What's wrong with having kids, though? I don't think having children is antifeminist.
It is true we never learn of Lily's profession, but we don't really learn what James did either, although I believe in a chat JKR actually implied they never really worked - they were very much soldiers.
Yes, the Potter women chose to have kids. Except McGonagall, who is actually pretty damn strong - elderly, but strong. And the women who DID have kids didn't let it stop their careers - Tonks kept fighting, and Hermione still worked at the Ministry when she could've been a stay at home Mom.
I don't think having kids is unfeminist either. As I said in my comment, it only rubs me the wrong way when every female character in a story goes down that road. It is even worse when the mothers in a work don't seem to have anything to them beside the fact that they have kids. Now, not every female character in HP ended up exactly like that, but the fact that the only "good" unmarried, childless woman alive in the series at the end was an old woman, and not really a central character.
Also, re Lily and James's jobs, why should we have to consider JKR's interviews to see what they did? Why wasnt the fact that they were awesome soldiers important enough to make it into the books when the name of Draco's kid was? James and Lily were Harry's parents, for god's sake. Also, iirc, James was also said to be an Auror. Lily? Errrrr...soldier?
That is the sort of smaller annoyance that adds to the others and pisses me off.
No, James is not an auror. (You are maybe mixing him up with Frank Longbottom? Though in that case, Alice is an auror, too.) The only thing we know about him is that he is in the Order, just like Lily. That's without JKR's interview! She just confirmed that there is nothing more to their careers in her mind.
Are there many central male characters who are alive but unmarried and don't have children by the end of the series? Or any?
I think regardless of gender, a happy ending ideally includes kids for JKR.
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author_by_night) wrote2008-07-01 06:08 pm
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It is true we never learn of Lily's profession, but we don't really learn what James did either, although I believe in a chat JKR actually implied they never really worked - they were very much soldiers.
Yes, the Potter women chose to have kids. Except McGonagall, who is actually pretty damn strong - elderly, but strong. And the women who DID have kids didn't let it stop their careers - Tonks kept fighting, and Hermione still worked at the Ministry when she could've been a stay at home Mom.
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And we don't know Minerva McGonagall doesn't have kids, since we don't meet her till she's 60 in PS, and Harry doesn't meet her till she's around 70.
Sorry for butting in, just wanted to say my two cents.
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Sorry for butting in myself, but this is another prime example of what I mean ;)
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Also, re Lily and James's jobs, why should we have to consider JKR's interviews to see what they did? Why wasnt the fact that they were awesome soldiers important enough to make it into the books when the name of Draco's kid was? James and Lily were Harry's parents, for god's sake. Also, iirc, James was also said to be an Auror. Lily? Errrrr...soldier?
That is the sort of smaller annoyance that adds to the others and pisses me off.
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Are there many central male characters who are alive but unmarried and don't have children by the end of the series? Or any?
I think regardless of gender, a happy ending ideally includes kids for JKR.