Abusive!Dursleys
Originally posted 10 Aug 2008
I don't know if any of you have run across this term, but at one of the HP sites I frequent, it's an official term. It always bothered me, but I had trouble putting it into words.
Now, I'm going to try.
At this site, "abusive!Dursleys" is, theoretically, a warning you can place on your fic, if your Dursleys are worse than they are in canon. In practice, it's a warning placed on any fic where the Dursleys are physically abusive. I'm starting to post my Slytherin!Harry story there, and I've decided that it's almost inexpressibly offensive.
The implication is that, if your Dursleys must be worse than canon to fit in the abusive!Dursleys category, then what they do in canon is not actually abusive. Now, the usual disclaimer (not of the site, but of individuals) is 'well, of course he's abused, but it's not physical abuse.' (I can never escape the feeling that they think it's therefore 'not as bad', but I'll get to that in a moment.)
I'd like to know in what world is swinging a frying pan at a child's head - swinging hard, as the narrator helpfully informs us - not a sign of physical abuse? If Harry had worse reflexes, that could easily have killed him. You could, I suppose, argue this as isolated cases (though that wouldn't make it a less abusive case in and of itself - if my aunt swung a frying pan at an eleven-year-old's head, I'd turn her in on the spot, whether she succeeded or not). Yet Harry's only reaction? To duck. There is no surprise, no anger, no anything. (A sidenote: he has no sense of self-preservation.)
That, however, is an inference from Harry's behaviour. What do we actually see happening? Well, let's look.
Vernon drags him up the stairs, throttles him, threatens to knock the stuffing out of him on one occasion and flay him within an inch of his life on another. Oh, and of course there's this tidbit:
“long experience had taught [Harry] to remain out of arm’s reach of his uncle whenever possible”
Are we supposed to think that this 'long experience' consisted of seeing Vernon knock somebody else around? Nonsense. And, quite apart from all of this, what we see the most of is even more damaging - Harry is shut up in a cupboard for weeks at a time over ten years. He is bloody lucky not to be brain damaged - well, assuming he isn't. It's possible that he is, though I don't think JKR would go there. Certainly he's intelligent (at least in the first books), quick-witted, and highly articulate. He is fed barely enough to live on. He's been so thoroughly brainwashed into not asking questions that, as far as we can tell, he has all the curiosity of a houseplant.
And they send him back there, year after year.
Not abused, my foot.
I don't know if any of you have run across this term, but at one of the HP sites I frequent, it's an official term. It always bothered me, but I had trouble putting it into words.
Now, I'm going to try.
At this site, "abusive!Dursleys" is, theoretically, a warning you can place on your fic, if your Dursleys are worse than they are in canon. In practice, it's a warning placed on any fic where the Dursleys are physically abusive. I'm starting to post my Slytherin!Harry story there, and I've decided that it's almost inexpressibly offensive.
The implication is that, if your Dursleys must be worse than canon to fit in the abusive!Dursleys category, then what they do in canon is not actually abusive. Now, the usual disclaimer (not of the site, but of individuals) is 'well, of course he's abused, but it's not physical abuse.' (I can never escape the feeling that they think it's therefore 'not as bad', but I'll get to that in a moment.)
I'd like to know in what world is swinging a frying pan at a child's head - swinging hard, as the narrator helpfully informs us - not a sign of physical abuse? If Harry had worse reflexes, that could easily have killed him. You could, I suppose, argue this as isolated cases (though that wouldn't make it a less abusive case in and of itself - if my aunt swung a frying pan at an eleven-year-old's head, I'd turn her in on the spot, whether she succeeded or not). Yet Harry's only reaction? To duck. There is no surprise, no anger, no anything. (A sidenote: he has no sense of self-preservation.)
That, however, is an inference from Harry's behaviour. What do we actually see happening? Well, let's look.
Vernon drags him up the stairs, throttles him, threatens to knock the stuffing out of him on one occasion and flay him within an inch of his life on another. Oh, and of course there's this tidbit:
“long experience had taught [Harry] to remain out of arm’s reach of his uncle whenever possible”
Are we supposed to think that this 'long experience' consisted of seeing Vernon knock somebody else around? Nonsense. And, quite apart from all of this, what we see the most of is even more damaging - Harry is shut up in a cupboard for weeks at a time over ten years. He is bloody lucky not to be brain damaged - well, assuming he isn't. It's possible that he is, though I don't think JKR would go there. Certainly he's intelligent (at least in the first books), quick-witted, and highly articulate. He is fed barely enough to live on. He's been so thoroughly brainwashed into not asking questions that, as far as we can tell, he has all the curiosity of a houseplant.
And they send him back there, year after year.
Not abused, my foot.