Have you ever considered the intricate layers behind Ginny Weasley's character in the Harry Potter series? Join me, Professor Julian Wamble, as we unravel the nuances of this fierce and independent witch. Through a blend of shared traumas and her unique place as the only Weasley daughter, we explore how Ginny's experiences shape her into a formidable force within the story. Her terrifying first-year ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets sets the stage for a journey of resilience and growth, which we dissect to understand how it influences her assertiveness and her interactions with her family.
It’s a celebration of Ginny Weasley’s untold stories and a critique of what could have been a deeper exploration of her trauma and its impact. So, let's embark on this journey to celebrate and critique one of the wizarding world's most spirited witches.
Have you ever considered the intricate layers behind Ginny Weasley's character in the Harry Potter series? Join me, Professor Julian Wamble, as we unravel the nuances of this fierce and independent witch. Through a blend of shared traumas and her unique place as the only Weasley daughter, we explore how Ginny's experiences shape her into a formidable force within the story. Her terrifying first-year ordeal in the Chamber of Secrets sets the stage for a journey of resilience and growth, which we dissect to understand how it influences her assertiveness and her interactions with her family.
It’s a celebration of Ginny Weasley’s untold stories and a critique of what could have been a deeper exploration of her trauma and its impact. So, let's embark on this journey to celebrate and critique one of the wizarding world's most spirited witches.
Welcome to Critical Magic Theory, where we deconstruct the wizarding world of Harry Potter, because loving something doesn't mean you can't be critical of it. I'm Professor Julian Womble and today we are talking about the it Girl. Is there a song about an it Girl? Anyways, we're talking about the it Girl of the wizarding world, the one and only Ginny Weasley. We're talking about the it girl of the Wizarding World, the one and only Ginny Weasley.
Speaker 1:Have you ever wondered why Harry and Ginny end up together? I know some of you have, because y'all have told me. Or how it is that Ginny navigates the trauma of almost dying in the Chamber of Secrets, or how it feels to be the only daughter of a family of sons, particularly when your mom is as traditional as Molly is. Today we are getting into all of it and I am so excited because y'all the Ron episodes were amazing. Danny is unbelievable, but it's heavy y'all, and we need something, a little light, we need something fun, okay, and Jenny is going to give that to us. Your responses to the survey are just reflective of a lot of enjoyment of Ginny as a character and I love that and I love that we're going to talk about that today. But first sorry y'all, the eclipse is happening right now and it's just doing something to me. You know I'm feeling. I'm feeling not eclipsed, because I don't know what that means, but I'm just feeling musical. And speaking of music, you see that transition. It's time for us to bop along to the theme song. So get your shoulders ready. If you're driving both hands on the steering wheel, but you can just bop your shoulders up anyways, I don't have to tell you what to do. You know what to do. So for the next 25 seconds, let's get to it. We need to talk about Harry Potter. Thank you, welcome back. I hope you danced safely.
Speaker 1:Y'all. I have some announcements and they are all very exciting. Well, the first one is a little bit less exciting than the other two, so we'll start there and we'll work our way from less exciting to most exciting. The first thing is, I know that many of us, before the end of the episode, you all have moved on to whatever else, and so I want to highlight a desire for you to rate, like, subscribe and do all the things that one does. I love reading the comments that you all write and can write on Spotify for those of you who are listening there. I love reading the comments that you all put on Apple Podcasts as well. It does great things for the podcast. It does great things for my ego. I mean honestly, it's a win-win. And so I would really appreciate, for those of you who have not done that, if you could. That would be amazing.
Speaker 1:Secondly, y'all, we have a website now. Okay, it's criticalmagictheorycomorgnet. I think I bought all of those. Anyways, we have a website and it looks so good, and on the website you can get past episodes, you can fill out the survey, you can leave me notes, you can read a little bit more about me. It's all there.
Speaker 1:And I have to give a shout out to Effie White, who was so kind to lend their expertise to the creation of this website. I tried to make it y'all. I tried, I really really did. It's like when you watch HGTV and you it y'all. I tried, I really really did. It's like when you know you watch HGTV and you think, oh, I can do that. I couldn't do that, it wasn't for me, but Effie just did it and volunteered to do it and it looks good, y'all. I am so happy with it and I hope that you all enjoy it as well. Feel free to send it to your friends. It's an easier way to kind of get access to me, but also to do things like the survey, which makes it a lot easier for those of you who don't necessarily follow me on social media, and I think that it's just nice to have. It feels very official and I really appreciate that In the spirit of officiality, which feels like not a word. But as always, you know me, I like to be a pioneer and so it is one today.
Speaker 1:The Patreon is coming next week. Be on the lookout for it. I have been afraid to make the Patreon. I'm being very vulnerable right now. Maybe I'll put some music under this vulnerable music, but I've been afraid to make it because I hate asking for help. If there are any of you who can appreciate that, just know that you're not alone and we're in this together.
