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severusdefender · 7 years

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Severus Snape fandom survey results

This is long so I’m putting it under the cut.

The survey received 329 responses. It was made up of two sections. The first section had six questions which dealt with the demographic structure of the fandom. The second section had twenty-four questions dealing with fandom and life experiences.

Starting with the closed ended questions:

1. Where do you come from?

There were so many different responses from all (inhabited) continents that I’m just going to list the top 5.

USA 46%

UK 9%

Germany 7%

Australia 3%

Brazil 3%

2. What is your religion?

Again we’re going to do the top 5 because there were so many religions.

Christianity 30%

Non-religious 21%

Atheism 16%

Agnosticism 10%

Islam 5%

3. What is your race?

White 71%

Black 4%

Asian 8%

Latinx 5%

Mixed race 7%

Middle Eastern/Arab 1%

Indigenous people 1%

N/A 3%

4. What is your gender?

Cisgender female 74.5%

Cisgender male 1.5%

Transgender female 4.6%

Transgender male 4.6%

Non binary individual 9.7%

Other 5.2% *

*The percentages are affected once we go into the ‘Other’ answers but I’m not comfortable forcing a label on someone

5. What is your sexual orientation?

Heterosexuality 31.6%

Homosexuality 7%

Bisexuality 28.3%

Pansexuality 12.2%

Asexuality 16.7%

Polysexuality 0.9%

Other 3.3%*

*percentages change when the ‘Other’ answers are looked into usually increasing the number of LBGTQIAP+ members

6. What is your romantic orientation?

Heteroromantic 34.7%

Homoromantic 8.8 %

Biromantic 27.1%

Panromantic 15.8%

Aromantic 5.5%

Polyromantic 3.6%

Other 4.6%*

*percentages change when the ‘Other’ answers are looked into usually increasing the number of LBGTQIAP+ members

I would like to take this moment to apologise for neglecting Intersex and Omnisexual and Omniromantic members of our fandom. We’ll do better next time.

7. What is your Hogwarts House?

Slytherin 51.1%

Gryffindor 9.7%

Ravenclaw 24%

Hufflepuff 15.2%

8. What is your favourite Harry Potter book?

Half-blood Prince 36.5%

Prisoner of Azkaban 21%

Order of Phoenix 12.2%

Deathly Hallows 12.2%

Goblet of Fire 9.4%

Chamber of Secrets 4.6%

Philosopher’s Stone 4.3%

Do you suffer from a type of mental illness?

Yes 53.8%

No 36.8%

Other 9.4%*

*answers include having mental illness in the past, detailing specific mental health issues, being undiagnosed, currently recovering or having recovered from mental illness, and being not quite sure.

9. Do you face discrimination for who you are?

Yes 53.8%

No 34.3%

Other 11.9%*

*answers submitted include facing discrimination sometimes, occasionally, or rarely, describing prejudices encountered, being able to pass, facing discrimination in the past but not currently, and being unsure.

10. How would you describe yourself in terms of economic class?

Middle class 71.7%

Lower class 23.7%

Upper class 2.1%

Other 2.4%*

*responses include between middle and lower class, below the poverty line, poor, and upper middle class.

11. Have you survived trauma?

Yes 55.9%

No 39.2%

Other 4.9%*

*answers include bullying, loss of loved ones, abuse, sexual assault, loved ones going through trauma, mental illness, poverty, domestic violence, and uncertainty.

12. If you have survived trauma, did it contribute to your love for Severus Snape?

Before we start, for a while I made this question mandatory to answer by accident and I only noticed a few days later so some of the people who answered ‘no’ in the previous question likely answered ‘no’ here too. Keep that in mind.

Yes 50%

No 38.3%

Other 11.7%*

*replies include it contributes to some extent, fans relating to him particularly his losses and his isolation, it helped fans understand him better, it added to the love they already had for him, and fans being undecided.

13. Has Severus Snape helped you in any way in dealing with your trauma, discrimination and/or mental illness?

Once again this question was mandatory when it shouldn’t have been.

