The Observer's Lumos "Article" -- a clarification
I've been buried lately in boxes--trying during my one week of vacation-time to finish all the unpacking and sorting and storing left over from my move in early July! ... when I plunged immediately into my new job ... then worked on finishing my paper for Lumos ... But today I received a most interesting e-mail from my friend junewilliams7 letting me know about a now-notorious Guardian/Observer article about Lumos that came out yesterday. There's a short paragraph in this article that prompted June to think about me:
...it's when I go to 'Out of Bounds: Transgressive Fiction' that I get really annoyed [actually, the title is "Transgressive Fanfiction," but let that pass--S]. It's a seminar analysing Hermione Granger-Professor Snape fan fiction. That is to say, a relationship between a teenage girl and a fortysomething man, which often, it transpires, takes the form of a rape narrative. There are 200 women in the room. And a whole lot of talk about female empowerment and gender reversals, but, frankly, if it was 200 men talking about rape narratives involving underage schoolchildren, it would be a matter for the police, and I don't think this is empowering anybody.
My RL activities in the past have inured me to being misquoted by journalists. It's almost to be expected. And though a small, wicked part of me feels a bit chuffed about the dishonourable mention, I am actually somewhat concerned. I remember this journalist, and she did ask a me a question about men and rape-narratives. I said that if men were writing such narratives as rape fantasies, in my opinion they'd be run out of the fandom. She then introduced herself after the talk and asked if I'd be willing to speak further with her about this topic. Of course I said I'd be happy to, and we arranged to meet at a certain place and time later that evening.
She never showed up for our appointment.
It's too bad she's oversimplified and misrepresented Granger/Snape fics as being entirely about rape and underage sex--that certainly wasn't my purpose, though perhaps, given how that pairing "looks" to outsiders, that isn't too surprising. Too bad as well that she missed my "hit-em-over-the-head" theme about power relations, as well as the more nuanced information about the long fanfic tradition (outside of HP) of primarily women writers who use fanfic (for better or worse) to work through a variety of personal issues and "transgressive" themes. Though that process can be empowering, it isn't always--in fact, it can be quite painful. Nor is it necessarily a safe process, as my ending makes clear.
I'd meant to upload my Lumos paper to LJ, and it seems here's the perfect occasion. I've placed all of it under a cut except for the References, and I'll be happy to send anyone a PDF version on request. I'm hoping to pursue this topic some more, perhaps for Prophecy next year, so I'd be delighted to hear back from anyone about this paper. (Including Carole Cadwalladr!)
Two warnings: (1) Some of this content is adult in nature; (2) There are SPOILERS for three fics: Pawn to Queen; Breeding Lilacs Out of Dead Land; What E'er Therein is Promised.
"Out of bounds? Transgressive Granger/Snape fan fiction and online communities
"What is “transgressive” fan fiction?"
The first Harry Potter fanfiction story was published on Fanfiction.net in 1999. Since then, the number of Potter fan-fiction stories on that archive has grown explosively to almost 228,000 stories, novels, and works-in-process as of early 2006. The past few years have also seen the considerable growth of moderated Potter fan-fic archives like FictionAlley (with about 160,000 stories and chapters as of 2006) and Sugar Quill, both established in 2001.
Fortunately for these web archives, J.K. Rowling is on record as saying she favours canonical fan-fiction based on her universe and characters (Waters, 2004). Some educators even believe such canon-compliant fan-writing holds considerable educational value (Jenkins, 2004)-a vision explicitly promoted, for example, by the Sugar Quill’s Literacy Project. By implication, however, this sanction includes fics that follow the moral rules of Rowling’s universe.
An enormous number of Harry Potter fan-fic stories, however, populating an unknown number of alternative web archives, transgress “acceptable” boundaries. Some transgress because, though they focus on an established or strongly canon pairing, the stories express that relationship in graphic sexual detail. Others, though, transgress because their unorthodox relationship pairings or ‘ships-including slash-push original canon characters into sexually and emotionally charged situations and conflicts unforeseen by the creator and arguably well beyond her established moral limits.
I’m not focusing on slash in this presentation, but it’s helpful to keep in mind that in the fanfic universe slash, while transgressive in terms of canon, is one of the oldest and most established fan-fic genres. The HP fanfic universe recognizes a number of slash pairings (with “Snarry” apparently being one of the first, circa 2001). Slash now has some claim to orthodoxy in alternative HP fanfic communities, which marks a gradual shift in attitudes from earlier fanfic communities when, as Camille Bacon-Smith notes, slash was considered a “high-risk” or dangerous genre (1992, p. 204).
“Transgressive” and “unorthodox” are slippery terms. What goes beyond the pale for one fanfic reader or writer seems perfectly within bounds to another. From my own perspective, one of the most transgressive hetero pairings or ‘ships in the HP fanfic universe is that of Hermione Granger, student, and Severus Snape,
professor. This is purely a “fanon” relationship suggested by what some consider a very broad and generous readings of and extrapolations from The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Order of the Phoenix. For me, a university professor and feminist, the major transgressive element in this pairing lies in the possibilities for reinforcing or subverting the highly unequal power relationship between this particular student and teacher-whether these possibilities manifest as sexual or intellectual, or both.
It would be impossible to comment on sex and power relations in even a small fraction of the thousands of Hermione/Severus stories archived online. But I’ve been struck by the heated online debates about sex and power that certain stories around this pairing have generated. For me, there is nothing more transgressive in real life than a professor wielding abusive power over a female student. But is that what Granger/Snape fanfiction is really about? What is it about this relationship, with all its oppressions and possibilities, that draws me and so many other mainly female fans to this ‘ship and prompts so many strong opinions about how their relationship could play out?
To explore this personal and political question, I’ve turned to the online communities in which I’ve participated in over the past three years, since coming on board this ‘ship, to explore whether there is such a thing as “out of bounds” in Granger/Snape fanfiction. I’ll briefly summarize and analyze reactions to three fics that have, in my view at least, triggered particularly contentious or challenging discussions about power relations between this student/teacher pairing.
