There is no commonly accepted definition of religion. For the traditional “religions” that come to mind when you picture the word – Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc., there is no question that those are in fact religions. A group centered around devotion to the Harry Potter series’ Severus Snape might make one pause, though I encourage us to broaden our worldview and challenge what makes us close off to that idea. If we operate under the dictionary definition of “religion”, we are looking for a “a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices”.
Let’s focus on that idea of the “personal set” of religious beliefs and practices. Under this definition, it is not societal acceptance that denotes a religion. It is personal experience. And there is no question that the experience of the “Snapewife” was a spiritual one, even based on definition from those outside of the community.
Urban Dictionary: “A group of middle-aged women on the internet who believe they are all married to Severus Snape from the Harry Potter books -- on the astral plane. They have real-life meetings where they take turns channeling the spirit of Snape so they can have wedding ceremonies with him. There is in-fighting over whom Snape loves more and whether Snape is an emotional wooby who just needs to be loved, or a domineering master who lives to be dominant.”
Yes, the Snapewives were a real life, online-based religion operating on the shared belief that Severus Snape existed on the astral plane, possessing JKR as a sort of “prophet” to share the story of how Snape had defeated the evil Lord Voldemort. A core tenet of the religion was that the exclusively female followers were able to be wed to Snape in the astral plane – though you will later see that “MoggRaider’s” assumption that they “all” were married to Severus Snape will be challenged based on a lofty set of criteria set by the members. The Snapewives have become infamous in online fandom circles and are still often criticized and ridiculed despite the community no longer existing. It is understandable that a religious group consisting purely of middle aged women worshipping Snape as a polyamorous presence on the astral plane might cause one to giggle or react with incredulity. Still, an examination of the episode of the Snapewives can illustrate how religious fervor has adapted to online spaces and absorbed fandom. Furthermore, it is a continuation of a historic trend of individuals who have been shut out of the cultural forum moving to community in “religious” spaces.
Who were the Snapewives?
There is some contention on the creation of the Snapewives, and it is impossible to narrow down an exact timeline as many original Snapewife pages have been completely wiped from the internet. Even less remains after 2020s-era cultural commentators have revived the viral dialogue for current audiences, such as Zoe Alderton’s paper, “Consider the Snapewife” and StrangeAeons’ popular video essay (though both are excellent works, and I encourage you to read/watch them if you are still curious). What I have preserved here was documented largely by users outside of the community, both during and post the period of active Snapewife activity. I present my personal timeline of events, uninfluenced by the aforementioned works and created after a thorough evaluation of what is still available to see.
The best way to tell the story of the Snapewives is to start from the poster who started it all, a blogger with a page by the name of “Severely Obsessed”, operating under the pen name of “Lady Darkness”. Their years of activity were roughly from 2005-2009, with the community living largely on LiveJournal, a semi-private blogging site. LiveJournal is different from current social media platforms in that the user is required to do the heavy-lifting to create their feed. Content is not hand-delivered to users. Rather, they have to search for it directly. This created a secluded and semi-protected environment for the Snapewives until their pages were found and posted outside of LiveJournal.
The following originates from user NarcissaM on a now-defunct page called “Fandom_Wank”, an online forum dedicated to mocking online fans considered to have gone “too far”. The site is commonly understood to have been instrumental in deciding what was acceptable and what was “cringe” in fandom culture. This post is said to have been accompanied by a picture of a shrine, though that image has been lost to the ages.
Lady Darkness' "Unbreakable Vow to Snape":
I promise to be always faithful in body and mind, and never love another man.
I promise to love and cherish you all of my life.
I promise to respect and honour you all of my life.
I promise to dedicate all of my life to you.
I promise to stand by you in good times and bad times.
I promise to protect and guard you, and to prevent you from any harm.
I promise to provide anything you need for you.
I promise to take the best care of you.
I promise to use your name with the respect it deserves.
I promise to always wear the ring with your name in it, as a symbol of my love.
I promise to obey you, no matter what.
I promise to respect your wishes and not to be selfish.
I promise to look after you in sickness and in health.
I solemnly promise all of this to you, Severus Snape, my only love.
May these words create a strong loving bond, which can only be broken by death.
If I break the promises made, or treat you not in the manner I should be, I'll make sure I'll die.
May all the good forces and spirits bless our love eternally....
So it will be done...
Lady Darkness
Given her Unbreakable Vow, it is arguable that Lady Darkness’ devotion was already religious to begin with, even before the creation of the Snapewives. She explicitly ties herself to Snape to the point that their bond can “only be broken by death”. She also might be the first ever Snapewife to explicitly think of that bond in terms of marriage – she promises to always wear “the ring with [his] name on it”, likely meaning it as a wedding ring. The poster who quotes her, NarcissaM, even calls them her “wedding vows”. We do not have any proof that Lady Darkness ever said they were her wedding vows, though it is possible that NarcissaM is referencing context from Lady Darkness that is now lost.
Lady Darkness eventually creates an online forum for other Snape lovers to gather and share their devotion. There is nothing that hints to this forum being explicitly religious in nature, and originated as a simple fanblog for Snape. However, engagement does point to it veering that way. On this forum, our 3 main players emerge: LadyDarkness, Snapemaniac, and Rose.
