#anti Snape discourse is internalized classism

[maxdibert]

I’ll never stop being shocked by how some people excuse the fact that Severus was stripped, humiliated, and nearly murdered as a teenager by pointing to the fact that he later became an adult with a difficult personality. Like, do these people not understand the basic concept of cause and consequence? Do they not grasp how trauma shapes a person?

It’s astonishing how casually they erase the violence he endured in his formative years—systematic bullying, public humiliation, attempted murder—and somehow believe it’s justified or irrelevant just because he grew into a bitter, emotionally damaged adult. As if that personality came out of nowhere. As if social isolation, poverty, neglect, and abuse don’t leave a mark.

And what’s worse is that these same people will turn around and offer endless compassion to other characters whose traumas are more palatable to them. The fandom bends over backwards to defend their favourites, but when it comes to Severus, suddenly trauma doesn’t matter. Suddenly it’s all his fault.

This isn’t just about character interpretation, it reflects a broader issue in how society treats trauma survivors, especially those who are lower class, emotionally repressed, or don’t perform their pain in a way that’s comfortable to others. Severus was a working-class kid in a hostile environment, with no safety net, no support system, and no institutional protection. And to this day, people are still blaming him for how he turned out, rather than the structures and individuals that failed him and harmed him in the first place.

That’s not just bad reading comprehension. That’s a complete lack of class consciousness and emotional honesty.