Some quick notes:
1 – I am not one of those people who thinks Bonnie Wright is “ugly”.
2 – Nor am I jealous of Ginny, or angry that Harry didn’t shack up with Hermione – or even Draco. For the record, I hated Ginny long before I shipped H/Hr.
3 – Ginny Weasley is the only character I hate in the Harry Potter books. Notice that word there – books – When it comes to the films, I am utterly bored or indifferent to her.
If you’re an active part of the Harry Potter fandom, or know how to google, then you probably already know that that Ginny is one of “the biggest polarizing characters in the series” (along with Snape, and to a far lesser extent, Draco).
For a long while, Ginny was a character that I quite enjoyed in the series. I even named my cat after her (because Hermione just seemed too long for a little kitten). However, the change in Ginny’s character in books 5/6 (most noticeably 6) was just downright infuriating. Hopefully, I will be able to focus my points into a well-flowing structure; and not some wayward rant. So, bear with me.
For a lot of reasons, I think Ginny Weasley is a Mary-Sue. Now, someone has taken the liberty to do the Mary-Sue Litmus test for Ginny, and results were negative. I beg to differ:
- From the get-go, she is set up to be the long-term romantic interest for the series hero.
- She is beautiful. I mean, beautiful enough for a Slytherin (Blaise Zabini) to think so.
- She is overly skilled, from Quidditch to Jinxes.
- She is popular, and not just in her own house.
- Her only flaw is her temper, but even then she is never pulled up for being a bitch.
Now, I know that JKR always intended for Ginny to be that sort of character. It is even hinted in early books:
– Chamber of Secrets Ron says that Ginny “never shuts up, normally.” And we are constantly reminded that Ginny is a loud and confident girl – when Harry is not around.
– We are fed tidbits of information about Ginny, namely that she is quite popular amongst her year level.
– Finally, when Harry breaks up with her during Dumbledore’s funeral, Ginny says something along the lines of “Hermione told me to be more like myself around you.”
The thing is JKR knew that Ginny was Harry’s soul mate right from the beginning. And therein lies a big problem. When it came to Half Blood Prince, JKR just tried waaaayyy too hard for us to love Ginny, and have us accept her as being worthy enough for our hero, Harry, to love. Out of nowhere, BAM, Ginny is just “awesome.” She is pretty, popular, allegedly funny (I say allegedly, because her humor is always at the expense of others), great at Quidditch, and a strong witch (I mean… she joined the Slug Club, because of a Bat-Bogey hex… seriously?). She is just too perfect. At least Hermione and Ron’s relationship had flaws – which made them real.
Which brings up another point: Ginny is not a fleshed out character. She is eternally one-sided. She is either Ron’s shy and awkward sister; or this perfect girl that everybody adores. Where is the realism in that? Ginny’s development is not gradual or subtle. We start a book (Chamber of Secrets or Half Blood Prince), are bombarded with how to perceive Ginny as a character, and that’s how she remains until the last page.
Truth is, we don’t know Ginny. All we know of her is how Harry sees her. Which is, at first, just Ron’s sister (she is easily glanced over in early books), or someone that Harry wants to bang (apologies for not being able to convey that more eloquently). If we look beyond the way Harry, and apparently everyone else at Hogwarts who adores this demi-bitch, Ginny is nothing more than a mean girl. Some may argue that this is due to Harry’s changing perception of her — which really only tells us that Harry sees her as a insolent, violent and passive-aggressive girl. As PK has pointed out in the comments:
I don’t think “Harry’s perspective” is anywhere near close to cutting it either. If it were true that everything we see of Ginny is what Harry perceives her as, wow, that is even worse for her character bc Harry sees her as a near-sociopathic, mean, rude, childish bully.
