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I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

[lonely-parrot]

I made these as a way to compile all the geographical vocabulary that I thought was useful and interesting for writers. Some descriptors share categories, and some are simplified, but for the most part everything is in its proper place. Not all the words are as useable as others, and some might take tricky wording to pull off, but I hope these prove useful to all you writers out there!

(save the images to zoom in on the pics)

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lily evans potter: womanhood, motherhood & morality

lily as the dream girl in canon and fan spaces

i want to talk about this while there isn't a current upsurge in the discourse

Lily Evans Potter is introduced to us as Lily Potter, the dead mother of Harry Potter. Lily and James potter, dead, leaving their poor, miraculous son to live with the dull, horrible Durselys. We only ever see her through, with the exception of her sister, the memory of men.

I've said before that I believe James and Lily are the ideal masculine and ideal feminine, both to Harry and in a metatextual way. parents are our introduction into gender roles, the "correct" way to be a man and woman. since Lily is dead she cannot disappoint Harry. she can be imagined as the perfect woman, which is, of course, a wife and mother. the dream girl!

Lily's death makes her a silent, ever-loving, beautiful young mother, for both Harry and the reader. James is slightly deconstructed in SWM, but Lily is not. She is a fierce protector, brave, clever, and only emotional (angry) once James, her future husband, provokes her enough.

in the text Lily is not truly presented as flawed in a meaningful way. the moral choices she makes: to build a relationship with Severus, to defend Severus, to break their relationship when he refuses to reject bigotry, to join the Order, to die for her child, are all the correct moral choices. these are the choices the narrative is telling us to respect.

women have, for the past 200 years or so, been conceived of as the moral center of the family.* Lily Evans Potter is the moral center of the series. her choice to die is mirrored by the main character, Harry, and sparks the beginning of victory. Harry's sacrifice is enabled by another mother, Narcissa, making the correct moral choice because the power of her maternal love urges her to this choice. finally, Voldemort's most powerful follower, Bellatrix, is killed by a housewife and mother, Molly, in a maternal rage at the idea of her daughter being murdered.

Lily's sacrifice and the emotions behind it are mirrored multiple times in the final battle because it and she are the moral center of the series.

that Harry is frequently told he has his mother's eyes, and that Dumbledore points out how his essential nature mirrors his mother's, further highlights Lily's character and her choices as implicitly good.

women, especially mothers, as our moral authorities, is an unconscious cultural belief we can see play out in the fandom and subfandoms that Lily is discussed in. we can all recall the characterization of Lily as the goody-two shoes that James has to change for, the characterization of Lily as "not like other girls", the BAMF characterization, the current near mommy dom to James characterization.

the characterization of Lily changes with our view of the best kind of woman. but she is, always, demonstrating a most "correct" way to be. maybe it's 2007 and she's telling James off—not fun, but right. or it's 2012 and she's not preoccupied with boys like her classmates. or it's 2019 and she always knows the right thing to say to Remus when he's down on himself. or it's 2025 and James is trailing after her like a puppy while she contemplates what size strap to use on him after she beats up a bigot.

We don't see a lot of moderate views on Lily. Above, I've discussed how Lily lovers tend to portray her. Lily haters, a smaller group from what I can tell, do not utilize these common fanon characterizations. They disparage her as an immoral, selfish, bad woman. The wholesale rejection of Lily as the moral center based on her perceived immorality is the other side of the coin.

I'll refer to people with this perspective as "Lily haters" though I am aware there are people who dislike her outside of the topics I'm discussing.

I rarely engage with Lily haters, though I am aware of their arguments that Lily was a bad friend to Severus, a social climber, a gold digger, or boring. All grave sins for the woman who's supposed to save everyone.

This perspective doesn't reject Lily as the moral center or the perfect woman, it is an argument that she's not fulfilling her role correctly. Her unwillingness to give Severus more chances is selfish, stuck-up, classist. Her desire for James is an further betrayal of Severus.

She's supposed to be the Madonna, why is she being a whore?

I believe Lily hate comes from a belief she failed at being the perfect woman/mother, and therefore she is worthless. A bitch. Weak willed. Oversexed. even by haters her role as the moral center is not questioned.

in both the og text and in the fandom supertext Lily is the moral center because of her role as mother. her status as the moral center is inextricably tied to her motherhood. since Lily being a mother is the point of her character, divorcing her from her motherhood often changes the foundation of her character.**

when her literal motherhood is removed from a depiction of her character, her metaphorical status as the perfect woman/mother is often still intact. this is seen in the characterizations I described earlier, and, I argue, in the belief that she's too good for James when it is used as a "justification" for shipping James with someone else.*** thereby, she is further purified, not even having been touched by a man. she's put on a pedestal, where she can't be touched, and is rarely noticed.

it is also frequently seen when she is written as a side character in a relationship with James, and the pair become the dual moral guides for the main couple.

this reflects James and Lily as the ideal masculine and feminine, as they are a perfectly harmonious couple when a side pairing. their implicit canonical roles are subconsciously reflected in fanon with little critique or commentary on the canon text.