"Three “transgressive” fics: themes and patterns"
1. Pawn to Queen (work in progress during 2001; never completed)
Theme = gender and power relations
Partial Summary = When Hermione is kidnapped by Death Eaters, Lucius Malfoy challenges Snape to bed her-the implication is that Snape’s loyalty is being tested. Snape manages to avoid committing actual rape by instead performing a kind of mind-control that forces Hermione to experience sexual pleasure. After, Snape takes Hermione into his confidence and promises to initiate her into a state of female power that will allow her to be an instrument of Voldemort’s destruction. Hermione must learn to become “strega”-the most powerful kind of witch, with Snape, the son and great-nephew of strega, tutoring and supporting her.
Riley was one of the first members of WIKTT and already working on PtQ when this HG/SS-centric community was formed-at a time, as JOdel points out, when HG/SS “was a still comparatively small and much reviled fandom” (2006). Riley responded frequently and often in great detail to comments and responses about her story-that, plus the fic’s arguably controversial treatment of the two main characters-gave it considerable resonance within the new community. But the fic took on an almost mythic emotional resonance as well, when readers and author engaged in a months-long debate on WIKTT about elements of the fic’s controversial nature.
A search through the WIKTT archives for 2001-2002 indicates several contentious discussion areas around PtQ, but the most salient ones here are that the story (1) brought in a number of other characters instead of focusing on the Hermione-Severus pairing; (2) featured a strong female concept, the strega, that the writer explained was intended to give Hermione power that could offset Snape’s dominance; and (3) had Hermione effectively being raped by Snape and then becoming quite quickly to her rapist, which brought on some accusations of “Stockholm Syndrome.”
In her study of Star Trek fanfics, Bacon-Smith notes that some rape-fics exhibit a pattern of “rape-as-protection-from-an-even-worse-fate.” These kinds of stories often lead to a sexual relationship between the partners: “not because either participant enjoyed the rape, but because a strong but heretofore hidden emotional and physical attraction is revealed in the ensuing arguments” (p. 262). Arguably, PtQ began unfolding along these lines. But as more chapters of PtQ were published, the line between constructive criticism around these issues and personal attack became blurred for both the author and a number of readers. As the discussions became increasingly personal, some WIKTT members wondered whether the still relatively new community would survive the upheaval.
Why did these PtQ debates become so emotionally charged? In her analysis of “hurt-comfort” fanfic in the Star Trek universe, of which rape-fic is a sub-genre, Bacon-Smith (1992) recounts Jacqueline Lichtenberg telling her that “when I found the place where the tears fell, I’d know I’d gotten to the heart of the community” (p. 269). Members of the fanfic communities Bacon-Smith observed considered hurt-comfort more “daring” or “dangerous” than any other type of story, even slash (which in the late 80s-early 90s, when fanfics were being exchanged by snail-mail, was indeed a high-risk genre). Bacon-Smith was dismayed when she realized how significant “hurt-comfort” fics were to the community:
… I didn’t want to accept the fact that pain was so pervasive in the lives of women that it lay like a wash beneath all of the creative efforts of a community they had made for themselves. But there it was, nonetheless, laid out so clearly I could no longer deny it…. fans wrote to work through their own problems of personal suffering (p. 270).
It could be said that PtQ was the new HG/SS community’s first major encounter with “the relationship between suffering and power” (p. 270): a relationship with which older fanfic communities had co-existed for years. In that respect, intentionally or not, PtQ represents the first significant act of transgression against a ‘ship that had already taken on some decided fanon conventions-first and foremost, that Snape is a romantic figure. As JOdel notes,
… the highly conventionalized fanon Granger/Snape dynamics are a thoroughly representative example of one of the most predominant “foundation” story templates that drive the Regency juggernaut…. only a lightly skewed variant of the “to reform a rake” model (2006).
A major violation of this romantic ideal can still ignite firestorms, but the controversy around PtQ has taken on almost mythic emotional resonance. Even today, WIKTT discussions around that fic are carefully monitored and delimited, and not only by the moderators.
2. Breeding Lilacs Out of Dead Land
Summary = After the use of a Time-Turner goes wrong and Hermione ends up brutally raped by a young Severus Snape, she disappears from Hogwarts and returns years later with the daughter whom Snape fathered. Snape, still tormented by memories of the rape, at first rejects both mother and daughter. Aubrey’s presence and the anger she bears force Snape to feel guilt he isn’t capable of coping with, though at the same time he and Granger are able to communicate. But the threat from Voldemort and his Death Eaters grows, and the daughter is captured. Snape’s decision to rescue Aubrey is the turning point in coping with his guilt. When he’s finally reconciled not only to Hermione but Aubrey, the three become a family.
Fourth chapter:
[Snape] couldn’t remember her face, but he remembered the taste of the night, the exact shade of her voice, crying, sobbing, her words wrapping around his soul. Her pain. She was trying to keep her voice down, but when he thrust into her virgin body, she couldn’t repress a scream. Plunging in, he felt delicate tissues tear underneath him. Behind, Snape could hear his fellow Death Eaters cheering.
***
[Shortly after, in a memory flashback…] “What?” he nearly stopped amazed to hear her talking. Some of the victims cried or pledged, but she had simply lain there from the beginning. Limp, dumbstruck and hopeless.
“I-I said… it doesn’t m-matter…I f..f-forgive you.”
He laughed. Laughed so loudly that his lungs hurt. Then he hit her across the face, never even slowing his rhythm. “Stupid… girl.” A thrust, deep, and fierce. She cried. “Stupid… stupid… girl.” He plunged himself deep, wishing to hurt her.
***
Even after this first unpromising interview with Snape after her return to Hogwarts, Granger stands by her forgiveness. At length, communication between Snape and Granger slowly opens up. One night they go out drinking together. At one point, Hermione asks him, “What drove you… to hurt Aubrey, the other day?”
This was only getting worse. Snape took a sharp breath, trying to sort out an appropriate answer. “I don’t know. Not precisely. Her actions provoked a sense of self-awareness I could not deal with. I think she came too close and so I just had to push her away. Fuck that! And be quiet! I know that’s not the answer you want. Why did I hurt her? Probably because I’m a prick who knows of no better way to handle people. It was the most natural response for me, and so I acted. And yes, I'm damn sorry for the things I said.”