Speaker 1:But what I have learned in the process of doing this podcast is that it is a lot of work and I would love to be able to hire someone to do some of that work that I am doing now, while also trying to maintain a social life and a full-time job that requires me to do things like grading. So your financial help in this endeavor would be incredible to make sure that the podcast shows up on time, that it's well edited and that everything works the way that it has been. And I've learned a lot, and I would love to learn less if possible, but I have all kinds of perks and things that are there. There is a $5 a month group and then there's a $10 a month group. I will spend some time in the next episode really detailing out what each of those things offers group and then there's a $10 a month group. I will spend some time in the next episode really detailing out what each of those things offers. But for right now, it's important for me to do this because I need to make sure that I actually hold myself accountable, and you all are my accountability partners and for that I am grateful, and if you are in the position to be able to subscribe, that would be wonderful. If you are not, that is also okay. I'm happy that you are here with us on this journey, no matter what.
Speaker 1:Now that we're moving into characters that I know have a very big presence in the fan fiction community, I feel like it is important for me to highlight the fact that, within these episodes, I'm talking about the canonical characters and I'm totally willing to kind of dive into what we see people doing for these characters in fan fiction, because I think for many of them it is very important, because it speaks to a lot of what people think are missing for these characters in terms of their characteristics, in terms of their background. But this time out I'm going to be spending the time talking about what we see in the canonical text, I think, when we come back around, because I want to kind of continue our exploration and I've asked very specific questions for these characters. But there are so many other questions that I want to have answers to and I know that there are questions that you want to have answers to and if you're in the Patreon, some of you will be able to give me your questions that we can think about together. I'm just going to put it out there for you. Anyways, that's not the point, not me being a salesman. Okay, it's called marketing. Ever heard of it?
Speaker 1:Ginny is one of these characters, in that she is someone who we really don't get to see that often, particularly in the earlier books. We know that she's obviously the youngest child of the Weasleys. We know that she's the only girl child of the Weasleys. We know that she has a crush on Harry, but in terms of kind of who she is and what she's about, in those kind of formative years we don't really get to see much of her. And then, once she becomes the object of Harry's affection, then we get to see more of her. And I think that many of us in the survey responses gave voice to frustrations in that way. And I think that, in terms of the characters that we've talked about within the podcast thus far, ginny is the first girl that we've been able to talk about. We talked about Molly and kind of the way that she embodies a lot of traditionalism and I think that Ginny really does embody a lot of JK Rowling's own gendered biases in ways that are very apparent to us.
Speaker 1:And we are going to get into it, because there's no way that we can talk about Ginny Weasley and not talk about the way that she treats Fleur, the way that we see her making specific kinds of choices. And many of you brought this up and I, we are going to get into it, so don't you even worry about it. Y'all, we're going to do it, we're going to get into it, so don't you even worry about it. Y'all, we're going to do it, we're going to get into it. So, as always, we're going to start with my favorite Jenny moment. This is a moment that did come up in many of your comments about some of your frustrations with Jenny, and I accept that and acknowledge it, and this may be one of my more toxic traits jumping out.
Speaker 1:But my favorite moment, oh yes, is when Ginny drags Ron for filth, for trying to call her out for dating what he considers to be too many boys, and that he's worried about her reputation, and she absolutely takes him to task for it. And I think what I love about this moment is that more often than not, ron tries to take a position, particularly when it comes to the behaviors of women, because we see him do something very similar to Hermione in Goblet of Fire when he highlights the fact that his mom would have said that she's been painted as like a Scarlet Woman, and so we know that Ron has a very traditional sense of the role of women and girls and what they can and cannot do and what that then means for the way that they are then kind of perceived, particularly by men and boys. And so Ron has this moment where he tries to kind of police Ginny's body and she drags him, and I understand for those of you who might not have liked this moment, but as for me, I love it because it's one of the few moments where he gets checked. And I wish that Ginny had done it to Fred and George when they were making similar comments to her too, and I wish that Ginny had done it to Fred and George when they were making similar comments to her too, because I think that what it points to again is this kind of internalized misogyny that JK Rowling places in certain characters. And this is one of these moments where we get to see Ginny kind of shunt that and say how dare you? Absolutely not, you're jealous. And Ron is jealous, that's exactly it. And we know that when Ron gets jealous and this is not an episode about Ron, but this is an important point when he gets jealous he lashes out and more often than not and this is something that came up for me as I was listening back to the last two episodes is that what we tend to see for Ron is that Harry and Hermione kind of snowplow parent and so they move every obstacle out of his way to make sure that he doesn't feel upset or angry. They navigate his emotions in a certain way, and I love that Jenny doesn't.
