[HPforGrownups] Squib!Harry in the WW (was:Re: The Scar)

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 160359

> Ken:
> 
> The WW is *defined* by those who do magic but they have defined it
to
> include others: spouses, siblings, squibs, parents, and the
occasional
> PM. Harry can fit into that, it is more than speculation on my
part.
> At the very least he would fit in somewhere between Hagrid and Mrs.
> Figg. The WW is not our society yet it is comprised of human
beings,
> not aliens from another planet. There is no reason to suppose that
the
> WW would turn its back on a disabled member any more than we do.

Magpie:
Actually, I think there is good reason to suppose that they might turn their
back on a disabled member.  For six books there's been no problem with
Magical people considering themselves superior to non- magical ones (and
Hagrid is a Wizard).  There's no hint of any kind of true support system for
the non-Magical, while we have plenty of examples that the non-Magical are
ostracized or not spoken of.  From what I've seen the parents of Muggleborns
especially are stripped of their normal parental roles. It feels like the
only reason the possibility of such inclusiveness is being suggested now is
because we're discussing a hypothetical situation where Harry, one of our
superior characters, would suddenly be one of them.  So now the WW is being
endowed with the level of open-mindedness we have in 21st century Muggle
society, where a non-Magical person is like someone with a physical
disability understood to be the equal of those without disabilities, but I
just don't think they have that.

s

hurry now:

Speaking as a disabled person, I believe that Harry *could* learn how to
live as a muggle in the WW.  However,  I do not believe the WW would accept
him.  I also don't think he'd have a very easy adjustment.  I think the WW
would turn its back on him, as easily as the so-called able bodied world
turns its backs on disabled people.  Even in 2006, just among blind people
in the US, there is a 70 percent unemployment rate, so we have not yet come
near to full equality.  In the WW, which as a society is far behind our
supposedly enlightened times, I imagine it would be even worse.  Worst of
all, I think Harry's perception of himself as a Squib would make him unable
to learn how to be a nonmagical person in a magical world.

Sherry