In the Goblet of Fire Hogwarts is hosting the Tri-Wizard tournament
where three magical schools come together and choose a champion each. The
champions compete in three tasks testing their daring, their magical ability
and whatnot. Harry is accidentally chosen as the fourth champion when his name
is put into the Goblet of Fire by someone who wanted to kill Harry in a very
specific way.
So first off, Voldemort is all for flair, I love it. He can’t just kidnap Harry, he
has to make Harry join the Tri-Wizard tournament, hope he wins, get him to the
churchyard, and have a fight with him, hopefully kill him, and Bob’s your
uncle. It’s completely insane. And yes, he has a guy at Hogwarts who can make
it more likely, but still, Harry is 14, and anything could have happened during
the tournament. It’s so weird.
Something else that comes up in book four is House Elves and House
Elves’ rights. Hermione is told about House Elves, and has a quite frankly,
fitting reaction to the fact that the Wizarding world has enslaved another
people. Anyways. Hermione creates a society, S.P.E.W., the acronym is a bit
unfortunate. It is her attempt to make House Elves’ lives better. It is
admirable, Hermione sees injustice and tries whatever she can to help them. She
is single-minded and bossy, and a badass. And she’s magical. It’s a great
metaphor for women’s suffrage. It also works to a certain extent as a metaphor
for the slavery in the US, but it’s more women’s rights. House Elves are seen as
property, they can only be freed by given clothes, women for a long time did
not have the right to own property. The House Elves are for the most part happy
in their slavery, and a lot of women fought against suffrage. In Harry Potter’s
world Dobby is happy to be freed, but it still creates problems for him,
because his demands and wishes are seen as preposterous and it is probably
scary for the other House Elves to contemplate the idea of being free and
trying to make their way in the world. Like it was scary for women who were
content as Housewives. Because they were safe and they had food and shelter,
and children and husbands they loved. And even if they were in abusive
households it could probably feel safer than the prospect of being divorced,
alone, and trying to get a job in a world where people don’t want to give you a
job.
When Hermione tries to tell her friends and peers about her Society for
the Promotion of Elfish Welfare for the most part they deride her, they tell
her that the House Elves are happy and don’t want to be freed. And they make
fun of her for being passionate about it. Which is obviously quite normal for
teen girls. Teen girls being passionate is always seen as a bit weird and
obsessive and it’s easy to make fun of. Hermione is obviously also written a
bit exaggerated, because her personality is very much focused on right versus
wrong. And she’s very moral and a bit obsessive. She will do what’s right,
well, what she sees as right, to a fault. She’s also single-minded and she isn’t
great at listening to differing opinion. Now concerning House Elves I think
she’s right, but she is so single-minded she overrides everyone else. Also I
would like to point out the delightful dichotomy of Sirius saying you should
judge a man by how he treats his inferiors, and is then a complete shit to
Kreacher in the Order of the Phoenix. Great job Sirius.
The way House Elves are treated by most people is horrendous. They are
often referred to as “Elf,” not by name. They’re treated as if they aren’t there,
and they are prohibited from using their own magic. THEIR OWN MAGIC. They can’t
use their own magic unless their owners let them. In Order of the Phoenix we’re
told that Sirius’ family used to decapitate their dead House Elves and display
them like trophies, and no one but Hermione gives that the reaction it
deserves, it’s fucking atrocious. They’ve been slaves their whole lives and now
they get to be humiliated in death as well. Awesome.
I feel like my reading of Hermione in Goblet of Fire has changed as I’ve
gotten older. When I was 15-ish and read it the first time my internalized
sexism made me think Hermione was silly and weird, and why was she harping on
about this? But as I’ve gotten older I love her more and more. As I let go of
my own internalized sexism and misogyny bit by bit I love Hermione with all her
ups and downs.
Here’s the thing about SPEW. Hermione is coming from a place that is
great. She wants to help. She sees this massive, awful injustice and she
thinks: “this cannot stand” and she does what she can. Still, she speaks from a
place of privilege. She is a free witch. She can use whatever magic she wants,
she’s by most people not seen as a second-class, or third-class maybe, citizen.
On the other hand she is also marginalized in that she’s both a woman and a
muggle born, so I guess she can see how difficult it is to be marginalized and
to be told she can’t do what she wants, or that she’s not valued in the same
way as men, or as pure blood or half-blood witches and wizards. The thing is,
Hermione has decided that House Elves are treated poorly and she will save
them. If you’re going to have any kind of revolution it also needs to come from
the community or people who need emancipation. If the House Elves were to have
a revolution they would probably need someone like Dobby to start it. Someone
who is one of them, someone who has fought against his own injustice and come
out victorious. Someone who actually knows what the problems facing House Elves
are. At the same time; you probably need the help of someone in a position of
privilege. So I think the House Elves need someone like Hermione to help pave
the way for them, to help change opinions among witches and wizards. But
Hermione can’t decide how someone else is going to fight their fight. So while
her intentions are amazing, and great, the way she goes about it isn’t
necessarily great. She refuses to listen to the Elves and what they want. She’s
just decided it. It would be like men telling women what they need, or white
people telling black people what they want and need. That obviously happens
too, but you know what I mean.
I wish Hermione had more supporters, because she seems so alone, and it
makes me feel like Elfish suffrage will take a long time. Whenever anyone said
the House Elves are happy I felt like shouting: “They’re brainwashed and
systematically oppressed, of course they think they’re happy, you wankers.”
So these are my surprisingly angry thoughts about House Elves and the
rights of House Elves. I hope Hermione managed to get a House Elf or two on
board and they worked together to find a way to make the lives of House Elves,
and other creatures better. Because let’s face it, the world of Harry Potter is
in many ways stuck in the past. In a world that the muggles have gotten past
when it comes to equal rights and all that. Yeah.
