Option 3: Both.

The personal version seems to either trade on knowledge of canon (not the first time, though! and such references can be spotted on the first read-through) or presume a version of Voldemort's fall we currently have no evidence for, although this is certainly a controversial topic.

I don't understand why the personal version would trade on knowledge of canon. I was intending for the version of Voldemort's fall to be the conclusion that the personal version argued towards, rather than its starting assumption.

Errrrrr... I think Athrelon was referring to gender related issues, actually. I don't mind terribly much that you commented here, except that no one else has answered Athrelon's question with that relevant stuff.

Sure. I've just only seen or heard of it done with intimate couples. I've never seen it done with strangers. It seems like a couple steps above hugs on a scale of casual intimacy, to me, if I can just invent a scale out of thin air and proceed to give no reference points to guide how you'd evaluate that sort of thing.

Now that I think about it, a couple days ago I saw a group of white girls practically interrogating these two black girls about what they did with their hair. My own reaction was more along the lines of "oh, curly dreadlock braid thingys" and then I moved on, so I couldn't figure out why they were so (rudely) curious (they were so aggressive with their questions that my first thought was actually that the white girls were trying to bully them, but then that didn't make sense for other reasons). I concluded that it was more about those girls being extremely curious about a different type of hairstyle, which it technically was, but I meant that in a sense more about function and structure than about race and the hair itself.

I feel weird when I think about this. I think it's because I'm trying to use my brain to model an interest or value that I've never had or noticed before and that I have a difficult time empathizing with a fascination for something unusual like this. It feels like something warm and fuzzy is scratching the top of my head. Confusing..........

I have no idea what you look like, but despite that I just had a mental image of you looking absolutely enraptured staring at someone else's hair, and playing with it sort of like a cat might (I have never had a cat). This amused me a lot.

To clarify my reaction: I don't find anything wrong with it. It just seems really arbitrary, and slightly like a violation of personal space (even if you ask) although that one doesn't really bother me. I find it unusual and surprising, more than anything else. My reaction was along the lines of "Wait, what? Why would you want to touch my hair?".

many accounts by black people of white people insisting on touching their hair.

I'm white and this seems bizarre to me. Like, extremely weird. I'm sort of creeped out just knowing about it.

I have a difficult time answering this. I analyze my current motives and mental states and actions in depth, constantly. But I don't spend very much time reviewing my past emotions or actions unless it becomes obvious to me that I made a mistake somewhere. I feel as though I should probably change this.

'I am in a monogamous relationship and my boyfriend is higher status than you'.

I'm curious what would signal this. If I can't interpret these kind of signals then I'm in trouble.