Ship: R/Hr and violence (Re: The books are not about rape.)

[lunamk03]

No: HPFGUIDX 136947

Marcela wrote:
I give you example of this: Hermione's canary attack.  While it 
looked like a funny scene at first -especially because it 
happened to Ron-, when I read the book a second time this scene hit 
me like a bullet!  On this second time, when I already I knew that 
Hr/R ship was about to sail in next book, that canary scene striked 
me as too violent for my taste.
I wondered:  how can any couple come up to terms or feel good with 
each other after one of them has so purposedly "hurt" the other?  
<snip>
So who is bringing violence or abuse to HP world?

Susan wrote:
I don't like this scene either, but I don't think it's characterisic 
of Hermione. I disagree with JKR putting this scene in...
Do I think it makes Hermione an abuser? No. I think it's an isolated 
incident.

 
Now Luna:
I have to agree that the Canary attack scene, although intended to be 
funny, was violent.  Any attack, under any circumstances is violent. 
But his scene is not an example of abusive behaviour.

Then again, violence is part of human behaviour. Most of us would 
have violent thoughts (at least!) if placed in Hermione situation: 
having the person that you are in-love with (or at least have strong 
romantic interest in) snogging all around you with another person 
and, to top it all, laughing at you.  Our Hermione did try to control herself by leaving the classroom before Harry and Ron did.  Obviously, Hermione was way too angry and hurt to have Ron anywhere around her. Bad luck, the guys enter the room where she was trying to isolate herself. Then, boom! You have the canary attack.
I liked this scene because it showed us Hermione's human side.  
Hermione is not this perfect girl that some people have come to 
idealise
 She's not (and never has been) a saint, the same goes for 
all the characters in the books. None of them is wholly good or bad, 
this is the beauty of Jo's characters.  We have Harry, who is not violent in nature and who'd rather avoid violence but we do see him punching Malfoy in every inch of his body he could reach
 This scene is even more violent than the canary scene.


Now, the canary scene is an isolated event with very well defined 
circumstances. Although ideally, we should always control ourselves 
when we are angry, in this particular scene it was obviously more 
than what Hermione could chew.  Jo was also intending to show us 
Hermione's jealousy and was useful to help advance the relationships 
plot.

Taking into account that as the intra trio relationship has never 
been abusive and that neither Harry, Ron nor Hermione are abusive 
people, this behaviour will not become a pattern.

We also have to take into account the evolution of R/Hr relationship. 
They bicker, but they profoundly care about each other. They seem to 
enjoy spending time together and sometimes they provoke each other. 
There is a clear tension there but both of them are too stubborn to 
acknowledge their feelings for each other. The bickering becomes 
stronger as the tension becomes stronger. I do see how H/Hers see 
their bickering as being offensive because it, sometimes (not all the 
time, this instances are not the rule), becomes offensive in both 
sides. They needed to go through an emotional journey to get to the 
point where they would stand in front of each other and be honest 
about their feelings. This already started to happen in HBP and we do 
see how the bickering almost disappears in the second half of HBP and 
they show more physical affection and much more consideration for 
each other. 

I think this discussion deals more with how much tolerant each one of 
us is regarding bickering rather than with R/Her relationship itself. 
As I see it, they have had their difficulties, but nothing bad enough 
as to represent a definitive breach between them. Who said that 
relationships were easy? Jo is clearly showing us how difficult it 
could get but as long as there is love and two willing persons going 
for it (and Ron and Hermione are definitely going for it!), there is 
hope!

All children books in traditional literature have a certain amount of 
violence. What are children going to think about this scene, well, 
they have their parents to explain to them that this is wrong.

Luna