#snape defense
The HP series: makes a joke out of putting a man in drag, calls a male character’s handwriting feminine for a ‘subtle’ joke on rereads, mocks a male character for having to wear his mom’s clothes due to poverty, makes a point of calling an invasive reporter’s hands mannish, treats a female rapist sympathetically - going so far as to imply her evil son might not have been so evil if only his rapist mom would have stuck around, portrays the girls’ dorms as needing a defense against rape but not the boys,
Snaters, apparently: The obvious sign she was a terf was that she thought a man might feel extreme remorse, when him joining a cult partially leads to the murder of his first friend.
This fucker on tiktok comment section talking about “well it’s not James’s fault that Snape chose not to wear trousers under his robes so no it wasn’t sa” of course it wasn’t James’s fault! It was the school’s fault, or the magical society’s because TROUSERS WERE NOT A PART OF THE HOGWARTS UNIFORM. Guess Snape could’ve worn them under his robes anyway if he didn’t want to be exposed in front of a crowd but I really hope no one thinks that.
So they’re saying it’s a teen girl’s fault, when a guy lifts up her dress, for not wearing trousers under.
Inescapably, that’s what they’re saying by blaming teen Snape for not wearing trousers. And like, literally it’s normal for wizards not to, just as with dresses, but even if it wasn’t - it doesn’t give people the right to strip them nonconsensually just because it might not show underwear!
They’re also saying it’s the muggle victims’ own faults, when the Death Eaters used levicorpus on them in GoF.
marilynmonore3006-deactivated20:
Snape didn’t stole someone’s redemption, he worked for it.
The narrative and fandom wouldn’t have asked half as much of Regulus Black or Draco Malfoy, as was asked of Snape.
And neither of the former would have been half as interesting. I’m pretty exhausted of the “nobleman gets to be treated as fundamentally innocent because of his ability to live apart from the oppressed masses (until now), while everyone else is expected to be born knowing better,” story arc anyway.
Lily, Severus and Altruism
Lily had to be a mystery to preserve the plot twist around Snape’s allegiance, but on re-reads, it is such a missed opportunity. I personally find myself craving more, as I’m torn between two interpretations of her character. The intended interpretation, I’m sure, is that Lily was a good friend and a good person in a doomed relationship, but many people point out that a good friend would have acted very differently in the courtyard scene, to say the least.
I think Lily was a good friend and a good person, even if she was wasn’t as “special” as the narrative makes her out to be. She was certainly special to Snape (perhaps this is the point?). Another lingering question is how much of the good she inspired in him is her, and how much is him.
Lily has two defining moments, one because it literally makes the story possible and the other because it inspires Harry when James is knocked off the pedestal, culminating in Harry’s ultimate sacrifice that won the war. Both these moments involve Lily stepping in front of danger for a loved one, a move that both Harry and Snape revered and emulated.
Evolutionary psychologists like to discuss two types of altruism, kin altruism and reciprocal altruism. Lily exhibits both, in her willingness to die for Harry, and in her willingness to step up for a friend in a tough position. She doesn’t do everything in her power for her friend, certainly, as she could have disarmed James herself or summoned a teacher, but she does more than anyone else present, and that takes strength and courage in itself. She also appreciates altruism and kindness and family, even if she doesn’t always practice it: she reminds Petunia that Dumbledore was kind in his letter, she reminds Severus that Petunia is her sister when he doesn’t understand why she’s crying over that cow, she respects James for saving Severus’s life (misguided as she is), she chastises Severus for hanging around cruel people…
Her values are clear, and they’re solid, but she has failings, and in my opinion, those failings are a desire to feel special and “chosen” and the inability to see shades of gray, leading to unintentional bouts of hypocrisy (or at least glaring obliviousness). Everyoneshe’s associated with is gray: young Severus himself, James, Sirius, Dumbledore, Slughorn, and Peter, but she doesn’t see. Anyone who treats her as something special gets a pass, possibly because her parents started the golden child/scapegoat dynamic that Petunia overcompensated for so wildly with Harry and Dudley. Her blindness to shades of gray in the people she likes - and who like her - lead her to make excuses for Severus for years, then give up on him at just the moment when she could have really made a difference in his life. It also costs her her life, as she trusts James and vicariously, Peter. Typical failings and not a hanging crime, normally, but in a world that features Voldemort, she died for them in a display of kin altruism.
Bringing us to reciprocal altruism. She was friends with Severus, and in return, I suppose he spared her whatever unpleasantness he unleashed upon other Muggle-Borns, and she defended him, until the tit-for-tat expired. Reciprocal altruism makes possible society, a community; a reputation as a good guy enhances reproductive fitness (James knew what he was doing leaking the story of how he saved Snape, but not the whole story, and nothing can convince me otherwise). I like to think, though, that truer friends behave altruistically even when reciprocity is not guaranteed, and even when they’re not bound by blood.
Or perhaps in Slytherin, you’ll make your real friends. Those cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends.
