New Job and Some Harry Potter Gender Analysis...

[starvinbohemian]

Been MIA for a bit due to the rapid bombardment of changes and transitions in mine life. I don't do well with change (i.e. transitions), so avoidance was key.

A good transition: I got a job as a volunteer at the Childrens' Services office. They don't pay me, but this job is going to secure me a spot in the MSW program next year. I scored big with this placement because they treat me more like an intern than a volunteer. I've gotten to read case files and shadow social workers during investigations, meetings, visitations, etc. It's been really exciting, though I've been informed that I have no soul/something's wrong with me because I'm excited about this job. Pfft! I'm not a sociopath. I just went into the experience expecting to encounter sad stories and situations. That's kinda what social work is.

Now, for some fandom business.

Sarah Rees Brennan (formerly known in fandom as the illustrious Maya) wrote an interesting essay about how reversing the genders of popular fictional characters reveals how much harsher fans tend to judge female characters as opposed to males.

Quote from section on Harry Potter: "I think people would be less fond of him if he was Harriet Potter. If he was a girl, and she'd had a sad childhood but risen above it, and she'd found fast friends, and been naturally talented at her school's only important sport, and saved the day at least seven times. If she'd had most of the boys in the series fancy her, and mention made of boys following her around admiring her. If the only talent she didn't have was dismissed by her guy friend who did have it. If she was often told by people of her numerous awesome qualities, and was in fact Chosen by Fate to be awesome.

Well, then she'd be just like Harry Potter, but a girl. But I don't think people would like her as much."

I'm inclined to agree. I know I wouldn't care for Harriet Potter. But then again, I don't care much for Harry for these exact reasons. For every Mary Su, there is a dozen Gary Stus wandering around.

Here's another analysis by [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], wherein she writes about how changing Harry's gender would negate the entire series. Though an interesting read, I mostly disagree with her ideas. For instance, I think "Harriet" would, if anything, incur Petunia's wrath even more than Harry did by further resembling Lily. Nor do I believe Snape would have been any kinder to her than he was to Harry. True, Harry galled him by so closely resembling James, but Harriet would still be James and Lily's kid with all the baggage that comes with. Also, I think Draco would have been just as likely to attempt befriending a female chosen one as a male-- prestige is prestige. Also, Harriet's rejection might have made him even MORE obsessively resentful than he was of Harry because being rejected by a girl would have that extra special layer of sexual rejection on top of plain old regular flavored rejection. Imagine how much of a nuisance he would have been then. Lastly, Harriet would still be Harry-- reckless, Gryffindor personality and all. There's no reason why she wouldn't still find her way onto the Quidditch team or into all those crazy misadventures Harry did. So in essence, I don't believe changing Harry into Harriet would change anything except the popularity of the books. Unfortunately.

Comments

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

It'd make it a more interesting story overall, though, wouldn't it? In that way that switching from the default often does; watching straight white males triumph in a system which favors the straight white male is simply rarely as interesting as watching anybody who differs on one/more of those qualities run the same gauntlet. And yeah, it'd "offend" or weird people out initially, but the people who did stick around would love it like pie...or not, possibly because they'd eventually decide it was trying to "cater" to them too much. And so the wheel goes 'round.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

It would! That could be a damned good series if the author did more than just add a ponytail to Harry. I'd love to see how a girl would respond to everything/everyone in the Potterverse. She could still end up in all of Harry's scraps, but she could come at everything differently.

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

If Harry were Harriet I don't think I'd like her either.

I think it's mostly because firstly, Harry is pretty inherently male. So a girl Harry would have to be a lot different. She could still have the same traits, but she would be vastly different.

A lot of the emotional cluelessness that Harry demonstrates would evaporate if he were a female. Mostly because I feel like most girls become more self-aware at younger ages than boys do. And a lot of Harry's character is being completely ignorant to emotions and social situations that, as a girl in close quarters with other girls, he would have to pick up on if he remained true to his character. Because aside from everything else, Harry is a pretty normal guy who is nervous around girls he likes and can talk about sports and play fight and pull pranks.

If he were an average girl, he'd like whatever sport he was into, and talking about boys and fashion (to whatever extent--some girls who don't necessarily like fashion tend to dress in a way that represents that they don't like fashion, and refuse not to dress that way) and gossip, to an extent.

