voldemort and gender

[pauraque_bk]

It's struck me before that the Death Eaters are almost all male. While working on some Snape backstory, I started taking notes of all of their names and what we know about them, and the pattern is pretty clear:


Avery - m
Bartemius Crouch, Jr. - m
Crabbe - ?
Antonin Dolohov - m
Goyle - ?
Bellatrix Black - f
Regulus Black - m
Jugson - ?
Igor Karkaroff - m
Rabastan Lestrange - m
Rodolphus Lestrange - m
Lucius Malfoy - m
Walden Macnair - m
Mulciber - m
Nott - m
Peter Pettigrew - m
Augustus Rookwood - m
Evan Rosier - m
Severus Snape - m
Travers - m
Wilkes - ?


Most writers assume that Crabbe and Goyle are Vincent's and Gregory's fathers, but we don't know that for sure. Jugson is a new one from OotP, and is little more than a name for now. So we have sixteen confirmed male DEs, one female, and four unknowns.

This wouldn't strike me as odd, but for the fact that in other areas, JKR has been careful to demonstrate gender equality in the wizarding world. Boys and girls go to school together. The Founders were two men and two women. So are the current Heads of House. The teaching staff is almost a 50/50 gender split (depending on the year). In Dumbledore's office, there are portraits of both headmasters and headmistresses. Even characters we're supposed to dislike are not portrayed as misogynists (a favorite device of writers wanting to make sure we know that someone is Not Nice). Snape says "Idiot boy!" about as often as he says "Foolish girl!". Lucius Malfoy isn't shown mistreating Narcissa. The theme of the story is racism/classism, not sexism.

Is Voldemort sexist? Bellatrix is not just a female Death Eater -- she's an *important* Death Eater. In GoF, when Voldemort comes to her place in the circle, he pauses and speaks quietly of her -- he almost seems sad, which is remarkable. The impression that she's important to him is confirmed in OotP -- he grabs *her* before he Disapparates, no one else. However, you certainly don't have to be a universal misogynist (or misandrist) in order to be sexist.

Here's the question, though: *Why* is Voldemort sexist? As theatresm suggested in a recent bit of fic, it could be a pureblood thing. This is fully possible, but our only other evidence for it is that European Muggle aristocracy has always been sexist. Salazar wanted Muggle-borns out of the school, not girls. He had a falling-out with Godric, not Rowena or Helga.

Is there a metatextual reason? I don't see one. As OotP clearly showed, JKR has no difficulty writing female characters so scary they make you want to hide under the bed. What is JKR trying to tell us by making Bellatrix the lone woman?

EDIT: I forgot Wilkes, another unknown. Thanks, neotoma.

Comments

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

It actually surprises me that the m/f ratio is more or less even at Hogwarts in terms of our own history -- females tend to predominate.

As teachers, do you mean? I think that there is probably a cultural difference at work there. It could be that teaching at Hogwarts, since it's the *only* magical school in Britain worth mentioning, is a relatively-high status position? Especially since the *entire* magical population of Britain seems to have gone there, with exceptions for Beauxbaxtons and Durmstrang. That's got give the school and teachers a certain cachet.

As to the Ministry, four female employees out of 19 doesn't seem like a very good ratio. About 20% female, even if two of them, Bones and Umbridge, seem to be fairly high ranking.

We don't know enough about the Aurors and Unspeakables yet to make a determination. Especially since Tonks' metamorphmagus abilities might have opened a lot of doors for her.