Beths_aesthetics

The world is only pretty if you let it be

[drarry-ponderings]

*thinks about slytherin!harry* *sweats nervously*

[sleepnkween]

Even Tom knows what’s going on… XD

[ourterriblefate-deactivated2018]

yes!!

[best-of-memes]

[pixiecodesnowbaz]

Y I S

[bethsaestetics-blog]

harry: hi, i'm harry. and you are?

draco: questioning my sexuality.

[oneofthosecrazycatladies]

Harry Potter is like the gateway fandom. You start reading the books, then all of the sudden you have a sonic screwdriver, you want to go to Rivendell, and you have this awkward fascination with Sherlock Holmes. And you don’t really know how any of it happened, but you’re pretty sure it started with Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursley of Four Privet Drive who were proud to say they they were perfectly normal thank you very much.

[parkkate]

Ice cream

Draco grunted as he fumbled with the collar of his dress shirt. His face was contorted in distaste as he felt little beads of sweat running down his neck. Ugh, disgusting! Potter had already pointed out that it was far too hot outside to be wearing a dress shirt, but Draco refused to wear the kind of sordid clothes Potter seemed to love so much. It suited him, of course, but Draco had a reputation to uphold.

That was a bit of a stupid reason, even Draco had to admit it, seeing as they were out and about in Muggle London, but Draco, unlike Potter, had class.

Them being friends was still very new to him and definitely needed some getting used to. Potter seemed already comfortable around Draco, always blabbering on about this and that, bumping Draco’s arm with his elbow, grinning at him mischievously…

Blaise had remarked that it very much seemed like he and Potter were dating, but that was just ridiculous. They had just met for coffee a few times, had gone to the movies (Potter’s idea of course and Draco was still a bit traumatised) and had gone for a few walks, like now. Yes, Draco had been a little surprised earlier when Potter had asked him if he wanted to come back to his place later for dinner, but that wasn’t out of the ordinary, was it? Friends did that… right?

As they continued walking down the street, Draco peered sideways and saw that Potter’s face was rather flushed and there were little beads of sweat running down his neck, too.

“Maybe we should have stayed inside today,” Potter wheezed. “I honestly don’t understand how you haven’t fainted yet.” He gazed at Draco’s shirt and his cloth trousers in discomfort.

“Well,” Draco began, eyeing Potter’s burgundy T-shirt and his short trouser, which reached to his knees, “I was taught elegance is a virtue, as well as endurance. Clearly, a concept which seems to be lost on you.” He let his eyes wander over Potter’s body and gave him an appraising look when their eyes met again. Potter seemed to stifle a giggle.

“What?” Draco snapped.

“Endurance,” Potter snorted. “Alright then.” He flashed Draco a toothy grin. Draco had no idea what was so funny about that, but didn’t get the chance to ask. Potter’s eyes had focused on something on the other side of the street. Draco turned around, but had no idea what had caught Potter’s attention.

“Wait here,” Potter told him and and sprinted off. Draco crossed his arms over his chest, huffing. What was Potter up to? And how dare he make Draco wait alone in the middle of the street like this?

Draco tapped his foot impatiently as the minutes passed by. When Potter finally came into view again, Draco saw that he was holding… two ice lollies?

“Here,” Potter said enthusiastically, holding one out to Draco. He gave it a quick glance and made a face.

“No thank you,” he grunted.

“What? Why?”

“I don’t like ice cream,” Draco shrugged. Potter’s eyes widened at that.

“What? How can you not like ice cream?” He sounded genuinely baffled.

“I just don’t.”

Potter kept staring at him, the incomprehension at Draco’s revelation clearly visible on his face.

“You’re dripping,” Draco noted with a raised eyebrow.

“What? Oh!” Only now did Potter seem to notice that the ice lollies were melting quickly, dripping all over his hands. He lifted one hand to his mouth and dragged his tongue over his knuckles slowly. Mesmerised, Draco watched as Potter did the same thing to his other hand.

“You sure you don’t want it?” Potter asked, oblivious to Draco’s sudden inner turmoil. Not trusting his voice at this moment, he just waved a dismissive hand in the air. Potter shrugged and lifted one of the ice lollies to his mouth.

