Imagine for a moment that the plot of Harry Potter series happens not in modern day but in the 1690s.

Fanfic authors frequently treat Harry's stay at Dursleys as this over-the-top abuse. But how comparable is to Cinderella being treated as a house-slave by her stepmother and stepsisters?

Then we have the introduction of a magical savior (Fairy Godmother and Hagrid) who turns things around for our protagonist.

 

I’d say Pip is more comparable, if only for the motivations behind the mistreatment. But all stories are reminiscent only in the sense of there being a longstanding tradition of someone— wizard, fairy et al. coming to a youth’s doorstep and whisking them away towards adventure. Whether we’re calling it Jack and the Beanstalk, King Arthur, It’s all part of a larger storytelling tradition.

 

To go off topic I feel I must criticise your choice of words in "over the top abuse". There are children out there who are treated terribly by their parents/guardians and to write a story where a character is victim to awful abuse isn't "over the top". The issue with HP fanfic isn't that some authors write "over the top" abuse, but rather that the abuse some authors write isn't supported by canon.

 

On the subject of Dursley abuse, please find here a curated effort by someone from /r/HPFF.

Could be useful.

 

I'd always thought the fanon abuse thing was mostly without base, but actually reading that it makes a good case for emotional and physical abuse. Things like the quote about him having learned to stay out of arms reach of Vernon, I hadn't ever picked up on that, but it has some distinctly sinister inferences.

 

I think Vernon would just send a slap of his hand at Harry. He apparently also did it to Dudley which really surprised me.

 

Yeah I think people easily forget how common smacking kids was in the 1990s (smacking, not beating). Probably back then if you weren't smacking your kids, people would think there was something wrong with you/you were some kind of dangerous hippie.

 

I realise its all down to interpretation, and often to personal experience. But my parents used smacking as a punishment in a fairly moderate fashion, it wasn't the punishment of absolute last resort but it didn't happen that infrequently either. Probably in line with how most folk in the 80s and 90s were raised. And I never felt the need to stay out of reach of them. I think that statement is quite telling really, and suggests to me that physical punishment was either overly common or overly severe.

 

Physical punishment is still reasonably common in the US. Getting less so, but still.

And while I don't support physical punishment because it's cruel, the studies showing that it has negative long-term effects on kids are massively genetically confounded, so I think as a society we're overhyping how bad it is.