-sitara:

quixotess:

ardhra:

fourloves:

Speaking out against her peers’ devaluation of house-elves is a brave move befitting the best parts of Hermione’s character…But in forming SPEW, she uses her oppression as license to act as an authority, as a leader for folks who experience oppression she did not. This is a grave mistake common to people of privilege in social justice movements: she centers and prioritizes her skewed and unsuitable vision of what house-elf protection means over the concerns of house-elves.

amazing

Yeah, but also… this is a problem of the writing. Rowling wrote the Elves as passive and having internalised their enslavement to the point where they could never actually think outside it (even Dobby feels the taboos around criticising Wizards). When they finally do rebel against Wizards, its in the aid of other Wizards. Rather than Rowling getting into the wherefores of this, it’s made into a running joke at the expense of both Hermione and Elves, reinforcing the worldview of the most privileged male characters. In the end, Harry and Ron’s views about Elves are supported by the narrative, while Hermione’s is denied and the Elves’ completely ignored.

nodnod agreed that it’s suspect (“rigged,” I would say) the degree to which the elves did not care for freedom.

oh that part ALWAYS annoyed me SO much because it was just too damn reminiscent of the whole white liberal “but they LIKE working in sweatshops” bullshit. while i liked HP enough to read through them all as escapism i think that plotline was actually one of the major reasons i could never really get into it as much as other folks. threw me off too much/ made me too upset.

Writer of the piece dropping in to say that I absolutely agree that that’s a HUGE problem with the series - one I don’t have a great grasp of, which is why I haven’t written about it in great depth yet. It also extends to the way centaurs, giants, and goblins are written IMO. I acknowledge the problem in the text linked above, but not in as much depth as I think the issue deserves.