Yes 59.9%

No 33.4%

Other 6.7%*

*answers include the question not being applicable, Severus helped them understand themselves, never occurred to them before, he possibly helped, and he helped some cope with high school, work, etc.

14. Who do you ship Severus Snape with?

Lily Evans 32.5%

No one 25.8%

Harry Potter 19.1%

Hermione Granger 28.3%

Remus Lupin 17.9%

Lucius Malfoy 14.3%

Sirius Black 9.1%

Albus Dumbledore 7.3%

Minerva McGonagall 5.8%

Draco Malfoy 2.7%

Other 27.4%*

*Other characters include: Regulus Black, Severus Snape/fan, Severus Snape/happiness, Original characters, older versions of Harry and Hermione, James Potter, Barty Crouch jr, Mad Eye Moody, Arthur Weasley, Rebeus Hagrid, Narcissa Malfoy, any slash pairing, anyone who would love him, Severus Snape/reader, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

15. What other characters do you love besides Severus Snape?

None 2.4%

Harry Potter 44.1%

Hermione Granger 58.1%

Ron Weasley 30.7%

Draco Malfoy 36.2%

Lucius Malfoy 23.4%

Remus Lupin 47.1%

Albus Dumbledore 23.4%

Sirius Black 28.6%

James Potter 4%

Ginny Weasley 22.2%

Fred Weasley 43.2%

George Weasley 42.9%

Molly Weasley 28.3%

Arthur Weasley 22.8%

Minerva McGonagall 58.1%

Neville Longbottom 41.6%

Luna Lovegood 62%

Other 25.5%*

*Other characters include: Lily Evans, Percy Weasley, Gilderoy Lockhart, Dobby, Sybill Trelawney, Andromeda Tonks, Kreacher, Albus Severus Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Hedwig, Rebeus Hagrid, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Aberforth Dumbledore, Narcissa Malfoy, Filius Flitwick, Fleur Delacour, Barty Crouch Jr, Blaise Zabini, Newt Scamander, Queenie Goldstein, Jacob Kowalski, Dolores Umbridge, Lavender Brown, and Bellatrix Lestrange.

16. Have you read Cursed Child?

Yes 56.2%

No 43.8%

17. If yes, did you enjoy it?

Another question where I didn’t make it optional from the beginning so the percentages are affected.

Yes 40.8%

No 27.6%

Other 31.6%*

*answers include people not having read it, unsure of how they feel about it, kind of liked it, mostly liked it, only enjoyed Severus’ parts, found it unintentionally funny, enjoyed some parts but not others, and ‘meh’.

18. Are you active in the Severus Snape fandom?

Yes 29.2%

No 15.5%

I try to be 47.4%

Other 7.9%*

*answers include following blogs but not posting anything/lurking, making fanworks, not active but wanting to be, leaving comments on fics and reblogging posts, not anymore, and not active but planning to be.

19. Are you part of another fandom?

Yes 82.4%

No 12.8%

Other 4.9*

*answers include people posting the fandoms they’re in (interestingly Game of Thrones and Sherlock Holmes show up a lot), and Harry Potter fandom in general.

20. Would you say that fandom hate affects your engagement with the Severus Snape fandom?

Yes 48.6%

No 43.5%

Other 7.9%*

*answers include it makes some want to engage with the Severus Snape fandom more, somewhat affects, sometimes affects, takes time and effort away from sharing love and ideas, leads to avoiding or ignoring haters, used to but anymore, and leads to worrying about attacks.

Now for the open ended questions:

21. What traits do you value the most?

Common responses were honesty, intelligence, loyalty, kindness and courage, with most of answers having a variation of these four. Other responses include humour, ambition, social justice awareness, hard work, creativity, resourcefulness and reliability.

I find it interesting that Severus Snape shares some of these traits.

22. How old were you when you first read Harry Potter?

Majority of the responders were between the age of 10- 20. A significant number were below the age of 10. There were a quite a number of people over the age of 30. The oldest responder was in their 50s. A few couldn’t remember the exact age. The average age was 13 years old.

