[HPforGrownups] Slytherins: selfish, not evil + Ariana raped?

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 172778

From: Erin Ridgeway <erinridgeway at yahoo.com>
>On another note: did anyone else read the Muggle torture of 
>Ariana as rape? Or do I just like my backstories as twisted 
>as possible?

Bart:
A better question: did anybody NOT read it that way? 

As adults (note the name of the group), we are much more knowledgeable about what sort of attack some adults are capable of on children. And we know, from news accounts and otherwise, how children react to certain kinds of attacks. 

For years, I wondered what made rape such an especially bad attack (as opposed to, for example, having a knife stuck in you). In particular, I was of the opinion that it was bad because it was societally bad, and it was society's attitude that made it so especially traumatic for the victim. However, having read books like THE BLANK SLATE and AS NATURE MADE HIM, I have come to realize that there is a strong evolutionarily based need in most (but not all) women to control who has sex with them, making a loss of that control a shattering experience (it is, however, that part of us which can be called our "soul" that keeps us from being enslaved by our instincts). For a child, it can take a LOT of effort to help her overcome such an experience, where her trust in the world has been irrevocably broken. And, in the WW, it is clear that their Healers are behind the Muggles on that score (and I don't think I need to point out the canon that shows that their justice system is horribly flawed, and it is understandable why DD Sr. went after the Muggles, and why people are sent to a possible death sentence in Azkaban even if they're only suspected of committing a crime, like Hagrid was in COS). So, Ariana was not only left with the trauma, her support system was torn out from under her at the same time. 

Bart