Harry Potter’s Heroine…
Posted by Michelle Moquin on July 14th, 2011
3:13 PM UPDATE:
Well it seems that preferences change when one is posting my blog on a computer other than my own. That “one” being “me”. I was informed this morning at 10:00 AM that my comments were “off”. Sorry peeps, nothing I could do. I was already on the road to see a client. The Blog is now open – blog me.
Good morning!
…Hermione Granger: The Heroine Women Have Been Waiting For
Back in the day, I thought Belle was hardcore. Before you make your judgments, let’s take a look at some of the only other women role models I had to choose from at the time:
Behind door number one: Snow White, the beautiful princess forced into exile by her jealous evil stepmother, who decides to live with seven strange men, spends her spare time cleaning a house with stray animals, is dumb enough to eat food from a creepy stranger, and is saved only by a prince, who for some reason thinks kissing a sleeping girl is totally acceptable.
Behind door number two: Sleeping Beauty, another beautiful princess who did nothing wrong, but still suffered from the jealousy of another woman (I’m seeing a theme here), pricks her finger on an “irresistible” spinning needle (sewing is really just so irresistible to us), and falls into a deep sleep (again with the themes!). She stays like that the rest of the story while her prince fights dragons and saves the day and blah blah blah.
The list, unfortunately, could go on and on. So forgive me if I thought Belle, with her books and her bravery, was a badass. Sure, she had Stockholm syndrome, but she was the best thing going.
For a while it seemed little girls like me were doomed to idolize women who slept through all the action and rode off into the sunset with their handsome soon-to-be husbands.
Then J.K. Rowling, in her infinite wisdom, rocked my princess-and-glitter-obsessed world with her first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Through it, the world fell in love with a new kind of heroine: the bushy-haired, average-looking, extremely intelligent Hermione Granger.
(“Actually I’m highly logical, which allows me to look past extraneous detail. And perceive clearly that which others overlook,” she corrected in Deathly Hallows)
Coming into my own as a woman has been a rocky road. The insecurity and damage of adolescence took a while to shake off, and one thing in particular held on tight: the fear of expressing my opinion. Through no fault of those who raised me (relax, Mom) somewhere along the line I was imprinted with the idea that accommodation is a prized feminine personality trait. Never make a scene, never make anyone feel bad, or worst of all, uncomfortable. Much like the metaphor in Teri Hatcher’s book Burnt Toast, (in which she discusses the memory of her mother eating the toast she burnt so that nobody else had to) somewhere early on I got the idea that women accept the way things were and don’t inconvenience anyone by changing it.
From the beginning, as a writer for BlogHer notes, it’s clear that’s something Hermione Granger couldn’t care less about.
The early books were full of her eagerly answering question after question in class, much to the annoyance of the other characters. In the later books, that unapologetic intelligence very obviously saves Harry Potter’s life on more than one occasion.
A post by Sarah Seltzer for RH Reality Check put it nicely within the context of the last novel:
“…it becomes particularly obvious that Harry and Ron wouldn’t be in great shape without Hermione’s smarts, both intellectual and emotional. From the get-go, she anticipates everything the trio will need to do to survive, and packs it all into her magical purse–including a tent to shelter them while they’re on the run.”
Essentially, without Hermione, Harry wouldn’t have been “the boy who lived.”
The dynamic of Hermione and Harry also throws a wrench in the “men-and-women-can’t-really-be-just-friends” theory. Hermione is a partner to Harry, working intelligently alongside him, platonically. There are no “friends with benefits” illusions, and there is no sexual tension. For women seeking to be appreciated for their talents and work in tandem with men, the fictional friendship is empowering. Harry met Hermione is no “Harry met Sally,” and I like it.
There are undoubtedly some people who think a character from a children’s fantasy series can’t really be that inspiring. They should talk to Emily, my best friend from high school, who dressed up as Hermione at least 6 (from what she can recall) years in a row for Halloween.
“She is what turned my scholastic attitude from chillaxed B’s to driven A’s in school,” Emily told me recently.
“She was also muggle-born, which makes her an even more accessible heroine. She showed … that success is not about the family you come from, or even supposed innate intellectual ability. She succeeded because she was incredibly persistent: always asking questions, reading books and correcting Ron and Harry’s homework.”
Emily recently graduated from MIT and is currently doing brainy things that I don’t really understand around Europe for people who do (I’m assuming) understand them. At least for her, the Hermione effect seemed to work.
Much more than just making it okay to be smart and nerdy, however, Hermione reaffirmed that it was okay to ruffle feathers, take a stand, and back it up with some hardcore knowledge. She would never have eaten Teri Hatcher’s burnt toast.
I look forward to the day when I read the Harry Potter series to my daughter, and through Hermione’s character, instill in her the desire to take control of her own fate and never be afraid to voice an opinion or show her intelligence. I’m sure she’ll like the books. I mean, witch hats trump tiaras any day.
********
Readers: Well, it was quite a day yesterday…I’m really at a loss for words. I think my computer was at a loss for words too because MAC completely shut down and called it a day in the early afternoon. We sat there staring at each other; he with a blank black face, and me seeing only my reflection staring back at me. It was quite disconcerting. I dropped him off with the doctor, and am praying that he will recover by Friday.
