Lupin and physical contact

[Joywitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 2499

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, Peg Kerr <pkerr06 at a...> wrote:
> 
[snip]
>what I saw in that scene was that Lupin wanted to comfort
> Harry, yes, but restrained himself for several reasons.  One was 
that, as
> someone said (Amanda maybe?) he knows that Harry is a proud boy, 
and the last
> thing he wants to do is to break down in front of someone he 
respects.
> Secondly, Lupin is a werewolf and has trained himself, perhaps, to 
restrain his
> own impulse toward physical interactions with people.
> 
> But thirdly, Lupin is a teacher.  And teachers have to be sensitive 
to parental
> fears that if they touch the kids their teach, they're some kind of 
perverts
> who are coming on to their kids.  (Maybe Ebony could speak to this 
a little?)
> Maybe it's more an issue in America, where there have been several 
scandals
> about teachers who did cross the line with their students, making 
everyone
> paranoid and gun-shy about litigation.

I agree with Peg.  When I first read that passage, it made me think 
of the whole British *keep a stiff upper lip* attitude.  For a 
teenage boy to cry, and/or be physically comforted by an adult, in 
many cultures is seen (at least by teenage boys) as a sign of 
weakness.  My impressions of British culture is that it is simply not 
socially acceptable for men to cry - of course that is true, but I 
think to a somewhat lesser degree, here in the U.S. too.  Of course, 
my ideas about social and cultural mores in Britian come mostly from 
the novels I read, most of which are old.  But I am curious about the 
cultural differences between the U.S. and Britian and how they 
influence our (people on this group I mean) understanding of the 
books.  I think that probably the majority of us are from the U.S., 
with a large minority from Britian and Canada and a few from other 
English-speaking countries and a few English-speaking Germans, etc.  
Therefore the dominate trend in these discussions will be the 
American interpretation.

Another example of differing interpretations is peoples attitudes 
towards the harshness of Snape and the bullying of Draco.  Most of 
the Americans seem appalled that this sort of behavior would be 
allowed.  While that sort of behavior IS certainly appalling, it is 
possible that it is simply more acceptable in Britian than in the 
U.S.  It is certainly the type of behavior commonly depicted in 
novels about British boarding schools.  Also, there were some posts 
from people saying that Hermione should not have been allowed to take 
so many classes in PoA, but that attitude seems to reflect a very 
American attitude towards education (where we treat kids like idiots, 
spoon feed them garbage that they regurgitate on standardized tests, 
and then we are shocked when they dont know how to read).  Of course 
that is an exaggeration, but the traditional British attitude seems 
to lean more towards *force them to study themselves to death or 
theyll never learn a thing*.

So, my friends from across the pond out there -- am I right in saying 
that us Americans are misinterpreting some of the characters 
motivations due our different cultural perspective, or is my 
understanding of British culture hopelessly out-of-date?

-- Joywitch