Okay, so I love the Harry Potter books. I’ve read or listened to them many, many times, and I’m willing to forgive a lot of annoying things (such as Rowling’s endless sledgehammered “toad” analogies for Umbridge, or her overuse of “high, cold voice” when referring to Voldemort’s manner of speaking). But there’s one I’ve been having trouble with ever since I first read it, and I’m hoping the combined wisdom of the Dope might be able to offer me a plausible answer.
It’s about the scene where Harry looks at Snape’s worst memory in the Pensieve and watches in horror as his father uses the Levicorpus spell on Snape. James hoists Severus up by his ankle and turns him upside down, thus revealing his “graying underpants” to the world.
Wait…
Snape doesn’t wear PANTS?
I know that wizards of an older vintage (like the old man in Goblet of Fire) prefer to go au naturel under their robes, and maybe in wizard families where there’s no contact with Muggles it might be the norm, but I can’t imagine any 16-year-old boy–and especially not one who’s prone to being tormented by bullies, and especially not where he’s in proximity to Muggle-born boys who might not have the same etiquette or expectations–would leave himself open to such easy humiliation. In the movies, the school uniforms had pants, though I can’t remember any specific mention of them in the books.
So what do you think? Is he such a wizard-chauvinist that he’s willing to risk humiliation to do things “the right way”? Did Rowling just accidentally-on-purpose forget to have Snape wear pants that day to make the gag work? Was it a mistake? Something else I’m not thinking of?
I know this is minor in the greater scheme of things, but it bugs me.
I remember taking at as a way of suggesting extreme financial hardship, but it’s been a while since I listened to that one, and even longer since I read it.
EDIT
And to be clear, I’m not sure why I would take going pantsless as a sign of financial hardship, other than to suggest that when money is tight, you might go without pants if you could because your robes would cover you.
See? It’s not just me! My SO thinks I’m crazy when I talk about Alan Rickman like this. I’ll have to show him this post. Thanks, DB, for backing me up!
Not according to the movies and the illustrations in the books. It looks like the kids actually tend to wear the robes open-fronted over their sweater, shirt, tie, and skirt/pants, only fastening them up when they want to be more formal.
Maybe, but I would think styles would have been, if anything, more conservative back then. Plus the fact that the books mention on many occasions that the halls of Hogwarts Castle are pretty drafty.
I’ll point out that a lot of university students don’t wear long pants under regalia at graduation. Whether they’re wearing shorts, graying underpants, or nothing at all is not an area about which I care to speculate.
I also assumed that he wasn’t wearing pants as part of a cost savings plan. Now I’ll have to go back and see how everyone else’s clothes are described, if they are.
That was the impression I got from the books-that people wore robes instead of pants and skirts. OR…maybe they somehow managed to yank Snapes’s pants down at the same time?
It’s been a while since I read the first book so I don’t really remember the uniform description, but, I always pictured the robes more like judge type robes for some reason. And, exams are at the end of term - almost summer - so it might have been too warm for layers. So he ditched the pants to keep cool not expecting to be flipped upside down.
Actually, yeah I was…I thought I might get dinged for that one. But I’m going to stand by it anyway–all in all, I think clothing styles in the 70s were more conservative (barring fringey subcultures like nudists and some of the more extreme hippie types) than they are now. You have only to look at micro thong bikinis, sagging pants with underwear sticking out, low-rider women’s jeans with exposed whale-tail thongs, and how many situations people can get away with wearing these styles compared with those you could in the '70s, and I think it’s still a valid point.
Styles might have been more *outrageous *in the '70s, but as far as coverage goes, I think they had us beat. And remember, Hogwarts was/is a very traditional British boarding school.
Hmm, I think this would make for a fun thread. Remember how short men’s shorts were in the 70s? Remember tube tops?
My sister graduated from high school in '76 and wore very short cut-off bluejean shorts and a bikini top 90% of the time when she wasn’t in class. She also wore that under her graduation gown.