Unless he were Hermione. Or Luna.

I think I actually could've done with the books being written from Luna's perspective. Harry wouldn't work as a female, but if Luna was the chosen one, I could deal with it better than if Harry were a girl.

Because he couldn't work as a girl and still be Harry.

Though that probably doens't make any sense.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

It makes perfect sense! I agree that Harry is very inherently male. As a character, he would have to be overhauled. That's one of the reasons I'd be intrigued to see the books written about Harriet. She'd have to come upon a lot of things differently, but I think her journey could ultimately be the same.

The author would just have to be slightly more clever than Rowling in throwing out the plot points, because Harriet would--as you say-- probably be a bit more aware. Dare I say intelligent? Though, the author could say, "Screw it. She's a girl, but she's still dumb and unaware." I could buy that, too.

Anyway, I don't think being aware of social situations would ultimately affect the major book points (i.e. godfather Sirius, Voldemort attacks, Triwizard Tournament, etc.)-- just Harry's individual character and maybe the insipid romantic bits. It kind of amuses me that I think I'd ship the hell out of Harriet/Draco just as I do Harry/Draco. Of course, I love Draco up, down, and all over, so probably not much of a surprise. XD

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

The problem with giving Harriet the extra savviness no top of her already very cool Harry powers is that she'd come off really obnoxious because she'd have too few faults. Though, it could be done. I'm not sure I would like it, but then, I love Harry as much as I love Draco. Book 5 Harry is my favorite, with all of his irrationality and angst and temper tantrums of righteous fury, because it made sense to me, and I think that one of the core traits to the character is this righteous anger against the many wrongs he's been dealt and how that manifests in him.

In the earlier books, it came out as fear. Then, in book 3, Draco introduced him to the idea of revenge (which I think is very important--that it was Draco who introduced that idea to Harry, because Draco also has this righteous fury, but in the beginning his manifested as anger and then changed to fear, the opposite of Harry)

Then, in book 4, Harry started getting angry, and by the 7th book, he learned to channel it into power. Which isn't very impressive, since it was done subconsciously, but still.

There's a certain physicality to Harry's anger and power that I don't think would necessarily come over properly if he had been written as a female. Not because women aren't angry, or righteous, but we tend to operate in different ways.

I doubt Harriet would get pissed at Hermione and throw a book at her head without it becoming a major ordeal. Or that Harriet would actually be friends with Hermione, come to think of it, because Hermione is hard pressed to get along with her male friends whom she only regards as competition in the tiniest respects.

So I would probably ship Hermione/Harriet, in this case, because that would be the love/hate ship.

This is a really interesting thought, though.

How Harry could be Harriet and still be Harry.

I might be too close to the character to really let the idea take flight.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

This is where we (and the gender bending) diverge, I suppose. I stopped liking Harry at book 5 onward so I don't have the same emotional investment in maintaining his character. I guess I'm thinking more in terms of the overall epic (and individual plot points) than the specific character. As in, how would Harriet arrive at the mirror of Erised or in the Shrieking Shack with Sirius or wherever as opposed to Harry? Because, yeah, she'd be different.

Though, I still think she could be really similar, if not an exact mirror, to Harry. For instance, she could still have that self-righteous anger and power without the masculine physicality of it. Similar, but different, because she'd be Harriet instead of Harry. And I could buy Hermione and Harriet as friends with the same "if you say so" shrug that I gave to the Harry/Hermione/Ron friendship.

When does Draco introduce Harry to the idea of revenge?

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

When he tells them that Sirius Black killed his parents. And that he would want revenge if it were him.

And TBH, I think it's probably Fandom that's made me like Harry. I used to be a Draco girl all the way, and now I really like both, but might even favor Harry.

I think someone ought to re-write the books fanfiction style with Harry as Harriet. Or maybe Hallie or something less... Harriet. I'd be interested to read it.

What would she see in the Mirror of Erisned? That's a really provoking question.

I do have a serious hate on for Hermione, though, so I have a hard time seeing her as very friendly. Well, actually, I like Hermione just fine. I just really dislike that a lot of her actions are really kind of psychotic but Rowling never gives them a second glance. "I permanently scarred at 16 year old girl for tattle-telling tra-la! I imprisoned a woman in a jar for a summer la le le! I erased my parents memories without their consent do de do!" Crazybats Hermione is crazy.