Sweet Merlin!

Draco almost choked as Potter’s lips closed around the ice lollie. He pushed it deeper into his mouth and started sucking. Draco had to control himself not to clutch his chest in surprise. He winced when Potter made a slurping noise.

“You know,”  Potter said happily, “I had my first ice lolly when I was ten years old. I really like them.”

Draco had trouble concentrating on what Potter was saying, but still, a frown formed on his face.

“You hadn’t had ice cream before that?”

Potter shook his head and looked at the two ice lollies in his hands. They were both dripping like mad. He lifted one to his mouth again and licked it, painfully slow, from the bottom up, before sticking it in his mouth again. This time, he twirled it around, before releasing it again with a little ‘pop’.

Draco was sure he was about to faint. The heat wasn’t exactly helping, either.

“Potter,” he spluttered. He stepped forward and gazed at his mouth intently. “Ugh, you really are an imbecile, aren’t you?”

Potter’s mouth and his chin were smeared with the remnants of the ice lolly. Draco reached out and stroked the corner of Potter’s mouth with his thumb. He saw Potter’s adam’s apple bob as he swallowed.

“It’s sticky,” Draco muttered. He wasn’t really aware that he was leaning down, until his tongue made contact with Potter’s skin. Surprised by his own boldness, he quickly stepped back.

“I don’t know why I did that.”

Potter was flushed and he looked like he was trying to decide something.

“Sod that,” he suddenly muttered and let go of the two ice lollies. Before they hit the ground, Potter had his arms around Draco’s neck and their lips pressed together. Draco made a startled sound when Potter’s tongue pushed into his mouth. He tasted like artificial oranges. Yuck! But the things Potter apparently could do with that tongue…

“Let’s go back to my place,” Potter panted after a few moments. “Oh, but first, let me go back to that store real quick.”

Draco frowned.

“Why?”

“Because,” Potter said with one of his mischievous grins, “I want more ice cream.” He dropped his voice to a low, seductive whisper. “I want creamy, rich chocolate ice cream.” Draco shuddered at the way Potter was looking at him. “And I plan to lick it off your chest and out of your navel.”

This time, Draco really did choke. He recovered rather quickly, however, and grabbed Potter’s hand.

“Merlin, what are we waiting for?”

[radicalace]

I just realized that I grew up during a time where the crazy frog was a thing. Like that was an actual thing that happened, that blue fucking piece of shit frog took the world by storm and it even had a tiny dick and all it did was sing annoying songs while racing around sci-fi towns in a distant future on an invisible motorbike. I can’t believe this. How did that happen. Who LET that happen.

[wilczawisnia]

Judging by some posts here (at tumblr), you’d think that there is no single page in all seven books on which Severus Snape doesn’t insult people right and left.

[bethsaestetics-blog]

Tru dat

[bethsaestetics-blog]

Bellatrix has a heart

I've always wondered why bellatrix didn't just go too Andromedas house and kill her and the family? It couldn't have been that hard due to bloodwards. Even then she could have broken other wards so why didn't she? It would have been an easy kill. How about maybe that bellatrix who was brilliant at hiding and manipulating her thoughts was secretly visiting her sister with narcissa ? They are both excellent liars and I think this definitely could have happened to to the fact Bella would go against Voldemort just to keep her family safe. I think she had to kill tonks to make sure she didn't get found out... she was expected to kill her because of her beliefs... ifk this is just what I think

[deathdaydungeon]

I hate when people refer to the Death Eater as Nazis. Please, can we stop comparing fictional characters and events to the Holocaust and the Nazi regime as a whole. It's sickening and hugely disrespectful.

Mmm, it’s tedious.

Honestly, some of the blame has to lie with the author, who made such comparisons in interview - so given that fact, I understand why others jump to it as well.  But frankly, given that the comparisons are so thin in Potter and so poorly explored, I think it’s insulting.

The general obsession with reducing every bad person to being a Nazi, or every bad leader to being Hitler…it’s farcical, and I fear it reduces the comprehension of the pain, suffering and loss that was caused during those wars (on both sides).  The rise of a fascist regime and a six million person genocide should not be used as ‘gotchas’ for a fandom argument 65 years later.