Speaker 1:I love that Jenny is like here's what you will not do. You will not tell me how to live my life. You will not tell me who I can and cannot date. You cannot tell me any of this and it's coming from a place of jealousy and I'm going to be the one to call you out on that. And that's the kind of accountability that Ron needs, and I love that it is her to give it. I love that it is his younger sister. I love that she is strong enough in who she is as a person to say absolutely not, you will not do that. And I think that it also speaks to the double standard that we have for what dating looks like and how many people you're allowed to date, and there's this whole obsession with body count and all these other things that we see in our society these days. This moment really brings up for me a kind of refusal to adhere to those particular beliefs and practices, and it also calls out the hypocrisy of the entire idea, because then Ron turns around and starts dating Lavender and is doing the same thing as Ginny and all of a sudden, it's okay. I love that.
Speaker 1:We get to see Ginny in this moment be like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I am in charge of my body and I'm gonna do with it what I want, and you, older brother, don't get to do this in the name of what you would consider to be protection, when really it's just coming from a place of envy, and I'm going to be the one to call you out on that. So we're going to begin, as always, with what word best describes Ginny. Now, these three words are very, very, very similar to one another the first is fierce, the second is brave and the third is strong. When I think of Ginny, I think these words are so apt because Ginny is a character who does not take any mess from anyone, and generally we, you know, attribute this to the fact that she has six older brothers, all of whom, as discussed before, are all trying to tell her what to do, and so that she has to find her voice and had to find it fairly early on. And one thing that I want to talk about, and I'm going to talk about later on in the episode is.
Speaker 1:I also think that the trauma of what happened in the Chamber of Secrets and being possessed by Voldemort when she was 11 years old also plays a really large role in the Ginny that we get to know. And I think that obviously we can attribute some of this to her brothers and the way that she was socialized with them, and I think even she attributes it to that. But I also think that there's something to be said about what it means when your entire agency has been removed without any sort of consent and you are an impressionable child, and then what do you do as you get older to mitigate the likelihood of that happening again? And so Ginny is a person who I believe is fierce and she is brave and she is so strong, and I think that some of it is because she has had to be both in order to kind of navigate the burrow as the only girl child and also because she doesn't want to be in a position where she has to be a victim again.
Speaker 1:And so there are so many things that we tend to attribute to Ginny her kind of magical prowess, and some people in your comments wrote things that were kind of like you know, biologically she just is really good at magic, but I just can't shake the thought that some of the magical prowess that we see is the byproduct of invisible hard work and labor on her part to again make sure that what happened to her in the Chamber of Secrets and with Tom Riddle's diary never happens again, because it seems to me that a lot of the things that she's really really good at are defensive things, right. Like we know, she's really adept at the back bogey hex. I think that that tells us a story, and I think we can extrapolate out a lot of why that is the case. I think part of her ferocity is the byproduct of her saying I will be in charge of my life. You will not tell me what to do. I'm in charge of my body partially because she knows what it is to not be in charge of her body, to not be in control of the actions that she's taken. She knows the fear of what it is to be in a position where you have no say over what you're doing, and you're doing terrible things, and so she is working to make sure that she never feels that again.
Speaker 1:And this just feels like such a missed opportunity amongst a bevy of missed opportunities on the part of JK Rowling, because there are so many people across the gendered spectrum who are victims of any number of things, who could have been represented in Jenny's character, who could have explicitly seen her process of really navigating what it is like to be a victim of possession by one of the most powerful evil wizards of the age, and instead what we get is she gets chastised and then it's almost as if it never happened to her at all and we never, ever really get to see the byproduct of that. And so then we start to kind of fill in the gaps, which obviously, again, is what fan fiction does. But I just feel like it was such a missed opportunity to represent the experiences of someone who is dealing with that particular kind of trauma. Right, like we get to see Harry navigate his trauma after Cedric's death and navigating all of those things in Order of the Phoenix. But what about Ginny? Like it seems so weird that all of a sudden she's just quote unquote, fine, and we can assume that she is not, and there's a lot of repression going on there, which I'm going to talk about a little bit later. But I think it would have been amazing if we had been able to see this young girl character not necessarily embody this kind of defenselessness, which I think some people tend to associate with victimization, but rather an open acknowledgement of what happened to her and the fact that it undoubtedly, undoubtedly, changed her life in ways that we couldn't even begin to imagine. And the fact that we don't get any sort of manifestation of that, except for these kind of offhand comments, just feels so unfulfilling to me. It really would have been amazing to have an open acknowledgement of what she experienced and how the ferocity that we associate with her, the bravery, the strength all came out of that experience, and also that there are other things. There's probably depression, there are all these other things that she's experiencing, and I have a kind of theory as to why I think we don't get that, and there are two ways that we can think about that. But that's for the end. So it's a little teaser, see, because I'm in my marketing bag these days and so I'm just going to tease you all a little bit for the reflection at the end of the episode. It's coming All right. It's time for us to get into the arithmancy lesson.
