Dobby was wrong

I’m bang on trend here. It’s currently very fashionable to be against JK Rowling. This has been a shock for those who thought the Harry Potter books ‘saw’ them. The tribe was built. The books contained a lot of metaphorical truths (especially about death) and people felt she was speaking to them and for them. Then they found out that she was against self-ID for trans people. How was that possible? She was the supreme ruler of the tribe. God can’t be wrong. Personally, I think she’s misunderstanding the law, seeing it as the erosion of women’s rights and safety and has ended up looking bigoted and cruel. We could have trans rights and also double down on women’s rights and safety. Let’s not forget that we are 99.9% alike and that human rights are what we need. 

That was not what I intended to write about. 

It was clothes.

Dobby thought that clothes made you free. He was wrong. Clothes really restrict your freedom. Just ask my dog. 

Even the bible knew this. One fig leaf and sudden expulsion from the garden of Eden into a world of responsibility and restriction.

My dog is currently depressed. We thought it might be because he’s been castrated. We wondered if he was sore or missing testosterone or just cross with us for the indignity. Maybe he’d watched the news (1/3 of Pakistan is under water!) Then we removed the babygrow-dog-pyjamas that they use instead of the cone of shame and hey presto, the wild-happy-leaping off tall buildings-mad ball of fur is back. Clothes were curtailing his freedom.

‘A leaf on my nose, you say? Who cares!’

Clothes do give protection and I’m definitely not advocating public nudity but I wonder if we need to think more about the protective nature of our clothes than imagining that they give us individualism and freedom. 

Unfortunately for the dog, his freedom does need to be curtailed for a bit longer. Just a few more days of protection, which, unfortunately coincides with the amount of freedom I have left before I need to get back in my school shoes. It’s been a great summer.