Meme: 5 Reasons Why H/G Sucks
(crossposted to anti_hg)
I was tagged by firebird5 to complete this meme, but I decided to post it here, rather than my personal journal as not to offend any H/G shippers on my friends list.
1. It was thrown together
To quote Dick Button, "I don't give a rusty hoot" about what any essay says about it, it was poorly and sloppily done. Who needs real conversations and getting to know each other over six books when you can have chocolate in the library, a chest monster, hard, blazing looks, and sunlit days? How embarrassing.
2. Its superficiality would make Paris Hilton proud
Ginny is upgraded into the hottest and most popular thing around with all the boys at Hogwarts, including Slytherins, random guys on the street, and Death Eaters falling at her feet in order to be "worthy" of The Chosen One. Harry is upgraded into "more fanciable than ever", and of course more popular than ever, in order to be "worthy" of Miss Milkshake-brings-all-the-boys-to-the-yard. I doubt it was accidental since JKR went on to say in The Interview that Ron was the least mature of the Trio and not "worthy" of Hermione until he found a girl to kiss. I wonder how many young minds were poisoned by the idea that one has to be a certain kind of good-looking and a certain kind of popular and a star athlete to be worthy of a certain kind of love interest, or the idea that someone deserves contempt if they reach a certain age without kissing anyone? Harry and Ginny getting together is enough to make them the talk and envy of all of Hogwarts, to the point of students and teachers forgetting that Harry nearly killed another student. Yet only people who like Draco Malfoy or feel sorry for Dudley Dursley "need to take a look at their priorities", to quote JKR herself. J.K. Rowling is not required to be a role model to anyone, but I can only hope that she limits such shallow values to her fictional writing and doesn't carry them over into real life or her children. ("Mum, why can't I date so-and-so? I'm old enough." "Dear, you're simply not mature enough. So-and-so has kissed before and you haven't. You need to make yourself worthy of so-and-so first.")
3. The characterization of the two lovebirds
Nothing more romantic than two popular, self-absorbed jerks hooking up to be a popular, self-absorbed jerky couple. Harry starts bashing Fleur Delacoeur behind her back because Ginny doesn't like her. Ginny hexes and flies her broom into Zacharias Smith, who just happens to be the one D.A. member who isn't given to blind loyalty to Harry. I won't even get into what I think of Ginny's personality since it's been hashed and rehashed everywhere. Harry, who was so revolted by the Pensieve memory of his father's behavior in OotP, acted exactly like him in HBP. The only thing missing was him running his hand through his hair when Ginny was around. I can't wait to read about the dozen red-haired, green-eyed, Aunt Fleur-hating little jackasses Harry and Ginny are going to have in the epilogue.
4. The fact that several characters had to be torn down to make the pairing work.
And here I was thinking that only cheap Suethors needed to stoop that low. A girl grieving her boyfriend's death is coldly dismissed as a "human hosepipe", after having been one-upped by Ginny at every turn. A boy who dares root for his own House Quidditch team over his girlfriend's is dumped and called a bad sport -- ironically by someone whose own sportsmanship has proven to be horrendous -- and is assumed to have run off with the "hosepipe". Another boy who seems to have been brought up to be a gentleman is chastised and accused of being pushy, if not gropy, and is made to watch Harry and Ginny start making out in front of him, while everyone else in the room cheers. Not to mention that at least half of the pre-HBP moments presented as H/G foreshadowing and bonding involves them catching each other's eye and laughing -- behind another character's back.
5. It reduces Ginny Weasley to little more than a talking trophy.
I thought the sudden emergence of TheReal!Ginny in OotP was clunky. I was willing to overlook it because she was nice, and best of all, she had moved on from pining after Harry Potter. Well, it turned out to be a big fat lie. She'd been pining for Harry the entire time. OotP would have been a prime opportunity for the two of them to get to know each other, now that Ginny wasn't too shy to talk to Harry. But no, he still mostly ignores her and even forgets her diary incident in CoS. When Harry finally decides that he is interested in Ginny, it never occurs to him to find out if she feels the same way about him that he does about her or whether she is interested, he never asks her anything about herself, he's all about satiating that stupid monster. As it was pointed out on the ARGH thread on FAP, he never actually spoke to Ginny in The Kiss scene and had no intention of talking to her, unless it was about Quidditch. Ginny is supposed to be such a SFC, yet she is willing to settle for this. I thought SFCs were supposed to have self-respect. Somehow I doubt she would have taken that sort of treatment from Dean Thomas or Michael Corner. She's pretty and popular in order to be good enough for Harry. She's a Quidditch star so she can be good enough for Harry. She goes around insulting and making fun of other people so Harry can think she clever and funny. She's all that stuff JKR says she is but didn't bother to show in the books because it's what Harry requires in his "ideal" love interest. IOW, Ginny is barely a character in her own right, she's just Harry's prize for saving the Wizarding world. If not for Harry, Ginny Weasley could have been Jimmy Weasley and it would not have made a bit of difference.
