The Sociology of Harry Potter: 22 Enchanting Essays on the Wizarding World

by Unknown

  Filthy Half-breeds, Mudbloods, and

  Disgusting Little Squibs

  Social Stigma in Wizarding Britain

  Ty Hayes

  Status symbols are a familiar concept to most people – from the latest expensive gadget or invisibility cloak to a degree from Harvard or Order of Merlin. We acknowledge that there are things that elevate an individual’s social standing. The flipside of this is objects or attributes that have the capacity to lower someone’s place in society. These are stigma symbols and someone possessing one can be said to be stigmatised. The most influential study of stigma was published in 1959 by the Muggle symbolic interactionist[xiv] Erving Goffman. His book, which takes examples of the mentally ill, the physically disabled and homosexuals among others, sets up a framework for thinking about the lives of stigmatised individuals. This framework covers aspects of living with stigma from the treatment one can expect to receive if stigmatised; encounters between the stigmatised and “Normals” (i.e., someone without a stigma who is in the majority and therefore socially acceptable); strategies for the management of a spoiled identity (which indeed is the subtitle of Goffman’s book) such as the ways individuals deal with their stigma; and particular types of people that arise in a society with stigmatising practices.

  This chapter will introduce Goffman’s concepts as they apply in the wizarding world, a world which, as our own, includes prejudices and stigmatised identities. Muggle-borns, werewolves, house-elves, goblins, blood traitors, Squibs, and even Harry himself are often on the receiving end of attitudes and practices that discriminate against them for their nature or behaviour, ranging from verbal insults all the way to systematic incarceration for little more than being from the “wrong” background. This chapter will look at some of the prejudicial attitudes and behaviours of the wizarding world, what effects this stigmatisation has on those so stigmatised, and how they cope with widespread, and in some cases institutionalised, discrimination.

  Filthy Mudbloods

  Perhaps the class of people who suffer the most pervasive stigmatisation at the hands of the ruling class in wizarding Britain are Muggle-borns. Throughout the whole of her time at Hogwarts, Hermione is subjected to taunts from much less intelligent students who consider her Muggle heritage to make her ritually unclean. Indeed the offensive slang that is most often aimed at Hermione and other Muggle-born witches and wizards is “Mudblood” – literally calling her blood dirty for having come from Muggles. The stigma of being Muggle-born seems quite pervasive throughout the wizarding world. Even generally mild and gracious potions teacher Horace Slughorn expresses his surprise that some of his favourite and most talented students over his years of teaching have come from non-magical households. It is as if he expects talent and power to come hand in hand with pureblood – Slughorn tells Harry of the latter’s mother that he “Thought she must have been pure-blood, she was so good” (HBP 70). In this encounter Slughorn (who has been in hiding because he doesn’t want to help the Death Eaters and ultimately joins the fight against Voldemort, his followers and his highly prejudicial regime) is quick to deny charges of prejudice against Muggle-borns, but his words and attitude betrays him. Slughorn’s good nature and concerted efforts to avoid discriminating against Muggle-borns cannot be doubted, but this exchange is exemplary of the prevalence of stigmatising attitudes against Muggle-borns throughout the wizarding world.

  The behaviour towards Muggle-borns is worst from the traditionalist, blood supremacist pureblood families. The Black family (including those married out to other pureblood families such as Bellatrix and Narcissa) provide a particularly good example. The painting of Walburga in the entrance hall of 12 Grimmauld Place is constantly horrified that there are “Mudbloods, [blood-]traitors, [and] filth” in her family home. Although already dead, she cannot bear to think that there are Muggle-borns or even purebloods that associate with them in the house. The Black family house-elf, Kreacher, also regurgitates the stigmatising opinions of his mistress, and behaves very offensively to Hermione despite the low status that house-elves have in the wizarding world – little more than slaves or pets. That the Blacks permitted (or quite probably encouraged) the most lowly and poorly treated part of their household to espouse such views on Muggle-borns, suggests that Kreacher was afforded more symbolic value than a Muggle-born witch or wizard – Mudbloods are more reviled in some circles than the shrivelled elf that cleans the toilets.