Granger nodded. “That’s… an acceptable answer.”
In the Epilogue, when the three have finally reconciled, Hermione says to Snape: “The two of us being perforated, each in different places- we can sometimes lie in bed at night and fill each other's cavities. There are all sorts of ways two people can help each other without being everything to each other.”
Reader comments on Ashwinder in the “Epilogue” were positive without exception, often mentioning the intelligence and quality of the writing, or that Snape’s uncompromisingly negative characteristics and attitude toward the Grangers until the “rescue” were closer to Rowling’s conception of the character than the Snape depicted in many other HG/SS fics. Some readers commented on the “controversy” about this fic in WIKTT but dismissed it.
But the discussion on WIKTT, mainly in April 2004, was more polarized. When posting notices of final chapter updates, the author welcomed constructive criticism but-since this was shortly after the “debate”-added that she reserved the right to defend her work. One WIKTT member recollected how contentious discussion over Riley’s Pawn to Queen “almost killed” this group. Some of the criticism springing up in response to the later chapters of BLooDL focused on such topics as
➢ a sudden transition in Snape’s character, from utterly rejecting his daughter-by-rape to risking his life to rescue her from Voldemort
➢ Hermione’s desire to have sex with her rapist (one commentator calling this “pity-sex”)
➢ Snape’s lack of remorse about having raped Hermione
➢ the writer pushes the “bastard!Snape” conceit too far, creating a completely violent and unsympathetic version of Rowling’s character-one without honour
➢ this version of Hermione is masochistic, with no confidence or backbone
➢ the story puts the impetus for Snape’s transformation on Hermione; in effect, she does the work of changing him.
The main characteristic of this debate was that it was so polarized; as well, for fans who’d been around since 2001, it evoked memories of the “Pawn to Queen wars.” It’s hard to say where this fic transgressed the most in these readers’ eyes: letting a violent man not only get away with rape, but be forgiven by his victim and walk away in the end with a happy family … or imbuing a character who in canon is merely unpleasant and difficult with profoundly disturbing, perhaps irredeemably negative qualities. This debate created an enormous sense of dissonance between canon Snape and what some readers perceived as a profoundly violent, bitter “OOC” portrayal of Snape-a loser who never appropriately “pays” for the crime of rape and in the end, gets away with it.
Canon Snape has his deeply unpleasant moments (including the fact he is capable of killing a colleague), but he also has wit, is highly intelligent, employs his own peculiar sense of honour, and has enjoyed a certain amount of respect from his peers. Even the events of HBP haven’t shaken many fans’ hopes that Snape is honourable, that he was and, in the end, will prove himself to be “Dumbledore’s man.” In creating such a profoundly unromantic Snape, BLooDL pushed not only canon but fanon images of Snape to the limit, violating many of the conventions that the fan fiction community had established for Snape’s character.
3. What E’re Therein Is Promised.
Theme = power.
Summary = Desperate to find an apprenticeship, Hermione strikes a Faustian bargain with Severus Snape, who has twice rejected her previously. The contract gives him almost complete power over her for three years, including sexual rights, which Snape proves willing to negotiate “down to” four nights a week. She refuses to play the role of consenting to sex, but her feelings about the experience are not always entirely negative. As the apprenticeship continues, Hermione tests the limits of Snape’s control in various ways. As she gains power and abilities and they work more closely together, he comes to realize that he loves her, and he destroys their contract. But-scarred by his earlier abuse-Hermione can’t accept him and strikes out on her own. Snape at length seeks Hermione out and stands willing to bind himself to her with a similar contract, which she ultimately rejects and destroys. Instead, she offers him her forgiveness and an equal partnership on terms with which he must freely agree. Still, it’s unlikely that their lives together will be entirely easy.
Penultimate chapter: “Balance of Power”
Negative comments:
➢ Hermione knew Snape was manipulating her in the workplace, yet fell in love and stayed in love with him.
➢ Snape wanted power and control over Hermione, and she (at least at first) accepted this.
➢ Hermione would accept and forgive someone who’d abused, or not actually raped, her.
➢ Their sexual relationship could ever be consensual and unscarred.
➢ This story created an “unhealthy bond” between abuser and abused, reminiscent of Stockholm Syndrome.
Counter-arguments:
One reader expressed alarm at the number of fics in this ‘ship that “seem to condone a rapist/abusive relationship,” but didn’t count this story among them. Some readers made a point of saying that this story is not a “typical rape-fic,” nor an example of an abused Hermione falling for an abusive Snape. One reader argued that it’s appropriate to portray Snape as a “manipulative bastard” rather than a romantic figure, for this makes his eventual transformation believable.
Other positive interpretations are that Hermione clearly had complete freedom to make a choice, which was to give Snape a chance; that they deserve a chance at happiness; that Snape demonstrates he’s capable of love and respect; that this is a love-story with complications; that in the end they have become equals, despite the imbalance of the first few chapters.
[Granger to Snape]: “…As it turns out, I can't produce Wolfsbane. My instructor never did teach me - very sloppy of him. Perhaps he'd like to make it up to me by coming on as a subcontractor.”
He stopped his march through the gardens and stared at her, astonished. “You're ... you're offering me a job?” he sputtered finally.
“A partnership, actually.”
When Severus balks, Hermione calls him on it, articulating one of the main issues of power and equality that ground this story:
“You don't care to feel powerless, more like,” she said, exasperated. “Partnership, do you hear me? Partnership. I'll even sign a contract to that effect, though I'd rather shake hands - for reasons that I think should be obvious.”
He looked briefly stricken. Then he glared at her suspiciously.
“Are you manipulating me?”
“Is it working?” she asked, feeling slightly guilty.
Deeble makes this quite explicit in her penultimate chapter:
“From the start, I tried to make you want my touch,” he said, running a hand lightly across her stomach, still covered by robes. “Oh, that would be power, I thought, if I could do it; but the result was that every time I took you to bed it felt ultimately … unsatisfying. Surely this will prompt a reaction, I'd reason” - he trailed his fingers lower - “and you would do nothing but bite your lip and stare at the ceiling.”