I was tagged by firebird5 to complete this meme, but I decided to post it here, rather than my personal journal as not to offend any H/G shippers on my friends list.
1. It was thrown together
To quote Dick Button, "I don't give a rusty hoot" about what any essay says about it, it was poorly and sloppily done. Who needs real conversations and getting to know each other over six books when you can have chocolate in the library, a chest monster, hard, blazing looks, and sunlit days? How embarrassing.
2. Its superficiality would make Paris Hilton proud
Ginny is upgraded into the hottest and most popular thing around with all the boys at Hogwarts, including Slytherins, random guys on the street, and Death Eaters falling at her feet in order to be "worthy" of The Chosen One. Harry is upgraded into "more fanciable than ever", and of course more popular than ever, in order to be "worthy" of Miss Milkshake-brings-all-the-boys-to-the-yard. I doubt it was accidental since JKR went on to say in The Interview that Ron was the least mature of the Trio and not "worthy" of Hermione until he found a girl to kiss. I wonder how many young minds were poisoned by the idea that one has to be a certain kind of good-looking and a certain kind of popular and a star athlete to be worthy of a certain kind of love interest, or the idea that someone deserves contempt if they reach a certain age without kissing anyone? Harry and Ginny getting together is enough to make them the talk and envy of all of Hogwarts, to the point of students and teachers forgetting that Harry nearly killed another student. Yet only people who like Draco Malfoy or feel sorry for Dudley Dursley "need to take a look at their priorities", to quote JKR herself. J.K. Rowling is not required to be a role model to anyone, but I can only hope that she limits such shallow values to her fictional writing and doesn't carry them over into real life or her children. ("Mum, why can't I date so-and-so? I'm old enough." "Dear, you're simply not mature enough. So-and-so has kissed before and you haven't. You need to make yourself worthy of so-and-so first.")
3. The characterization of the two lovebirds
Nothing more romantic than two popular, self-absorbed jerks hooking up to be a popular, self-absorbed jerky couple. Harry starts bashing Fleur Delacoeur behind her back because Ginny doesn't like her. Ginny hexes and flies her broom into Zacharias Smith, who just happens to be the one D.A. member who isn't given to blind loyalty to Harry. I won't even get into what I think of Ginny's personality since it's been hashed and rehashed everywhere. Harry, who was so revolted by the Pensieve memory of his father's behavior in OotP, acted exactly like him in HBP. The only thing missing was him running his hand through his hair when Ginny was around. I can't wait to read about the dozen red-haired, green-eyed, Aunt Fleur-hating little jackasses Harry and Ginny are going to have in the epilogue.
4. The fact that several characters had to be torn down to make the pairing work.
And here I was thinking that only cheap Suethors needed to stoop that low. A girl grieving her boyfriend's death is coldly dismissed as a "human hosepipe", after having been one-upped by Ginny at every turn. A boy who dares root for his own House Quidditch team over his girlfriend's is dumped and called a bad sport -- ironically by someone whose own sportsmanship has proven to be horrendous -- and is assumed to have run off with the "hosepipe". Another boy who seems to have been brought up to be a gentleman is chastised and accused of being pushy, if not gropy, and is made to watch Harry and Ginny start making out in front of him, while everyone else in the room cheers. Not to mention that at least half of the pre-HBP moments presented as H/G foreshadowing and bonding involves them catching each other's eye and laughing -- behind another character's back.
5. It reduces Ginny Weasley to little more than a talking trophy.
I thought the sudden emergence of TheReal!Ginny in OotP was clunky. I was willing to overlook it because she was nice, and best of all, she had moved on from pining after Harry Potter. Well, it turned out to be a big fat lie. She'd been pining for Harry the entire time. OotP would have been a prime opportunity for the two of them to get to know each other, now that Ginny wasn't too shy to talk to Harry. But no, he still mostly ignores her and even forgets her diary incident in CoS. When Harry finally decides that he is interested in Ginny, it never occurs to him to find out if she feels the same way about him that he does about her or whether she is interested, he never asks her anything about herself, he's all about satiating that stupid monster. As it was pointed out on the ARGH thread on FAP, he never actually spoke to Ginny in The Kiss scene and had no intention of talking to her, unless it was about Quidditch. Ginny is supposed to be such a SFC, yet she is willing to settle for this. I thought SFCs were supposed to have self-respect. Somehow I doubt she would have taken that sort of treatment from Dean Thomas or Michael Corner. She's pretty and popular in order to be good enough for Harry. She's a Quidditch star so she can be good enough for Harry. She goes around insulting and making fun of other people so Harry can think she clever and funny. She's all that stuff JKR says she is but didn't bother to show in the books because it's what Harry requires in his "ideal" love interest. IOW, Ginny is barely a character in her own right, she's just Harry's prize for saving the Wizarding world. If not for Harry, Ginny Weasley could have been Jimmy Weasley and it would not have made a bit of difference.