Sadism or not ? McGonagall and her punishments

[mesmer44]

No: HPFGUIDX 186684

<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> > Mesmer44 replies:
> <SNIP>
> >I didn't get bogged down w/ exactly what
> biases (if any) McGonagall had in disciplining her, but just viewing it from
> Pavarti not dressing as she's supposed to and obviously breaking a school dress
> code, any teacher was well within their rights to call her to task on what she
> was doing. Doing it in front of her friends will make it sink in more and is
> more in line w/ the kind of real world repercussions that would result from
> frivolous or immature behavior in the future. <SNIP>
> 
> Alla:
> 
<Snip>

However, I totally agree with those that argue that canon does not really show us that Hogwarts's students hairstyles are subject to many rules if ANY rules.
> 
> My disagreement here is not whether McGonagall had a right to discipline her in front of her friends. I dislike it, but really, I had seen Hogwarts teachers doing much worse things. My disagreement is whether she actually **did** something wrong and plenty of canon examples were given upthread to show that IMO it does not really look that Hogwarts girls have any regulations about their hair.
> 
<SNIP>

So, no, if there are no regulations, and Parvati did nothing wrong, I do not think McGonagall had any right to do so.
> 
> I understand that she was freaking out, however she IMO was chastising Parvati for not comforming to **her** taste and that I find obnoxious and wrong.
> Alla
>
Steve again:

If there are no regulations concerning whatever Parvati did w/ her hair, and McGonagall's objections weren't based on school rules, then I'll do a 360 degree turn around and agree that Parvati shouldn't have been scolded.  Obviously the students know McGonagall well and I doubt what she said to Parvati was seen as out of character for her and taken w/ a grain of salt by a teen ager scolded by a much older fairly conservative woman. But I do agree w/ Alla that McGonagall's scolding was more a matter of personal taste then an objective assessment of rule breaking.