I feel our forebearswould be distinctly unimpressed.  Mine most certainly would be.

[atalienart]

[deathdaydungeon]

Are there any howling Americanisms in fanfic that are a particular pet peeve? (I try, but I suspect I've committed a few!)

I had a good think about this, and it turned more into a reference post than an actual statement of what really bothers me.  To be honest, if it happens infrequently, I can usually squint past it - but if there’s a lot, or it’s something that’s used over and over then I find it harder.

So…here we go:

Our parents are mummy, mum, mammy, mam, ma, mother etc, and daddy, dad, da, pa, father etc - but never ever mommy or mom, poppy or pop(s).

Individual pieces of candy are sweets.  Candy bars are chocolate bars.  We don’t eat pancakes for breakfast.  (Pancakes are thin crepes that are eaten on Shrove Tuesday.)  We eat porridge and not oatmeal, and we have biscuits and not cookies.  Maple syrup was not really in the UK in the 90s, nor was corn syrup; we have golden syrup, or treacle (not molasses).  Crisps are what you call chips.  Jelly is not jell-o.  Dumbledore eats sherbet lemons, not lemon drops.  We drink fizzy drinks (well, we mostly refer to them by brand or type) and not soda.  We have candy floss, not cotton candy.  We have mince beef, not ground beef - and there’s a rack of different names for vegetables (courgette vs zucchini, swede vs rutabaga etc.).  Faggots are meatballs, not a homosexual slur.

Whilst public (private) schools may and do charge, there’s no indication that Hogwarts requires tuition fees.  Nor do we pay for healthcare; Dudley wouldn’t have been charged to have his tail removed.  We don’t have extra credit, and we don’t have a grade point average.  In the 90s, there weren’t really proms, and no graduation ceremonies.  (Some schools did awards ceremonies following results, usually in the first term of the next school year.)  We don’t have kindergarten; we have reception.

We use the pavement, not the sidewalk.  We use a car park and not a parking lot.  In the 90s, you could legally smoke at 16 (now 18), you could legally drive at 17, you could legally drink at 18.  In the 60s and 70s, the shopkeeper would’ve served Severus or Lily for their parents, even though they’re underage.  Lily and Severus lived around the same postcode, not ZIP code.  A yard in Spinner’s End is actually a yard (6 foot of paving), not a garden.  If Severus wants to grow items for brewing (assuming no magical shenanigans), he probably needs to have an allotment.  Our streets are not set up in blocks.   Cokeworth is not in London, and certainly cannot be accessed via the tube.

You fill your car with petrol or diesel, not gas - and we drive on the motorway, not the freeway.  We take lifts and not elevators.  We sleep in beds (single, double, king, super king - not twin) and not cots.  We live in flats, not apartments - and the first floor is up a flight of stairs from the ground floor.  We go on holiday, not vacation.  We use mobiles not cellphones, and when we shop we use a trolley and not a cart.  We use put rubbish in the dustbin (or just bin); we don’t put garbage in the trashcan.  We don’t knock on wood, we touch wood and whilst our measuring systems are screwed up, we definitely use celsius for outside temperature.  …and if Hermione’s parents ever sort Severus’ teeth out, they use braces, not retainers.  (Speaking of which, we also use braces to mean suspenders.  Suspenders in British English mean garters.)

We say bum or bottom or backside or arse; not ass or butt and most definitely not fanny (which is something completely different).  We have fringes and not bangs.  Pants go under trousers unless you’re Superman.  Vests go under a shirt, and waistcoats go over…and wifebeater is not a vest, but slang for a particular lager that gets people a bit handsy.  We wear football boots and not cleats.  (Btw, bleachers are stands.) We wear jumpers, not sweaters.  We use wardrobes and cupboards, not closets.  We wear trainers and not sneakers.  We ring 999 in an emergency, not 911.  We use plasters, not band aids.  We use notes, not bills, and £5 is the lowest (the £1 note ceased being produced in the early 80s).  We don’t leave money on the bar.  Cigarettes have many names, including cig, ciggie, smoke and fag.  …and we have our own television shows.  US bands are often important in the UK, but we also have our own music as well.

