside of teaching, everybody winds up nicely paired off with a member of the opposite sex, etc.

*As in, excluding Rowling's outside statements. It doesn't really count if you write a book series that contains one deafening message, then go out and say the opposite in an obscure Q&A session; plus, this is a discussion of the HP series, not JK Rowling's personal beliefs.

[Paulsifer]

What's so bad about women getting married?

[Lucia]

In fact, is it mentioned in the Epilogue that Harry and Ron work as Aurors? If it isn't, (I can't remember) then the sexism is in asuming that they do have jobs and their wives don't. The truth is, Hermione probably ranks higher than any of the male characters with ther ministry job.

And yes, motherhood is very important for JK Rowling but so is fatherhood -this is always emphasized in the books, I think, by Harry's longing for his parents, or the fact that he looks for fatherly role models in his father's friends. The Epilogue shows how important family is, and how Harry will have the chance to have a family and raise his own children, a chance that his own parents never had.

I belive that is one of the main reasons for the epilogue, and I think it has nothing to do with sexism.

[Kenny]

OP, this thread has 8 pages of people saying that Harry Potter is in no way sexist, yet you haven't countered a single person's arguments. Either explain why you're right and we're wrong or accept defeat.

[Lianne]

I don't think it's very strange most of the female characters end up with kids.

I think it's waaay more strange that they all end up together!

[Rebecca B]

You make a good point - there is definitely a trend. But I think that the reasoning for it has less to do with sexism and more to do with other things.

I think JK Rowling is just really big on family. Most of the guys settle down too. I think its JKR projecting a bit. Both her family growing up & her own family (pre-potter) were rather dysfuncitonal. Family is the most important thing to her, so she wants to give it to all of her characters (especially Harry). I also don't think its particularly sexist because both genders settle down, and both continue to work (or at least we have no proof otherwise). Neville, Ron, Harry, Draco, James, Lucius, Arthur, etc. all have wives/children. And Lily, Fleur, Tonks, Ginny, and Hermione all have jobs outside the home -- they're not exactly stay-at-home-moms. (I'm excluding Tonks and Lily from this because their children were infants at their time of death... and they were in hiding in the middle of a war....).

The men do have outliers like Sirius, Snape, Moody, & Shacklebolt who never settle down. But there are single women too: McGonagall, Sprout, Pompfrey, & Hooch. Since these are all older characters -- professors, mentors, etc -- I think its understandable why we know so little about their love lives. I mean, we see the story through Harry's point of view, and who wants to think about their professors having sex/families/lives outside school??

I also think we have more exciting single male characters because JKR loves to write about male characters. I guess you could say it's sexist that she prefers to have male heroes rather than female heroes, but I think its something she doesn't consciously do. Women like to write about men (take fanfiction for example: how many strong female characters can you find??). And I love her strong single men, but I also wish we had more strong single women. Tonks was so promising. :(

The Epilogue is just JKR's way of trying to prevent fanfiction from destroying her own vision of her characters. I want JK Rowling to say that the Epilogue was CRAP because we all know it was CRAP. :D I think its perfectly acceptable to ignore it.

[luna(a.k.a- izzy brown)]

just because they settle down and have kids doesnt men they arent still strong women. it doesnt seem apperent that kids reading HP will think,"oh, since hermione gets married, i have to get married."

[Katie]

Who says they can't have great accomplishments because they're married?? Having kids proves they're happy in addition to their achievements. It was revealed in an interview that Hermione became Head of Magical Law, and I'd say that's putting her abilities to use.