Some Thoughts on S.P.E.W. (Harry Potter)

When I was rereading the Harry Potter series this past year, I made a mental note that at some point I was going to have to do a post on S.P.E.W. It’s one aspect of the series where I think its exclusion from the films was an instance of absence making the heart grow fonder. Because I definitely remember finding the S.P.E.W. stuff annoying when I first read the books, but after getting some distance from that plotline, I developed a rosier view of it. Some time ago, when I did a write-up of Hermione, I brought up that she was a House Elf abolitionist as yet another mark in her favor. But then I reread the books and was like, “Oh yeah, that’s how all the S.P.E.W. stuff went.”

First, of course, there’s the name, Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. When Hermione is confronted with the fact that House Elves are slaves and she witnesses Winky’s cruel treatment at the hands of the Malfoys, she’s horrified and immediately sets her not-inconsiderable brain to the task of thinking about how she can help. What she comes up with, though, is the unfortunately-acronymed S.P.E.W., and she’s somehow willfully ignorant to any of Harry and Ron’s gentle prodding that that might not be an ideal name for a social justice movement.

Right from the start, this positions S.P.E.W. as two things. One, it’s little more than a joke. No one would expect big accomplishments from an organization called S.P.E.W., and Hermione’s efforts largely amount to trying to get people to buy membership badges and knitting Elf-sized clothes to leave around the Griffyndor common room for the House Elves to find when they’re cleaning (any House Elf who’s presented with clothes is freed.) And two, it’s hugely annoying to anyone who has to hear about it, chiefly Harry and Ron. They quickly get sick of Hermione lecturing them on Elf rights and rattling her collection tin at other students. The whole thing is basically an embarrassment.

Which, why should this be an embarrassment? Even if we buy that Hermione, whose smarts admittedly extend more to books than social savvy, thinks that this ridiculous name is a good idea, why isn’t anyone interested in Elf rights who wants to help her come up with something more palatable (or at least do their own thing if they don’t want to deal with Hermione)? We know that Harry cares about House Elves, having arranged for Dobby to be freed at the end of The Chamber of Secrets. But instead of working with Hermione to go about her newfound mission in a way that will garner support, he just tries to avoid the issue. Meanwhile, Ron actively argues that House Elves like serving wizards and don’t want to be freed (the House Elves’ general dialect and the behavior of all the ones we meet who aren’t Dobby lean pretty heavily into unpleasant “happy slave” tropes.)

I mean, okay. Let’s say that all the kids from wizarding families have been indoctrinated into thinking this is okay. But kids who grew up in the Muggle world shouldn’t have these “okay, slavery, whatever” attitudes. After all, Harry and Hermione, both raised in Muggle households, have understandably-adverse reactions to realizing that wizards condone this behavior. But no one else? No one in the entire school has an issue with the fact that their dorms are being cleaned and their feasts are being prepared by slaves? Dean Thomas, a Black kid raised by his Muggle mother, doesn’t care about this? I call serious bullshit on that.