[ SECRET POST #955 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #955 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 12 pages, 288 secrets from Secret Submission Post #137.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 2 3 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeat ], [ 1 - take it to comments ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

It depends.

[cleverthylacine]

I strongly suspect keeping elves isn't good for humans. That is, it would tend to reinforce the same bad character traits that slavery would; we are always at our worst when we have absolute power over others.

At the same time, they're really not human. Star Trek and other TV shows, which I love, don't get me wrong, have given people the idea that any creature of human or greater intelligence will have human drives, needs and emotions, like the need for freedom. This is actually probably not going to turn out to be true.

What if house elves are like bees, and some of them are just not genetically wired to take control of their own destinies? If you ran into a species of intelligent insects where the queen of the hive had pheromonal control, would you think the worker bees needed a liberation movement even when they didn't want it?

I mean, this is the same kind of thinking that leads PeTA members to think that dogs, cats, chickens and other domestic animals should be set free and returned to the wild. Even if the elves aren't genetically wired to serve people, they've been domesticated into human society and might not be able to function in their natural environment any more.

If they really aren't human, what they need is a humane society, not a liberation movement they don't want.

I always thought Hermione and SPEW were meant to be a satire of the way privileged people always think they know what less privileged people need and want, like for instance those missionary groups that think people who actually need clean water and doctors need Jesus (or are only prepared to give them clean water and doctors if they will accept Jesus and give up the way they live in favour of the way the missionaries live).

Re: It depends.

[miss_prince.livejournal.com]

I always thought Hermione and SPEW were meant to be a satire of the way privileged people always think they know what less privileged people need and want, like for instance those missionary groups that think people who actually need clean water and doctors need Jesus (or are only prepared to give them clean water and doctors if they will accept Jesus and give up the way they live in favour of the way the missionaries live).

This, really. Campaigning for ethical treatment and putting forth an effort to stop the apparently rampant abuse of house elves is an admirable cause, but Hermione's problem -- at least in the earlier books -- is that she doesn't listen to what the house elves want. The campaign for a minority groups rights should be directed and driven by that minority group, and Hermione disrespects them by superimposing what she would want in their situation over what they actually want.

Perhaps in the future they would choose not to be slaves. But that decision should come from them, not from outside.

Re: It depends.

[cleverthylacine]

One of the many interesting questions that JKR set us up to expect answers to and then defaulted on answering (in favour of enforced heteronormativity and a McGuffin hunt, eurgh--I'm an ex-fan, because the books were so weird and interesting until suddenly they weren't at all) was how this situation came to be. There are lots of legends about brownies and other faeries who will serve people and who will leave in disgust if they are given clothing or other payments. But these creatures have free will and would never tolerate abuse (in fact, they'd probably beat the crap out of you).

I've always wondered what they actually are (brownies enslaved by ancient evil snotty pureblood magic, homunculi created by alchemical means, aliens from another dimension who don't think like we do, summoned demons that aren't called demons because Rowling has enough trouble with fundies...) and why they were bound (there was a very good essay a few years ago by someone pointing out that the free elves have immense, much greater than human, magical power and a capricious sense of humour and that it may have been done in defence of wizardkind or humankind in general--Dobby when he is allowed to play dirty is worse than a Mogwai who's been left in a pizza hut dumpster at 2 AM).

Until we know that, I don't think we can even begin to equate house-elf servitude with slavery, particularly racially based slavery as an outgrowth of colonialism, which was different in a number of ways from the kind of slavery that existed in Europe where people who were all basically European with slightly different languages and cultures would beat each other up in wars and enslave the losing survivors. It makes a big difference whether house-elves were:

a) brought in from somewhere else against their will to serve humans;

b) bound because they were wreaking havoc in the world, and the alternative was letting them run wild--they are too chaotic to want to rule over humans, just do damage;

c) some kind of faerie creature that naturally serves other faeries and/or humans that someone has found a way to bind permanently;

d) demons--the summoning and binding of which is the reason the occult has such a bad rap among people who believe in but don't themselves practise it.

Also, my crazy mother is a great fan of upper-class charities where the major objective is to be seen doing good things for The Poor Who Are Always With Us while dressing in really fantastic clothes and without ever being arsed to ask them what they want; I recognised Hermione's behaviour instantly.