Hermione Grange As A Role Model

The Problems with my Childhood Hero: Hermione Granger As children, we all felt drawn to someone, whether they be fictional or real, who made us believe that we could be better than we actually are, some people call it a role model or personal hero. These people are those who you, as a child, aspired to be like. When I was a child, my hero, besides my mother that is, was Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. Despite the fact that I loved and looked up to Hermione as a child, today I now realize how wrong of me that was, because, like many other strong female characters, Hermione was always portrayed as inferior to the male characters around her. When I was young I knew that I wanted to be great. From childhood dreams of …show more content…
In popular culture, one can be hardpressed to find a female protagonist whose plotline doesn’t involve love, and these are the movies, television shows, and books that are targeted towards women. At a young age, girls are shown, via Disney movies and television shows, that love is all that matters in life, and this is a trend that is continually shown by popular culture targeted towards women. Hermione Granger is a part of this trend. In her storyline, you can see in various instances that Hermione sacrifices pieces of herself so that she can find romance. And at the end of the series, Hermione is married to her best friend, Ron, with whom she has nothing in common and who had also bullied her, without remorse, throughout the time that they had known each other. Hermione became friends with Ron after his bullying put her in mortal peril, Ron teased her so greatly that Hermione ran crying to a bathroom, and was almost killed by a troll who had snuck into the said bathroom. Even though the author of this series is a strong and successful woman, the Harry Potter series, like so many other beloved books, indicated that while Hermione was strong on her own, she needed to be subservient to the men around her. This series made the implication that Hermione had to have a romantic attachment in order to be content. By making this connotation, the book is giving its young female …show more content…
Emma Watson, despite the faults of the characters whom she has played, is one such person who I look up to. Emma Watson is a well-known activist for gender-equality. Watching this woman grow up on screen and portray such iconic characters to go on and speak for women’s rights and gender equality at the United Nations shows women all over the world that anyone, even a child actress, can fight for their beliefs. This woman is using the influence that she has gained from playing characters like Hermione, who don’t use their potential for the benefit of female power or even