  It is significant and telling that the Blacks value house-elves above Muggle-borns as it points to a trend in most stigmatising attitudes in both the magical and Muggle worlds. The idea that a stigmatised person is not fully human is attested by Goffman and put forward as a (usually subconscious) reason that stigmatised people are treated as lesser beings than Normals. In the case of Muggle-borns it is a metaphorical “not fully human” (or indeed “not fully wizard”), but where half-breeds and werewolves are concerned this attitude is actually grounded in fact, obviously accompanied by the suppressed premise that this implies they are not as worthy of equal opportunities, civility or other behaviour that puts them in the same class as respectable purebloods. Returning to Slughorn’s conversation with Harry about Muggle-borns, upon hearing Harry’s assertion that a Muggle-born (Hermione) is the best witch in his year, the potions teacher says he finds it “Funny how that sometimes happens” (HBP 70). Without too great a leap, we could quite easily imagine him continuing this sentence “it’s almost as if they’re real wizards, isn’t it.” The patronising attitude Slughorn displays, although lacking malice, shows that the expectations that wizards of magical descent have of Muggle-borns are low and puts them in a separate category to themselves. It “others” the Muggle-born population and doesn’t expect them to have similar capabilities to “proper wizards.”

  Transmission of Stigma

  The stigma that Muggle-borns carry can even be transmitted to purebloods, at which point they become known (to those that stigmatise them) as blood traitors. Andromeda Tonks, one of the more sympathetic Black family members, is disinherited and estranged from her family for marrying the Muggle-born Ted Tonks. It is a reasonable assumption that Ted Tonks is not seen as good enough for Andromeda. Since she insisted on marrying him, however, and it is a disgrace to have a Muggle-born in the family, she had to be removed from the family tree so that he would not appear in it either. The notion that the family name would be tainted by Muggle blood is more abhorrent to the Black family than maintaining familial relations with their children – the purity of their blood acting as a status symbol (and reflected in the family motto Toujours Pur – Forever Pure) incompatible with the stigma of Muggle(born) blood. However, the stigma-by-proxy that Andromeda suffered is not as potent as that of her husband. After the fall of the ministry into Voldemort’s hands, Ted Tonks goes on the run from the authorities for being Muggle-born and refusing to register with the Muggle-born Registration Commission; but he believes Andromeda “should be okay, [because] she’s pureblood” (DH 295).

  Voluntarily consorting with stigmatised individuals is not the only way to “catch” a stigma, in the Muggle or wizarding worlds. Lupin displays a strong paternal protectiveness towards his unborn son when he offers to accompany Harry on his quest, an offer that, it is later revealed, is motivated by wanting to distance himself from his offspring. He is concerned that his stigmatised status will be inherited by Teddy either by infecting him with lycanthropy and so giving Teddy his own primary stigma or just by association, resulting in stigmatization by virtue of being the son of a werewolf. We know from Lupin’s relationship with Harry during the former’s time at Hogwarts that he would be an excellent father and is not afraid of responsibility or taking care of children. This desire to distance himself from his child then is not a wilful abandonment as Harry seems to think but a difficult decision with the child’s best intentions at heart.

  Transmission of stigma can also apply from child to parent. The Weasleys’ Aunt Muriel and Rita Skeeter’s gossiping about Kendra Dumbledore�
�s treatment of her daughter, Ariana, provides an illustrative, if misunderstood, example. Muriel and Skeeter are under the impression that Kendra was ashamed at producing a non-magical child and fearful of the stigma it would place upon her – on top of being married to a convicted criminal, for which she would already know what it was like to live a stigmatised life. They assumed that she sequestered her youngest child away in a basement lest the world find out she existed and her stigma transferred to Kendra. Most parents of stigmatised individuals protect their children, sheltering them from the stigma that the outside world would impute on them (Goffman 1959). However, rather than concluding that Kendra was a concerned parent protecting her child, people assumed she took Ariana’s lack of magic to be an indictment of her motherhood that would cause her to be seen by the world as “the mother of a Squib” and “the wife of a criminal” rather than a magnificent witch in her own right and the mother of a brilliant wizard (Albus). Despite knowing that Ariana was not, in fact, a Squib, we can conclude from the reception of this supposition when it is published in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore and accompanying Daily Prophet articles, that such sequestering practices, even if uncommon and newsworthy, are not unheard of within the wizarding world.