There’s no such word as ‘gotten’ in British English (sorry, I know that’s a big one for most writers; you wouldn’t expect that we wouldn’t have it!).

And if you’re pissed, you’re drunk.  If you’re annoyed, you’re pissed off.  Which is probably what I sound in this post, but I promise, I am not.  :)  

I am sure there’s a billion more, but these were the ones that sprung to mind.

In fairness, the world is getting smaller.  I read a lot of American fiction, and watch a lot of American fiction, and although I might huff a little to myself when I see Snape using an Americanism, it’s not super horrendous.  I might roll my eyes at the sidewalk, but I know what one is and I can carry on reading; it just pulls me out of my spell a little.

If I’m absolutely honest, I’m always impressed when people have bothered to write at all - and I wouldn’t want anyone to freeze and think, “Oh no, I daren’t write anything ever again!”  I mean, I’ll admit, I’ve read stories solely due to the trope, and the writing was genuinely atrocious…but I stuck with them, and the plot ended up being fantastic.  

So I do try to not ‘nope’ out of something if I can help it; you might miss out on something wonderful.  But to answer your question, the things that bother me most?  Mom, pancakes for breakfast, and Hogwarts tuition fees.  They’re the killers for me.  :D

[deathdaydungeon]

United Kingdom ≠ United States of America

I have seen four separate posts today that have made reference to Snape’s privilege by calling him a ‘White boy’.  This irritates me because the UK’s social structure has always historically been divided by class, so whilst ‘White male privilege’ in itself is absolutely an issue, the argument is not as relevant when applied to the UK in the 1970s.

Firstly, the UK has a very different demographic to the US.  The 2001 Census showed the following (source):

To compare, Black and Black British made up 2.3% of respondents, Asian or Asian British made up 5.1% of respondents, and British Mixed made up 1.4% of respondents.

The UK is steadily changing - so the further back you go into the 20th Century, the less diverse the country is.  The table below (source) shows that in 1981, the White population in the UK was approximately 95%.  This is when Snape was 21; it would’ve been less diverse again whilst he was growing up in the 60s and 70s.

The repeated insistence that being White in the UK during this time offers Snape a level of privilege is ridiculous - not because discrimination against other ethnic groups didn’t exist, but because people in the UK were predominantly White.  And by predominantly, we’re talking in the region of 97% White.

After all, you have to remember that Snape doesn’t come from an area like London, where the population is more ethnically diverse.  There are huge areas of the UK where the population is still 97% White today.  To demonstrate this, let’s jump forward slightly, to the 2011 Census (which shows more diversity, with the number of respondents identifying as White falling to 87.1%).  

Even with that drop from 95% to 87%, look at the map below, and you can see for yourself the huge areas of the UK where there is very very little diversity (source by SkateTier).

The reason I have raised this is because there is a reason why class dominates the UK.  There is a reason why UK posters, such as myself, spend hours discussing poverty, and the lack of social mobility, and the house the Snape family lived in.  There’s a reason why we elaborate on the structure of Cokeworth as a location and explain why Lily is not of the same social class as Snape.  There’s a reason why we talk about the Dursley family, and their life in Surrey, and the contrast of neglect that Harry suffers from the Dursleys to the neglect that Snape suffers from his parents.

I appreciate that there are things in the text that are abundantly obvious to me, as someone who lives in the UK, who grew up in the UK, and who is affected by class and understands how it is used to discriminate, control and oppress - and I appreciate that some of these things may not be as clear to other readers.  

I also freely admit that I do not deeply understand the structures of other countries, and consequently, I do not pass critique; I certainly do not broadly apply the findings from my own country to other countries, and expect that my stance would be relevant.

Dismissing Snape as privileged because he’s White demonstrates that you do not understand the UK in the slightest, and you certainly do not understand the UK in the 1970s.  To suggest that he is the privileged White boy in the scene of Snape’s Worst Memory when you have two upper class (A) boys bullying the working class (C2/D/E) boy…it borders upon offensive.  (There is an argument about Snape’s gender affording him privilege over Lily, but it is nullified by Lily’s considerably higher social class.)

