mystery of the universe #218: how the mcu fandom somehow interprets steve rogers as an innocent child who’s never heard people curse before despite the fact that he grew up in brooklyn and served in the army
what do you make of house elves being better off left slaves because they wanted to be? it made me feel weird that there was a species MEANT to be slaves.
but that’s not canon at all.
a lot of people believed this throughout the series, including sympathetic and wise characters like Hagrid, but they were wrong. Rowling lets good people be wrong and doesn’t chastise them in the text for it. She doesn’t bother spoon feeding readers social justice, but the message that “even good people can condone awful things” is one of the strongest themes of the story. the house elf situation is a perfect example of why you can’t just read the surface text of Harry Potter and assume the author is speaking through the characters when they say slaves love being slaves and change the subject.
like, look at hermione’s SJW phase. the surface read on that? she tried to fix something that wasn’t broken, and she failed hilariously and gave up because nobody cared, even the elves.
except no. she was right about house elves. ideologically, she was seeing something Wizard culture was blind to, and she was 100% right.
but in her SJW phase, she wanted to fix this enormous and culturally accepted horror by trying to force the house elves to make choices that conformed to her notion of what was best for them.
she tried to free elves without their consent, she lectured them about their situation from her position of almost total ignorance, she ignored their wishes at every turn, and she tried to control their liberation and make it be on her terms, and it didn’t work. time and again, no one listened. humans didn’t really mind having slaves, it turns out, and because the house elves she met had never known anything but a world where their lot is servitude, why should they give a fuck about a 14 year old human child’s notion of social justice? she expected the world to change on the strength of her moral outrage, and she failed utterly
this storyline was not meant to impart the message that Hermione was wrong all along. it was meant to represent the vast chasm between meaning well and doing well. even very clever, kind people fuck up a whole lot, and there’s no one cleverer or more kind than Hermione Granger to demonstrate this point.
of course the house elves don’t want to be freed! they’d been abused, degraded and indoctrinated to see “freedom” as a threat. being good at servitude is the only value they’ve ever been permitted to hold since birth! a choice between this familiar, unhappy servitude and the shame of being cast out into the world with no skills, no friends, and no support system is not a choice most people could ever make.
Hermione was instructing victims to stop being victimized on her say-so, and she was offended when they didn’t jump at the chance to throw out what little safety they could count on in life in favor of a freedom that was basically meaningless to them.
She didn’t learn some shitty moral lesson about how house elves are better off as slaves. she learned that paternalism and a massive savior complex are terrible reasons to start a movement. she learned that putting the burden of changing systematic injustice on the oppressed and superimposing your own cultural beliefs on them with no regard for their own feelings is insulting and degrading.
she learned that absolutely everyone will tell you to fuck off if you pull condescending SJW shit on them, even if it’s in their best interests to do what you want them to do.
and Hermione took this lesson with her when she finished school. she became a House Elf advocate within the Ministry. She used her influence and power to enter the system and stop the fuckery from the human side instead of telling slaves to stop being so slavey and being annoyed when they stayed oppressed.
you think a genius like Hermione Granger couldn’t figure out with a little bit of experience that systemic change has to come from within the ranks of the powerful? man, not even.
My Costumer taught me his bitter song, and it is guaranteed to make you feel better, especially if sang with a group of people joining in. So I thought I’d share it for any of you who might need it
If you’re bitter and you’re jaded clap your hands
If you’re bitter and you’re jaded clap your hands
If you’re bitter and sadistic and about to go balistic
A 14 year-old boy was recently raped at knife-point by a 20 year-old woman. When the story broke, it was primarily men who claimed he should have enjoyed it. It was feminists who validated his pain and spoke in support of him.
i use my tags as like….a secret whisper space….like…..idk how many of u actually read them but i know not all of u do obviously so it’s like the BONUS FACTS part of the book or something. the special fan club secrets. U Know Me A Little Better If U Read My Tags.
petition to not allow straight guys to drive bc if they can’t focus in school when a girl’s shoulders are showing then how can they focus on the road when women are all over billboards and may be walking or jogging in TANK TOPS and SHORT SHORTS and we let them drive by it all at 20-80mph in vehicles that weigh thousands of pounds? it’s a public safety hazard really
I fucking want there to be a store called Build A Bra which is like Build A Bear but instead you get to build a bra and choose the straps and the colors and the style and EVERYTHING AND IT WOULD BE MAGICAL AND WONDERFUL
Oh my god can this please exist?!
and ACTUALLY GET THE BRA YOUR SIZE
Not that i care but u literally stole this off of iCarly
do you think the bartender under nate’s place knows what the team does? or does he just like, accept this weird group of five people who constantly meet clients at weird hours and who get into fist fights with insurance agents and mob hitmen, and like—talk into thin air all the time.
“Feminazi” is a real timesaver, because someone saying that just freed you from listening to them ever again. It’s such a specific strawman that it has its own name. But the term “feminazi” is far too evocative and powerful a phrase for this phantom. I suggest the term “boogeywoman,” reducing the concept to the appropriate level of maturity and power.
Those who fear the boogeywoman claim feminism is a crusade of man-hating assholes, instead of a struggle against a patriarchal system that damages men as well as women. But don’t worry, there’s a useful quick check to find out if someone’s an asshole, and it works on both sides: Ask them how they feel about transgender people. That’ll identify who truly cares about equality and who’s just being an asshole real quick.
Even if a woman is mean to you, boohoo. You can’t dismiss an entire concept because one supporter is an asshole. If “one of them was a jerk” was reason enough to censor entire concepts, men would have become extinct long ago, along with every political and sociological concept ever conceived. I’ve met dickhead professors of quantum mechanics, but that doesn’t mean my computer stops working.
“Now, a young transwoman sits, 26 years old, detained in the Cook County Jail, facing 10 years imprisonment for 1st degree attempted murder. Her crime? Self-defense.”—
You are still a man. In fact, you are the manliest of men. Do you know how few dudes there are in the world who could even deal with all the shit involved in menstruation?? You are a studly, ass-kicking, chocolate-murdering motherfucking M A N because people with periods are fucking badass and don’t forget that shit!!!
Teacher:
Here is a picture of American military propaganda from WWI. The Hun is a nickname for the Germans.
Student in the back of the class:
LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS
The entire class:
TO DEFEAT THE HUNS. DID THEY SEND ME DAUGHTERS, WHEN I ASKED FOR SONS? YOUR THE SADDEST BUNCH I'VE EVER MET, BUT YOU CAN BET BEFORE WE'RE THROUGH. MISTER, I'LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU.