Speaker 1:For this week's episode, about 491 people responded to the survey. About 491 people responded to the survey and of those responses, about 89% said yes to the question of is Ginny Weasley a good person, about 2.9, about 3% said no and about 8.4% said don't know. So someone wrote Ginny is the personification of everything people want. She has all of her brother's good qualities and none of their faults. She is loyal like Ron, but not as insecure. She's a high achiever like Percy, but not a SWAT. She's talented and inventive like the twins, but doesn't bully people like they do. Harry loves the Weasley family and Ginny possesses all of their good traits. No wonder she's popular and Harry wants her in the end as well. Ginny is in the story to be the shining star Harry is ultimately drawn to. She's the quote-unquote, not like other girls.
Speaker 1:Girl In a character full of stereotypical female characters. In a character full of stereotypical female characters, she's improbable. Someone else wrote Ginny is a commodity rather than a person. Flip a switch. Harry starts liking her out of nowhere. What can Ginny do for us, rather than who she is as a person with needs and wants, is not discussed, and I think that this is another instance where this idea of how improbable Ginny is, how unrelatable she is in a lot of ways because she is the perfect girl. Really jumps out to me One of the videos that I posted on TikTok last year or maybe even two years ago.
Speaker 1:I said that most of the characters in Harry Potter who are girls or women can be characterized as moms or messes, or women can be characterized as moms or messes, and I think that that generally is just the way that JK Rowling writes the women and maybe the mom characters aren't actually like women or girls in this case with children but that they kind of mother their friends or they kind of take on a maternal role. And then you have some of the messes right and people really got mad about that post, which is fine. But one of the things that really stood out to me is that a lot of people brought up Ginny as a kind of outlier to this particular paradigm that I put forth, and I agree and I think that there's an intentionality to why she does not fit into that paradigm and I think that part of it is JK Rowling wrote her this way to be all of the things that JK Rowling thinks makes a girl or a woman appealing and one of the things that actually did not come up as much in the comments. That drives me crazy about Jenny is the fact that she is so cool and so chill that she doesn't seemingly have a lot of emotions, and again, I'm going to talk about this in the end. Gosh, I'm really marketing today, but I think that there's something to be said about the fact that you're now dealing with two people who are emotionally stunted, because we know Harry is, but that she's presented to us as being the cool it girl because she lacks emotion, and that when you juxtapose Ginny to Cho, what you end up doing is getting this character who is so improbable that even when Harry breaks up with her, she's like oh, I knew this was going to happen and it's like super chill about it, and Harry's like that's what I love about her. Boo, I don't like that. That's not. That's not. When it comes to Ginny as a person, it's really difficult for us to really know One, because we don't see that much of her, but also because our narrator and this is something that many of you have brought up and it's something that sticks with me now because of how often you bring it up Our narrator is unreliable.
Speaker 1:Harry is a person who sees Ginny in a very specific way, and I think that that also speaks to kind of the weird transition from like pseudo brother to romantic interest, the moments where we do get to kind of see Ginny outside of this, we can see the ferocity, we see the strength, we see the bravery, we do get to get a sense that she is a principled person. But I do think that part of the trick with Ginny is that she is written by a person who does not like femininity or a feminine performance, and so Ginny embodies so many of those kind of ideals, insofar that she doesn't necessarily have a lot of emotions when it comes to certain things, unless it is anger. There is something about her that does feel untouchable, it feels unrelatable. There are aspects of Ginny's personality and kind of personhood that I think have the capacity to be relatable. But it's one of those things where it's like I don't know who Ginny is, but I know who she's not, and I think that that is how JK Rowling wrote her, because it's also so much of an indictment on all of the things that JK Rowling hates about women and girls. And we see Ginny embody that in particular in the way that she treats and talks about Fleur Delacour right, the idea that she is so rude to Fleur for no other reason than she is pretty. And it's ironic because she's also jealous. So I don't fault her for being jealous, it's the way that she goes about being jealous that I think is so problematic and many of you brought this up. But it also seems like a Weasley trait because it also sounds a lot like Ron when Ron is doing some of this, and so it's fascinating to kind of experience Jenny the way that we do. She embodies so many of the things that we prize in women and girl characters for all the wrong reasons, because it seems to me that she is kind of this caricature of the kind of not feminine woman or the not feminine girl and that feels unfair to Ginny as a character, because I think that there are so many instances and spots where we can see her probably being a better person, but we don't really get to understand it that much because JK Rowling has an agenda.
Speaker 1:The next question is is Ginny Weasley a good daughter? About 81% said yes, about 4% said no and about 16% said don't know. Someone wrote in her role of daughter. I think that she is very typical. She has a very typical relationship with her mother and a very typical relationship with her father. Someone else wrote is she a good daughter? She never does anything. Her parents tell her, but it's clear that she loves them and cares about them. Could just be the easiest way to stand out. And then someone else wrote Ginny is Molly's redemption for where she fell short as a pureblood and for everything the twins aren't. She has been formed into Molly's ideal daughter, quidditch captain popular, stands up for herself and is able to manipulate the boys around her to advance her in society.
