Oh, I'm not meaning to say that traditionally feminine tropes are necessarily bad.
It's sort of the stereotypical "sacrifice a woman to move the plot" thing, though. Everyone's sad because her personality was basically appealing, with no human flaws. Even Snape was attracted to her! She makes Snape sympathetic! She makes James into less of an ass! Then she dies for her little boy. It's just so... stereotypical. Harry's past is dominated by seven men (Marauders, Snape, Voldemort, Dumbledore) and in all of that Lily's main role seems to be to sacrifice herself. She isn't an active player, like the others. She's off on the side "wearing the white muslin dress." I would have really liked to see more of her, get to know her and so on. Not just as a sacrifice-in-a-box/McGuffin.
As for Molly, I'm a bit disappointed that we never get to see her as anything but a mother. That's who she is. She's a mother. She isn't anyone or anything else, except for the part where she takes down Bellatrix Lestrange at the end, and that felt tacked on to me even before I found out about Rowling's setup. Hobbies? Interests? Tastes? I just never get a sense of who this person is outside of being an overworked mom. It also sort of felt like that stereotypical sitcom setup. Momma hen (a chicken) pecks and annoys her far-more-sympathetic husband, who just wants to tinker around with his toys in the garage. That's not the most generous portrayal for men, either...
It's not so much a disappointment with Ginny not being uber-powerful. It's that I'd like to see another strong female character from Harry's generation, and she looked like a
spectacular candidate.
I'll also say that I'm pretty disappointed that our local Jesus-figure seems to have never figured out quite how to see women as his equals, in that case.
Yes, but I seriously doubt any disabled person would be offended by it. Just to put it in context, this was a badass cyborg war hero sacrificing himself to save his entire civilisation and way of life. And I just don't like the idea that authors should be trying to be PC rather than trying to write a good story.
*shrug*
I don't know, then, man, but don't judge all feminist blogs off this one. I've seen someone rip into Firefly so heavily that I could barely stand to read it--and I don't even like Firefly that much, and do agree it has a few issues. It just seemed like the person in question was kicking up dust that didn't need to be kicked. On the other hand, more power to her for going for it. She did open my eyes a little.
The point is that one should indeed write a good story. Not a cliched story. Not a story which tells the same damned lies about people over and over again, which we hail because it's "funny" and supports our sense of power, or anything like that. A great, wonderful, beautiful story that
also takes into account nuanced minority characters, because they exist, too, and they have stories to tell. I don't think that should be too much to ask for--a little originality to go with that great world-building and spiffy plotline?
Take what exists, and write about it. Do it well.
We're just asking people to continue expanding their idea of "what exists."