Only, that would be okay if anyone ever noticed it was crazy. You'd think at least Ginny would. She's never bothered to keep her mouth shut to Hermione in any other circumstance. I'd actually like to see that in fic, too. Ginny just being like, "I don't know if I want Hermione keeping the kids...."

And Harry being all, "o.0!?"

And Ginny saying, "That bitch is crazy, and I really don't think our crazy ass kids need the encouragement."

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

There are so many gender-switch fics out there that someone must have done that exact thing. The real trick would be to find someone who's done it well. XD

I imagine she'd see her dead parents, just like Harry did. A sad little orphan is a sad little orphan. And maybe she'd be wearing a nice new pair of shoes while she's at it. ;) It is fun to speculate.

Lol, Hermione. All those instances gave me pause, too. Especially the bit where she casually waved off having mind-raped her own parents. But heroes/heroines in epics always get away with doing absolutely horrible things just because they're on the "good" team. It's a double standard that drives me crazy and might be a contributing factor to why I usually end up drifting toward the "bad guys."

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

Word.

Also, do you ever beta?

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

I have been a beta before, though it's been a while. Did you need one? Cause I would be happy to.

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

I would love it if you could.

I'm doing hd_holidays this year. I'm also thinking of rehauling something older in a different fandom that I'm stuck on, but it's a huge task. If you're interested.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

Sure!

What's the other fandom/fic? Do you mean that you want to convert that fic into H/D?

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about fixing up DEQ actually.. It's only got about four chapters from being finished... And I average out about 9-11 pages per chapter. It seems a shame not to finish before I move on.

And I'm not converting anything for HD Holidays.. It's a gift fest and I have a prompt.I have some ideas but I seriously need a beta because I'm horrible at editing myself. I can't even write if I do.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, DEQ! I'm so glad you want to finish it. :D

I would be happy to take that editing off your hands. I guess that minor in Professional Editing wasn't a total waste after all!

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

Lol, I guess not!

My e-mail address is still a.frost@gmail. If you send me yours I can send you the master file of DEQ that I have. I'm not really in any rush on it.

And my deadline for hd holidays is in November, but I'd like to have it done sometime this month so I can make sure it turns out well and also have it britpicked.

Thank you!!

[einarrd686.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the new job! I sincerely hope that the impulse to enter the field of social work is not indicative of sociopathology. It would cast an eerie, chilling light on the entire social work profession and all who labor in it. Perhaps you have the necessary detachment, with none of the coldness or inappropriate sadism (appropriate sadism? I...uh...I don't know. It exists though,) that could potentially undo your good efforts. At any rate, I'm glad that you're excited, because you should be excited about a new job, especially one that is in the field for which you are currently earning one of your Masters in.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am excited, especially since this job is pretty indicative of exactly what I would be doing as both a graduate intern and in the actual profession. :)

P.S: I don't think it's the impulse to enter social work that seems to give people pause so much as the fact that I'm not rocking back and forth in the corner at the end of each day. But you have to be detached to do this work, so I'm not a sociopath. I hope...

[einarrd686.livejournal.com]

If you were rocking back and forth in the corner at the end of each day, I would tell you that this might not be the job for you, or that you should obsessively recite the serenity prayer (yeah, me, the atheist, go figger) and just stick with it. I have to tell you neither of these things, so, I'd say you're set.

[them0rgue.livejournal.com]

I don't think you could change Harry's gender without altering the gender of the other characters as well, particularly Snape but all of them now that I'm thinking about it. All those scenes where Snape is leering over Harry take on a whole different meaning if Harry were Harriet. Ultimately though, I think that Harriet could have a similar journey to Harry, but everything would need a major overhaul.

[starvinbohemian.livejournal.com]

I feel torn on the idea of switching everyone's gender. Switching everyone would create a sort of mirror world, whereas the idea of just Harriet being in Harry's place would show exactly how a female would navigate Harry's journey.

Though, granted, certain scenes (i.e. Snape and-- oh lord-- Moaning Myrtle in the bathtub scene) would become a thousand times more creepy. Of course, you could make the argument that those scenes would be altered by the mere fact of Harriet's gender. Maybe Snape wouldn't hover quite so close. ;)

This has been really fun to speculate on!