  The Wise

  Almost all blood traitors are what Goffman would term “the Wise.” According to Goffman, the Wise are those people (often with a close personal relationship to a stigmatised individual, such as the wife of a psychiatric patient) who do not subscribe to the prejudicial and stigmatising behaviours prevalent throughout society and do not let the stigmatisable status of an individual cloud their judgment on such persons. They are often afforded honorary status as “one of us” within communities of stigmatised people, and in return help the stigmatised people pass for Normals (as such they can often spot an otherwise passing individual because they are familiar with techniques which are employed to this end).

  Ron’s offer to “tell everyone Hermione’s [his] cousin” (DH 209) as a way of evading the problems that the new ministry policy against Muggle-borns would cause for her is a typical behaviour for a wise individual. Perceiving the Ministry of Magic’s stigmatisation and persecution of Muggle-borns to be unfounded and unjust, he contrives a way to protect his love interest from the consequences of her ancestry. He does this without concern for his own safety (displaying his Gryffindor traits) – effectively offering to perjure himself and compromise his own pureblood privilege, which should protect him in this instance. His plan further extends to preparing Hermione for an inquisition by teaching her the Weasley family tree – which would further enable her to pass.

  The Order of the Phoenix (and Dumbledore in particular) is not only Wise with regard to Muggle-borns. They are also exceptionally accepting of stigmatised groups such as werewolves and half-breeds, as demonstrated by the general good will of the group towards Lupin and Hagrid respectively. Dumbledore insists on their value to society and places his trust in them repeatedly. However, both Lupin and Hagrid evoke a level of fear in most in the wizarding world, including first the Board of Governors and later the Hogwarts High Inquisitor, mainly due to prejudices about their kind. Lupin himself speaks of this treatment as normal to the trio: “You have only seen me amongst the Order, or under Dumbledore’s protection at Hogwarts! You don’t know how most of the wizarding world sees creatures like me! When they know of my affliction, they can barely talk to me!” (DH 213)[xv].

  The Wise not only accept the stigmatised, but often offer them personal help. Snape and Dumbledore, for example, are responsible for helping Lupin to cope with his stigma, the former preparing Wolfsbane potion for him which ameliorates the effects of his condition during full moon and the latter providing the Whomping Willow and Shrieking Shack arrangement to allow Lupin to attend Hogwarts like a normal wizarding child. The Order (and blood traitors more generally) as Wise not only disavow the prejudice that these stigmas engender but actively contribute to helping stigmatised individuals live as normal a life as possible. Unsurprisingly, it would appear that Dumbledore is the “wisest” wizard in Britain.

  Strategies for the management of stigma

  Contrary to our Muggle world, where some stigmas (for example, certain physical disabilities) are patently visible from the initial meeting with the subject of that stigma, the majority of the stigmas in the wizarding world are not as apparent, more similar to stigmas such as sexual deviancy and mental illness in our world (certain half-breeds being the exception). The scholarly term for those who cannot help that their stigma is apparent, either due to its visibility or a prior outing event, is “discredited.” This reflects the discredited status of the unconscious assumption of Normals that everyone is like them. The discredited individual cannot maintain a presentation that that does not include the attribute which stigmatises him or her because it would be at odds with the other person’s perception of them. Discreditable individuals, conversely, are those whose stigma is hitherto invisible and unknown by others. The discreditable individual can blend in as a virtual Normal, albeit one with a secret to be kept which, if it came out, would expose their stigma.