Speaker 1:What's so fascinating and what I don't know if you've noticed so far, but so much of Ginny's character is seemingly kind of a culmination of all the things that people, other people, want, and so everything that we notice about Ginny is kind of what we notice about other characters, and I wonder the extent to which that's the plight of being a younger sibling and if it's the plight of being like the only girl in this family. Some of it it feels very much like patriarchy, like and I think someone else in another comment wrote this it's like who is Ginny and all of our responses to who she is? Are all the things that we know and recognize from other characters. Part of this, I believe, is the kind of byproduct of the fact that we don't really get to see Ginny and we very rarely get to see her in particular moments as a daughter.
Speaker 1:One moment that often stands out to me, if I had to kind of think about who she is as a daughter, is the moment in Deathly Hallows where they tell her to stay in the Room of Requirement and her mother and her father are like you cannot fight. And she says no, I'm not going to stay here, you cannot make me, I'm going to be out there with my family. There's no way that you're going to leave me here so that I can just wait for news about what's happened to you. And I think that to one of the comments points. You know she doesn't listen to her parents very often, but I also think it's because Ginny doesn't necessarily need to be the damsel. She's in a position as a daughter where she's been kind of socialized and raised with and by her brothers and so a lot of who she is as a person, a lot of who she is as a daughter, is in response to that, and in this moment she's like no, I'm not going to do this, and it's not because I don't love you or I don't want to listen to you. It's because I do love you and I want to be there and I need to be fighting next to you because I don't want to have to sit here waiting for you to tell me or for someone else to tell me what's happened. And that moment always strikes me so much for Ginny because I think it really embodies so much of the way that she views her family. She loves them so much. I think she loves her mom and I think, as one of the other comments alludes to her relationship with Molly and Arthur feels very typical, we don't there's. And I think what is so fascinating about Ginny is because, as people have pointed out, you know, she is this kind of culmination that her relationship with her parents is kind of like it's the typical and I say this as an older sibling it's the typical like the parents are too tired at this point to deal with her and so they're just kind of like girl, do whatever, just stay safe, and she kind of just does that. You know, I think that her older siblings really did raise her in a lot of ways and, again, some of this is just because we don't really get to see Ginny in the role of daughter what we do see when she is interactingny Weasley, a good sister.
Speaker 1:About 79% said yes, about 6% said no and about 16% said don't know. Somebody wrote. Is she a good sister? She never misses a chance to make fun of Ron and Percy and we really don't see her interact with anyone else. I guess she feels that, being the youngest, she has to be tough and a bit mean, otherwise no one will consider her. Someone else wrote. Someone else wrote in that privilege that even if she was a bad sister, molly and Arthur wouldn't believe it.
Speaker 1:Someone else wrote for me. Her only weakness is as a sister. She is relentlessly mean-spirited towards Ron and Percy. Now, maybe I missed this, but I don't really remember Jenny being particularly antagonistic towards Percy and I feel like the moments where we see her being antagonistic towards Ron are moments where he has actively said or done something to her that warrants a response. I could be wrong, and I know that if I am, you all will tell me, because that's accountability, but also in the spirit of keep that same energy, many of us said of Fred and George that in the instances of where they were being mean to Ron and Percy, that Ron and Percy deserved it.
Speaker 1:Where is that energy? Now I have questions. This eclipse really has brought out the Shantus in me. No, but for real, where is the line? Is it because Ginny is a younger sibling that she shouldn't have the same sort of response to Percy and Ron's foolishness that Fred and George do? Is it that she's lacking the riz? What is it? Because I do think it is interesting the way that a lot of people brought up her relationship with Ron and Percy, and I think that there is something to be said to a certain extent about how everyone treats particularly Percy, and it's interesting to me that this is brought up in a way that everyone was like oh you know, fred and George, this is what older brothers do, and now Jenny is giving that same energy and we're like absolutely not.
Speaker 1:And I think that that's something for us to unpack, for us to think about, because I think some of it may very well be the fact that she's younger and so there's just this kind of hierarchy wherein you don't get to do what your older siblings do. It's kind of a do as I say, not as I do. Some of it may very well be, because she's the sister and she isn't supposed to be this one. She's not supposed to be the person who is leveraging the same kind of behavior as Fred and George do. And that is an interesting take for me, because I think in a family like the Weasleys, where, as we've said before, it's every person for themselves, I think that we shouldn't expect of Ginny a level of adherence to this kind of hierarchy of who gets to be the bully and who gets to.
