No Sex, Please, We're British

[grannybat84112]

No: HPFGUIDX 83683

Pippin_999"  debated:
> 
>> I'm interested in what kind of 
>> social/ethical  preparation Magicals give their children in regard 
>> to The Big Life Issues, and whether the apparent lack of formal 
>> instruction strays that far from the norms of British Muggle 
>> society. <<
> 
> I think the great divide is before and after the "sexual 
> revolution", and the introduction of  The Pill, though judging by 
> the pregnancy statistics I think that there was probably as much 
> sexual activity going on among teens before as after...
> only people wouldn't admit to it unless they "got caught". 

True. But birth control is a form of technology, and the Magical 
world has enjoyed a technological edge over the Muggle world at lest 
until the beginnings of the 20th century. One would hope that 
superior contraception and the ethics that go with it were part of 
that cultural advantage. 

This ties in with the issue that originally got me thinking about 
sexual ethics in the Magical world. I'll explain more below.
 
> But if ethics were  to be taught at Hogwarts, they would be the 
> ethics of a society that enslaves its domestic workers, turns its 
> criminals over to soul-sucking fiends, casually obliterates the 
> memories of hapless Muggles and publicly excoriates teenage 
> girls who have more than one boyfriend at a time. I can't blame 
> Dumbledore for not holding ethics classes under those 
> circumstances.

I see the point you're making, but my argument is that this is 
exactly why Dumbledore NEEDS to institute classes on ethics. The 
Magical world is so comfortable--or so far in denial--regarding its 
immoral, institutionalized attitudes and practices that this society 
has to change or else it will keep devouring itself until it 
dissolves. What better place to start questioning an ingrained past 
than in school, where the future citizens are trained?

Going back to the sexual aspect--it's always bothered me that Tom 
Riddle's mother died in the Muggle world the from complications of 
giving birth, AND her son was raised by a Muggle orphanage. Why 
didn't she return to the Magical world after being rejected by her 
child's father? She was a witch. She shouldn't have had to put up 
with the fate of a "fallen woman," begging for food and shelter, 
depending upon the charity of Muggle strangers, trusting the fate of 
her body and her baby to a non-magical (probably religious) 
institution, ultimately enduring a destiny typical of the deceived 
innocent in so many gothic novels. Why didn't she return to Magical 
society, where she could at least be certain that her baby would be 
brought up within a culture that would accept and encourage his 
abilities? 

Oh, I ***suppose*** the diehard romantics among us will say she 
stayed in the Muggle world for love of the baby's father. Pining, 
desperate, unrequited love. But that sounds awfully maudlin for JKR.

Maybe she had no sanctuary even in the Magical world. In CoS Rowling 
kept hitting us over the head with the fact that Tom Riddle was the 
last heir of Slytherin; the implication is that all his mother's 
relatives were dead. (Why? Were they targeted for extermination by 
yet another, previous Dark Lord?) OK, so she didn't have any family 
left to take her in during her pregnancy. I believe that a society 
which care enough about its progeny to guarantee an education to 
every child "magic enough for Hogwarts"--even to those children 
unaware of their magical ability-- is a society that would shelter 
and care for an unwed mother and her baby. Harry never reports seeing 
Magical orphans begging on the streets of Diagon Alley or digging 
food from the dustbins behind the shops, and Dumbledore mentions that 
many Magical families would have been happy to take in toddler Harry 
after he'd been orphaned. Why not fosterage for a desperate, pregnant 
witch? If all the Slytherin clans reject her, surely some decent 
Hufflepuff family would take her in.

Unless...unless...

Unless the Magical world's attitude toward out-of-wedlock births is 
even more archaic and vicious than the Muggle world's. Unless the 
medieval mindset of genetic identity through officially sanctioned, 
socially recognized patrilineal descent is a taboo so strong that no 
Magical family dare cross it. Stonger than compassion or other 
convictions of principle. Stronger than philosophical and moral 
alliances against blood "purity." 

Why?

Religion-based rationale doesn't work, not if JKR is excluding 
religion as a driving force in the Magical world. It can't be for 
reasons of blood purity; Tom Riddle was summoned by Hogwarts at age 
11 without the slightest regard for the fact that his father was a 
Muggle. His magical ability was all that mattered (even before the 
days of Dumbledore's administration), not the absence of his parents' 
marriage license. Tom Riddle was also the last of his genetic line. 
Surely the other Slytherin dynasties would want to make certain the 
last heir to Salazar was raised in full awareness of his traditions. 
Surely they wouldn't allow the true Slytherin bloodline to die out 
just because it was mixed with Muggle blood...

Or would they?

Does blood prejudice run so deep that pureblood sympathizers are 
willing to commit dynastic suicide rather than admit a half-Muggle 
child to the fold? Are they so willing to throw away daughters who 
produce "half-breed" children? Would they really allow their own 
grandchildren to suffer malnutrition, child abuse, and possibly death 
during a childhood in what they must perceive is an uncivilized, 
primitive world?* Especially when they know the surviving children 
will be admitted to Hogwarts in spite of their upbringing. Are they 
hoping these children will simply, conveniently die?

Preventing one's pureblood children from mixing with non-purebloods 
is one thing. But literally casting off your own progeny opens up 
another level of evil.

Mrs. Black repudiated Sirius for his association with the Muggle-
loving side in Vold War I; she burned her niece Andromeda off the 
family tree for marrying a Muggleborn wizard. Certainly she'd leave a 
half-Muggle grandchild to die. But the Blacks are extremists.

Or are they?

Is this another one of the dirty little secrets of the Magical world? 
That half-Muggle children are treated even worse than Muggleborns?

I can't believe this is just another Flint. Seamus, after all, 
SINGLES HIMSELF OUT as a "half-n-half," the product of a witch who 
married a Muggle. So he's not a true Muggleborn like Hermione, but 
neither is he a true halfblood like Harry. Does this mean the 
pureblood fanatics might target him for something even more atrocious 
than the "ethnic cleansing" they plan to conduct?

I've got a bad feeling about this....

Grannybat

*Yes, Harry had to endure this, from his own Muggle relatives. But 
not every Magical child comes with a fatal prophecy attached.