  Returning to Goffman provides us with a framework for understanding the level to which the stigmatised individual needs to go in order to hide their stigma considering the factors of visibility, obtrusiveness, “known-about-ness” and perceived focus. With regard to managing stigmatised identities, we can see how different strategies must be used by, for example, Hagrid, Filch and Lupin, in the management of their stigmas. Hagrid the half-giant has an expansively visible stigma – at ten or so feet tall he cannot reasonably expect people to believe he just had an overactive growth spurt. Rather than attempt to hide his stigma, Hagrid as a discredited individual has to deal with it out in the open. He does this through means of a (metaphorical and actual) thick skin and living a secluded life in his hut surrounded predominantly by beasts rather than people. The only people we see him socialise with regularly are Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore and certain other Order members – in other words, only Wise individuals.

  Filch, by contrast, has a fairly unobtrusive stigma in most everyday encounters – his status as a Squib is not something that presents itself in social encounters or appreciably affects his abilities to perform his caretaker duties, at least not insofar as anyone can notice. As a discreditable individual, Filch is most worried about people finding out about his stigma – that he cannot perform magic – which is why he reacts so badly when Harry find his Kwikspell letters.

  Of Harry’s closest friends, Lupin is the one who seems to struggle most with his stigma, perhaps due to the intrusiveness of it – seriously affecting his daily routine for considerable periods of time – or an internalized prejudice reflecting the particular voracity of public opinion against werewolves. Consequently, we can examine his various attempts to deal with his stigma as an indicative case study of some strategies that stigmatised wizards employ.

  Lupin is a shabby and ill-looking man, which we (now) know is due to his condition. However, it is the sickly appearance that constitutes the premise for Lupin’s first attempt at managing his apparent social identity and avoiding stigmatisation for being a werewolf. Lupin’s physical appearance and noticeable extended absences mean that he cannot completely disattend his stigma and pretend to be a full and healthy Normal. However, there is nothing that obviously identifies his illness as lycanthropy, so he makes use of this and covers for his absences by claiming merely to be chronically ill. This is not strictly a lie (from his perspective, though other werewolves of a different ideology might very much contest that), but is clearly him trying to avoid explaining the actual problem. (Note here that a Wise person may be able to see through this cover by noticing periods of absence coinciding with the full moon, as Hermione does.) This strategy works quite effectively for the majority of the academic year he teaches at Hogwarts, until he unfortunately exposes himself and discredits this story and his identity as a Normal by transforming on school grounds with wit
nesses. It seems reasonable to assume that such a story (a werewolf employed at Hogwarts) would make front page of the Daily Prophet and completely out Lupin as a werewolf to the whole of wizarding Britain. He immediately resigns in anticipation of being sacked by the very traditionalist and prejudiced Board of Governors.

  For two years following his resignation from Hogwarts, Lupin has very little luck in securing employment due to his status as a discredited individual. On the other hand, he is free of the psychological torment, which plagued him up until his disgrace – the constant fear of being revealed as a werewolf. This marks a significant moment in his stigmatised “career” – the shift from information management (i.e., projecting the appearance of a Normal so that his status as stigmatised is not known) to stigma management. Unfortunately, Lupin does not fare too well at this. Judging from his general self-deprecation, he seems to get stuck at the intermediary stage of identity dissonance. Unable to reconcile his werewolf side with a normal role in society due to prejudice, he feels unable to carry on personal relationships and withdraws into self-imposed emotional isolation.

  Lupin’s isolationism and withdrawal is profound by the beginning of the Second Wizarding War. He reveals that he has spent months living “underground... Almost literally” (HBP 334) with his “fellow” werewolves. The fact that he identifies himself with werewolves, claiming them to be his equals (although clearly a bad thing, in his opinion they are lesser beings than humans and wizards), shows that he is on his way to forming a functional identity that manages his stigma. The werewolves he has been with “have shunned normal society and live on the margins” (ibid). The way that Lupin talks, it seems that the werewolves are living in a pack of sorts, a ghettoised existence of stigmatised individuals that have grouped together to form communities of similarly stigmatised individuals. This stage of a stigmatised individual’s career is documented in our world as well for people coming to terms with a stigmatised identity.