Speaker 1:Not, I feel like in the Weasley family you get in where you fit in, and Ginny is making it work and, as many of you have pointed out in other comments, she's the culmination of all of her brothers in one way or another, and so it seems bizarre that we would expect that somehow she would be exempt from holding Ron and Percy accountable in ways that feel kind of icky, because literally everyone else does it. So why wouldn't she? And I just wonder about where some of this kind of icky? Because literally everyone else does it. So why wouldn't she? And I just wonder about where some of this kind of double standard is coming from from us. When it comes to her, what does being a good younger sibling look like. Is it listening to everything that your siblings, who are older than you, say? Is it copying all the things that they do? If that's the case, she's slaying. What is it? What does it mean to be a good younger sibling, and is there a certain standard that is unfair for younger siblings when it comes to our own perceptions of what it means to be a good one? We see that she cares for her siblings deeply. I think that we see that she also is going to do what she wants to do and use the same tactics that they use against her, against them, and that feels healthy, it feels right, it feels empowering, especially because it's so difficult in that family to get a word in edgewise if you're not going to be the one to speak up for your own desires, your own rights, your own space.
Speaker 1:It's time for my favorite question. Is Ginny Weasley a good pureblood? As always, you all don't disappoint. About 43% said yes, about 26% said no and about 32% said don't know.
Speaker 1:Someone wrote as a pureblood. I think Ginny knows all she needs to know about her situation, but I truly think she's a progressive witch. She doesn't care about blood status, she goes out with several muggle-borns and she wants to be a Quidditch player. She doesn't like gender role stereotypes of the dutiful daughter and sister and wants to live more freely. Someone else wrote the way that she takes up the mantle of Dumbledore's army in her sixth year, fighting against the Carrows and Snape, seemingly with no fear for herself, to protect the other students, because she knows she is a pureblood and therefore has privilege over the other students, knowing that if she's caught she won't be punished as severely for the fact that she is using it to help. And someone else wrote Like all the Weasleys, I think Ginny is a terrible pureblood. While she may hold some wizard supremacist views inherent to her upbringing, her willingness to befriend and protect muggle-borns puts her in direct conflict with the pureblood order.
Speaker 1:You all brought up something for me in these comments that I had not thought about, which is the fact that Ginny actively leverages her pureblood privilege in a way that shows just how one aware of it she is in the seventh book, and also the fact that she is using it to her advantage to actually undermine pureblood supremacist individuals like the Karros, like Snape, and I think that normally, when we talk about what it means to be a good pureblood, we talk a lot about. How you know. It all depends on how you look at it, and I think in a lot of ways your responses highlight this once again, which is that in one way, ginny kind of subverts the idea of pure blood supremacy, insofar that she is not believing that she is any better than any other magical person, but she takes it a step further, I think, more explicitly than anyone else that we've talked about thus far, which is that, knowing the position that she is in, she actively puts herself in danger and not in a way that's like the other Weasleys, like Arthur, who is, you know, still going to work during Voldemort's regime. He's not doing anything that would actively provoke the Death Eaters who are running the ministry. He's just doing his job and, yes, like he is seen as a blood traitor. But there is something different between going about the status quo, recognizing that you could be in danger, and actively fighting against the status quo in your behavior, because you know the privilege that you possess, because she and Neville and listen, we cannot forget our King Neville are making a conscious decision and being intentional about doing that, and that is something that I think is drastically different than most of the other people that we have seen. It is true that Fred and George and Ron and a lot of the other Weasleys all engage in really dangerous behavior when the war is taking place at Hogwarts and they are fighting. But there is something to be said about Ginny being at school and knowing, because she is a pureblood, she will not be killed. She may be hurt, she may be punished, but she and Neville are actively using their pureblood identity in a way to subvert pureblood supremacy, and not in a passive way, but in a very active and intentional way.
Speaker 1:Is Ginny Weasley a hero? About 75% of us said yes, about 15% said no and about 10% said don't know. Someone wrote. I kind of hate this question, not gonna lie, but I feel conflicted about the whole labeling people heroes anyways. Yes, she does heroic things. It's fighting against evil and for a better world, but she is one of many. Someone else wrote. Ginny is the unsung hero of the Harry Potter universe. She helps her friends without asking for anything in return. She keeps spirits up and she is the glue that keeps things together when the Golden Trio aren't at Hogwarts. She has faced huge challenges in her young life and persevered to still be a positive impact for her peers and family. She is brave, tenacious and a great example of a girl who is feminine, but never the damsel in distress. Someone else wrote.
Speaker 1:The two most heroic people in this series are Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom. Harry, hermione and Ron took on a nearly impossible task and faced some immense difficulties while completing it. But Ginny and Neville were children leading a rebellion in their school against a team of adults teachers that were torturing them on the regular and just kept finding sneakier ways to do it. Because it was the right thing to do. They protected the younger kids, hid them when they could, got word out to the Order about what was happening and thwarted the Death Eaters where they could. There is, in my mind, no real comparison between what they did and Harry's horcrux hunt. Harry should be known as Ginny Weasley's husband, tbh. And there it is. Y'all Any questions.