As for the term bully, some may brush this aside due to the fact Ginny was not an overt aggressor (like James or Draco), or was only responding when provoked. Firstly, just because someone is provoked does not give them permission to sink to the instigator’s level. If anything, a better and more admirable quality would be to rise about another person’s taunts. Furthermore, also pointed out by PK:
[Ginny] goes out of her way to say Luna is “all right,” but negates that statement by calling her “Loony.” She is a passive aggressive bully, which is just as bad as an outright bully bc it’s harder to call someone out on it, hence everything Ginny gets away with.
My hatred for her probably erupted when I read Half Blood Prince. Upon reading, I was horrified to see that Ginny had turned into this rude, loud mouth, boy crazy goddess. Of course, there were hints of that during Order of the Phoenix. I do recall being ticked off when Ginny snapped at Hermione after Harry and the twins were banned from Quidditch (like, seriously girl, who do you think you are yelling at Hermione? Guuurrl, learn your place).
But, in the 6th book? She was utterly HORRIBLE! From the moment we saw her – calling her soon-to-be sister-in-law “Phlegm”, pretending to vomit into cereal, and flouncing about the house in a nasty – BULLYING – imitation of Fleur. Personally, I never saw behaviour from Fleur that would warrant such nastiness – no, bitchiness – to be aimed at her. And, even if your brother is dating someone you don’t like, what gives you the right to be such a cow about it? Grow up.
But it wasn’t just her attitude towards Fleur. Throughout Half-blood Prince, Ginny exhibited insolence (the Quidditch match, a prime example), used boys to get Harry’s attention (we all know she didn’t have genuine feelings for Dean or Michael; she only ever had eyes for Harry), was horribly judgmental – and never called out on it – and was emphasized on being well-liked by almost everyone (remember Pansy calling out Blaise on the Hogwarts Express?). Personally, I don’t see the justice in that. All I see is a horrible girl – and I compare her to the horrible girls I went to school with – who is being rewarded.
A common misconception is that Mary-Sue’s are “perfect” characters, or characters without flaws. This is incorrect. There are many subcategories of Sues – and, I do feel the need to point out Self-Insertion Sue, Bella Swan from Twilight. To those arguing that Ginny is without flaw, you are wrong. She does have flaws – very minor or unmentioned – but, more often than not she is either rewarded for them (being rude, judgmental and temperamental), are ignored, or framed into a positive-light. (“Oh, someone pissed you off and you hexed him? Welcome to the Slug Club, you hot-tempered, belligerent cow! Well done!) She escapes all consequences.
Half-Blood Prince aside, Ginny is still pretty darn annoying. From the few times that she is mentioned in previous books, she comes across as either whiny or self-righteous (a Leo trait she shares with Harry). In Goblet of Fire, Ginny accepted an invitation to the Yule Ball from Neville Longbottom. When she realised that Harry was still looking for a date, she whined in return: “I accepted an invite from Neville, or else I wouldn’t have been able to go.” Don’t get me wrong – this is exactly the sort of thing a 13 year old girl would say – so, kudos to JKR for that one – but it was still something that I read and felt a pang of disdain.
Furthermore, when we’re introduced to Luna Lovegood (or, the scene outside the Herbology green house), Ginny is shown to be defending Luna from bullies. Don’t get me wrong, it’s an admirable trait to have. But every time I read that scene, I envision Ginny to be conducting herself in a somewhat holier-than-thou manner. I almost hear her inner-monologue “Oh, I am so above you people – look at how nice I am to the strange girl!” It’s like in Mean Girls when Regina is nice to Cady.
Of course, these last two points are merely my interpretation of the text. These are not perfect examples of how Ginny is a terrible character in general, simply reasons for why I do not like her.
So, hopefully that should cover Book!Ginny – if not, I’m sure I will remember some points later.
Regarding Film!Ginny:
I am not opening up a conversation of hatred towards Bonnie Wright.
Truth is, Bonnie Wright is so far removed from Ginny in the books, it’s not even funny. Is Bonnie the femme fatal Ginny, supposedly, grew up to be? No – but she is far from ugly. When the effort is put in (by effort, I mean hair and makeup), she is quite pretty.
