Ugh. There were moments that I loved in book 7, but you're so right about all of this.
The plight of House Elves was probably my biggest interest in the series, and although I did appreciate that the elves rebelled at the end, the fact that they apparently did so in the name of Regellus and not for their own freedom is absurd. That and after we saw Dobby's inherent elf magic, it made no sense for the rebelling elves to use cleavers rather than spells - a point which only further reinforces their feninized status - and reinforces the degradation of feminized skills vis-a-vis masculine ones (cleavers versus spells, in this case, but clearly the tasks elves perform aren't valued in general - they do work considered degrading, which in RL would be considered "women's work")
After the build up with the magical brethren fountain, I really expected a complete social justice revamp at the book's conclusion, not "happy" hetero land, and I'm feeling rather disgruntled about that. If anything sums up my feelings about JKR, it's that she doesn't know how to deliever a payoff after building incredible potential. Please let there be fan fic.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-07-31 04:29 am (UTC)The plight of House Elves was probably my biggest interest in the series, and although I did appreciate that the elves rebelled at the end, the fact that they apparently did so in the name of Regellus and not for their own freedom is absurd. That and after we saw Dobby's inherent elf magic, it made no sense for the rebelling elves to use cleavers rather than spells - a point which only further reinforces their feninized status - and reinforces the degradation of feminized skills vis-a-vis masculine ones (cleavers versus spells, in this case, but clearly the tasks elves perform aren't valued in general - they do work considered degrading, which in RL would be considered "women's work")
After the build up with the magical brethren fountain, I really expected a complete social justice revamp at the book's conclusion, not "happy" hetero land, and I'm feeling rather disgruntled about that. If anything sums up my feelings about JKR, it's that she doesn't know how to deliever a payoff after building incredible potential. Please let there be fan fic.