Most of the things fandom makes up about characters and how they change them are unbearable, but if there’s one thing that really gets on my nerves, it’s how people just invent traumas out of nowhere, traumas the characters never experienced and for which there’s zero evidence. Lately I’ve seen people talk about the Black sisters, saying Bellatrix was deeply traumatized and that’s why she joined the Death Eaters, or that Narcissa was forced into her marriage and I’m just sitting there like… there are so many things wrong with that from every possible angle.
Leaving aside the fact that no, there’s nothing supporting that theory if anything, the opposite is true: Bellatrix is not only one of Voldemort’s most fervent followers, she genuinely believes in the cause and is basically a guerrilla soldier who enjoys what she does. Narcissa not only seems quite content in her marriage, she literally abandons her political stance and betrays her social circle to protect her family —both her son and her husband— even though her husband is partly responsible for the situation they’re in.
The thing is, stripping women of their agency to make morally questionable decisions is incredibly misogynistic. A woman doesn’t follow an unethical or questionable path, or hold questionable beliefs, just because she’s been brainwashed or traumatized. Thinking like that reduces women to passive roles, where they’re incapable of thinking for themselves, and the only way they can hold morally unacceptable views is if someone has traumatized them into it. The reality is that women have agency; we can make choices based on our own desires or interests. There are women with violent tendencies, and women who find certain conservative structures beneficial.
No, Bellatrix wasn’t abused at home, there’s nothing suggesting that. There’s nothing suggesting she was unhappy with her family; quite the opposite. Her role toward her younger sister is fairly dominant (which makes sense, since she’s not only the eldest of three sisters but also the eldest among five cousins), and she always showed complete alignment with pure-blood ideology. In fact, the fact that Narcissa isn’t part of the active fight shows that joining the Death Eaters wasn’t mandatory within their family, so Bellatrix joined because she wanted to. That means no one pressured, coerced, or traumatized her into it. She was simply someone raised with certain ideals who, unlike her younger sister, was willing to actively fight for her political goals. And not only that: she becomes one of the most important figures in that faction, basically the leader’s right hand, showing absolute devotion to him and his ideology.
So I don’t understand the need to completely rewrite her background just to… what, give her more drama? Does her story need more drama? And why does that drama have to come from ideological trauma? Why can’t a female character freely choose, with full agency, to do bad things? Can’t women be violent? Do women always have to be passive?
Similarly, it’s really frustrating how Narcissa is portrayed as someone pressured into marriage, or as an unhappy or abused wife, when the whole point of the Malfoys is that yes, they have terrible beliefs, but they are a family that genuinely loves each other and sticks together to the end. Their ideology is what leads to their downfall, but it’s their love as a nuclear family that ultimately saves them from ending up dead or in prison. Narcissa doesn’t risk her life just for her son: she does it for her whole family, for both her son and her husband. They’re consistently shown as a united couple, even at their lowest point.
In the end, Narcissa represents a more traditional side of conservative ideology: a high-society woman married to a man of the same status, who is not only content with her life but proud of it, because she’s achieved what many women of her social standing aspire to; a socially prominent family that matches their status. We can like that worldview or not, but regardless, nothing about it suggests a coerced or unhappy marriage. I don’t understand the need to turn her into a victim forced into marriage when everything points to her choosing it willingly, Lucius and she moved in the same circles and likely knew each other from a young age.
I also don’t get portraying her as an abused woman when Lucius is never shown to be violent toward her or their son. In fact, when he falls from grace and becomes almost catatonic after realizing how disposable he is to Voldemort, she’s the one who steps up and pulls the family through.
It all feels completely unnecessary and, again, strips a female character of her individual agency just because some people in fandom can’t handle morally gray or immoral characters, or can’t write them without softening them. So they invent a narrative to feel more comfortable. But fans’ comfort shouldn’t come at the cost of mutilating characters, especially female characters, and especially morally complex ones. Women have historically been portrayed either as saintly or submissive, and forcing characters back into those molds does them no favors. It’s just pure internalized misogyny.
turnnoffyourmind
dededos
theartofmadeline
titsay
2087