23. How old were you when you first realised you liked Severus Snape?

The aim of this question is to know the average amount of time it took for fans to become attached to Severus Snape. On average, it took 3 years. The mode was 2 years. Take into account the years between book releases, individuals taking time to finish the books and Severus’ character before the Prince’s Tale.

24. What do you like about Severus Snape?

Many of you said everything. Common answers include his wit, honesty, resilience, loyalty, courage, intelligence, perseverance, complexity, and redemption. Inversely some have said they liked his temper, bitterness, insecurities, coldness towards others, pettiness, lack of hygiene, and physical unattractiveness. Hilariously, someone referred to him as Walter White in reverse as he is first a spy who is forced to take a Chemistry like job as part of his cover. His backstory was another thing that attracted fans particularly his history of being bullied and abused.

25. What do you dislike about Severus Snape?

Many said nothing. Common answers include his treatment of his students, ill temper, harshness, pettiness, inability to move on from his past, lack of relationship with others, and immaturity. That he joined Death Eaters is a response that showed up a handful of times. Some of the answers were basically saying it was annoying that he died. Quite a few felt J K Rowling didn’t really do much in terms of his redemption. Others felt he was too loyal to Dumbledore and Lily. Funny answers include that he didn’t destroy Umbridge, the creepy jars of pickled animals in his office, that he died at all, he isn’t real (many have also that if he were real they would get into fist fights with him).

26. How do you see Severus Snape in your head?

The responses were very varied so first I’ll list the most frequent features, orientations and other headcanons. First majority saw him as Alan Rickman, sometimes tweaked in terms of age, size and orientation, etc. Adrian Brody, Shazad Latif and Adam Driver are other fancasts. Features that recurred include tall, skinny (or in that range), not conventionally attractive, greasy hair, gaunt face, black eyes, and hooked nose. The fandom also saw him as average to short with medium length hair, and dexterous fingers. As for race, majority saw him as white but a substantial portion of the fandom had nonwhite headcanons specifically Arab, Jewish, Asian, and Rromani.

The sexual orientations were also varied with asexuality in the lead followed by bisexuality, heterosexuality, pansexuality and homosexuality. Romantic orientations mentioned the most are demiromantic, biromantic, homoromantic and panromantic. Gender headcanons weren’t specified often but non binary genders had an edge with a significant number of responders seeing her as a trans woman. There were also intersex headcanons.

Many answers comprised of behavior and mental health headcanons with most seeing him at least mentally unhealthy. Depression and PTSD were mentioned regularly. A sizeable part of the fandom disagreed with commonly held headcanons. They felt Severus’ ethnic features (large, hooked nose, oily hair and skin tone) were not inherently ugly. They also felt that he was not unhygienic as he wasn’t described with bad body odour. Also I saw more facial hair headcanons than I expected.

27. What is Severus Snape’s most iconic moment?

The most iconic moment by a margin was ‘Always.’ ‘Turn to page 394’ and the patronus were second and third. A list of other iconic moments include:

The scene in Prisoner of Azkaban with the trio and werewolf Lupin.

‘Obviously.’

The Half Blood Prince

Killing Dumbledore (especially the ‘Snape killed Dumbledore’ meme)

His death

‘DON’T CALL ME A COWARD’

The duel with Lockhart

First Potions class

Revealing the Dark Mark to Fudge

28. How does hatred towards Severus Snape in the Harry Potter fandom make you feel?

This is admittedly one of the two most important questions in the survey. I’ll explain in a separate post why but let’s get to it. The fandom felt annoyed, sad, angry, upset, disgusted, and frustrated. A lot of the hate seemed to hurt the fandom. Some of the responses were longer and gave more details such as feelings towards victim blaming, actions blown out of proportions, more attractive characters being given leeway in comparison, canon facts being twisted and fanon being treated as canon. A fraction of the fandom was indifferent.

29. What would you like to see more of the Severus Snape fandom?

Replies include more

fanworks in general