Speaker 1:I think that when it comes to heroism, as I've said before in past episodes about the Weasleys, there is something inherently heroic about engaging in a war that you don't have to. But, as I alluded to when discussing whether or not Ginny was a good pureblood, ginny takes it a step further and she really doubles down on the recognition of who she is as a pureblood and what it means to be brave. She's in a position at Hogwarts where, again, she could not have done anything and she might have still dealt with some of the derision and the torture. But the fact that she's actively going and doing a lot of this work and she's one of the members of the DA who goes and fights at the ministry simply because she believes in it, ginny is fearless. The fact that she went and fought against Bellatrix Lestrange is crazy to me, because one thing that always gets me about the moments where students are fighting against adults is like do we know any other spells? How is it that y'all are so formidable against a pack of grown adults who have had more time in the magical world, and yet a stupefy and expelliarmus, how is it? All these things are working, but the fact that jenny is fighting against bellatrix with mcgonagall and with molly, it tells us a story about how she feels about entering into the fray and what it is that she is willing to sacrifice. The last question is is Ginny Weasley questions? So 73% of us said yes, about 8% said no and about 19% said don't know.
Speaker 1:Someone wrote she is basic in that her humanity is basic, her kindness is basic and her personality is basic. She's good to people that she feels she should be good to, like Luna not being popular. Ginny doesn't help her become popular, but she doesn't assist in the dehumanization of Luna either. She doesn't take Luna under her wing and act as a friend to Luna. Instead, she has the same messiah complex that most Gryffindors have of needing to protect those they deemed weaker than them, so she stops other people from making fun of Luna, but that's it, because in a way, she probably sees Luna as a threat. Someone else says I also respect her friendship with Luna. As a huge Luna fan, it's frustrating that Ginny gets so much credit for being her friend, and someone else wrote despite calling her Loony, behind her back. We do see Ginny sticking up for Luna and can assume that she is a good friend, though I would have liked to see more cases of her being friendly, especially to Hermione Y'all.
Speaker 1:I have a question for us Are we holding Ginny to a different standard, just like in general? Because I'm just noticing and this is another thing that really does affirm the structure of this podcast, I'm just noticing that some of the things that we are expecting of Ginny are not the things that we expected of Fred, of George, of Ron, of Percy, of any of the characters that we've talked about thus far, and yet somehow we want Ginny to go out of her way to do more for Luna. Now, I'm not saying that she shouldn't have, I'm simply asking is it the same energy that we had for the boys? But it also begs the question of are you a good friend because you're friends with someone who other people don't understand, or is there something more that you should be doing other people don't want to? Or is there something more that you should be doing other people don't want to be friends with? And to what extent does Luna have a say in this? What if Ginny wanted Luna to come and hang out with her and Luna was like no, I'm good. We never see it because obviously it's from Harry's perspective, but I could imagine a context in which Luna would be like no, I'm actually good on this.
Speaker 1:Why would this expectation be one that we would have of Ginny? I don't know. I'm just going to leave that question hanging out in the air for us to think about when it comes to thinking about Ginny as a friend, because, as many of you noted, we really don't get to see her in this capacity too much, but we do get the sense that she is someone who cares about the people that she cares about, and that feels like a very Weasley trait, right. That's a very Fred and George thing, like if we care about you, we are invested in making sure that you are safe, that you are taken care of, that you know that you are cared for. And I also do wonder about kind of whether or not some of our expectations for Ginny, particularly in her relationship with Luna, is informed by something that is different than what we know about, what we expect from the boys and I know in a lot of fan fiction, like some of it, puts Ginny and Luna together in a relationship, which I think is a very interesting kind of perspective to have. But I think that Ginny is there for the people that she is there for, and I think Luna is an example of that.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, all right. It's time for my reflection on Ginny. Admittedly, it took me a little bit of time to figure out what I was going to talk about, because I thought there are so many things that I could say about Ginny, but the thing that stood out the most to me, and something that you all mentioned a lot in your responses as well, is how we get so little of an understanding of how Ginny is dealing with the trauma of having been possessed by Tom Riddle and almost dying in the Chamber of Secrets when she was what? 11 years old. And it just strikes me as such an odd thing for JK Rowling to completely, just basically omit from Ginny's character arc altogether. And it's not clear to us whether or not you know some of this is because Harry just isn't paying attention, and it's not clear to us whether or not you know some of this is because Harry just isn't paying attention, because it's always Ginny who is bringing it up, as if he wasn't the one, along with Ron, who went down into the Chamber of Secrets and, like, tried to save her. But at the same time, so much of the way that we get to see Ginny, particularly in the latter books, is as if it never happened until something triggers in her and then she responds and is like, remember that time.