I’ll leave you with a quote from two UK politicians in 2008 (source):

“We know that inequality doesn’t just come from your gender, race, sexual orientation or disability.  What overarches all of these is where you live, your family background, your wealth and social class.“ and:  “A child’s social class background at birth is still the best predictor of how well he or she will do at school and later on in life.”

…and believe me, in 2008, things were a lot better in the UK than they are now - and were a lot better than they’d ever been…and yet, social class remained the true marker of privilege.

So, if you believe that Severus Snape (as a child or a teenager) was privileged in any way, shape or form, then the only conclusion I can draw is that you lack the necessary context for you to fully understand the story.

[severusdefender]

i mean if he was white (which he isn’t), he’s still privileged. just because the country is 80-95% white doesn’t erase that privilege. severus was born during the colonial era, race was still extremely important. however, in hogwarts, especially during swm he was not privileged over anyone. not even a little. it’s gross how they’re trying to take away the awfulness of what happened by assigning james and sirius different races. do they really think there’s something righteous in two rich, asian purebloods attacking a white boy who did nothing to them? how many videos have we seen show us the opposite? don’t they feel sick when the use the same setting for ‘someone who deserves it’? i really hate how the fandom (usually the white members) use race.

[deathdaydungeon]

Yes, I should preface this by saying that always pause a bit when I talk about race, and I am happy to defer.  I suppose the analogy I was crudely making was that the systemic racial discrimination that takes place in the USA wasn’t happening to the same degree within the UK, because the population was predominantly White.

That doesn’t mean that the UK rises above discrimination.  Instead, in lieu of being able to discriminate via race, the UK population found other ways to discriminate within the White population - and that way was via social class.

The UK certainly exerted such racial discrimination over other countries and there are serious levels of racial discrimination within the UK now - it’s just that the traditional (and still extremely applicable) system of oppression is via social class.  There are other inequalities - race, sexual orientation, gender, disability etc - but whilst it must seem incredible to people outside of the UK, none of these are as big a barrier to social mobility as class.

Now, I am quite laidback when it comes to headcanons and interpretations, but pushing James and Sirius into being a different ethnicity and leaving Snape as White, and then claiming that Snape has White privilege over them, or claiming that Lily’s ethnic status ‘technically’ changes because of her blood status, and claiming that Snape is using his White privilege over her…it’s just such a skew of what’s written.

Playing devil’s advocate, even if you wanted to say all of that was true(!!!), the great big monster in the room that most people outside of the UK don’t see is social class.  It doesn’t matter what ‘White privilege’ Snape has in these circumstances…social class comes along, and moves all of the kids around so James and Sirius are at the top of the ladder, Lily is a few rungs below, and Snape is so far down the bottom of the ladder, he’s had to dig a hole in the floor to sit in.

[inimitablebiscuit]

So lets get historical - Britain was a feudal state for centuries and in some ways it still shows in our culture - judging people by social class is the most obvious one. In the 70s in ‘Cokeworth’ (read northern towns similar to Leeds, Sheffield, Hull etc but with even more poverty and less opportunities ) The Snape family would be living in a grotty victorian 2up2down no bathroom, outside toilet kind of place. They wouldn’t have been able to afford coal all the time to use in the stove so Snape would have had to have dip washes in cold water - no wonder he never learnt about hair care. The weekly wash in a tin bath was still a thing in very poor communities. He would have hoped in winter that he had enough blankets and jumpers to be warm enough stay asleep in bed. Colour was less of a problem because EVERYONE’S lives were in the shitter.

Alcoholism in unemployed men is a real issue even now but in the 70s it was fucking appalling - factory/mine and milling towns were going bust due to the international markets opening up and Britain being behind the game. This means at least half the male population being out of work, on the dole with NO prospect of anything better in the future. They spent their dole money on hiding from their lives in the pub. And some people are mean drunks like Tobias Snape. Then Thatcher became prime minister at the end of the 70s and it GOT WORSE (3 day weeks, electricity rationing, privatisation, riots &protests by the unions) I can understand why Snape would leap at an opportunity to escape his situation even though he knew it wasn’t the greatest idea he reckoned it would be better than the shitty adult life he was trying to avoid. Yes he was wrong, he was a teenager desperately trying to not have the life his dad had. Victorian factory towns were fucking awful to live in and he’d mostly escaped it for 7 years there was no way he’d want to return to Cokeworth.