“I couldn't let myself enjoy it,” she said, holding his gaze. “I had no-”
“Control,” he finished flatly. “And neither did I, in the end.”
He lowered himself onto the pillow and slid an arm under her head, lying silently with her as she digested this bit of information.
He was trying to tell her they were meeting on level ground, one equally powerless against the other. She would never, ever have thought of it that way.
The final chapter (Epilogue) suggests that the power of atonement and the passing of time have allowed Hermione and Severus, not “Snape,” to achieve equality in sexual as well as intellectual matters:
She couldn't forget, of course, but she'd forgiven him, more fully with every year. The eyes of love have a tendency of overlooking unfortunate facts - or overcoming them; perhaps that was it - and she'd long since made peace with what he'd done in light of what he'd tried to do to atone.
Now when he instigated sex she felt a heady rush of wanting mixed with a sharp joy that they'd got to this point, this point where she felt only pleasure and he felt comfortable enough to take the lead again. She'd become very accustomed to making the first move; it was two years past the time she'd returned to him before he asked, let alone presumed.
In commenting on this final chapter, some readers expressed appreciation for the way the story complexified the Hermione-Severus relationship. For some readers, the ambiguities painted a more realistic picture than most HG/SS fics about how power relations can evolve, given world enough and time, from wildly unbalanced toward equilibrium.
When the fic was discussed on WIKTT in 2005, some readers wondered why Hermione capitulated to Snape at the beginning. In a recent e-mail to me, Deeble (2006b) mentioned she was surprised at comments suggesting Hermione was an “unreasonable whiner” and that Snape was “fully justified” in doing what he did. In Ashwinder, some readers commented at the end that they felt the story was “disturbing”; that even with Hermione gaining power, the relationship was still “unhealthy.” To reviewers in Ashwinder who expressed concerns, Deeble focused on change, hope, and choice:
“It's only when he shows her that he is not the man he was at the start of the contract that she gives the relationship a chance.”
“I certainly acknowledge that Snape was an abuser. The key issues are whether he has changed and whether Hermione can reasonably forgive him …
“Gives us all hope … that we can be better people too.”
“I absolutely wanted it to come across as her choice, one that wasn't manipulated by anything or anybody else (including Snape).”
“Just as the sex in the first half of the story was a sign of a terribly unhealthy relationship, the sex at the very end is a symbol that they’ve dealt, more or less successfully, with their major problems” (2006a).
It’s now a fanfic trope that one alternative for Snape is to relinquish an oppressive form of “power-over” in exchange for the “powerlessness” of greater self-awareness and, thus, a chance to be redeemed and to experience a wholesome form of love. But this trope of relinquishment is somewhat high-risk, to use Bacon-Smith’s term … for if Hermione is too dominant, which some critics of PtQ’s “strega” claim, her power risks reducing Snape to the status of sniveling new-age male-a fanon transgression (and at times the subject of parody). But WETiP implies that Hermione must also relinquish a form of oppressive power: her anger and earlier desire for revenge. Both characters must give and take to remain open to the possibility of transformation.
Perhaps this overall sense of balance was important in allowing this story to be discussed and at times critiqued on WIKTT in 2005 without igniting an emotional firestorm. In WETiS, Granger and Snape must each give and take power. Both are depicted as intellectual equals: the canon-compliant and fanon-fueled “marriage of true minds” trope (JOdel, 2006) in which Granger wields power and self-respect … and Snape is not brutally violent, shattered beyond repair, or (on the opposite end of the scale), a new age rake excruciatingly sensitized by love. Rather, he remains canonically unpleasant and difficult, yet capable of opening his mind and heart: in other words redeemable, but not too much so. When a high-risk fic manages to maintain this fine balance, a majority of Granger/Snape fans will hold off on crying “transgression!” For these reasons, ultimately WETiP doesn’t transgress HG/SS fanfic boundaries.
"Are HG/SS online communities “safe”? Should they be?"
Granger/Snape fan-fic writers and their online communities almost entirely comprise users who identify themselves as female. Bacon-Smith’s Enterprising Women (1992) and Constance Penley’s NASA/Trek (1997) give some insights into why these fanfic communities are attractive to women (as well as why most slash fics are written by women). Women use the Granger/Snape pairing for empowerment and pleasure, to deal with pain, to explore the politics of relationships-or simply to be part of a community as they work through a range of sexual and power dynamics: including patterns unavailable to them or far too risky in real life.
These dynamics, as we’ve seen, can also be risky to grapple with in a supposedly supportive online community. In fact, the discussions around the fics I’ve focused on here are a bit like those of consciousness-raising groups during feminism’s Second Wave. Often similarly rife with controversies, the Granger/Snape fan-fic community provides outlets for exploring all forms of power relations and sexuality, including the most transgressive. These communities of readers and writers are always lively, always opinionated, often supportive … but it would be a mistake to consider them “safe.”
References:
Bacon-Smith, C. (1992). Enterprising women: television fandom and the creation of popular myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Deeble. (2005). Responses to reader reviews. What E’er Therein is Promised. Retrieved 24 July 2006 from http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/reviews.php?sid=10109&a=1
Deeble. (2006). E-mail to the writer. 25 July.
JOdel. (2006, rev). On the good ‘ship Granger/Snape. Red Hen Publications. Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://www.redhen-publications.com/Granger-Snape.html
Jenkins, H. (2004). Why Heather Can Write. Technology Review. (6 February). Retrieved 14 January 2006 from http://www.techreview.com/articles/04/02/wo_jenkins020604.asp>
Penley, C. (1997). NASA/Trek: popular science and sex in America. London: Verso.
