[HPforGrownups] Re: House elves and some spoilers for Swordspoint WAS: realistic solutions

[Marion Ros]

No: HPFGUIDX 180929

I've been reading this discussion for the past few days, and I'm so
appalled by some of the arguments that I'm forced out of lurker-dom.

The argument apparantly goes like this: "Elves are not slaves because it's
in their nature to be servile. They are happy serving wizards. They don't
want to be free; look at the appalled reaction of Winky and the Hogwarts
Elves to the freed Dobby. You don't want to be a mean wizard and free them
all, do you? You'd have desperate, drunk Elves wandering around. Besides,
Dobby was a weirdo, an anomaly, and Elves aren't really human after all,
so you can't call them slaves. But you're not to abuse them either. You're
to be kind to them and let them serve you, fetch sandwiches for you etc
(this way they remain happy) and then all will be well."

Apart from the excellent points made by Sistermagpie, a_svirn and Betsy
(horridporrid) that slavery does not cease to be slavery just because the
'good guys' (aka 'Harry') owns a slave and that according to all
definitions of the word 'slave' the Elves are indeed slaves, I want to ask
you to look at the way men in Western civilisation have looked unto women
until a good hundred years ago (although I bet there are still plenty men
- and women - today who think exactly the same.

Let's give the microphone to an imaginary Victorian gentleman.

"What?! Give women economic FREEDOM? The right to decide their own fate,
buy things and property without the consent of her father, her husband or
her guardian? Women can't decide for themselves! It would make them
UNHAPPY, too. It's a woman's NATURE to WANT to care for a husband, to have
his children and nurture them. They wouldn't survive without a husband or
a father to guide them. Look at the women who are rejected, sent away by
their husbands for their obstinate and uncouth behaviour. Their families
will reject them too, and they'll turn up in the gutter, drinking vile gin
and more often than not will take their refuge into prostitution. You
don't want that for your delightfull daughters, do you? No, ask any
respectable woman if she wants to be thrown out of the house and family
and they'll tell you how happy they are to care and nurture their own
husbands and sons. Of course, their husbands should be kind to her and not
abuse her. Yes, such a thing does happen (although we rather not talk
about such distasteful things). But, well, what can you do, eh? Luckily,
most families are happy and when a man comes home he looks forward to
having his darling wife bustling around, fetching his slippers, managing
the children and the household, and look how happy she is. Such domestic
bliss speaks for itself."

And so on and on.

And no, I'm not claiming that women are slaves (although throughout
history women *were* often chattel), I'm just trying to show how silly the
notion is that Elves *want* to be slaves and are appalled at the idea of
freedom that this is a legitamite cause of keeping them as slaves.

The whole issue should not be 'do Elves want to be slaves', but 'is
slavery a good thing or a bad thing'. If you decide that no sentient being
should be owned by another, then you have to free all Elves from the
enchantment that keeps them in ownership by wizards. Elves could then
choose to serve or not. They could choose to obey. What is also necessary
is an 'out'. If a Elf would no longer want to serve a certain wizard, and
this wizard would sent her away and warn all other wizards that the Elf
was a 'bad elf' or such nonsense, the fear of being rejected by other
potential employers might force the Elf to obey when he or she would
rather not. So there should be an 'safe-house' for Elves. But all this
would not be too difficult to arrange. What truly need to change is the
*wizards* attitude towards Elves, not the (culture-induced) nature of
Elves'.

Marion