[HPforGrownups] Re: Official Philip Nel Question #10: Class

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 41277

Irene:
> Those kids are born with magical abilities, and apparently the level of
> abilities does not depend on any training they receive prior to Hogwarts.
> Muggle-borns are just as likely to succeed as purebloods, and JKR
> goes out of her way to show it, IMHO.
> So she is subtle - Justin's place in Eton and Colin's milkman father are
> mentioned in a way that does not feel forced. But for anyone familiar with
> British society structure it gives the message "Magic knows no class
> 

Absolutely.
I wish this topic hadn't come up now as I really don't have the time 
available to spend on it and unfortunately I haven't yet managed to access 
the article that's made so many people hot under the collar.

Is Hogwarts an elitist school? The questions of uniforms, house, etc. has 
been well covered by others. It is bothersome that we don't know about what 
happens to squibs, but in the absence of any mention of other British 
wizarding school, we cannot say that it is elitist *within* the WW. If there 
are other schools within the WW, I would suggest that the Hogwarts parallel 
is with, say specialist music schools, such as the Menhuin, or Cheetham's, 
rather than with selective grammar schools or fee-paying schools. Is it 
elitist to educate children with that kind of special gift in the kind of 
environment where the gift can flourish? The kind of school that no-one 
without that special gift would ever aspire to attend? Would you *want* to 
attend Hogwarts if you were a squib? Where *would* you educate young witches 
and wizards, if not at a school like Hogwarts? The wizarding community is 
relatively small and spread out. A boarding school makes sense, if there are 
basically only enough wizarding children in the country to fill one school.
(Not to mention its obvious convenience as a literary device and its being 
another example of the eclectic nature of JKR's writing, here drawing on the 
long history of British boarding school books.)

BTW, there are a few public (in the US sense, i.e. not private) and highly 
affordable boarding schools in the UK, where parents pay only for board and 
lodging, not tuition fees. So boarding in itself is not necessarily 
indicative of class or wealth.

To return to Dr Nel's question,

>>Do the novels critique or sustain a class system?  Are 'wizards,' as Pico 
Iyer suggests, 'only regular Muggles who've been to the right school?' 
Because Hogwarts is available only to those privileged enough to be 
wizards, is it an elitist school?  Or, because Malfoy's snobby attitude is 
not presented sympathetically, are the books really anti-elitism?<<

What I find myself doing is questioning the premise of the question, which 
seems to equate elitism with classism. Perhaps the word 'class' has different 
connotations for me because I'm British? (In which case, perhaps I've 
entirely misunderstood the thrust of the question.)

That there is elitism within the WW is undeniable. 
Sirius refers to Winky as an 'inferior', which I find slightly disturbing 
(wouldn't it have sounded better if he had talked about how Crouch treated 
his 'subordinates?')

The Malfoys are the living example of elitism, not only in terms of wealth 
and influence, suggesting in their attitude to the Weasleys that wizards do 
have something akin to a class system, but in attitude to wizarding blood. In 
the discussion so far (as in the books) I find it rather hard to distinguish 
what is being said about class from what is being said about race.

I mean, are we to consider the House Elves as a metaphor for the treatment of 
a class, or for the treatment of another race?

Similarly, wizarding talk of 'blood', particularly the idea of 'half-bloods' 
tends to suggest that Wizards and Muggles are essentially different races.
I think there is a subtle difference in the Malfoys' attitudes to The 
Weasleys and to the half-bloods/Muggle-borns. They look down on the Weasleys, 
regard them as 'riffraff', but don't deny their right to be at Hogwarts.

Now, I am *not* trying to change this into a discussion of race. That isn't 
the topic, so please don't go off an another thread because of this. What I 
am saying is that I find it difficult to tease out what might be called 
issues purely of 'class', untainted by undertones of racism. 

Elitism and classism aren't exactly synonymous. Classism has to do with 
social class, elitism can be founded on many bases, whether of class, race or 
ability. Hogwarts could be considered elitist, in that it accepts only 
wizards, but it is seemingly a minor form of elitism, in that it apparently 
accepts all wizards, whatever their ability. It is *not* classist in the 
sense that its students come from widely different social backgrounds. 

Any institution of this size must be sustained by a domestic staff. Having a 
domestic staff in itself is neither elitist nor classist. Think of the number 
of staff needed to maintain a large comprehensive school. The disturbing 
element is that the domestic staff come entirely from a completely different 
racial group, the Elves.

IMO, some of the WW are classist, a large part (perhaps the majority) of the 
WW is elitist, but these are not necessarily the same thing.

The question also assumes, of course that being a wizard is a privilege. 
Well, I suppose there isn't anyone on this list who doesn't fantasise about 
being one (what, you mean, it's only me?) but it's kind of interesting, isn't 
it, if *we* are seeing wizards as privileged? Is the elitism as much *ours* 
as theirs, as in the House Elves colluding in their own enslavement? 

Eloise
House-Elfless and overwhelmed by pre-vacation laundry.










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