Reader Reviews. (2004). Breeding lilacs out of dead land. Sycophant Hex-Ashwinder. Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com./reviews.php?sid=3608&a=1
Riley. (2002). A Note from Riley. La société des femmes dangereuses (Witchfics). (Aug. 7). Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://www.witchfics.org/riley/ptq/newbits/ptqintro.html
Riley. (2003). Sundown. La société des femmes dangereuses (Witchfics). (Feb. 22) Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://www.witchfics.org/riley/ptq/sundown.html
Waters, D. (2004). Rowling backs Potter fan fiction. BBC News Online Entertainment. (27 May). Retrieved 12 Feb. 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3753001.stm
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
...it's when I go to 'Out of Bounds: Transgressive Fiction' that I get really annoyed [actually, the title is "Transgressive Fanfiction," but let that pass--S]. It's a seminar analysing Hermione Granger-Professor Snape fan fiction. That is to say, a relationship between a teenage girl and a fortysomething man, which often, it transpires, takes the form of a rape narrative. There are 200 women in the room. And a whole lot of talk about female empowerment and gender reversals, but, frankly, if it was 200 men talking about rape narratives involving underage schoolchildren, it would be a matter for the police, and I don't think this is empowering anybody.
My RL activities in the past have inured me to being misquoted by journalists. It's almost to be expected. And though a small, wicked part of me feels a bit chuffed about the dishonourable mention, I am actually somewhat concerned. I remember this journalist, and she did ask a me a question about men and rape-narratives. I said that if men were writing such narratives as rape fantasies, in my opinion they'd be run out of the fandom. She then introduced herself after the talk and asked if I'd be willing to speak further with her about this topic. Of course I said I'd be happy to, and we arranged to meet at a certain place and time later that evening.
She never showed up for our appointment.
It's too bad she's oversimplified and misrepresented Granger/Snape fics as being entirely about rape and underage sex--that certainly wasn't my purpose, though perhaps, given how that pairing "looks" to outsiders, that isn't too surprising. Too bad as well that she missed my "hit-em-over-the-head" theme about power relations, as well as the more nuanced information about the long fanfic tradition (outside of HP) of primarily women writers who use fanfic (for better or worse) to work through a variety of personal issues and "transgressive" themes. Though that process can be empowering, it isn't always--in fact, it can be quite painful. Nor is it necessarily a safe process, as my ending makes clear.
I'd meant to upload my Lumos paper to LJ, and it seems here's the perfect occasion. I've placed all of it under a cut except for the References, and I'll be happy to send anyone a PDF version on request. I'm hoping to pursue this topic some more, perhaps for Prophecy next year, so I'd be delighted to hear back from anyone about this paper. (Including Carole Cadwalladr!)
Two warnings: (1) Some of this content is adult in nature; (2) There are SPOILERS for three fics: Pawn to Queen; Breeding Lilacs Out of Dead Land; What E'er Therein is Promised.
"Out of bounds? Transgressive Granger/Snape fan fiction and online communities
"What is “transgressive” fan fiction?"
The first Harry Potter fanfiction story was published on Fanfiction.net in 1999. Since then, the number of Potter fan-fiction stories on that archive has grown explosively to almost 228,000 stories, novels, and works-in-process as of early 2006. The past few years have also seen the considerable growth of moderated Potter fan-fic archives like FictionAlley (with about 160,000 stories and chapters as of 2006) and Sugar Quill, both established in 2001.
Fortunately for these web archives, J.K. Rowling is on record as saying she favours canonical fan-fiction based on her universe and characters (Waters, 2004). Some educators even believe such canon-compliant fan-writing holds considerable educational value (Jenkins, 2004)-a vision explicitly promoted, for example, by the Sugar Quill’s Literacy Project. By implication, however, this sanction includes fics that follow the moral rules of Rowling’s universe.
An enormous number of Harry Potter fan-fic stories, however, populating an unknown number of alternative web archives, transgress “acceptable” boundaries. Some transgress because, though they focus on an established or strongly canon pairing, the stories express that relationship in graphic sexual detail. Others, though, transgress because their unorthodox relationship pairings or ‘ships-including slash-push original canon characters into sexually and emotionally charged situations and conflicts unforeseen by the creator and arguably well beyond her established moral limits.
I’m not focusing on slash in this presentation, but it’s helpful to keep in mind that in the fanfic universe slash, while transgressive in terms of canon, is one of the oldest and most established fan-fic genres. The HP fanfic universe recognizes a number of slash pairings (with “Snarry” apparently being one of the first, circa 2001). Slash now has some claim to orthodoxy in alternative HP fanfic communities, which marks a gradual shift in attitudes from earlier fanfic communities when, as Camille Bacon-Smith notes, slash was considered a “high-risk” or dangerous genre (1992, p. 204).
“Transgressive” and “unorthodox” are slippery terms. What goes beyond the pale for one fanfic reader or writer seems perfectly within bounds to another. From my own perspective, one of the most transgressive hetero pairings or ‘ships in the HP fanfic universe is that of Hermione Granger, student, and Severus Snape,
professor. This is purely a “fanon” relationship suggested by what some consider a very broad and generous readings of and extrapolations from The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Order of the Phoenix. For me, a university professor and feminist, the major transgressive element in this pairing lies in the possibilities for reinforcing or subverting the highly unequal power relationship between this particular student and teacher-whether these possibilities manifest as sexual or intellectual, or both.
It would be impossible to comment on sex and power relations in even a small fraction of the thousands of Hermione/Severus stories archived online. But I’ve been struck by the heated online debates about sex and power that certain stories around this pairing have generated. For me, there is nothing more transgressive in real life than a professor wielding abusive power over a female student. But is that what Granger/Snape fanfiction is really about? What is it about this relationship, with all its oppressions and possibilities, that draws me and so many other mainly female fans to this ‘ship and prompts so many strong opinions about how their relationship could play out?
To explore this personal and political question, I’ve turned to the online communities in which I’ve participated in over the past three years, since coming on board this ‘ship, to explore whether there is such a thing as “out of bounds” in Granger/Snape fanfiction. I’ll briefly summarize and analyze reactions to three fics that have, in my view at least, triggered particularly contentious or challenging discussions about power relations between this student/teacher pairing.
"Three “transgressive” fics: themes and patterns"
1. Pawn to Queen (work in progress during 2001; never completed)
Theme = gender and power relations
Partial Summary = When Hermione is kidnapped by Death Eaters, Lucius Malfoy challenges Snape to bed her-the implication is that Snape’s loyalty is being tested. Snape manages to avoid committing actual rape by instead performing a kind of mind-control that forces Hermione to experience sexual pleasure. After, Snape takes Hermione into his confidence and promises to initiate her into a state of female power that will allow her to be an instrument of Voldemort’s destruction. Hermione must learn to become “strega”-the most powerful kind of witch, with Snape, the son and great-nephew of strega, tutoring and supporting her.