Bonnie’s presence on screen does no justice to Book!Ginny. Is this a reflection of Bonnie’s acting skills? Possibly – her only high profile acting job has been Harry Potter, so we are yet to see her range. But, personally, from Bonnie’s personal pictures she looks far more fun and “Ginny-like” in real life:
In real life, Bonnie Wright exudes confidence and an ability to have fun, both of which are qualities she is lacking on screen. Suffice to say, the problem with Film!Ginny probably lies within David Yates and Steve Kloves.
Prior to Yates, Ginny had been handled quite well on screen, particularly Goblet of Fire (looking back, perhaps her portrayal here is where I was inspired to name my cat after her). Kloves, on the other hand is a blatant Harry/Hermione shipper (see http://www.frakearth.com/apps/blog/show/prev?from_id=6804737). That, and prior to Half Blood Prince, WB had been commercializing Harry and Hermione’s relationship; yet we saw nothing like that for Harry and Ginny.
But my dislike for Ginny Weasley has nothing to do with Bonnie Wright or the films. Yes, Ginny in the films is lacking confidence, charisma and allure. She is bland on screen, boring and forgettable – but there is only so much she can do with the material she is given. Kloves writes Ginny into the background whenever he can, gives her little-to-no lines (and the lines she has are uninspiring and dull), and gives her zero personality.
So, on two mediums, Ginny Weasley is a difficult character for me to enjoy. It’s come to the point where, only recently, I have decided to create my own Ginny Weasley. Now, whenever I read the books or watch the films, I try to envision Ginny as Rachel Hurd Wood (the actress who played Wendy Darling in the 2003 film, Peter Pan – alongside Jason Isaacs/Lucius Malfoy, as well :p). I am doing everything I can to reinvent the character for myself, in both appearance and personality. My Ginny isn’t ill-mannered, obnoxious, or put on a pedestal – nor is she boring, plain or someone I would easily look over on screen.
In the end, nothing is perfect. Not even Harry Potter. And, for me, Ginny Weasley will always be that one thing that could have been better.
Thank My Editor 
As someone who used to hate Ginny, I have to say your post is incredibly biased against Ginny. It acknowledges nothing of the personality or character we did see from her, and brings up arguments against her that are actually pretty ridiculous.
1. GINNY AND HERMIONE ARGUMENT: First, you saying Ginny was a bitch for arguing with Hermione? This is very biased. You call Ginny out for being a bitch, but you ignore that Ginny has a point. You ignore that this whole scene happened because Hermione refused to stop nagging Harry about the book. It was even set up before Ginny said something, that Hermione was harping on about it for an annoyingly long amount of time, and wanted Harry to admit she was right about it. Even if he was in the wrong, she didn’t have to keep pressing the issue. Both Harry and Ron told her to knock it off, but she kept going, so Ginny stepped in. Ginny is Harry’s friend too, she has every right to stick up for him. You wouldn’t tell Ron to “stay in his lane,” so don’t think Ginny doesn’t have a right to say something. She has known Harry for years, she freaking risked her life to help him in the DOM, and actively rebelled with him against the Ministry. Ginny told Hermione to give it a rest, and that she should be glad Harry wasn’t hurt because Malfoy used an unforgivable and Harry was just protecting himself. Hermione then tried to use Quidditch being cancelled as a reason why Ginny should be siding with her, not Harry. So Ginny snapped that Hermione doesn’t know about Quidditch like that. Everyone knows Hermione doesn’t care about Quidditch, she was using that as a way to favor her side. Ginny told Hermione about herself for that one. How is Ginny the bitch for stopping Hermione from harping on and on when she should’ve stopped a long time ago?
