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Finally someone says it. I didn’t know how to put it into words. But this is what I’ve been feeling about it.
The idea that Severus is the sexually aggressive creep in the Snape/Lily/James love triangle comes purely from a place of lookism and classism. There is no evidence at all for that ridiculous conclusion that Severus is an “incel” or a “stalker”. James is the one who uses his abuse of Lily’s friend to try to blackmail her into dating him all the while ignoring her obvious distress, who threatens to physically harm Lily with a very abusive “Aw, don’t make me hex you”, and continues to persue her romantically despite her expressed dislike of him. Those are all things James does in the text of the story, but because he’s conventionally attractive it’s hot rather than predatory. And because he’s a rich white male with all the power and privilege, he gets to be “Just A Boy” where any wrong step Severus makes while having rocks thrown at him from all directions instantly makes him a monster because he’s “greasy” and “creepy” and “weird”. It’s not about the behavior.
Whereas, there is not one single example of Severus doing anything at all resembling “stalking” Lily. In fact, there is not one piece of concrete evidence that Severus was romantically interested in Lily at all, so even IF he was, he kept that to himself to the point that even the reader doesn’t know. The only time Severus ever insisted on talking with Lily was to apologize not to get her to go on a date. That was an isolated incident (unlike James’ behavior which is portrayed as how he casually interacts her) and it was because Severus felt guilty and wanted apologize as soon as possible. And you know what Severus did after Lily refused his apology? He left her alone. That’s why the memory is his worst, that was the whole point, because even though it hurt him so much to lose the only person he had, Severus let Lily go and respected her choice to run off with his abuser, and later spent the rest of his life honoring her memory with no possibility of personal gain.
Why is it that an impoverished kid from a broken home who is being actively bullied and abused at school is “creepy” and “gross” for only having one close friend who he genuinely cares about and treats with respect, but the rich kid who has every privilege at his disposal to make people like him or at least listen to him is “playful” and “fun” for being actively predatory and abusive? That double standard is so transparent. People literally only think James is the better choice because he’s hot and privileged, and I’m so tired of Jily shippers’ fake-woke bullshit. They give James so much credit for lying to Lily and continuing to bully Severus behind her back so he could get her to date him without changing anything, but then claim that Severus was the one changing for selfish reasons when he was doing what she would have wanted years after she was dead and couldn’t possibly give him anything in return.
Seriously, if you think that Severus worked as a spy because he “wanted to fuck” a woman who had been dead for 11+ years then you’re clearly too stupid to have a conversation with like wtf are you even talking about? Was Lily gonna resurrect herself just to fuck Snape if he protected her son enough times? Log off Tumblr, clearly it rots your brain.