Riley was one of the first members of WIKTT and already working on PtQ when this HG/SS-centric community was formed-at a time, as JOdel points out, when HG/SS “was a still comparatively small and much reviled fandom” (2006). Riley responded frequently and often in great detail to comments and responses about her story-that, plus the fic’s arguably controversial treatment of the two main characters-gave it considerable resonance within the new community. But the fic took on an almost mythic emotional resonance as well, when readers and author engaged in a months-long debate on WIKTT about elements of the fic’s controversial nature.
A search through the WIKTT archives for 2001-2002 indicates several contentious discussion areas around PtQ, but the most salient ones here are that the story (1) brought in a number of other characters instead of focusing on the Hermione-Severus pairing; (2) featured a strong female concept, the strega, that the writer explained was intended to give Hermione power that could offset Snape’s dominance; and (3) had Hermione effectively being raped by Snape and then becoming quite quickly to her rapist, which brought on some accusations of “Stockholm Syndrome.”
In her study of Star Trek fanfics, Bacon-Smith notes that some rape-fics exhibit a pattern of “rape-as-protection-from-an-even-worse-fate.” These kinds of stories often lead to a sexual relationship between the partners: “not because either participant enjoyed the rape, but because a strong but heretofore hidden emotional and physical attraction is revealed in the ensuing arguments” (p. 262). Arguably, PtQ began unfolding along these lines. But as more chapters of PtQ were published, the line between constructive criticism around these issues and personal attack became blurred for both the author and a number of readers. As the discussions became increasingly personal, some WIKTT members wondered whether the still relatively new community would survive the upheaval.
Why did these PtQ debates become so emotionally charged? In her analysis of “hurt-comfort” fanfic in the Star Trek universe, of which rape-fic is a sub-genre, Bacon-Smith (1992) recounts Jacqueline Lichtenberg telling her that “when I found the place where the tears fell, I’d know I’d gotten to the heart of the community” (p. 269). Members of the fanfic communities Bacon-Smith observed considered hurt-comfort more “daring” or “dangerous” than any other type of story, even slash (which in the late 80s-early 90s, when fanfics were being exchanged by snail-mail, was indeed a high-risk genre). Bacon-Smith was dismayed when she realized how significant “hurt-comfort” fics were to the community:
… I didn’t want to accept the fact that pain was so pervasive in the lives of women that it lay like a wash beneath all of the creative efforts of a community they had made for themselves. But there it was, nonetheless, laid out so clearly I could no longer deny it…. fans wrote to work through their own problems of personal suffering (p. 270).
It could be said that PtQ was the new HG/SS community’s first major encounter with “the relationship between suffering and power” (p. 270): a relationship with which older fanfic communities had co-existed for years. In that respect, intentionally or not, PtQ represents the first significant act of transgression against a ‘ship that had already taken on some decided fanon conventions-first and foremost, that Snape is a romantic figure. As JOdel notes,
… the highly conventionalized fanon Granger/Snape dynamics are a thoroughly representative example of one of the most predominant “foundation” story templates that drive the Regency juggernaut…. only a lightly skewed variant of the “to reform a rake” model (2006).
A major violation of this romantic ideal can still ignite firestorms, but the controversy around PtQ has taken on almost mythic emotional resonance. Even today, WIKTT discussions around that fic are carefully monitored and delimited, and not only by the moderators.
2. Breeding Lilacs Out of Dead Land
Summary = After the use of a Time-Turner goes wrong and Hermione ends up brutally raped by a young Severus Snape, she disappears from Hogwarts and returns years later with the daughter whom Snape fathered. Snape, still tormented by memories of the rape, at first rejects both mother and daughter. Aubrey’s presence and the anger she bears force Snape to feel guilt he isn’t capable of coping with, though at the same time he and Granger are able to communicate. But the threat from Voldemort and his Death Eaters grows, and the daughter is captured. Snape’s decision to rescue Aubrey is the turning point in coping with his guilt. When he’s finally reconciled not only to Hermione but Aubrey, the three become a family.
Fourth chapter:
[Snape] couldn’t remember her face, but he remembered the taste of the night, the exact shade of her voice, crying, sobbing, her words wrapping around his soul. Her pain. She was trying to keep her voice down, but when he thrust into her virgin body, she couldn’t repress a scream. Plunging in, he felt delicate tissues tear underneath him. Behind, Snape could hear his fellow Death Eaters cheering.
***
[Shortly after, in a memory flashback…] “What?” he nearly stopped amazed to hear her talking. Some of the victims cried or pledged, but she had simply lain there from the beginning. Limp, dumbstruck and hopeless.
“I-I said… it doesn’t m-matter…I f..f-forgive you.”
He laughed. Laughed so loudly that his lungs hurt. Then he hit her across the face, never even slowing his rhythm. “Stupid… girl.” A thrust, deep, and fierce. She cried. “Stupid… stupid… girl.” He plunged himself deep, wishing to hurt her.
***
Even after this first unpromising interview with Snape after her return to Hogwarts, Granger stands by her forgiveness. At length, communication between Snape and Granger slowly opens up. One night they go out drinking together. At one point, Hermione asks him, “What drove you… to hurt Aubrey, the other day?”
This was only getting worse. Snape took a sharp breath, trying to sort out an appropriate answer. “I don’t know. Not precisely. Her actions provoked a sense of self-awareness I could not deal with. I think she came too close and so I just had to push her away. Fuck that! And be quiet! I know that’s not the answer you want. Why did I hurt her? Probably because I’m a prick who knows of no better way to handle people. It was the most natural response for me, and so I acted. And yes, I'm damn sorry for the things I said.”
Granger nodded. “That’s… an acceptable answer.”