But…before all went quiet, we had some quiet time together. My gut instinct was to quickly read and then reread later like I usually do every day. I usually do this so that I can at least have an idea of what the blog chat is all about and I can let your words move through me throughout the day, until I read them again.
But this time I didn’t perform the norm. Thankfully, I was able to take the time early and sit down completely focused (which is challenging for me to do these days – women are such multi-taskers and I’m no different) and read all of your comments. And I have to say that I was so touched and humbled by all that was said, from the sincere congratulations to the moving stories of life changes. Thank you. Love back to you all, and especially Doug.
Oh…I just want to say one thing to Carl since he is about the age of my parent, that yes Carl, there are aliens and I will try to publish earlier if you will promise me this will not be your first and only post. (I will be checking:)
So, no more congratulations, let’s get back to business…
girls, Girls, GIRLS.…CALLING ALL GIRLS THAT WANT TO BE A “GIRLZ”!! It’s recruitment time – I’ve heard from some of you yesterday – for everyone else, let it be known here if you want the opportunity to be a GIRLZ. Now’s your chance – Blog me.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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July 14th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
Michelle, what is a Girlz? What must one do? What is required?
I am very interested in knowing more about it. Thanx!
July 14th, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Give this girlZ a mission wouldja?
I laughed at our choice of heroine…there wasn’t a whole lot around that sounded intriguing to me – I went the admiring Florence Nightengale route, at least she was a front lines woman (taking care of men, of course…)
Luv, ZL
July 14th, 2011 at 7:47 pm
CAN TYLENOL CURE HURT FEELINGS?
These days, many of us are all too familiar with the sensations of worry and anxiety — the physical sensations, I mean.
First comes the worry (it can be about anything), then after a while a headache or neck pain sets in or maybe a queasy stomach… and even chest pain — which all, of course, only increases our anxiety.
It’s obviously all connected, but I have to say it was a surprise to me when a string of studies revealed that there is an important overlap in our brains between emotional and physical pain…
and that acetaminophen (Tylenol), which is, of course, used to relieve headaches and other physical ailments, helps reduce emotional pain.
Could this garden-variety painkiller actually be a happiness drug?
THE PAIN OVERLAP
The initial studies on the emotional/physical pain overlap were conducted at the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences and published in 2010.
They followed 62 volunteers who took either 1,000 mg of acetaminophen (the equivalent of one dose of Extra Strength Tylenol) or a placebo daily –
and who reported their emotional states on a “Hurt Feeling Scale” (a self-assessment tool widely used by psychologists to measure how a person reacts to such potentially distressing experiences as teasing or being criticized).
As the three-week trial progressed, the acetaminophen group reported that they were less inclined than normal to have hurt feelings during regular day-to-day activities, while the control group reported no change.
This prompted the study researchers to want to look more closely at the neural mechanisms behind such findings, so they set up another experiment using 25 different volunteers who took either 2,000 mg daily of acetaminophen or a placebo, again for three weeks.
At that point, participants played a computer game rigged to make them feel socially rejected and isolated while a scanning device (functional magnetic resonance imaging) monitored their brain activity in two areas where it is already known that physical pain is processed — the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and the anterior insula.
The scan revealed that feelings of social rejection activated the same areas of the brain as physical pain does…
and, as added evidence of an emotional/physical pain overlap, the brains of participants taking acetaminophen showed less activity in those “hurt” brain areas, and these participants reported feeling less troubled by rejection than the control group.
Now comes a new study from the University of Michigan that goes even further. While undergoing MRI scans, subjects viewed photos of former romantic partners and were asked to think about the pain of their breakups.
Then, while still being scanned, they wore an arm device that created pain similar to the sensation of hot coffee being spilled on their skin.
According to the researchers, the MRI results showed that the activity in the two areas of the brain mirrored each other.
Romantic relationship expert Geoff MacDonald, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and a coauthor of the Kentucky study, said that scientists have known that some of the same regions of the brain handle both physical and social pain.
But now they have evidence that the brain doesn’t appear to distinguish clearly between the pain from spilling hot coffee on yourself and the pain of a bad love affair!
TYLENOL AND YOUR HURT FEELINGS
Discovering that acetaminophen can dull emotional pain is a fascinating finding of the research, but Dr. MacDonald says the more important message is that emotional pain, like physical pain, is serious business.
“It is easy to put aside touchy-feely stuff as less important, but it can literally kill people,” he says — because humans depend on social connections for their survival.
So it is not surprising to learn that the brain would perceive social rejection — i.e., not belonging — as a threat to well-being.
As Dr. MacDonald points out, physical pain protects people by warning of risk (within the environment or within the body), and social pain has an analogous function.
His advice: In spite of the research findings, Tylenol is not the answer to help you get through a rough emotional patch –
it can wreak havoc on your liver and digestive system if used routinely. Instead, stop and think about the kind of damage emotional hurt can do, and take real action to correct what is causing that psychic pain.
Source(s):
Geoff MacDonald, PhD, associate professor of psychology, University of Toronto, Canada.
July 18th, 2011 at 8:22 am
[...] Christine: First of all, to have the opportunity to become a “Girlz”, you must be a girl, a female being. That is the only requirement. All a girl needs to do, is state that she wants to become a “Girlz”. All girls wishing to become “Girlz” are volunteers. [...]