Guest Writer // Paige Bayliss
The Harry Potter series has made large cultural impacts on fandom spaces since the first novel was published in 1997. Fandom spaces are known to have a wide variety of interests and creative endeavors that involve the original source material in a number of ways. From fanfiction to visual art to cosplay to collecting, there are very few limitations on the ways in which fandom exists and runs.
In many ways, fandom can function very similarly to organized religion, and in the case of the Harry Potter fandom, it can even foster new religions.
The height of the Harry Potter fandom’s popularity was from the years 1997 to 2011, spanning the release of the first novel to the release of the last film. That time frame gave rise to an invented religion called Snapeism. The Snapewife, sometimes referred to as a snapist, was a follower of this invented religion, and was most often a woman who has devoted herself to the deity of Severus Snape.
Snapeism was an invented religion in which Severus Snape was believed to be a spiritual force and independent deity that existed outside of JK Rowling’s iteration of the character. The Snapewife was devoted to the deity of Severus Snape in many ways, and often referred to him as “Master.”
The devotees, primarily women, who fostered and promoted this ideology in online fandom spaces often equated Snape’s presence to that of the Christian God. They claimed that they felt and interacted with his presence frequently in the form of physical touch and other physical sensations.
These followers looked to Snape for guidance and emotional fulfillment in their lives. They most frequently connected with him through the process of “channeling.” Tonya, one of the two most active and influential snapewives online, was considered to be the most talented at channeling Snape. Through channeling him, Tonya would establish new codes of conduct and beliefs into Snapeism. Tonya claimed that Snape was selective in terms of his followers and sent out a statement that Snape had supposedly channeled through her with his guidelines, “I only give audience to those women that are strong and able to withstand my fierce temper and do as I say. I coldly ignore those vain, simpering females that hold a thought like a leaky sieve.”
Following these guidelines that Snapewives preached and followed in the various forums they chose to use for communication, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that many of the ideologies that they followed were deeply rooted in misogyny and elitism within fandom spaces. This elitism would ultimately influence the final days of Snapeism online.
The Snapewives’ relationship with JK Rowling and the original source material of Harry Potter was very complicated. They considered themselves elite in their worship of Severus Snape, and considered JK Rowling’s treatment of Snape as a character to be degrading and hateful. They believed that Snape had possessed Rowling to write the novels, but she had despised him enough to write him into a life of misery. Thus, they created their own rules of devotion and treatment of the deity of Severus Snape
The Snapewives had very specific rules in the ways in which they had to follow under Snapeism. Most of which had been established through Tonya and her claims to have an exceptionally easy time channeling Snape. They expected other followers to completely commit themselves to him as if they were in a monogamous relationship. Despite some of the women who were Snapewives having husbands, including Tonya, they still considered their relationship with Snape to be the primary relationship in their lives. Their husbands were even considered to be another vessel to be used to channel Snape. In which case, having a husband did not break their vow of monogamy to Snape.
It was the growing interest in other male fictional characters that eventually led to the downfall of Snapeism. Tonya had been one of two women who spearheaded Snapeism. The other being her close friend Rose that she met through their shared love and devotion to Severus Snape as Snapewives. The two are the only known Snapewives to have met in real life. The majority of the existing content involving Snapeism has been written and created by the two of them. The two relied on one another to keep the other’s devotion alive, and to keep the religion alive online.
The falling out between the two women was very clearly the turning point in Snapeism losing any and all popularity that it had gained amongst the Harry Potter fandom. While it had little to no popularity before, without the two women at the head of this invented religion, everything was doomed to be lost.
There isn’t much to be known about the precise reasoning as to why the two women fell out. A majority of the content that they posted and promoted online concerning the “Snapewife lifestyle” has been lost into the ether of the internet. However, there is substantial evidence pointing to a rift between the two after Rose developed an interest in the character of Jethro Gibbs from the TV show NCIS.
Rose had begun to lose interest in the strict rules of monogamy that prevented Snapewives from developing interests in other male characters. Tonya had even often struggled with her attraction to Alan Rickman outside of his portrayal of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. However, Rose had decided to forgo the code of conduct that the Snapewives followed and expand her interests. Tonya likely could not forgive such an act. Thus, the short-lived invented religion of Snapeism reached its end over a character from a CBS crime show.
Snapeism is an interesting example of how far obsession can lead. With a growing rise in fandom culture, there is an expectation that extremist subgroups of those spaces will begin to sprout. From the outside looking in, it’s enjoyable to watch and learn about. But, it calls into question what limitations we should place on the ways in which we interact with and experience the content we consume. Was what these women were creating and promoting online too far? Or, should we allow people the creative freedom to express themselves and their own ideologies uninhibited? I imagine we’ll all be trying to answer that question for a long time.
For further information on the Snapewife and their history, consider checking out the Youtube video, “The Story of Snape Wives” by STRANGE ÆONS.
For further reading, consider checking out the article, “‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom” by Zoe Alderton.