Hermione and Lady Gaga heroines for our times

IF you are a member of anything before generation Y, it's tempting to scoff at modern culture. Video games are full of violence. Music pumps out obscene lyrics unheard of if you grew up with Carole King, Fleetwood Mac, Blondie and Bon Jovi.

Magazines sexualise young girls. Cyberspace seems to promote a level of narcissism not seen in the pre-Facebook age. Children's television shows are a world away from the innocence of Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes and Bewitched. Hollywood is full of rich 20-something tramps best known for drug addictions, petty crime and flashing a certain lack of underwear. And then along comes something to remind you that there is plenty good about pop culture too.

That something is Hermione Granger and Lady Gaga. Two girls separated by much, yet with much in common. On-screen heroines don't get much better than Hermione, the smart, preppy, conscientious, do-it girl who teams up with Harry and Ron. When, in the face of danger, Harry furrows his eyebrows and Ron rambles about what to do, Hermione leads. Bossy? Sure. Annoyingly right? You bet. And, best of all, a generation of girls has grown up with Hermione, the antithesis of the sexed-up, nonchalant, narcissistic teenager that otherwise dominates their world.

If you don't have kids who have grown up with Harry Potter, it's hard to explain the journey: seven books by author J.K. Rowling, so famously passed over by publishers who failed to see the magic, and eight movies that retold the tales of Harry, Ron and Hermione at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Parents read the books to children too young to read the brick-sized books themselves. Then, as soon as they can, children, some barely five years old, devour them alone. On holiday recently, I found myself tucked up in bed reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to my three children, all well beyond the age of reading with mum before bedtime. The Harry Potter phenomenon has touched adults and children alike. And maybe that's what explains why Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, which opened last week, broke records for the biggest opening in Australian box-office history. There were cheers as the wizarding threesome overcame evil. And there were tears, plenty of them from girls who watched a large, formative part of their life come to an end.

Even better than Hermione is Emma Watson, who has played the young female wizard for more than half her young life. No going off the rails here. No drugs or stints in rehab. No bratty behaviour. Not from Watson. Plucked from obscurity at the age of nine, Watson plays a brilliant Hermione because she is a lot like the Harry Potter heroine. Grounded, sensible, strong and determined. "If I'm honest, I was her," Watson said recently.

Wanting a normal life after spending life in the "bubble" of a converted factory near London where the movies were made, Watson asked Warner Bros to accommodate the filming of the last two movies around her going to university. She headed off to Rhode Island's Brown University, where she lived in a freshman dorm with a shared bathroom. Now back in Britain, Watson is about to start university at Oxford. You see the contrast to the trashy antics of former Disney star Lindsay Lohan and famous for being rich Paris Hilton. Whereas Lohan turns up to court to face shoplifting charges in a tight white dress more suited to a nightclub, Watson, the Burberry girl, opts for more demure, but edgy, clothes. When questioned in 2008 about a photo of her in a dress, wind blowing aside a skirt layer to reveal her underwear, she said in all embarrassment, "At least I was wearing underwear."

More importantly, Watson is a girl determined to stand on her own two feet, telling British Vogue last year, "I realised at a young age that I was responsible for myself." (Next time your teenager talks about getting a tattoo, suggest those words be inked on their forearm.) When, at 17 or 18, Watson's father sat her down to have the "money conversation" about the serious money she was making from the Harry Potter film franchise, Watson enrolled in a money course at Coutts bank to learn how to manage the money. (Watson had been receiving a £50 monthly allowance.) Watson is a rarity in the mania that brings down so many child stars.

Now stick with me here. Watson has much in common with Lady Gaga, who was in Sydney last week. Sure, they inhabit different worlds. The diminutive 25-year-old singer who has sold five million copies of her latest album, Born This Way, is known for her outrageous costumes and racy music videos.

Like movies that touched us long ago, it's easy to ignore music that post-dates our own youth. It never seems quite as good or profound. Music has the ability to dig deep into our souls, speak to us, explain a certain time and state of being. We forget it's the same with our children. And their music is every bit as deep to them. The music of Lady Gaga has a simple message: be true to yourself by being yourself.

That such a simple message resonates so widely and so deeply with millions of young people tells you something about the pernicious influences, be it in magazines, music or movies, that encourage girls and boys to be anything but themselves.

Lady Gaga, real name Stefani Germanotta, has become more a cult figure than pop star, an evangelist with a positive and powerful story to tell. Bullied at school, Gaga is a story -- so far at least -- of survival, of striving to do something she loves, of pushing boundaries unafraid of criticism and realising she can lift up others, too.

And at her concerts, dubbed Monster Balls, she does precisely that, telling her "little monsters" to "forget all your insecurities . . . what you feel makes you different in the greater destiny of life . . . I worked so hard to get where I am . . . just remember, I was so far beneath and now I'm so far above."

In their different ways, Watson, her alter ego Hermione and Lady Gaga are proud to be who they are. Perhaps only a generation who has grown confused by who they are can fully appreciate the power of that message.

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