An Interesting Thought

[reasonandmusic]

In regards to Harry Potter and J. K. Rowling's intention to label lycanthropy as a representation of people in real-life with mental illnesses and disabilities, or (not specifically stated by Rowling), homosexuals.

Comments

[tammiya]

That...is a really interesting idea, and I might normally have something to say about it, but my brain has died (it's been a long day), so if I think of anything I may be back, otherwise, just wanted to say: Good point.

[troldtog]

Thinking about the issue in this light almost paints Rowling as subtly saying that there is something inherently wrong about these people. Admittedly, I've never thought of Rowling's approach to lycanthropy in this way, but maybe I'm too involved with the characters themselves.I think this gets it exactly backwards. The only way we can tell if something is really, genuinely, a problem is looking at it as it occurs in the world.* If the werewolves we meet are, all in all, no worse in character than the average person and not substantially more dangerous then there's no reason to treat them as if they were. Mistaking a theoretical potential for harm (a werewolf could forget to take their wolfsbane potion and run amok) with the actual evidence (a werewolf actually has forgotten to take the potion X times in the past year) is precisely the mistake that people make when forming prejudiced myths (not that I'm accusing you of lycanthrophobia, that'd just be silly). I really don't think you can treat ideas like lycanthropy as, in its