Day Thirteen: Female Character Meme

[ishtar79]

Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book: Hermione Granger




Hermione was the first character I loved from the books on my first read (mid-2002, I believe). Almost a decade later and after being in HP fandom for what feels forever, she's still one of my favourites.

Given that so much of the theme of the books seems to be value “bravery and heart” above all other traits and the danger of certain kind of knowledge (but the central themes of the book are subject to a whole other post, that I'm not up to writing at 1AM), it's good that one of the central characters actually places a great value on curiosity, knowledge and overthinking things. Because, let's face it, for all that Hermione's often single-minded attitude towards academics and swottiness gets mocked by the other characters (and frequently the narrative), the fact remains that those traits save the day more often than not, even if they're less flashy than Harry's heroics. In fact, if Harry had stuck to the “Just listen to Hermione” motto at all times, a signicant percentage of classic Harry Potter blunders could have been avoided.

Not that Hermione is defined by that one aspect. She's brave and loyal to her friends to a fault, more so, I could argue, than they can be to her. She's also kind of a control-freak, single-minded in her pursuits to the point of throwing her customary perceptiveness out of the window and being wilfully unaware of when her help is absolutely not wanted (S.P.E.W., anyone?) and can be chillingly ruthless when she feels her actions are justified for a greater good. She's the girl who spent hours looking up legal texts to save Buckbeak's life while in the midst of an exhaustion and emotion-induced breakdown , the girl who thought nothing of permanently disfiguring a schoolmate for essentially being a tattle-tale and the girl who wanted to protect her parents so badly she actually messed with their very memories. It's the complexity of the character that makes her fascinating to me, even if the official philosophy of the books tends to downplay those flaws among the authorialy-approved characters. I loved that Hermione's book-long feud against Umbridge wasn't just about her understanding the danger of the Ministry's restriction of knowledge, her reading of the political subtext and the actual physical abuse heaped upon Hermione's friends, but the fact that Umbridge's very philosophy and tactics deeply offended Hermione on a personal level.


Day One: Favorite lead female character
Day Two: Favorite supporting female character
Day Three: A female character you hated but grew to love
Day Four: A female character you relate to
Day Five: Favorite female character on a male-driven show
Day Six: Favorite female-driven show
Day Seven: A female character that needs more screen time
Day Eight: Favorite female character in a comedy show
Day Nine: Favorite female character in a drama show
Day Ten: Favorite female character in a scifi/supernatural show
Day Eleven: Favorite female character in a children’s show
Day Twelve: Favorite female character in a movie
Day Thirteen: Favorite female character in a book
Day Fourteen: Favorite older female character
Day Fifteen: Favorite female character growth arc
Day Sixteen: Favorite mother character
Day Seventeen: Favorite warrior female character
Day Eighteen: Favorite non-warrior female character
Day Nineteen: Favorite non-human female character
Day Twenty: Favorite female antagonist
Day Twenty-One: Favorite female character screwed over by canon
Day Twenty-Two: Favorite female character you love but everyone else hates
Day Twenty-Thre: Favorite female platonic relationship
Day Twenty-Four: Favorite female romantic relationship
Day Twenty-Five: Favorite mother/daughter and/or sister relationship
Day Twenty-Six: Favorite classical female character (from pre-20th century literature or mythology or the like)
Day Twenty-Seven: A female character you have extensive personal canon for
Day Twenty-Eight: Favorite female writer (television, books, movies, etc.)
Day Twenty-Nine: A female-centric fic rec
Day Thirty: Whatever you'd like!

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

One thing I really like about Hermione, and it's something I don't think it's something they often do with male characters, is the way that she sometimes trips herself an others up because she's smart. It's interesting, too, the way that Hermione gets her own villain in a couple of books, a female that is pulling her own clever scheme that Hermione sees through. And in both cases her smackown winds up chilling, maybe because JKR's anger at the type she's created fictionally demands serious retribution.

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

Agreed on both points. And yeah, it's Rowling's personal strong feelings about certain types of people are very obvious in the books. It's almost uncomfortable reading at times, like getting a glimpse of someone's diary, or their revenge fantasy.

[dorrie6.livejournal.com]

Thanks for writing this. I love Hermione too, and I've often felt that while fandom is happy to embrace the flaws and contradictions in the series' male characters, they rarely extend the same generosity to Hermione.

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. And yeah, fandom has a pretty blatant double standard when it comes to male and female character. I often like to play a little game in my head called "How fandom's reaction would change if the exact same character was the opposite gender", and the conclusions I come to are what you would expect.

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I agree with post! The main thing that put me off the HP books was when the narrative slagged off Hermione for being anti-slavery.

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

That whole storyline was a big pile of "WTF". I still don't know what JKR was trying to say with it.

[nemesister.livejournal.com]

The books agreed with the anti-slavery stance, after all Dobby died a free elf etc. Hermione was just naive and insensitive and wanted to just go her way immediately without even listening to the people in question. What Hermione did was wrong, even though her principles were right. An Example: I don't like the tradition for adult women to wear a veil at all times and I think it's sexist, but it would be awful if I went and teared veils off the heads of strangers, because I'd figure I know what's good for them.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Nod nods. SHe is my favourite character still

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

She became even more awesome as the books progressed too.