2. GINNY BEING A GREAT QUIDDITCH PLAYER: This argument against her has to be one of the most ridiculous. Like people just forgot that Ginny has several siblings who are not only on the Quidditch team in school themselves, but who frequently play Quidditch, AND who have a damn Quidditch pitch and broom shed right in their backyard. I’d love to know why people who criticize Ginny for being good at quidditch, readily accept that Harry is just “naturally” good on a broomstick he literally flew on for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, Ginny is born in the wizarding world, surrounded by a quidditch loving family, literally has a quidditch pitch in her backyard, and loves quidditch herself…yet god forbid she actually know how to play quidditch herself!
3. GINNY USED BOYS FOR HARRY’S ATTENTION: Again, how in the world do you figure that? Ginny dated three boys throughout her life, and the third one she married. And both boys before Harry she dated for at least a year. I’d like to know why anyone would not only date a boy they don’t “actually like” for a year, but also repeat this same action again, when the other boy fails to incite a reaction out of Harry? In fact, NEITHER ONE incites an outward reaction from Harry, literally he doesn’t ever show to Ginny that he is jealous, so where in the text could this even work? Ginny dated those boys because she genuinely liked them. Also, it’s funny that people think Ginny is this conniving and uncaring, when literally she had the chance to attend the Yule Ball with Harry in her 3rd year, and she declines, because she already agreed to go with Neville, and she obviously wasn’t looking forward to it. But you’re telling me this same girl would willingly spend a year with two boys she doesn’t like, to try and make Harry jealous somehow? She obviously isn’t the type of person who would instantly drop a boy for Harry, if she was, she would’ve done it to Neville with no qualms whatsoever.
4. GINNY IS SO PRETTY AND POPULAR, SO SHE’S A MARY SUE: I think it’s funny that people will readily get on Ginny for being a Mary sue just because she’s pretty, popular and good at quidditch. Do you know who else was pretty, popular and good at Quidditch? Cho Chang. But I don’t see anyone calling her a Mary sue. Being pretty, popular and good at quidditch doesn’t make you a Mary sue. Contrary to popular anti-Ginny belief, being good looking, sporty and popular are not Mary Sue traits. There are many people in the real world with these attributes. Ginny is a realistic character in this fact alone.
5. GINNY IS PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE BULLY TO LUNA: Ginny is considered by Luna to be lovely, and nice. She is a good friend to Luna. So Ginny finds her a bit odd. Both Neville and Harry found her odd from the moment they saw her, and Harry even thinks he understood why Neville wanted to avoid her cabin. Ron and Hermione also show how odd they think she is, so it’s not like Ginny is alone in this. Still, despite how odd she thinks Luna can be, she goes out of her way to be nice to her. She isn’t one of those people taking her stuff and sticks up for her. Ginny is not even the only one to call her Loony, Harry and Ron have both referred to her as this at least once. Why Ginny gets flack alone is honestly side-eye worthy. At the end of the day, Ginny is still considered to be a dear friend of Luna’s, and she even names her child after her. So where is the problem here?
6. GINNY IS MEAN TO FLEUR AND MOCKS HER: I guess you just forgot how Fleur acted toward Ginny and her family then huh? Fleur turns her attitude around with Harry and she’s nicer to him, and since he’s the main character, we see things primarily from his point of view. Because of this, it’s easy to forget how she acted before. Fleur was snobby and haughty. She mocked the state of the Weasley home, mocked Molly’s taste in music, and Ginny outright stated that Fleur treats her like she’s a three year old, indicated Fleur is condescending toward her. Ginny doesn’t appreciate Fleur’s snotty attitude toward her family, her condescension, and how she acts in their home. And she isn’t alone. Molly is also clearly annoyed with her, and believes Fleur is shallow. It’s only when Fleur shows she will stand by Bill regardless of how he looks, that both Ginny and Molly see Fleur is deeper than she acted.
7. GINNY’S ONLY FLAW IS HER TEMPER AND IT’S NEVER CRITICIZED: This isn’t true. Besides being temperamental, Ginny could be naïve, childish and ruthless. You say she’s never criticized or people don’t acknowledge it, but they do. Harry might not care much, but Ron, Hermione, Molly and McGonagall have all reacted to her.
