[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione's a liberal: was re: Moody -- "Types"--Where Are the Bleeding Hearts?

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 125453

> Finwitch:
> 
> I think that disrespect of another culture is what I find wrong in 
> what Hermione's doing. AND of the individual elves. She doesn't 
> listen to them, she has a patronizing attitude towards them.
> She may have managed to memorize history as Dates, Contracts, Wars,
> Borders -- but does she understand the great lines? 


To anyone who's spent their life working in the non-profit sector,
JKR's presentation of Hermione as a teenager discovering that life is
not fair for everyone is so bang-on that it's scary.

Self-righteous, hectoring behaviour on the part of teens when they
take up a cause is quite natural and at the risk of sounding
patronizing I'd describe it as a natural phase that they have to go
through before moving on to a more realistic appraisal of solutions
to social problems.  Hermione's still at the stage where she thinks
announcing that something is a problem is most of the solution.

I don't find Hermione's championing of SPEW or her militaristic
knitting habit to be the big problem; for me, her biggest mistake is
that she infantilizes individual elves: nothing is ever their fault,
they have no power over their own actions or activities, they are
simply passive recipients of others' abuse.  

She underestimates the degree of autonomy that they might have in a
particular situation: as the lone House Elf in the Crouch household,
Winky was able to successfully negotiate with Crouch Sr. on Crouch
Jr.'s behalf.  Also she didn't really appreciate the extent to which
Kreacher's devotion to his late master's beliefs would lead him to
actively try to harm Sirius and the Order.  

This to me is Hermoine's weak spot, not any patronizing attitude or
ignorance of another group's personal history.

Magda


	
		
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