In the Epilogue, when the three have finally reconciled, Hermione says to Snape: “The two of us being perforated, each in different places- we can sometimes lie in bed at night and fill each other's cavities. There are all sorts of ways two people can help each other without being everything to each other.”
Reader comments on Ashwinder in the “Epilogue” were positive without exception, often mentioning the intelligence and quality of the writing, or that Snape’s uncompromisingly negative characteristics and attitude toward the Grangers until the “rescue” were closer to Rowling’s conception of the character than the Snape depicted in many other HG/SS fics. Some readers commented on the “controversy” about this fic in WIKTT but dismissed it.
But the discussion on WIKTT, mainly in April 2004, was more polarized. When posting notices of final chapter updates, the author welcomed constructive criticism but-since this was shortly after the “debate”-added that she reserved the right to defend her work. One WIKTT member recollected how contentious discussion over Riley’s Pawn to Queen “almost killed” this group. Some of the criticism springing up in response to the later chapters of BLooDL focused on such topics as
➢ a sudden transition in Snape’s character, from utterly rejecting his daughter-by-rape to risking his life to rescue her from Voldemort
➢ Hermione’s desire to have sex with her rapist (one commentator calling this “pity-sex”)
➢ Snape’s lack of remorse about having raped Hermione
➢ the writer pushes the “bastard!Snape” conceit too far, creating a completely violent and unsympathetic version of Rowling’s character-one without honour
➢ this version of Hermione is masochistic, with no confidence or backbone
➢ the story puts the impetus for Snape’s transformation on Hermione; in effect, she does the work of changing him.
The main characteristic of this debate was that it was so polarized; as well, for fans who’d been around since 2001, it evoked memories of the “Pawn to Queen wars.” It’s hard to say where this fic transgressed the most in these readers’ eyes: letting a violent man not only get away with rape, but be forgiven by his victim and walk away in the end with a happy family … or imbuing a character who in canon is merely unpleasant and difficult with profoundly disturbing, perhaps irredeemably negative qualities. This debate created an enormous sense of dissonance between canon Snape and what some readers perceived as a profoundly violent, bitter “OOC” portrayal of Snape-a loser who never appropriately “pays” for the crime of rape and in the end, gets away with it.
Canon Snape has his deeply unpleasant moments (including the fact he is capable of killing a colleague), but he also has wit, is highly intelligent, employs his own peculiar sense of honour, and has enjoyed a certain amount of respect from his peers. Even the events of HBP haven’t shaken many fans’ hopes that Snape is honourable, that he was and, in the end, will prove himself to be “Dumbledore’s man.” In creating such a profoundly unromantic Snape, BLooDL pushed not only canon but fanon images of Snape to the limit, violating many of the conventions that the fan fiction community had established for Snape’s character.
3. What E’re Therein Is Promised.
Theme = power.
Summary = Desperate to find an apprenticeship, Hermione strikes a Faustian bargain with Severus Snape, who has twice rejected her previously. The contract gives him almost complete power over her for three years, including sexual rights, which Snape proves willing to negotiate “down to” four nights a week. She refuses to play the role of consenting to sex, but her feelings about the experience are not always entirely negative. As the apprenticeship continues, Hermione tests the limits of Snape’s control in various ways. As she gains power and abilities and they work more closely together, he comes to realize that he loves her, and he destroys their contract. But-scarred by his earlier abuse-Hermione can’t accept him and strikes out on her own. Snape at length seeks Hermione out and stands willing to bind himself to her with a similar contract, which she ultimately rejects and destroys. Instead, she offers him her forgiveness and an equal partnership on terms with which he must freely agree. Still, it’s unlikely that their lives together will be entirely easy.
Penultimate chapter: “Balance of Power”
Negative comments:
➢ Hermione knew Snape was manipulating her in the workplace, yet fell in love and stayed in love with him.
➢ Snape wanted power and control over Hermione, and she (at least at first) accepted this.
➢ Hermione would accept and forgive someone who’d abused, or not actually raped, her.
➢ Their sexual relationship could ever be consensual and unscarred.
➢ This story created an “unhealthy bond” between abuser and abused, reminiscent of Stockholm Syndrome.
Counter-arguments:
One reader expressed alarm at the number of fics in this ‘ship that “seem to condone a rapist/abusive relationship,” but didn’t count this story among them. Some readers made a point of saying that this story is not a “typical rape-fic,” nor an example of an abused Hermione falling for an abusive Snape. One reader argued that it’s appropriate to portray Snape as a “manipulative bastard” rather than a romantic figure, for this makes his eventual transformation believable.
Other positive interpretations are that Hermione clearly had complete freedom to make a choice, which was to give Snape a chance; that they deserve a chance at happiness; that Snape demonstrates he’s capable of love and respect; that this is a love-story with complications; that in the end they have become equals, despite the imbalance of the first few chapters.
[Granger to Snape]: “…As it turns out, I can't produce Wolfsbane. My instructor never did teach me - very sloppy of him. Perhaps he'd like to make it up to me by coming on as a subcontractor.”
He stopped his march through the gardens and stared at her, astonished. “You're ... you're offering me a job?” he sputtered finally.
“A partnership, actually.”
When Severus balks, Hermione calls him on it, articulating one of the main issues of power and equality that ground this story:
“You don't care to feel powerless, more like,” she said, exasperated. “Partnership, do you hear me? Partnership. I'll even sign a contract to that effect, though I'd rather shake hands - for reasons that I think should be obvious.”
He looked briefly stricken. Then he glared at her suspiciously.
“Are you manipulating me?”
“Is it working?” she asked, feeling slightly guilty.
Deeble makes this quite explicit in her penultimate chapter:
“From the start, I tried to make you want my touch,” he said, running a hand lightly across her stomach, still covered by robes. “Oh, that would be power, I thought, if I could do it; but the result was that every time I took you to bed it felt ultimately … unsatisfying. Surely this will prompt a reaction, I'd reason” - he trailed his fingers lower - “and you would do nothing but bite your lip and stare at the ceiling.”
“I couldn't let myself enjoy it,” she said, holding his gaze. “I had no-”
“Control,” he finished flatly. “And neither did I, in the end.”
He lowered himself onto the pillow and slid an arm under her head, lying silently with her as she digested this bit of information.