Speaker 1:And I think that there are two ways to think about why this works the way that it does and the way that it's written in these books. The first, jk Rowling, is just lazy and didn't really do the do in terms of making it be part of the arc of Ginny's character and that she just was like Rhea. That was the thing that happened, and it was literally for the plot, and then it'll come up every so often, but when it's not there, then it didn't happen, and I think that that's a reasonable thing to think about, but not as fun to dive into and think critically about. So I submit to you the second option, which is that, like everyone in the magical world, including her parents, ginny is one of these people who just kind of represses anything that feels even remotely traumatic, and so that what we see in these moments is a manifestation of that repression. And I think that there are a lot of really interesting reasons as to why this is the case. And I think that there are a lot of really interesting reasons as to why this is the case. The first is that when she comes out of the Chamber of Secrets and they find out what happened, mr Weasley's first thing after obviously making sure she's okay is what have I always told you about trusting something when you can't see its brain? So immediately she is chastised for not necessarily knowing, at 11 years old, that she shouldn't be trusting this diary. And it's crazy to think about because it's like but you are an 11-year-old girl in a family full of boys, a mom who's super traditional, you have a crush on your brother's best friend, you have no emotional outlet. How is it that you expected her to be able to like deal with this? But when we think about the way that her parents react to trauma, the trauma of the first Wizarding War, the fact that her uncles, her mom's brothers, have both passed in that war and it never comes up, it stands to reason that Ginny doesn't have the best examples of how people deal with their emotions, how they deal with their trauma. In fact, I mean, so many people in the wizarding world are traumatized, and I think that this is another byproduct of being raised in a pureblood family where magic is the solution, but all of the ills of the society are also magical, but we've talked about this before. There's really no sense of importance when it comes to mental health, and so Ginny is just kind of meant to deal with these traumatic injuries, these traumatic instances that are happening to her and it's like there's no way in the world. You walk out of that moment at 11, 12 years old and you're like that's it, I'm fine. When one of your brother's best friends was one of the people who was attacked by the basilisk, you have to see Hermione all the time. There's no way that you just get to be away from that. Your brother's boy, not boyfriend. Your brother's girlfriend is another person who is petrified. There's no way that you just get to walk away from this. Ginny is someone who is like her parents in this way and like the rest of her family. We see that most of the emotions that we get out of the Weasleys tend to be anger, and I think that we do see this from Ginny. But I also wonder if this is also a motivation for her to do the things that she does, for her to work as hard as she does, for her to operate the things that she does, for her to work as hard as she does, for her to operate the way that she does in terms of being like I will never be a victim again. Is that why she throws herself into these really dangerous situations that she doesn't even need to be in? Yes, it's brave, yes, it's heroic, but it's also reckless, and reckless in a way that we don't see anyone else in her family doing except for her, and I'm like is this PTSD? Is this a traumatic response? Are you trying to get your revenge on Voldemort for what he did to you? He upended your entire childhood, and I could imagine a context in which why wouldn't you do that, especially when you have the magical acumen that she has. It seems like such a waste for me that Ginny does not talk about this experience, especially with Harry, who also had his life upended by Voldemort any number of times, and there's just no way that she walks out of this unscathed, and I think that I would feel a little bit better about her connection with Harry when it comes to romance if this was part of the equation, because it comes out of absolutely nowhere when in reality, they actually have a lot of things in common that span lots of years, and yet they don't talk about any of that. And it just strikes me that JK Rowling really wrote Ginny to be Harry's love interest, without any sort of inclination for what. This traumatic event that introduces Ginny to be Harry's love interest, without any sort of inclination for what, this traumatic event that introduces Ginny to us in these books in the first place might have done to her. It never comes up for her. Harry very rarely brings it up himself. No one in the Weasley family brings it up and it just feels to me like this is just a byproduct of a society that does not deal with trauma very well, and if you can't wave your wand to fix it then it's not worth talking about. This has been an episode of Critical Magic Theory. Y'all we did it. Thank you so much for listening. The next episode is going to be kind of like a superlatives of the Weasleys, thinking about who is the best friend, who is the best pureblood, who is the best person, and just allowing us a little moment in between to really kind of culminate what we learned about the Weasleys. Before we get into drum roll, please. The Malfoys they're next after we finish this episode. So in two episodes we will be talking about Narcissa Malfoy. Get Ready. But for right now we are going to just be really thinking through and understanding what it is that we actually think about all the Weasleys that we've talked about thus far. A little wrap up, if you will. This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Womble, and if you like what you heard. First off, thank you. Please feel free to rate, like, subscribe, leave comments, do all the things that one does where pods are cast. If you would like to follow me on socials, please feel free to do so on TikTok, at P-R-O-F-W, on Instagram, at P-R-O-F dot J-W. We have a website now criticalmagictheorycom, and if you want to leave me an email, please feel free to do so at criticalmagictheory at gmailcom. I'll see you in two weeks. Until then, be critical and stay magical, my friends. Bye.