Were you never a Brownie?

I assumed all British women recognised that House Elves were Brownies from the Brownie Story, placed in a realistic setting. Generations of little girls have been raised with the message that “being human brownies is fun!”. The story with the mother wishing out loud for a brownie to help around the house and do the domestic work, just as Molly Weasley wishes for a house elf, just as Judy Brady wishes for a wife.

Despite the original story having both a boy and a girl, it is only little girls who had this story as their core focus for a national, establishment-supported youth organisation: the little boys got to be Mowgli in the wolf pack.

House elves are wives. House elves are what the little girls in Brownies were being groomed to be. House elves are the women who I cannot tell to take their freedom, but I can support and respect and hope that this helps. Nobody can be forced to be free, and offering help people do not want is just rude. Hermione learns this as painfully as I did, and as I’m sure Rowling did. I have known Dobbies, but I have also known Winkies and Kreachers, and dozens of respectable house elves who would be insulted if anyone suggested their husband or son should do some work around the house. Women who beat themselves up, and won’t hear a bad word said about the man who hurts them.

Symbols are multi-faceted, and I’m sure you can take what you want from fantasy creations. There’s strong elements of class in there, too, with the servants who should do their jobs so perfectly nobody even notices. The old retainer. The families that serve The Family. But I have yet to hear of there being a widespread belief among black American slaves (as opposed to their masters) that their natural role in life was to serve and they would be insulted by freedom, whereas I am painfully aware of how many women I have personally met who hold these beliefs about themselves.

House elves separate (or I hope they do...) the reproductive and sexual labour from the domestic labour, but otherwise are ‘wives’ leaving Wizarding women to be people.

House elves take the role of wife, and remove sex from the equation. And when you do that, strangely, people start complaining that it looks like slavery, and how appalling to say that anyone naturally wants such a thing or to accept it at face value and look the other way just because it makes your life easier. People write endless fics supposing that there is some magic in play, forcing house elves into the role. What magic is in play that made women take on this role century after century?

The roles house elves take on are clearly gendered women’s roles, but because the first one we meet is Dobby (male), and the next most significant is Kreacher (male), people seem to miss that. And not just Americans reading their own slavery in and missing the Brownie story.