“First, as you say, Severus' slur was inexcusable and, IMO, cannot be explained by him being under a lot of pressure. Pressure and humiliation tends to bring your defences down, meaning you cannot controll yourself from saying things you normally wouldn't say. It doesn't MAKE you say things you don't think. So - in Lily's stead, I think I would have ended our friendship as well - not because I couldn't believe in Severus saying he was sorry for it (I'm sure Lily did - there is no indication she was daft, after all), but because of the reason behind him using this slur. Just as I wouldn't want to be friends with a man who believed women in general to be some sort of pet or piece of meat to use - no matter if he treated ME differently.”
I think Severus’ humiliation did bring his defences down, but not it the sense of making him express secret long-held racist views. Rather, people who’ve just been humiliated often lash out at others to try and regain some of their lost status. What grounds did Snape have for trying to increase his status? None with regards the talented, handsome, male, pure-blooded Marauders. With regards to Lily, there are two potential things which would give Snape higher status than her in wizarding society. One is sex: Snape is male, Lilly female, but we don’t know just how big a difference this would make (JK Rowling once said that the WW was always more feminist than the muggle, because magic acted as an equaliser between the sexes, but we don’t really see much evidence of this in the books, so oh dear, consistency). The other is blood status: Snape is a halfblood, Lilly a muggleborn, which would probably raise his relative status at least a little. So yes, I agree that “a filthy little Mudblood like her” (or whatever it was) was meant to recall the racist aspects of wizarding society, but whilst it might indicate that Severus personally was prejudiced against muggle-borns, it is possible to make a case that he was just looking for anything to make himself look like less of a loser to the onlookers.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-08-19 11:22 pm (UTC)I think Severus’ humiliation did bring his defences down, but not it the sense of making him express secret long-held racist views. Rather, people who’ve just been humiliated often lash out at others to try and regain some of their lost status. What grounds did Snape have for trying to increase his status? None with regards the talented, handsome, male, pure-blooded Marauders. With regards to Lily, there are two potential things which would give Snape higher status than her in wizarding society. One is sex: Snape is male, Lilly female, but we don’t know just how big a difference this would make (JK Rowling once said that the WW was always more feminist than the muggle, because magic acted as an equaliser between the sexes, but we don’t really see much evidence of this in the books, so oh dear, consistency). The other is blood status: Snape is a halfblood, Lilly a muggleborn, which would probably raise his relative status at least a little. So yes, I agree that “a filthy little Mudblood like her” (or whatever it was) was meant to recall the racist aspects of wizarding society, but whilst it might indicate that Severus personally was prejudiced against muggle-borns, it is possible to make a case that he was just looking for anything to make himself look like less of a loser to the onlookers.