Snape - a werewolf bigot?? Was: Say it isn't so Lupin!!!/

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 170175

 


> Dana:
> 
> Interesting because Lupin only puts  people at risk once a month and 
> only at night time, yet he is treated  like he is a danger all the 
> time.  
> 
> People with  HIV are a risk to other people if they do not take 
> precautions, like  having safe sex, being careful with blood 
products 
> ect. In Afrika  women infect their children but with medication this 
> could be  prevented. People with HIV however do not posse a risk to 
> people in  normal life just as Lupin doesn't either. 
> 
> In my country  currently there is a scandal about 4 people who at 
> parties injected  people with HIV infected blood without their 
> consent, does this mean  that suddenly all HIV positive people are 
> going to do this? That we are  therefore having to ban these people 
> from their job, deny all of them a  normal life because they might 
be 
> possing a risk at some time in  their life's because that is what 
you 
> seem to be saying.  

Julie:
There is a very big difference between HIV postive people and
werewolves. HIV positive people have CONTROL over their
actions. The people you mention above infecting others at a 
party did so with intent and out of sheer malice. Werewolves
don't have intent nor malice *once* they transform, because 
they can no longer control themselves at all. Anyone and
everyone who crosses their paths is in serious and immediate
danger of infection or death. 

I know werewolves while still in human form can choose to
prepare themselves for their transformation by locking 
themselves away or having someone else do it (as Lupin
was confined to the Shrieking Shack until the other Marauders
started helping him escape). But that isn't foolproof, and it's
certainly far less reliable than the typical HIV positive person's
self-control and deterimination *not* to infect others. (Of course
if Wolfsbane should become widely accessible and distributed,
it might be a different story--just as it would be if HIV cocktails
were to become widely accessible-read cheap-and distributed.)
 
Unfortunately Lupin is a horrible example to the WW, because
he exemplifies *exactly* why people fear werewolves. As a
teenager he not atypically took great risks with the welfare of
others to gain his "freedom." And as a supposedly responsible
adult he transforms into a werewolf on school grounds in the
presence of schoolchildren. No matter HOW you excuse it--he
was preoccupied with an emergency situation, he forgot what
time of month it was (!!), etc--or how much sympathy you may
have for him, after that serious error in judgment no parent is
going to want him in the vicinity of their children (at least not
within several days either way of the full moon).
 
Ultimately, is it fair to deny werewolves jobs? I don't think  so, 
but it's not analogous with denying HIV positive people jobs.
Because the werewolf can't control his behavior at a certain
time of the month, putting precautions in place would be just.
One good thing about werewolves is that everyone *knows*
just when they will transform (so I presume, even though we
as readers haven't been given the most precise information).
So it would be relatively easy to put those precautions in place,
whether it was setting aside those days as days off from work
for werewolves, or providing a shelter for the transformation 
period, or whatever. That's all if the WW is willing to go to  the
trouble of course, rather than just shoving the problem  aside
and pretending werewolves don't exist (see again the AIDS 
epidemic in Africa).
 
Julie 







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