Obviously adult!Harry vs Dumbledore is different from the normal teen!Harry vs Dumbledore.

 

This reminds me of something about a dark shoe-lace tying curse that harry cast upon his own shoes and someone on DLP joking about how he probably uses a dark ass-wiping curse when he's done shitting, too.

Anyway . . .

 

Fics centered around a single plot device that go uncompleted. Usually happens when the author's entire reason for starting a fic was to write a single divergence and didn't bother planning out much after that. It's especially bad when the plot device is actually interesting, with the possibility for interesting consequences, that just don't get written as a result of a lack of planning.

 

This :facepalm

Edit: Oh, and corporal punishment. Seriously, who the fuck spanks a kid? It's fucking sick.

 

Are you actually being serious? Smacking was, if not common, quite wide spread during the 80's and 90's. Even today its still used. Without turning this into a parenting debate, like all tools used by parents if its used correctly it works well, if its used incorrectly it backfires massively.

Edit: Also, what about that fic is a pet peeve? Its far from the best fic I've ever seen, but its also far from the worst.

 

You're a female from Sweden, so I'm gonna assume you're hot and in that vein, I'm going to be nice:

STFU. No really; read the post by Mordecai I quoted below.

Children are not, for the most part, inherently bad. Physical violence is *never* the answer to a child's behavioral problems and should never, ever be used to correct unacceptable behavior.

That said, a spanking is NOT physical violence if done the right way, and especially when the kid is too young for you to have a reasoned conversation with, there is often no better tool for getting their attention and dissuading bad behavior than a smack on the ass.

If you are indeed the kind of hot Swedish girl I'm envisioning, you're quite welcome to pop on over and I'll make time to give you a first-hand demonstration.

And as far as its presence in HP fanfics? Do you honestly think that a school that's existed for over a thousand years hasn't employed more than its share of corporal punishment on rebellious or unruly children and teenagers? You do recall that Filch says he keeps the chains oiled, implying that the practice was in use during or just before his tenure there?

If you're instead talking about the Dursleys, well let's just say that Vernon and Petunia don't come across to me as the touchy-feely type.

 

Was it really that common? I didn't know.

About the fic, it's super!Harry. Multi animagus, all powerful and superior, sudden understanding in the scar-connection, heir of Gryffindor, and the list goes on.

I just feel that Snape spanking Harry - I've only seen CP in those Snape/Harry Father/Son stories - is weird. If it's a small child, it might be acceptable, but a 15-year-old? I can't stand it.

 

A major pet peeve of mine is a letter that looks taken straight out of messenger. Even more annoying for me is a fic where the students including purebloods are actually using internet forums to talk to eachother during summer( thankfully I haven't found many stories like that).

 

Are you sure you understand the definition of "(physical) violence"? Here, I'll help you out:

Do you deny that spanking is the intentional infliction of physical harm? Why do you feel the need to cook up an arbitrary distinction between spanking and physical violence? If you think it's alright to inflict pain on children to "teach them a lesson", why don't you just say so? PC on DLP? :awesome

 

I understand perfectly well that "violence" and "harm" are not part of what a spanking is about. Way to skip right over what I *said* and try using a definition of the one to make me look like an uninformed ass about the other.

And YES, I do deny that spanking is the intentional infliction of physical harm. The distinction is neither cooked up nor is it arbitrary. What *is* cooked up is your weak and transparent attempt at equating a spanking with a beating. The former is parenting, the latter is violence and child abuse.

And "P.C."? You serious? Bitch, please.

/derail
/wonders how you got off my Ignore List

 

When spanking causes physical harm it is no longer spanking, and has moved on to become abuse. As I said before, its like anything a parent does with a child. Too much is a bad thing, too little is a bad thing. Being too lenient with a child is just as bad, if in different ways, as being overly strict.

It was common whilst I growing up in the 90's, most everyone I went to school with got a smack now and again from their parents.

As for spanking a 15 year old, I suppose it depends on the fic. Whilst it would certainly be highly unusual for a 15 year old receive a smacking in most situations, I can see it being written in if say the 15 year old is acting like a child.

Whilst it wouldn't be my first go to form of discipline if I was writing about a 15 year old character, I can see it being reasonable if written in appropriately. If just used for the sake of it...then yeah, not right.

 

I didn't read the fic, but isn't usually the stories containing spanking -especially if it's about Harry and Snape- is some bad attempt at writing slash?

 

This is so NOT what's being discussed, that it forces me to go kill someone in order to rebalance what is right and wrong in the world...

...

... or am I overreacting?

Probably overreacting. It's a shame about that poor homeless guy I suppose

 

Spanking should never feature in actual writing, no matter what role it serves in real life.

Just gay to read about, really. "Oh, this author consciously decided to write about Harry being spanked by big uncle Vernon." And then I lose any respect for the story and move on.

It tells you a lot about writers if they decide something like spanking is worth including in their stories.

 

Actually, I am perfectly aware of that not being what is discussed about. But do you really think that a discussion about how right or wrong child abuse is, gonna go anywhere but downhill?

 

I'm totally with you in that regard.

Of the few fics I've read, where Snape ends up raising Harry or somehow having guardianship of him, the spanking always strikes me as the author either pandering to a fetish they perceive their readers to have, or indulging in one of their own.

