House Elves' enslavement (long)

[sophierom]

No: HPFGUIDX 114248

Susana: 
> I agree the wizarding society is completely
racist... but elves are not another race! 
<snip some really interesting points ... especially
the analogy of dogs' relationships to humans>
> As for 'equals'... maybe... er... elves don't want
to be equal? 
> Muggle society has an 'equality complex'! You're
anthropomorphising elves.

Dungrollin:
> After the analogy  with American slavery, I also
thought about an analogy with dogs, which sums up
nicely the element of House Elves wanting to serve
humans. But House Elves are not dogs (as has been
pointed out).  They are emotional and reasoning beings
(okay their grammar's a bit  dodgy  I'm not going to
say I think they're superintelligent, but you get my
point)  and that's where the analogy with dogs breaks
down.  
<snip>
> An analogy which strikes me as perhaps more
understanding of  Hermione's side (and indeed my own)
would be with Swiss women in the 1970s (bear with
me).  I still find it shocking that in Switzerland 
> women didn't get the vote until 1974, and (I
believe) there is still 
> one Canton in which they don't have the vote.  My
boyfriend is 
> Swiss, and I bring this up from time to time when
he's complaining 
> about British politics, and he says "You can't blame
the men, a lot 
> of women didn't *want* the vote!  They held a
referendum and loads 
> of women voted against getting the vote!"   
> The point about freedom is the ability to make one's
own choices.
<snip>
> If house elves want to serve people and it makes
them happy, then fine, let them.  But magically
forcing them to serve wizards they despise is wrong
wrong wrong. While the majority of house elves may be
happy, we have already met two who aren't/weren't
Dobby and 
> Kreatcher.  The only way to get rid of this
injustice is by giving 
> them the choice, and at the moment, they don't have
that choice. 
> No matter how willing the slave, slavery is slavery.

Finwitch:
And to add: Where house-elves are like dogs, the
goblins are like
wolves...
 
Sophierom:

Some great points by Susana, Finwitch and Dungrollin
here.  Susana and Finwitch's posts made we wonder:
what if we compared house elves to other sentient, but
non-human species in the wizarding world? Of the
magical creatures that figure in the MoM fountain, the
other two are centaurs and goblins, neither of which
are enslaved (though admittedly both groups have very
tense relationship with humans).  We learn through
bits and pieces of information in canon that neither
of these creatures have maintained their freedom
without a struggle: goblins have fought many wars in
order combat what they've seen as wizarding
discrimination, and centaurs have had to isolate
themselves from witches and wizards in order to
maintain their autonomy. So, while house elves may be
attached to humans because of some "natural" magical
bond inherent in their species, there is precedent
among other, non-human but sentient creatures of
humans attempting to dominate them.  Indeed, Lupin
warns in OotP that if goblins are  "offered the
freedoms we've been denying them for centuries they're
going to be tempted" to join LV. (OotP, p.85, Am. Ed.
) 

I think, ultimately, this debate about the house elves
revolves around the question of how we view them.  Is
it more important that elves are a separate species or
is more important that elves are sentient beings who
share key characteristics with humans? 

In a fantasy world like Potterverse, the species
separation might be really important because different
species have different powers.  House elves apparently
have some strong magic of their own (for example,
Dobby is able to pop into Hogwarts, which, according
to Hermione and Hogwarts, A History, is supposedly
guarded against Apparition).  And there may very well 
be other magic that house elves have that wizards do
not have.  And if, in order to maintain their unique
forms of magic, house elves and human wizards need
each other, then perhaps there is some validity to the
idea that house elves should be attached to humans and
that humans need to recognize their own dependence on
the elves and treat them better.

However, if you recognize the house elves'
similarities with humans, the species differences
don't seem to be so important.  Yes, house elves and
human wizards might have different magic, different
purposes, but they do seem to share a lot of
similarities.  For example, Dobby has a remarkable
ability to differentiate between one who feeds him, so
to speak - Malfoy  - and one with whom he's never had
any contact but considers a hero- Harry.  Susana is
exactly right when she says that I anthropomorphise
the house elves; but so does JKR, giving them
characteristics that animal species, like dogs, often
don't share.  True, a dog might learn to bite or harm
a human that abuses it, but it most likely wouldn't go
out of its way to save a human it's never met. (Though
I have to admit - not many humans would be willing to
do what Dobby did for Harry, knowing that they were
risking the severe disapproval of their only source of
food, shelter, etc.) Kreacher's sneakiness, as well as
his passive-aggressive behavior, is also very
reminiscent of human behavior, though I'll be the
first to admit I don't know much about other species,
dogs or otherwise.

Dungrollin's analogy of women's suffrage is really apt
here because one of the major arguments against
women's equality was and has always been women and
men's physiological differences.  But feminists argue
that these differences aren't nearly as important as
the similarities men and women share, and in fact,
many of the supposed differences between the sexes
might indeed be social constructs.  For example, are
men more aggressive than women? Well, there might be
some physiological explanation to support an
affirmative, but much of the difference between men
and women's behavior has to do with how men and women
are actually raised differently. 

So, getting back to house elves, I think there are
indeed distinct differences between the elves and
wizards, perhaps even differences so important that
there must be some sort of reciprocal relationship
that invalidates my admittedly simplistic call for
"equality."  Still, I can't help but feel that for all
the differences between house elves and human wizards,
the similarities between these two groups make the
enslavement of house elves wrong. 

This is especially true considering the themes of the
books, not only the cruelty of racism, but also, as
Dungrollin pointed out, the importance of choice, a
theme prominent in the series.  

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