![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
athousanderrorsvia https://ift.tt/2Qgct0W
themonsterblogofmonsters:
sweetlialia replied to your photo “So. This is a thing. I’m sure some of you already know about this -…”
What the thing with illness and disability ? Could you tell ? Your “article” was really well done and interesting! It makes me want to deepen my research on it :)
@sweetlialia Of course! I’m glad you liked the Nagini post, and I’m happy to explain that.
The “Illness & Disability thing” is a piece of JKR’s writing from Pottermore which basically said that magic can fic non-magically caused injuries and the like, but not magical ones. This is why Peter gets a new hand while Moody has his wooden leg. It also said that its very easy for magic to “cure” non-magical diseases and injuries - Pepperup Potion, for example, can cure the common cold, broken bones can be healed with a spell or, if too badly broken, fixed with Skele-Gro. To quote:
I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it; he would also comfortably survive a scorpion sting that might kill a Muggle, whereas he might die if bitten by a Venomous Tentacula. Similarly, bones broken in non-magical accidents such as falls or fist fights can be mended by magic, but the consequences of curses or backfiring magic could be serious, permanent or life-threatening.
- https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/illness-and-disability
The overall takeaway however, is two things.
Firstly that if you have, say, a chronic illness, either magic can “fix” you, or you are automatically non-magical and would never exist in the magical world.
Secondly that those in the magical world, whether they like it or not, get “cured” of anything “wrong” with them rather than being given tools to make their lives easier or the world around them more accessible. There’s an excellent ficlet on that possibility, and the horror of it, over Here on the now-an-archive blog @livesandliesofwizards.
All of this doesn’t make much sense when you then consider things like Harry’s glasses, James’ and Dumbledore’s, and Skeeter’s and McGonagall’s - none of which were “fixed” by magic, despite so far as we’re aware all being non-magical in origin.
The takeaway is, JKR doesn’t see disabled people in the magical world, unless their disability comes from magical causes - Moody’s lost leg, for example, Lockhart’s lost memory and the like. She doesn’t see people with chronic health conditions in the magical world, nor those with mental illnesses - they’d all be cured. She doesn’t see those with congenital health issues existing…. which is, as I showed above with Harry and his glasses, clearly not entirely true: there are disabilities which the magical world cannot “fix”. (There’s a reason I created a number of chronic magical illnesses for this blog and I’m working on some mental ones, and thats because I hate this piece of JKR’s writing.)
Perhaps obviously, the Illness & Disability piece is a massive slap in the face to disabled people. It’s also, generally quite … well, as has been said in the reblog thread of this post of mine, it really serves to show JKR’s values and how she sees the world… which is very much that of a cis white able-bodied woman.
….that said, as someone pointed out (I’m so sorry I can’t remember who it was pointed it out) the whole “blood curse only affecting women” is very much a… “menstruation is a punishment given to cis women for eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” kind of Christian misogyny, which makes me doubt to some extent that she even considers women in her perspective, despite being one.
In short, JKR’s writing has historically been quite dodgy.
I’m more than happy to explain and point people in the direction of metas, links and sources on more - the lycanthropy issues, some of the stuff regarding house elves, the goblins, etc. - though if anyone would like more information could asks be addressed to my meta sideblog, @hapennydreams? I’d like to keep my blog on-topic for the most part and three off-topic posts over the past three days is less than ideal for my followers!
(Your picture was not posted)
themonsterblogofmonsters:
sweetlialia replied to your photo “So. This is a thing. I’m sure some of you already know about this -…”
What the thing with illness and disability ? Could you tell ? Your “article” was really well done and interesting! It makes me want to deepen my research on it :)
@sweetlialia Of course! I’m glad you liked the Nagini post, and I’m happy to explain that.
The “Illness & Disability thing” is a piece of JKR’s writing from Pottermore which basically said that magic can fic non-magically caused injuries and the like, but not magical ones. This is why Peter gets a new hand while Moody has his wooden leg. It also said that its very easy for magic to “cure” non-magical diseases and injuries - Pepperup Potion, for example, can cure the common cold, broken bones can be healed with a spell or, if too badly broken, fixed with Skele-Gro. To quote:
I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it; he would also comfortably survive a scorpion sting that might kill a Muggle, whereas he might die if bitten by a Venomous Tentacula. Similarly, bones broken in non-magical accidents such as falls or fist fights can be mended by magic, but the consequences of curses or backfiring magic could be serious, permanent or life-threatening.
- https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/illness-and-disability
The overall takeaway however, is two things.
Firstly that if you have, say, a chronic illness, either magic can “fix” you, or you are automatically non-magical and would never exist in the magical world.
Secondly that those in the magical world, whether they like it or not, get “cured” of anything “wrong” with them rather than being given tools to make their lives easier or the world around them more accessible. There’s an excellent ficlet on that possibility, and the horror of it, over Here on the now-an-archive blog @livesandliesofwizards.
All of this doesn’t make much sense when you then consider things like Harry’s glasses, James’ and Dumbledore’s, and Skeeter’s and McGonagall’s - none of which were “fixed” by magic, despite so far as we’re aware all being non-magical in origin.
The takeaway is, JKR doesn’t see disabled people in the magical world, unless their disability comes from magical causes - Moody’s lost leg, for example, Lockhart’s lost memory and the like. She doesn’t see people with chronic health conditions in the magical world, nor those with mental illnesses - they’d all be cured. She doesn’t see those with congenital health issues existing…. which is, as I showed above with Harry and his glasses, clearly not entirely true: there are disabilities which the magical world cannot “fix”. (There’s a reason I created a number of chronic magical illnesses for this blog and I’m working on some mental ones, and thats because I hate this piece of JKR’s writing.)
Perhaps obviously, the Illness & Disability piece is a massive slap in the face to disabled people. It’s also, generally quite … well, as has been said in the reblog thread of this post of mine, it really serves to show JKR’s values and how she sees the world… which is very much that of a cis white able-bodied woman.
….that said, as someone pointed out (I’m so sorry I can’t remember who it was pointed it out) the whole “blood curse only affecting women” is very much a… “menstruation is a punishment given to cis women for eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” kind of Christian misogyny, which makes me doubt to some extent that she even considers women in her perspective, despite being one.
In short, JKR’s writing has historically been quite dodgy.
I’m more than happy to explain and point people in the direction of metas, links and sources on more - the lycanthropy issues, some of the stuff regarding house elves, the goblins, etc. - though if anyone would like more information could asks be addressed to my meta sideblog, @hapennydreams? I’d like to keep my blog on-topic for the most part and three off-topic posts over the past three days is less than ideal for my followers!
(Your picture was not posted)
