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RavePodcast recommendation: Rumble Strip
This podcast, grounded in the Vermont home state of its creator, Erica Heilman is a tonic to our times. I came to it via RadioLab as Erica recently won a Peabody Award for her Finn and the Bell piece. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as moved as I was listening to Finn and his story. It is amazing. But the reason I’m posting about Rumble Strip is that there are several episodes about community and how to do that hard work as a verb as well as some salt-of-the-earth types that really spoke to me. (Looking at you, dairyman Forrest Foster.)
Many of the people Erica profiles are extremely self-sufficient, with professions that demand a firm centering in material reality, yet also live by community because in an isolated and harsh environment, that’s the key to survival. They find a way to get along, to work through their differences, because there isn’t any other way.
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.
" There’s strong elements of class in there, too, with the servants who should do their jobs so perfectly nobody even notices. "
Kind of reminds me of the servants in Downton Abbey. Many seem more than happy with their place in the social hierarchy while some aren't all that keen.
Yes, the serving class who “know their place” and respect their “betters” is a cliché, but one I’m never sure of the reality of rather than wishful thinking on the part of the people writing things, and taking sensible self-preserving behaviour from servants at face value. But given the views I hear from real women about their own positions as servants within their own families, not unimaginable.
I was never a Brownie (tomboy, I mean undiagnosed transboy) but my sister was, and holy hell is that disturbing. I never knew that, pretty sure she doesn’t either.
When you say brownie are you talking about the girls scouts ?
Yeah, it was the entry-level rank for Girl Scouts, starting at 5 IIRC?
In the UK, it’s the 7-10 level of Girl Guides, and it’s the level that the highest proportion of British women have been involved in at some point.
Rainbows are 5-7. Guides are 10-14.
There’s a lot to like about Guides and the whole movement, but the Brownie story and the messaging around it in Brownies is female socialisation writ big. Cubs (Cub Scouts, the equivalent now for all children, then just for boys) “Do Your Best”. Brownies, in those days, “Lend a Hand”.
You're remembering correctly.
No, I wasn't a Brownie. I remember reading Mr Pink-Whistle and other tales, but somehow the helpful brownie mythology completely passed me by. I didn't realise it was common knowledge.
Your analysis is very interesting, thank you.
I should re-read the series, because Winkie and Kreacher aren't ringing many bells.
Here’s the version of the Brownie Story that I would expect most women would have encountered as little girls: the version that would have been in their Handbook, and have been acted out or used in games during meetings.
And if you don’t remember Winky or Kreacher, definitely reread. If you haven’t read them as an adult, they are much more along the lines of social commentary than you might remember.
Well, that story clears it up nicely. Now I wish I'd been a Brownie before reading HP - the 'house elves' might have seemed charming, rather than baffling me for years.
I'm scrabbling around to find my old books. Might have donated them to a charity shop or something. This could be a good excuse to buy the illustrated versions, I hear they're excellent...