I guess the question is less about if it was or wasn't sexual assult and more that is all sexual assault equal? I'd consider a woman getting sexually assaulted much worse inherently due to how society is structured. Similarly, being raped is way worse than getting your ass grabbed for example, and both are worse than what happened to Snape, even though that was also a terrible thing. The point is not all sexual assault is equal. At this tier, sexual assault, traumatic as it is, can't really be worse than dark magic which would result in actual injuries and even death. It's way more taboo due to being associated with sex, but come on, there's just no way it's objectively even close to as bad. I'd rather be pantsed every day for the rest of my life than have to face Sectumsempra once.
At no point can your personal perception of what is or isn’t traumatic be used to assess a systemic social problem or to define the generalized experience of people regarding certain types of violence. That argument is completely fallacious and absurd precisely because it also perpetuates the undervaluation of psychological, emotional, or biased violence. Basically, you're validating only physical violence and glorifying it, when in fact it is well established in psychiatry that many victims of severe trauma have lifelong consequences without having suffered physical harm, and that deep-rooted personality traits or behaviors can develop without any physical violence involved.
What you're doing is applying a framework of trauma, abuse, and violence hierarchy. And from a criminal psychology, social work, and legal standpoint, there's an ongoing effort to dismantle that outdated rhetoric, which is also deeply rooted in structural biases closely tied to patriarchal and classist assumptions.
No one here is claiming that all types of sexual violence have the same impact or should be evaluated at the same legal or psychoanalytic level. In fact, that's exactly why in sentencing, a rapist is not punished the same as a rapist who used excessive force, nor as a harasser, nor a violent stalker. Many aggravating factors are considered when determining the severity of a case. But reducing this debate to a matter of “what’s worse” is a simplistic and utilitarian logic, and in issues so sensitive and deeply connected to sociocultural structures (structures still being actively fought within cultural, institutional, and legal spheres) it strikes me as both dangerously ignorant and deeply misinformed.
You're also dismissing all theoretical analysis —sociological, political, psychiatric— on how the exposure of someone’s body, control over that body, and the violation of personal boundaries are acts of systemic oppression, not merely socially awkward situations around nudity. The control of people begins with control over their bodies. That’s why slave owners held not only legal and political control over their slaves but also claimed ownership of their bodies for every kind of abuse. There is a clear power dynamic when someone feels entitled to exert control over another's body, be it through non-consensual sex or by exposing that body in public against their will. Justifying or minimizing this is participating in rape culture.
Rape culture, from a gender theory perspective —not just feminist, but as a foundational pillar of how we socialize— does not only justify rape. It encompasses a vast web of behaviors and social mechanisms that revolve around the normalization of abuse against the body in all forms, including non-physical acts that contribute to or excuse physical abuse.
Symbolic and sexual violence are not “lesser” just because they're not physically visible. Saying they're less severe because they don’t kill is basically a slap in the face to all the psychological research on trauma caused by emotional or psychological abuse, and how the consequences are often more deep-seated and harder to treat than PTSD from a physical attack or accident. And yes, sexual assaults are not ranked against each other to determine “the worst.” They are understood as part of a continuum of violence. There is a concept called the “violence pyramid,” which shows how abuse escalates, and its foundational layers include systemic, psychological, and emotional violence.
People can take years to recover from an emotionally abusive relationship even if their abuser never laid a hand on them. And yet that abuser is still an abuser, still legally punishable, and the victim is no less of a victim than a survivor of rape. Understanding that violence is not a competition but an intersectional network where different types of violence overlap is not about ranking suffering. It’s about understanding how some forms of aggression are normalized while others are condemned, not because they’re necessarily less harmful, but because they target bodies and individuals that lack social legitimacy as victims.
What you’re doing here, for example, is centering your personal judgment over someone else’s suffering and invalidating victims of violence through your own biases and ignorance. And I’m sorry, but just because, as a woman, being raped or publicly stripped may have more complex implications in some contexts doesn’t mean that abuse against men is any less serious.
Abuse toward men by OTHER men —such as James and Sirius publicly stripping Severus— is deeply rooted in patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and dominant models of manhood based on violence, power, and control. This isn’t just about bullying. It’s about a group of men enforcing their power over another man who doesn’t fit into hegemonic masculine norms. It is absolutely a gender issue too. The fact that this group dynamic mirrors the way women are often abused—by multiple attackers targeting perceived weakness—demands the same critical attention.
To excuse, defend, or downplay that kind of abuse is to justify toxic masculinity. James and Sirius are abusers whose actions serve to validate themselves as dominant males at the expense of a weaker one. That is patriarchy at work. And defending it is just another way of perpetuating, minimizing, and excusing patriarchal and hegemonic masculinity.
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