【Room Girls Sex Skill】

Ronan Farrow had some hot takes for Twitter on Room Girls Sex SkillSunday – specifically that we reexamine some highly hated figures in children's literature and see if they don't deserve a new assessment. His examples included Miss Trunchbull in Matildaand Harry Potter's Dolores Umbridge.

To which we say...yikes.

SEE ALSO: J.K. Rowling shouldn't apologize for killing garbage human Severus Snape

It all started with this Sunday tweet about Miss Trunchbull from Roald Dahl's Matilda.

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Trunchbull is introduced by way of a notorious hatred for children (she claims she never was one) and brutish demeanor in how she treats them. As principal of Matilda's new school, Trunchbull regularly locks children in a large, leaky pipe full of sharp nails. On Matilda's first day, Trunchbull throws a girl across the schoolyard by her hair. She is also revealed by story's end to be a murderer.

Replies to Farrow ranged from intrigued to nonplussed; many who grew up with Matildafound it difficult to empathize with Trunchbull's difficult life and ultimate defeat.

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One reply called Trunchbull a "brutish, unkempt Dolores Umbridge," which got Farrow thinking again.

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To quote the above: Ronan, no! Umbridge may be a successful career woman – she's Junior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic – and wizard patriarchy can only have worked against her as she rose up, but we don't know too much about that. What we do know is that she unfairly punished and guiltlessly tortured Hogwarts students, often with a sickly sweet smile on her face.

Pottermore tells us Umbridge came from a broken home, that she severed contact with her mother and Squib (non-magical) brother in her youth. Her resume is impressive, but she made an early decision to lie about being pureblood and internalized the deeply bigoted idea that Muggles and the wizards related to them are inferior. "Nasty things" happened to those who questioned her blood status.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

J.K. Rowling described her as "one of the characters for whom I feel purest dislike." Umbridge is still regarded with intense loathing by most Harry Potter fans – some even claim to hate her more than Voldemort because her brand of evil isn't as cut and dry; it's based hugely on ambition and political gain.

Conversely, many Harry Potter fans forgive Severus Snape for years of bullying his students, none moreso than Harry and his friends, because Snape grew up in an abusive home, was bullied in school, and loved and lost Harry's mother Lily.

The takeaway from all of these characters and the many like them is that everyone has their demons, but responding to tragedies and tribulations is a big part of who a person chooses to be. Albus Dumbledore dated a wizard Nazi and likely had a hand in his own sister's death, but he chose to dedicate his life to fighting the Dark Arts and educating the youth of the magical community.

So while we're all for imagining people in complex terms, let's be clear that Umbridge and Trunchbull got what they deserve. Maybe next time they won't abuse children! One can only hope.

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