Love potions and double standards in Harry Potter and fandom

[jademoonleader.livejournal.com]

It was mentioned on a previous thread that there is a creepy double standard in the series about how love potions are considered to be somehow OK if a witch uses them. For instance, we get Molly whom JKR wants us to love, giggling about brewing a potion that turns people into lust fuelled zombies. Did she actually slip the potion in question to someone? I really do wonder what JKR could have been thinking (if she thought at all).

The author of this fanfiction (link below) clearly adopts JKR's idea that love potions are alright for witches to use. The character Daphne Greengrass (who is only mentioned in the books, but never appears) slips Harry a love potion and then rapes him in order to curry favour with Voldemort, but bizarrely, all the characters, including Harry himself, blame Harry. What is stranger still, is that the author tries to curry sympathy for Daphne even though she had violated Harry for Voldemort. I discovered the fanfiction on the tv tropes double standards webpage.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8499608/1/Fun-with-Potions

The author actually writes in an author's note at the end of chapter 2: "I don't see why people are getting on my case for Daphne raping Harry. If anything it is just repeating how Merope Gaunt conceived Tom Riddle."

Does this series convince many that rape using love potions is not really rape?

Comments

[oneandthetruth.livejournal.com]

I started to read that story out of curiosity, but it was so badly written I had to quit. (There was "shawn" as the past tense of "shine," and "venerable" when she meant "vulnerable," among other glaring mistakes. The only consolation I can take is that the author's Canadian, so at least it's somebody besides an American looking like an ignorant, uneducated sicko in this case.)

I thought it was kind of funny that she strenuously objected to being called a sicko by reviewers. She whined, "Nobody calls JKR a sicko for having Merope Gaunt rape Tom Riddle." I read that and thought, "Uh, honey, you need to get out more. Look at something besides Rowling sycophant sites, and you'll find plenty of references to Rowling's mental problems."

As for your question, I think some people are just sickos, and they look for things that validate their sickness. The ability of humans to rationalize atrocious behavior is stunning to me. In the US, we're seeing a fine example of that right now. Football player Ray Rice got fired after a video surfaced of him in an elevator, punching his girlfriend in the face so hard that he knocked her out. Yet there have been several fans on TV, mostly women, no less, sporting his jersey and making excuses for his behavior: "Oh, it was just a mistake." "He's a good guy. He's being punished too harshly." And the classic whenever a black man is involved: "It's a lynching by the media!"

Never mind that, as Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out on his MSNBC show, Rice shows no reaction whatever to the sight of his girlfriend, the mother of his child, collapsing on the floor in front of him after he punches her. That clearly indicates he's done this before. Then he drags her out of the elevator like a sack of garbage. Yet she still married him, and now she's defending him, both of which indicate she's pretty messed up, too.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Yet she still married him, and now she's defending him, both of which indicate she's pretty messed up, too./

I don’t feel comfortable blaming victims of abuse for their abuse, so I’d like to point out a few possible reasons why Rice’s wife has stayed with him.

1) Her family and/or friends blame her for Rice’s behavior and have pressured her to stay with him.

2) She may want to stay for the sake of their child by rationalizing that a messed-up father is better than no father at all (yes, I know that it’s easy for us, who are standing on the outside, to say, “*No,* no father at all is better than a dangerous one,” but she may be desperate to maintain some pretense of family).

3) Stockholm Syndrome.

4) She’s afraid of what he’ll do to her and/or their child if she leaves him. It’s common for abusers to step up their violence and/or kill their partner after they’ve broken up.

5) What was her job or financial situation before she married Rice? She may feel dependent on him because he’s a rich football player.

[condwiramurs.livejournal.com]

Yes, this, thank you. There are many reasons abused people stay with their abusers, and assuming that she must be 'messed up' because she does, without knowing her full situation, is just a shitty move. It's not her fault for being abused, ever.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Just because someone's messed up *doesn't* mean *it's their fault* they're messed up. Anyone who co-operates in their own victimization is messed up; they *need help* to get un-messed up, and out of their dangerous situation. Rice's wife needs help, obviously; I just hope she realizes this soon, seeks aid, and gets it, soon.

[vermouth1991.livejournal.com]

You beat me to this reply. @attilathepbnun. Expressing an empathic exasperation at a woman staying with an abusive spouse ("OMG that guy's a monster why are you even DEFENDING him??!!") is a far, far cry from "victim blaming".