He was trying to tell her they were meeting on level ground, one equally powerless against the other. She would never, ever have thought of it that way.
The final chapter (Epilogue) suggests that the power of atonement and the passing of time have allowed Hermione and Severus, not “Snape,” to achieve equality in sexual as well as intellectual matters:
She couldn't forget, of course, but she'd forgiven him, more fully with every year. The eyes of love have a tendency of overlooking unfortunate facts - or overcoming them; perhaps that was it - and she'd long since made peace with what he'd done in light of what he'd tried to do to atone.
Now when he instigated sex she felt a heady rush of wanting mixed with a sharp joy that they'd got to this point, this point where she felt only pleasure and he felt comfortable enough to take the lead again. She'd become very accustomed to making the first move; it was two years past the time she'd returned to him before he asked, let alone presumed.
In commenting on this final chapter, some readers expressed appreciation for the way the story complexified the Hermione-Severus relationship. For some readers, the ambiguities painted a more realistic picture than most HG/SS fics about how power relations can evolve, given world enough and time, from wildly unbalanced toward equilibrium.
When the fic was discussed on WIKTT in 2005, some readers wondered why Hermione capitulated to Snape at the beginning. In a recent e-mail to me, Deeble (2006b) mentioned she was surprised at comments suggesting Hermione was an “unreasonable whiner” and that Snape was “fully justified” in doing what he did. In Ashwinder, some readers commented at the end that they felt the story was “disturbing”; that even with Hermione gaining power, the relationship was still “unhealthy.” To reviewers in Ashwinder who expressed concerns, Deeble focused on change, hope, and choice:
“It's only when he shows her that he is not the man he was at the start of the contract that she gives the relationship a chance.”
“I certainly acknowledge that Snape was an abuser. The key issues are whether he has changed and whether Hermione can reasonably forgive him …
“Gives us all hope … that we can be better people too.”
“I absolutely wanted it to come across as her choice, one that wasn't manipulated by anything or anybody else (including Snape).”
“Just as the sex in the first half of the story was a sign of a terribly unhealthy relationship, the sex at the very end is a symbol that they’ve dealt, more or less successfully, with their major problems” (2006a).
It’s now a fanfic trope that one alternative for Snape is to relinquish an oppressive form of “power-over” in exchange for the “powerlessness” of greater self-awareness and, thus, a chance to be redeemed and to experience a wholesome form of love. But this trope of relinquishment is somewhat high-risk, to use Bacon-Smith’s term … for if Hermione is too dominant, which some critics of PtQ’s “strega” claim, her power risks reducing Snape to the status of sniveling new-age male-a fanon transgression (and at times the subject of parody). But WETiP implies that Hermione must also relinquish a form of oppressive power: her anger and earlier desire for revenge. Both characters must give and take to remain open to the possibility of transformation.
Perhaps this overall sense of balance was important in allowing this story to be discussed and at times critiqued on WIKTT in 2005 without igniting an emotional firestorm. In WETiS, Granger and Snape must each give and take power. Both are depicted as intellectual equals: the canon-compliant and fanon-fueled “marriage of true minds” trope (JOdel, 2006) in which Granger wields power and self-respect … and Snape is not brutally violent, shattered beyond repair, or (on the opposite end of the scale), a new age rake excruciatingly sensitized by love. Rather, he remains canonically unpleasant and difficult, yet capable of opening his mind and heart: in other words redeemable, but not too much so. When a high-risk fic manages to maintain this fine balance, a majority of Granger/Snape fans will hold off on crying “transgression!” For these reasons, ultimately WETiP doesn’t transgress HG/SS fanfic boundaries.
"Are HG/SS online communities “safe”? Should they be?"
Granger/Snape fan-fic writers and their online communities almost entirely comprise users who identify themselves as female. Bacon-Smith’s Enterprising Women (1992) and Constance Penley’s NASA/Trek (1997) give some insights into why these fanfic communities are attractive to women (as well as why most slash fics are written by women). Women use the Granger/Snape pairing for empowerment and pleasure, to deal with pain, to explore the politics of relationships-or simply to be part of a community as they work through a range of sexual and power dynamics: including patterns unavailable to them or far too risky in real life.
These dynamics, as we’ve seen, can also be risky to grapple with in a supposedly supportive online community. In fact, the discussions around the fics I’ve focused on here are a bit like those of consciousness-raising groups during feminism’s Second Wave. Often similarly rife with controversies, the Granger/Snape fan-fic community provides outlets for exploring all forms of power relations and sexuality, including the most transgressive. These communities of readers and writers are always lively, always opinionated, often supportive … but it would be a mistake to consider them “safe.”
References:
Bacon-Smith, C. (1992). Enterprising women: television fandom and the creation of popular myth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Deeble. (2005). Responses to reader reviews. What E’er Therein is Promised. Retrieved 24 July 2006 from http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com/reviews.php?sid=10109&a=1
Deeble. (2006). E-mail to the writer. 25 July.
JOdel. (2006, rev). On the good ‘ship Granger/Snape. Red Hen Publications. Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://www.redhen-publications.com/Granger-Snape.html
Jenkins, H. (2004). Why Heather Can Write. Technology Review. (6 February). Retrieved 14 January 2006 from http://www.techreview.com/articles/04/02/wo_jenkins020604.asp>
Penley, C. (1997). NASA/Trek: popular science and sex in America. London: Verso.
Reader Reviews. (2004). Breeding lilacs out of dead land. Sycophant Hex-Ashwinder. Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://ashwinder.sycophanthex.com./reviews.php?sid=3608&a=1
Riley. (2002). A Note from Riley. La société des femmes dangereuses (Witchfics). (Aug. 7). Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://www.witchfics.org/riley/ptq/newbits/ptqintro.html
Riley. (2003). Sundown. La société des femmes dangereuses (Witchfics). (Feb. 22) Retrieved 25 July 2006 from http://www.witchfics.org/riley/ptq/sundown.html
Waters, D. (2004). Rowling backs Potter fan fiction. BBC News Online Entertainment. (27 May). Retrieved 12 Feb. 2006 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3753001.stm
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