{"id":2876,"date":"2011-07-08T14:11:34","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T19:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2876"},"modified":"2011-07-08T14:11:34","modified_gmt":"2011-07-08T19:11:34","slug":"pop-goes-feminism-popularizing-strong-girls-will-the-new-hermione-please-stand-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/07\/08\/pop-goes-feminism-popularizing-strong-girls-will-the-new-hermione-please-stand-up\/","title":{"rendered":"POP GOES FEMINISM: Popularizing Strong Girls: Will the New Hermione Please Stand Up?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t hate me Potterites, but I would have preferred the Harry Potter<\/em> series had been instead the Hermione Granger <\/em>series. Sure, Harry is great and all, but, given that male protagonists still vastly outnumber female ones, I wish J.K. Rowling had chosen to frame her saga around a female character.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, many recent popular saga\u2019s do just that. Alas, some of the most popular (ahem, Twilight<\/a><\/em>) have fairly week protagonists a little too focused on romance and not nearly focused enough on charging through complex narratives.<\/p>\n

Instead of talking about Edward\u2019s golden eyes a bazillion times, how about some heroines with wit, intelligence, bravery and charisma? For that type of character, my recent favorite is Katniss from The Hunger Games. <\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

This summer, I am on a mission to find another Katniss-fix for my daughter and I (heck, for my mom and son too, who also loved the series). I have thus far turned to Matched, Divergent,<\/em> and Uglies.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

I was disappointed with Cassia\u2019s Matched<\/em>. The book\u2019s love triangle focus smacked very much of Twilight<\/em> with similar undertones of pro-abstinence and you-need-a-man-to-be-complete messages.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Tris, <\/em>from Divergent<\/em>, <\/em>gave me the Katniss chutzpah and Hermione intellect I yearn for rolled into one. And, so far, Uglies<\/em>\u2019 Tally and Shay read like feminist rebels in training.<\/p>\n

Sadly, films with strong young female protagonists have proven non-existent this summer. While I loved<\/p>\n

Alice in Super 8,<\/em> I was underwhelmed by the typical damsel-in-distress<\/a> narrative she ultimately inhabited. Though I commend (and appreiceate) J Boursaw\u2019s coverage<\/a> of five recent strong females in family films, I would argue that strong female leads are much rarer in film than in YA fiction. While the Goodreads list of \u201cBest Feminist Young Adult Books<\/a>\u201d started by Jessica Stites of Ms. Magazine<\/em> swells with 512 titles, movies aimed at the YA set predominantly feature male leads. For a visual of these male-helmed films, take a gander at Margot Magowan\u2019s gallery of 2011 kids movie posters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, most Harry Potter<\/em> posters could be included in this gallery as they feature Harry, not Hermione. I will admit that I have already purchased my midnight tickets of the final Potter film for July 14, but that doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ve given up on a saga as popular and influential as Rowling\u2019s that features a female at the helm.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, The Hunger Games<\/em> film adaptation is in the works, with the wonderful Jennifer Lawrence (of Winter\u2019s Bone<\/a><\/em>) as the lead. Though I fear Hollywood will up the love triangle quotient of the story and downgrade Katniss\u2019 feminist awesomeness, I am still hoping this saga can finally prove that female-helmed narratives can attract large, diverse audiences and lay that \u201cboys will only read about (or watch films with) male leads\u201d claim to rest.<\/p>\n

Ah, if only I had the power to enact an \u201cImperio\u201d curse and make Hollywood and the book publishing world fill our pages and screens with females of the Hermione\/Katniss ilk! Or, maybe a new spell is needed \u2013 Arrresto Bella! Hermione Engorgio!<\/em> \u2013 meaning stop with the Bella-esque characters and let narratives swell with Hermione magnificence.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t hate me Potterites, but I would have preferred the Harry Potter series had been instead the Hermione Granger series. Sure, Harry is great and all, but, given that male protagonists still vastly outnumber female ones, I wish J.K. Rowling had chosen to frame her saga around a female character. Thankfully, many recent popular saga\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1921,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21110],"tags":[21178,400,21302,245,21356,21422,21429,21559,5007,21861,21891,21944],"class_list":["post-2876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-goes-feminism","tag-bella","tag-book-reviews","tag-divergent","tag-feminism","tag-feminist-protagonists","tag-harry-potter","tag-hermione","tag-matched","tag-pop-culture","tag-the-hunger-games","tag-twilight","tag-ya-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}