RON: When Ginny snapped at Ron for getting upset at her making out with her boyfriend in private, Ron gets irritated and snaps at her. He even gets angry enough to try and hex her for it. –HBP
HERMIONE: When Ginny called Hermione out for her nagging Harry about the book and what happened to Draco, Hermione glares at her and they have a stare down. Harry remarks he never seen them mad at each other like that before. -HBP
MCGONAGALL: Ginny flies her broomstick into a Quidditch commentator after his biased commentary toward her teammates, and while Harry and his team found it funny, McGonagall was furious and scorning her. Ginny had to lie for McGonagall to allegedly get off her back about it. -HBP
ARTHUR: When Ginny came out of the Chamber, her father was upset with her about the diary, Arthur told her never to trust anything if you don’t know where it keeps it brain and questioned if she’d learned anything from him over it.
If Ginny was a mary sue who is never acknowledged for her negative actions, regardless of how harsh or mean they may be, Hermione would have folded and believed her to be right, Ron would have folded, everyone would be kissing her arse. But instead, Ginny ends up getting in an argument with Hermione, Ron ends up getting furious with Ginny and she ends up in near tears over it. And with McGonagall, again she didn’t find her actions funny at all and was berating her for her for it. Lastly, Arthur wouldn’t have acknowledged how foolish Ginny was for not telling anyone about the diary when it was clearly suspicious. So where this thing about Ginny’s attitude or negative actions never being acknowledged by anyone? Yeah, Mary Sue’s aren’t perfect, and Ginny is far from perfect, and she doesn’t get off for her attitude. You list literally one time where she is rewarded.
But the funny thing about this is, Harry was rewarded for breaking rules. He flies on his broomstick when Madam Hooch tells the students not to, and instead of getting expelled or detention, he is rewarded with a brand new broomstick and a seeker spot on the Quidditch team. But god forbid Ginny get rewarded for hexing a boy who was outright harassing her about events that were none of his damn business to begin with. So, Harry is not called out being a Mary sue for getting special treatment, being special enough for flying broomsticks he’s never flown before, amongst other things. (ang I love Harry, but if we’re going to be calling a character a Mary sue in this story, Harry fits the bill way more than Ginny does).
8. BOYS FIND HER PRETTY: So what? Ginny is pretty, I don’t see why this is an issue. Again, Cho was considered pretty too. Harry crushed her, Cedric crushed her, she had boys immediately going after her when she is single (Michael Corner), Roger Davies, etc. But is Cho a Mary Sue for it? No.
Ginny doesn’t deserve this hate and I think it needs to end.
If i decided how ginny would really look like she would be a bit chuby not a skeleton she would have hair to her shoulders and it would be curly, she would have rose lips and cheeks and brown eyes and her eyebrows a bit bushy and not two sticks glued to her face, she would be shy and un-popular almost as Hermione in the first movie, i hage how ginny is not for me she is a desperat under aged little girl with no lips and she is very anoying
The worst part if Ginny snapping at Hermione about not understanding Quidditch is that Hermione has to bite her tongue and not tell her that she in fact does care to the point that she breaks the rules (as a prefect) and confunds someone at tryouts so Ron could be keeper…Just because her life’s happiness doesn’t depend on Quidditch, Ginny and Harry give themselves license to dismiss her? Ginny’s behavior especially after Hermione consoles her about her unrequited love for Harry and giving her life changing advice, is unacceptable. And the fact that it comforts Harry makes me disassociate with Harry’s POV. Rowling doesn’t miss a single opportunity to tell (rather than show) us how beautiful and popular and accomplished and athletic she is… does she think the reader gives two shits if she is a hot jock? Does she think the average HP fan is enamoured by someone who’s “humor” is at the expense of others? Feels like she’s selling Ginny a little too hard because the character doesn’t have enough merit. It’s easy to just tell the reader: “she’s hot and popular and good at sports and she’s sooooo funny and smart get over it!”… personally I don’t think Harry needs a love interest. Little bit of romance is nice but the reader isn’t the kind of simpleton who would stop reading u less Harry ends up with the most popular mary sue of a character in school. JK doesn’t give her readers enough credit or… she’s trying to perpetuate this kind of female character as an ideal… eother way it really shows her flaws that have come to more relief post cursed child and dumb tweets.