And, considering the monument to NAMBLA the Snarry crowd (and others) is raising on FFN, I can be excused for taking that view.

Back to spanking: It's bad enough when the Harry in question is in the 5-6 or below range, but Hogwarts age? Go fuck yourselves, authors. If they can't tell how creepy-wrong it is for Snape to be spanking Harry, especially into his teens, then they either have some really fucked up notions about child-rearing, or they're catering to a fetish.

Give me an author who writes children as being too mature, any day of the week, over one who writes older characters as unnaturally baby-fied. These people who write a school-age Harry as talking like a four-year-old, cuddling with adults, calling them 'mummy' and 'daddy'... UGH!

It's just plain weird, for any character, but for Harry? The way Harry has grown up, he's a pretty independent character, at least emotionally. By the time the books start, he's not trying to impress the Dursleys, he's not trying to gain their approval. He might wish he had known his parents, but he's not hoping a new set will appear out of thin air.

Look at how he acted toward Sirius? He was more happy about the possibility of not living with the Dursleys than anything else. He's not just going to instantly start treating people, even ones who have just adopted him, as beloved long-time parents.

In that vein, I vaguely remember some godawful story where Harry and Hermione not only turned out to be siblings, it turned out that Snape was their father. Other than being completely moronic, the story had Snape INSTANTLY start behaving like "Mr. Authority", acting toward Harry and Hermione like some imposing family patriarch who is always right and always obeyed.

Bear in mind that this was immediately POST-Voldemort, with Harry and Hermione both being legal adults (!), but Snape was doing stuff like sending them to their rooms, chastising them for inappropriate language, having Hermione sleep in his quarters at Hogwarts while he babied her... and the worst part was, Hermione seemed to be happily going along with all of it, and Harry obeyed even though he had zero reason to, and Snape had zero authority over him. It was almost as embarrassing to read as it was infuriating, in addition to being pants-on-head retarded.

Bottom line: If they're going to write out their infantilism fantasies, they could at least warn you about it in the summary so you can steer clear.

Whenever the spanking thing turns up in fics, and it's almost always Snape doing it, I get a very creepy vibe. That the schlick-girl mastur-writers in the fandom, who wet their knickers for Snape, seem to immediately assume he's a domineering BDSM sex god who is an expert at mixing pleasure and pain (despite the more probable reality that Snape died a virgin), while the purveyors of child hurt-comfort fics featuring Harry being adopted by Snape always seem to have numerous spanking scenes or other instances of Harry being reduced to an infant, seems to go beyond coincidental, in my estimation.

It's skin-crawlingly fuckin' creepy.


--
As for spanking = harm... Something can hurt without leaving an injury, and much of the unpleasantness of a spanking is derived from the child's dread of what is about to happen, not the actual experience. As with so many things, it's often the anticipation (whether you're waiting for Santa, or waiting to be punished) which constitutes the bulk of the experience.

During my childhood, my ass became reasonably well-acquainted with mixing spoons of both the wooden and plastic varieties, and on more occasions than I care to think about, a switch cut from the sugar maple out front: 36 inches, supple, very swishy, well-suited toward disciplinary spells.

Would I employ that method of discipline, had I children of my own? I doubt it. If I did, I wouldn't bother using anything but my hand. As with so many other things, new thinking and new methods arise, and older methods fall by the wayside.

But, I would never say that I was ever abused in any way.

I get what you're saying. All too often, these child!Harry hurt/comfort fics seem to carry strong fetishistic overtones.

Suspicious overtones of infantilism, spanking fetish and homo-eroticism (I trust that one doesn't need any explanation)... and in a fandom known for male/male child/adult pairings in hurt/comfort scenarios? It's hard not to think there's some kink-tweaking jiggery-pokery going on, even if the story is otherwise supposedly an on the up and up fic about Harry being adopted and cared for by a responsible adult.

Then again, I've sometimes gone back and looked at stuff I've written and, only then, thought to myself, "Wow, someone out there's probably got a fetish for this, and I just unwittingly catered to it."

I have no problem with someone enjoying their particular kink, but if it's creeping into a story about a child being adopted... :fire

 

My elementary school in Kentucky still had a paddle. From tip to handle, it was about a foot long; it had a few holes drilled in it to cut down on wind resistance; and it was named 'The Highmaster.' Thing stung like a bitch.

 

LOL. Well, my father is from Kentucky; so, I suspect that switch should make even more sense, now.

 

Yeah, my grade school (and high school? can't remember) had a plethora of paddles. As I've said in some PMs, I didn't get as many spankings/whippings as I certainly deserved, but my parents made it clear that if I got in trouble at school I'd be in trouble at home too.

My dad sent me to get a switch once and I had the bright idea to tell him, sorry dad, I couldn't find one. BIG mistake, as he was able to find a *more* than adequate specimen in record time.


/end derail, and this time I mean it

 

You know what really grinds my gears? Harry with f***ing Noah's ark as familiars. Yes Hedwig was his familiar, no there is nothing that is written about the do's and don'ts of animal bonding, but really does harry need to be bonded to; hedwig, a snake, a shadow wolf, and a nemiean lion?

kudos if you get the reference.