Lily's entire character is crafted to be The Perfect Mother™️. whether she is literally a mother in her fanon depiction or not, she is still The Perfect Woman™️—and is still affected by the biases our culture has towards women and mothers.

thus, Lily is the dream girl in the text, the moral center only seen through a nostalgic veil, and a dream girl in fan spaces, as the moral guide for the men in her life who pegs her husband or is too pure for the touch of a man.

for more on gender in the wizarding world, based on gender in early modern england (pre the cult of domesticity) see this post

*see the cult of domesticity if you'd rather not read the article

**please like fucking do not fucking act like I'm saying you cannot do this. I swear to fucking god

***you don't need to justify your ships

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Happy Ides <3

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q

Love is not pie. You won’t run out. Love is Pi. Real, irrational, and never-ending. Happy Pi Day, Love Rebels!

loverevised.org Skilled alternative relationship coaching.

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People be like “I love Regulus Black!” and then make him go through the most traumatic and gut-wrenching series of events known to man.

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he was so small :(

idea from my mootie on tt!!! @siriusandseverusgirl ♡ @buckysfavegirl

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remus 17

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Me: wow drawing is so hard, I'll never do it again!

Also me with no experience in drawing animals: dog

...so anyways, dadfoot!! made him completely black so I can avoid understanding how furs work!!

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You wrote me a note, cast a spell on my heart

And bewitched me

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Ronarry in the 2000s 🧡

Today is my birthday so I drew my favorite boys 🥳🎉

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AU where Regulus’ karma is having a son who happens to be the carbon copy of Sirius.

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Harry in his cupboard with one of Dudley’s broken toys

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Genderswap! Harry Potter

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EVERYONE SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY QUEEN!!!! only favourite man ever I fear

ac: greenlights33

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Can’t believe I forgot to post this here, happy belated birthday to Moony!

Remus has very important plans for his evening, and he’s not going to jeopardise them by going out and socialising (ew)

🔞Next part is available on my patreon!

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hypothetically let's say getting struck by the killing curse is similar to getting stuck by lightning

now with that we can say that hypothetically baby Harry Potter could lose part of his hearing from that so may I introduce deaf Harry Potter

from age one to six he can't hear at least 80% of what people are saying. He gets by. The Dursleys always yell at him and aggressively point at what he was supposed to do. After a while he generally understands what's going on by catching a few words from their yells and context clues. He got glasses but only because he kept missing the edges of doorways and earning bruises that raised teacher's eyebrows. They worried about them assuming they were abusing him (obviously not look he's wearing glasses 🤪) Harry taking speech therapy at school bc his parents don't like the way he talks

Seven year old Harry Potter getting kidnapped by an Azkaban escapee and a book keeper covered in scars. Sirius and Remus assuming Harry just didn't like them or trust them because well they did kidnap him. They thought for weeks that Harry was just giving them the cold shoulder. They only figured it out when Harry would stand real close to the speakers attached to the record player and bounce to the bass.

Seven (and a half) year old Harry Potter finally getting hearing aids with his two dads and flipping the fuck out when he hears them for the first time. Harry Potter running around and following Sirius and Remus throughout their daily habits to learn all the new sounds. Birds chirping in their front yard. Remus' laugh and Sirius' whispers of good morning.

Harry Potter pressing his ear against the side of the fridge to hear the hum coming from inside. Harry learning that the vacuum cleaner is a lot louder than he thought it was and ripping his hearing aids off the moment he sees Remus lugging it out from the closet. Harry learning school is way louder than he thought it was and having to take his hearing aids case with him to school in his pocket because he kept taking them off so much. Harry finding out that his parents cooking in the kitchen makes a lot of fascinating noises and accidently burning the palm of his hand on the oven because he wanted to hear the sizzling better. Harry almost giving Sirius a heart attack by the scream he let out from the burn. Harry realizing he makes noise too and what he thought was a silent way to make his chest buzz was actually humming.

Harry Potter and his two dads learning Sign together at a community class in the library. Harry finding more kids like him with hearing aids and some who don't talk at all and only sign. Harry finding all forms of families learning to sign and learning he's not so alone at all. Harry taking speech therapy until he's 12 so he can communicate with his hearing friends at the park too

Deaf Harry Potter wearing his hearing aids with pride as he prances into the great hall for the first time. McGonagall's stomach dropped, realizing she has a combination of James Potter and Sirius Black on her hands now and the next seven years of her career. Deaf Harry Potter teaching his friends curse words in sign and getting his parents called up to the school. Deaf Harry earned no punishment from his parents, both of them laughing their asses off. Ron learning Sign through private lessons with Harry after classes. Hermione scouring the library for books on sign language and learning through the pictures and Harry's corrections.

The Gryffindor quidditch team communicating with Sign in air. Harry over using the "I've heard enough." *takes off hearing aids* joke with the teachers he doesn't like he lands himself detention. Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus adjusting to Harry's flashing light alarm and making sure their curtains are tightly closed. Sirius and Remus used to flashing the light switch to get Harry's attention they start accidentally doing it in inappropriate places. Remus flashes the library lights to get his coworkers attention and causes a whole crowd of preschoolers visiting at reading hour to freak out.

In third year Harry trys contacts because he's tired of his hearing aids and glasses fighting for space on his ears. Harry at the end of third year realizing he hates contacts and goes back to glasses

Deaf Harry signing answers to his friends behind his back when the teacher isn't looking. Harry takes his hearing aids off at home bc he knows he doesn't need them but puts them back on as his dads start making dinner. He always finds comfort in the sounds of the kitchen and when dinner rolls around he keeps them on. He knows dinner is the most likely time he'll hear his parents' laughter.

I'll stop here but like I love him