dalekqueens:
rosalui:
lupinatic:
fleamontpotter:
Something that really bothers me about people’s hatred towards Ron is that unless you grew up really poor you have no idea what it’s like and how much it affects you. Especially if you grow up poor surrounded by rich friends. The jealousy seriously eats you alive and the way Ron acted was perfectly understandable.
Over twenty years later, I’ll still never forget the day one of my classmates told me to just ask my parents for more money, as though I was literally too thick to work out the obvious solution. Because in her world, it was that simple. Or the day my teacher gave me an ‘are you even trying for a believable lie’? look when I had to tell him my parents couldn’t afford to send me on a low-cost excursion. Or how for an entire school year, I had to wear a school uniform skirt so small it left angry marks on my waist every day, because my mother begged me to make it last just one more year. The day everyone thought it was hilarious to ruin my pencil case, and even more hilarious that I was so upset and claimed that my parents would be furious with me - LOL, that silly girl! They’ll just buy her a new one, it’s not that difficult! (Spoiler, they couldn’t and it was). And yeah, I had my fair share of second-hand underwear too, like another character who grew up in poverty. The utter shock I felt when I realized other families not only had air conditioning, but also used it regularly… the jealousy I felt when everyone else had nice formal wear and I had whatever my parents could manage to get… the list goes on and on. And that’s on top of a bunch of other struggles and disadvantages I had.
But to hear Ron critics talk, he was the worst person alive if he ever even dared to want nice things for himself instead of just nobly being happy other people had them. ‘Why is everything I own rubbish?’ is not a permissible attitude, not even for a moment.
I see a lot of people making fun/disapproving of how Ron is always stuffing his face with food and it INFURIATES ME.
When you grow up fucking poor you learn to take advantage of free food when you have it.
Asshats.
I literally was ecstatic when I was able to pitch in to get pizza with my friend once, and when she was like, “dude, why are you so excited” I told her “I have a Ron Complex. This is the first time I’ve ever actually been able to do this.” Luckily it wasn’t my well-off friend, so she understood.
Another time, I went on a shopping trip with my well-off friend, and she got a locket from an actual jewelry store and didn’t seem able to understand just how beautiful it looked to me, who only had jewelry from garage sales, birthdays, Christmases, and children’s stores.
I remember in 1st grade we had a Renaissance themed day bc the school’s mascot was a knight, and I was so happy to have my generic Goodwill dress, while one of the girls had a full Cinderella dress. I couldn’t even comprehend that her dress might not be some Special Gift From Grandma And Grandpa and I wondered why she would wear something so beautiful to school.
Also in 1st grade, I remember getting in trouble because some girls decided to make fun of me by daring me to kiss one of the boys, and they said they’d pay me $100 for it, and being a stupid 1st grader I believed them and thought of the nice Walmart clothes I could get with that money instead of shopping at Goodwill.
Ron has always been my favorite character because I understand in the first book when Harry offers to buy stuff off the cart and Ron holds up his sandwich and says he’s good, because he’s embarrassed that he can’t afford to get a simple treat from the cart. I can understand him wanting to be Harry’s friend bc Harry doesn’t see the Poor Boy, he sees Ron. I can understand Ron being angry about Harry not understanding how lucky he is to be able to afford whatever he wants. Long story short, anyone who insults Ron’s feelings insults mine, and I don’t like them very much.
Sorry this is such a long rant, I just have a lot of feelings about this particular subject.