Thing is, there is no “worst part” about Ginny snapping at Hermione about Quidditch, she was absolutely entitled and in the right to do so. Firstly, it is absolutely true that Hermione doesn’t care about at best or dislikes Quidditch. Literally the only reason she “cares” is because her two (three, if we count Ginny) best friends are super interested themselves. That’s it. Her confunding Cormac in the benefit of Ron just proves my point.
So because Hermione gave Ginny advice two years prior, that gives Hermione carte blanche, to just say whatever and get away with it? It was Hermione herself who (wrongly) brought up Quidditch. Not Ginny. Let me repeat that: Ginny did not bring up Quidditch first, Hermione did. So Ginny should not be blamed for something that Hermione herself brought up. It had nothing to do with the topic and was only used to bring Ginny to Hermione’s side. When it was Harry’s safety and his morale that were the issue here. Hermione should’ve realized that there is more than just Quidditch, especially when she seems to be not interested in it herself in the first place. All Hermione was interested in was getting Harry to admit she was right, in essence making it all about her.
Harry was completely justified to be grateful for Ginny’s intervention against Hermione, because before Ginny intervenes, he was busy being nagged to death by Hermione, especially when he was already feeling extremely sad and guilty about what had happened. He doesn’t need yet another moral lecture from Hermione, especially when he got one from McGonagall and Snape. It’s a good thing that Ginny realized what Harry did and did not need. It’s a good thing that Ginny decided to stand up for one of her friends, especially when it’s against one of her own friends. As Dumbledore says, “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends”. Saying that Ginny should “learn [her] place”, like was said in the original post, because she dared stand up to St. Hermione, *that* is absolutely unacceptable. It’s not often that Hermione gets called out for her negative actions, but Ginny admirably stepped up here.
The average HP fan may be not “enamoured” of Ginny like I am, but they like her enough, flaws and all. Only a militant minority of HP fans hate Ginny. The problem is more that Ginny Derangement Syndrome affects some people so much. The problem is that fifteen years later, people still let their hatred of Ginny cloud their judgments about the series and characters including who should have ended up with whom.
“she’s hot and popular and good at sports and she’s sooooo funny and smart get over it!”
Yeah, people should get over it. Why the hell should Ginny Weasley be held to a higher standard compared to other characters? Hermione who is Muggleborn can be perfect at almost every single subject, Harry who has literally never been on a broom can fly like a professional at the age of eleven, but Ginny practices for years and is good at Quidditch; she’s suddenly a perfect Mary Sue? And how can you say Ginny is Mary Sue if you were criticizing a flaw she has? If anything, Ginny having a “niche” is definitely more believable than Hermione who excels at almost everything.
So Ginny is not being sold “too” hard. She has her own place in the story, and once Harry takes notice of her more, of course there will be more attention on her. The whole series takes place from his perspective.
“I don’t think Harry needs a love interest.”
Yeah, he actually does… one of his greatest wishes is to be a part of an actual family, and that’s what Ginny provides.
“JK doesn’t give her readers enough credit …or she’s trying to perpetuate this kind of female character as an ideal”
That’s what she does with Hermione, not Ginny. The narrative is consistently biased towards her. She does give her readers credit, it’s just that some readers don’t give JKR credit and realize that in ginny she developed a well-fleshed 3 dimensional character.
… I do agree about your characterization of JKR in the late 2010s, though; however time has passed between her publishing of deathly hallows and now.