Harry knows it, and as a half-blood himself he gets crap about it
But does he, really? Off the top of my head, I can't remember any instance where he does. (People who remember the books better than me, please feel free to provide examples.) That's really part of my problem with this conflict that's going on in the WW. It's presented, IMO, partly as the pureblood vs. the Muggle-born, and I get the feeling that we are supposed to think that the Good Guys are against discrimination against the Muggle-born.
But the problem here is, I think, that we don't really see how the Muggle-born are discriminated against. Hermione, Justin, Colin and other Muggle-borns aren't really disadvantaged at Hogwarts, and we get no sense that they're disadvantaged outside Hogwarts, either. Sure there's some hate speech, but even there it's often very personal instead of institutionalized or systematic, e.g. when Draco insults Hermione or Snape insults Lily. Those instances do, of course, reveal Draco's and Snape's prejudices, because when they want to hurt Hermione and Lily, they go for the worst possible insult they can think of (not realizing that for Hermione or Lily it doesn't have the same kind of meaning) which, for them, is the word "Mudblood". But do those people suffer in any other way? I can't see that they do.
I think partly we're restricted by the Harry-filter. He's not the most observant guy, and the only Muggle-born he knows is Hermione, who is probably protected to some extent by her association with Harry. Besides, we haven't had any opportunity to see how being a Muggle-born might, for example, hinder one's career. I see all that intellectually. It's just that, to be able to believe that the conflict really is about purity of blood, or something like that, I'd have to see that purity of blood really matters.
'Course, the Good Guys' attitude doesn't really help me in any way to see that they are against purity of blood. Their attitude against Muggles is in many ways similar to the Bad Guys', except that they don't want to kill Muggles. Care to bet they think that Muggle-borns are okay--after all, they're not Muggles? (Would Molly react badly if Ron married Hermione?)
So, all these things make me think that the conflict is less about purity of blood than about Dumbledore vs. Voldemort, or conservative purebloods vs. "progressive" purebloods, etc. Throw in the Ministry, and it's basically a power-struggle rather than an epic battle between Good and Evil.
Ron's definitely got a few issues on women himself (no doubt handed down by those twins).
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timeasmymeasure
Going off on a tangent
Date: 2007-01-19 08:42 pm (UTC)But does he, really? Off the top of my head, I can't remember any instance where he does. (People who remember the books better than me, please feel free to provide examples.) That's really part of my problem with this conflict that's going on in the WW. It's presented, IMO, partly as the pureblood vs. the Muggle-born, and I get the feeling that we are supposed to think that the Good Guys are against discrimination against the Muggle-born.
But the problem here is, I think, that we don't really see how the Muggle-born are discriminated against. Hermione, Justin, Colin and other Muggle-borns aren't really disadvantaged at Hogwarts, and we get no sense that they're disadvantaged outside Hogwarts, either. Sure there's some hate speech, but even there it's often very personal instead of institutionalized or systematic, e.g. when Draco insults Hermione or Snape insults Lily. Those instances do, of course, reveal Draco's and Snape's prejudices, because when they want to hurt Hermione and Lily, they go for the worst possible insult they can think of (not realizing that for Hermione or Lily it doesn't have the same kind of meaning) which, for them, is the word "Mudblood". But do those people suffer in any other way? I can't see that they do.
I think partly we're restricted by the Harry-filter. He's not the most observant guy, and the only Muggle-born he knows is Hermione, who is probably protected to some extent by her association with Harry. Besides, we haven't had any opportunity to see how being a Muggle-born might, for example, hinder one's career. I see all that intellectually. It's just that, to be able to believe that the conflict really is about purity of blood, or something like that, I'd have to see that purity of blood really matters.
'Course, the Good Guys' attitude doesn't really help me in any way to see that they are against purity of blood. Their attitude against Muggles is in many ways similar to the Bad Guys', except that they don't want to kill Muggles. Care to bet they think that Muggle-borns are okay--after all, they're not Muggles? (Would Molly react badly if Ron married Hermione?)
So, all these things make me think that the conflict is less about purity of blood than about Dumbledore vs. Voldemort, or conservative purebloods vs. "progressive" purebloods, etc. Throw in the Ministry, and it's basically a power-struggle rather than an epic battle between Good and Evil.
Ron's definitely got a few issues on women himself (no doubt handed down by those twins).
Or Molly. Scarlet women, anyone?