Go watch The Full Monty, Billy Eliot, maybe Kes and pay attention to the socio-political backgrounds of those films before talking about Snape & historical white privilege in the UK.

[howveryirritating]

This is something I think about a lot when it comes to discussing Slytherin as the house of privilege. Yes, the values of Slytherin are wealth and purity and, as such, most of the people in the house are from backgrounds of privilege. For those in the US, think of it as a prestigious fraternity or university. People who do not fit the mold of wealthy and White can absolutely make it in, but it does not erase the lack of privilege from their background and can make them even more isolated. 

Conversely, NOT being in that society/Slytherin house does not automatically erase the privilege one is born with. James is moneyed and pure-blooded. Sirius is moneyed, pure-blooded, and part of the aristocratic class. Being in gryffindor does not strip them of the privilege with which they enter Hogwarts. 

I personally find POC Potters head-canons very compelling, but when we look at the text as it is, Rowling emphases James being “well-cared for” in contrast to Snape’s neglect, with which Harry empathizes. Bringing in American concepts of race to what is so specifically British class-related in the text is completely irrelevant. 

[majorelorne]

I would just say that saying getting washed in a tin bath was the reason he didn’t learn proper hair care… is total bullshit.

Look, this post is a great breakdown of social classes in the uk and why class is such a different animal in the uk than the us.

HOWEVER, the upbringing you describe Snape as having is the exact same as my mother had. Except she was the eldest of four with a disabled sister. Her mother left when she was a young teenager, leaving my mother to care for the family. Her dad was bankrupt twice.

Did she become systematically racist? Was she drawn to those offering wealth and privilege if she followed them? (In this case, the Tories of the time)

No. She became a nurse and she was a member of the Anti Nazi League. A member of the Labour Party. And she’s perfectly capable of washing her hair.

She lives, even now, with the fear of being poor again, but she works with people who are still that poor and she doesn’t look down on them for it. She doesn’t indulge in the lazy hatred of “dole scum” or “gypsies” or “weirdos” the way that some people her age do. (Again, if you’re looking for parallels between the Death Eaters and Muggle Britain look no further than fucking Katie Hopkins…)

While what you say about Snape and his upbringing are undoubtedly true, you also act as if this is some kind of excuse for his behaviour. In doing so you consign a whole generation to being complete arseholes on the basis of the way they grew up. While probably about half of them are, I still think they would balk at the killing people in the name of blood purity.

I think that’s what you’re forgetting here. Snape killed people. If he was a Death Eater, he took part in murder, whether first hand or as an enabler. HIS UPBRINGING DOES NOT EXCUSE THAT.

[deathdaydungeon]

I feel you’ve draw a few false conclusions in your post.

Discussing someone’s background as a child is not excusing their actions as an adult.  It is an exploration of the circumstances that perhaps caused them to make certain choices.

Secondly, you make the assumption that in a post specifically talking about Snape, that the conclusions drawn would be applicable to everyone in the community.  As you say, of course some people coped with the washing facilities - there are people in modern houses with washing facilities who don’t wash each day, and people without washing facilities who do wash every day.

The point was to highlight Snape’s living conditions; to stress that he lived in the type of housing where it was perhaps more challenging and more effort to keep clean, and that Snape’s apparent neglect points to the fact that those efforts were not being made by their household.  It was not a statement that the entire working class were unwashed.

The rest of your post about him being a Death Eater and your mother not being prejudiced is mostly irrelevant.  This was a discussion about Snape’s background and privilege (or lack of), and you have rather missed the point.  Your comments make the same mistakes as the start of your post; you assume that because your family lived in certain circumstances and didn’t do something, it means that it is not an explanation for Snape living in similar circumstances, and behaving in the opposite way.

Your real world parallels do not work; the Death Eaters and the Tory party are not comparable.  Your mother would not have been afforded privilege and status by voting with them in the same way that Snape may have been through being, essentially, a gang member.  In fact, that is what my entire post was about(!)  Voting Tory as a working class person does not elevate you through the class system.