Lily had a real friend in Slytherin, though he strayed. Without the possibility of reciprocity, and while foregoing any possibility of kin altruism in the future, Snape used any means to achieve his end – protecting her and her kin, and fighting for her ideals, that became his. He could not bear to have his goodness exposed, and it speaks volumes that the thing that bothered him was that he would be protecting “Potter’s son.” The humiliation of losing Lily to his bully and abuser was one thing, but the idea of dedicating the rest of his life to protecting Potter’s spawn obviously remained abhorrent to him – forgive me – until the very end (ugh). It is very hard to believe James would have done anything to protect Severus’s son if the roles had been reversed.
It could not be argued that Snape was looking out for his reputation either, as to reveal his goodness would be his doom. Plato speaks of the Ring of Gyges, something akin to the invisibility cloak. His characters maintain that powers of invisibility would corrupt those who had them, that people behave morally and lawfully mostly because others are watching. The perfectly unjust man would grow more respectable with every sin; the perfectly just man’s reputation would grow darker the better he did, and still he would persist. To call Snape perfectly just is absurd, but he does embody the ideal. He didn’t have a ring or a cloak, he had only himself for a mask, and he used any means to achieve his ends, treating his life and reputation as only a resource in the service of the greater goal.
For her.
But not only for her. She was right, ultimately - why should she be any different? The real Lily and the idea of Lily stood to gain nothing from Snape watching die only those whom he could not save. He internalized the values Lily believed in but sometimes failed to act on better than Lily herself.
The Patronus, he was sure, was Umbridge’s, and it glowed brightly because she was so happy here, in her element, upholding the twisted laws she had helped to write.
Umbridge was not being selfish, a hypocrite, or self-serving: she was experiencing the strength and bliss of serving a cause she truly believed in. It was her own version of altruism, proving that noble sentiments can give people the strength to commit atrocities when they don’t have the right values. But Severus did, and his Patronus showed what they were. The Silver Doe was almost like a real animal, beautiful and almost alive, because that was the strength of his faith and his love. He first discovered his altruism because of Lily, but he surpassed her, and it extended in the end not only to people he disliked (or as they are commonly known, people), but to his bitter enemies. Harry learned from him and he did the same, but thanks to the protection afforded by kin altruism, he survived where Severus did not.
Severus evidently experienced very little altruism in his life, and yet he gave so much of it, and that was his true nature, his true end. This cannot be reduced to kin altruism or to reciprocal altruism, but to a higher order, demanding - even spiritual - altruism. Whatever Lily had to do with Severus’s capacity for such altruism, we must thank her.
In Response to They Were Just Kids
The favorite way to remove responsibility from the Marauders for their bullying and abuse of other students.
First posted in response to something on Reddit (which I tried but jesus people are awful over there)
I don’t know about anyone else, but when I was 16 I knew it was wrong to harass, bully, and assault someone for the crime of existing. Or, you know, period. Because it was wrong.
‘They were just kids’ only works when they’re actually children. When Potter and Black made the decision to harass, choke, and strip a fellow student, they were 15/16. They were within 1 to 2 years of their majority. They were old enough to know that was wrong.
'They changed and matured’ only holds water if we see a change. Sirius Black certainly didn’t. Not one of them ever apologized to Snape for their viciousness in school. Not one of them tried to make amends.
Snape made bad choices, yes. But when you’re socially isolated because you’re the favorite target of the sons of two powerful families, who is going to help you make the right ones? How are you supposed to be on the 'right side’ when that side is responsible for a good bit of your misery?
All the people giving the 'they were just kids’ excuse are saying the same type of thing as those who excuse the Brock Turners of this world. And if you’re going to try to accuse Snape of being a bully that JP and SB were defending people from, then cite me a page number or Pottermore article where that’s said or give it up.
The whole “just kids” thing pains me every time I ever hear that excuse. Be it for fictional characters or real life.
They were “just kids” when they threw rocks at me, called me an alien, declared me weird, and othered me. They were “just kids” when they decided it was okay to spread rumors about me proclaiming I was pregnant at before I was even 14 (I can laugh this one off ONLY because it also went with “lesbian and dating a race car driver” which they meant a male one so you know how does that work?). They were “just kids” when they tormented me for not speaking English well, because I had a lispe. They were “just kids” when they went from my friends to the first to attack me at the start of the school year. They were “just kids” every single time I was told to brush it off, clean my face of my tears, and go back to class.
As a kid, when I first read the books, I immediately loved Snape. Why because he was “other”. I could tell from that first moment that he knew what it meant to be like me. To be someone singled out and othered by those who got the “just kids” excuse given to them. Who were allowed to be brushed off and excused by adults around them while YOU were told to suck it up and buck up, get back out there. And as I kept reading, it turned out I was right. I even went so far as to project my own feelings towards a friend of mind onto Snape. This idea he once loved and lost, perhaps a close friend.
And what do you know …. I was right there as well.
The “just friends” leaves a cold, bitter, pain that takes healing to it. And Snape NEVER got that. What he got instead was living constantly in his trauma and with his trauma. Walking through it and repeatedly having to hear from those around him how great those “kids” were and the excuses for their behavior over and over again. Not ONCE did we get a “they did wrong to you” acknowledgement from anyone. Even the chances we did it was a “oh well, they were kids” WITHIN THE BOOKS AND OFTEN TO HARRY.
And what do fans do …. continue it.