And that’s without touching your assertion that Snape killed people - you have no idea what he did as a young Death Eater, and as a second wave Death Eater, he was an undercover spy who saved as many people as he could.

[5laz]

@sayruq’s comments got me thinking about a Hogwarts American South AU which will be forthcoming when I get some goddamn sleep. Been awake for about 22 hours and I only got 4 hours the night before. All I’m saying: debutantes. College football. Fraternity hazing. Smoking in the graveyard. Class dress–which was a thing at my alma mater, you’d be turned away from some classes if you weren’t wearing a tie–and the constant stream of gossip from going to a small, isolated school. The Confederate dead, the Knights of Walpurgis, the ghosts of the Cherokee mingling with Robert E. Lee. (The Cherokee fought for the Confederacy, correct me if I’m wrong.) Confederate ghosts marching in matriculation. (That’s actually a ghost story I heard at my alma mater.) Eileen Snape’s from New Orleans, Cajun. His dad’s shanty Irish steelworker (union) from Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Lily’s the nice Jewish girl from the Village. They ended up at Hunter High School or Stuyvesant, two of the best high schools in the United States. (I think both in the top 10) Lily’s in a double with a debutante, her suite mates are debutantes too. She doesn’t know one of them is Eileen’s niece. Potter is fervently right to work. Snape joins as a senior Chi Psi to try to fit in and find friends; Potter et al go Lambda Chi or ATO instead. James is a quarterback. Lucius wears seersucker suits. Everybody likes Lynyrd Skynyrd. I need to fucking sleep. I am so sorry y'all. @generally-nauseated what have I done

[deathdaydungeon]

I think my favourite thing about this post is that I’ve read it about eighteen times, and my grasp on American High School culture is so loose, it might as well be written in French.

…which goes some way to prove my initial point.  :D

[bethsaestetics-blog]

People seem to be missing the point in the Uk, even now you aren't split by skin colour or gender or religion your split by the wealth you have. The richer you are the more privileged you are. Sirius is easily if we use this scale the most privileged character in the era... and snape is the least. I understand the USA seems to be full of twats who only see ease and gender but we don't segregate people by that. If you want a modern showing off what I mean watch a TV show called Ackley bridge. Which is set in Leeds where the culture is diverse.

[deathdaydungeon]

I think the white privilege thing when applied to snape is not just a culture problem. I'm nonwhite and have lived in the US and the UK, and based on personal experience I can say that in both I was more "privileged" than my poorer white friends. Class will always be the main predictor of success, even if race and other things also affect it. Class is even used as a tool to perpetuate racism). People who say snape has privilege are oversimplifying the situation to find support for their hatred.

^^

[deathdaydungeon]

So because the UK was (and still is) extremely, predominantly white, how do you feel about all the people who headcanon every single HP character as a person of colour?

I am very relaxed about how people want to read Potter.  I headcanon all sorts of stuff in my preferred reading, and if people want to headcanon all of the HP characters as being non-white, then that’s totally up to them.

The only time I am bothered by such things is when we’re having a discussion about canon, and people insist on their headcanons as being the only way without being open to other readings.  As long as we discuss things in terms of ‘possible’, ‘plausible’ and ‘probable’, again, I’m laid back.

I suppose the biggest take away from today’s conversation is that we’ve talked before about JK tending to write ‘white as default’, and it’s true that the white UK audience tends to think in terms of ‘white by default’.  Just as people from other countries look at the kids in Harry’s class and think, “Well, if this was like my town, 2/3 of these kids would be Black,” many people in the UK read the books and thought, “Well, everyone’s white apart from the kids cited not to be - Patil twins, Cho, Dean, Blaise etc,” because that’s what matches with our own experiences.

I am 100% behind people reading the books in a way that makes them relevant to them.  I am not 100% behind people doing so, and then making outlandish claims about certain characters and their fans…because they haven’t got the grasp of UK social history to understand why their claims are inaccurate.

[bethsaestetics-blog]

Little bit of Cheryl blossom

[it-started-over-drarry]

When Draco starts taking off his shirt in front of Harry / Harry walks in while he’s shirtless and you know the Sectum Sempra Scars Angst is about to take place