Snapemaniac: Making pictures of Severus is an obsession. But I can only make them if he is with me. He has helped me make a lot of pictures, over the past 5 years.
Snapemaniac’s experience here seems to be envisioning Snape as a spiritual figure that is able to “be with” them throughout daily tasks, similar to how one might envision a god to do. I also want to call attention to the timeline here. Snapemaniac says they have been experiencing this for around five years, which is longer than the forum had existed at that point. We could consider that, for the founding Snapewives at least, the experience began in the personal and then became a community later. This contradicts with most modern scholarship concerning the Snapewives, which prefers to view them as a group of people experiencing religious fervor via something similar to groupthink. Snapemaniac’s comment alludes to the beginning of the Snapewives coming from the joining of individuals who already held a spiritual relationship with Snape, rather than the spiritual aspect being a development from extreme “fangirlism”.
Before I continue, I feel the need to make something clear. The term “Snapewife” is an etic term, meaning it came from people outside of the community. We have no idea what Snapewives actually referred to themselves as. From an interview conducted by Zoe Alderton, we do know that two wives used the terms “snapists” and “snapism” to refer to themselves, though we do not know how widespread they were. As you can imagine, the Snapewives were subject to an incredible amount of online ridicule. This is not to say that the group was completely innocent and undeserving of criticism, but it is to say that these terms were seeking to insult rather than define. I will continue to use the term Snapewife throughout this piece because we lack a better term and it is the most popular way to refer to the group. Still, I urge you to keep in mind that there is a lack of surviving primary sources regarding Snapewives, and that which has been preserved was saved by outside individuals seeking to mock them, not to engage respectfully.
Let us move back to users Lady Darkness and Snapemaniac. These two individuals, alongside a woman named Rose, eventually become the center of the Snapewives (and thus the most prolific members of the community). Snapemaniac, whose real name is Tonya, became known as being the best at “channeling” Severus Snape. She would post what Snape told her and sometimes even interact with followers of the community as Snape, engaging in roleplay-type scenarios (Strange Aeons). It was through her channeling of Snape that Tonya began to establish codes of conduct and general beliefs that were expected to be followed by all. These codes were used to judge who among the Snapewives were true believers and able to achieve a genuine psychic connection with Snape.
Alderton proposes that the tenets of Snapism seem to borrow certain trappings of Christianity and use their framework of reverence in their understanding of the figure of Snape, which I agree with. This would make sense considering the founding members of the religion express having a history in Christianity, though one woman interviewed by Alderton reports a feeling of being alienated and “distant” from the organization. The core of the religion is based around a belief that Snape is a living spirit existing outside of the Harry Potter canon. This belief is made explicit over and over again:
Snapemaniac: I BELIEVE THAT SEVERUS SNAPE EXISTS INDEPENDENTLY OF JKR!
HE IS A LIVING, FEELING SPIRIT. I BELIEVE ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
AND THAT SEVERUS DOES VISIT THOSE HE CHOOSES TO.
There also seemed to be some expectation that Snape could grant real-life favors to followers that he was pleased with. For example, here is Rose (via her LiveJournal blog, “snapesrosethorn”) thanking Snape for her blooming rose bush.
Rose alludes to some sort of communication to Snape wishing for this, saying that she “didn’t expect any blooms… UNLESS otherwise wished” and then thanks her “Darling”, a term she typically uses to refer to Snape. In addition to providing favors, Snape is able to dispense advice through interactions with the real world as well as psychic communication.
And like Christianity, Snapism is monotheistic. Supporters are expected to devote themselves to Snape and no other deity, celebrity (not even Alan Rickman!), fictional character, hobbies/interests, etc. For some this even extended to real life relationships. Though, that could be overcome through having a significant other “channel” Snape. This usually seemed to be in a sexual nature and exclusively available for male partners, though as with everything Snapewife, it is difficult to discern specifics. As we will see later, it is this tenet that poses the most difficulty for followers and is thus the most prone to discourse.
We can then conclude that Snapism is built on the belief that Snape is a real figure living in the astral plane and capable of delivering real-life gifts to his followers as well as a monotheistic/monogamous expectation of its members. It is difficult to gather what the “average” Snapist religious routine was, as the surviving documents originate mostly from Lady Darkness, Snapemaniac/Tonya, and Rose, the three most devout members as well as figureheads of the community. Also important to keep in mind is that the hate posts preserving their comments like NarcissaM’s aforementioned thread would have likely been more drawn to sensationalist examples. Like popular religions, I propose that the commitment to and engagement with Snapism varied from member to member, and it is possible that what survives is presenting a more extreme version of events.
Still, the impact of these three women was felt through every corner of the community. While all Snapewives may not have been following all of these tenets at all times, they were certainly expected to, and rewarded accordingly. We can therefore accept them as foundational and important regardless of real-life application. As far as the online space and corresponding social structure was concerned, these tenets were the rule of the land, and Snapemaniac/Tonya had a key role in creating them. It is here that the tension of internal policing arises.
The Fall of the Snapewife...
Snapemaniac: “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.” (Tonya)
Snapemaniac began acting as a religious authority in the community due to her self-proclaimed ability to channel Snape. Through this, she dictated the social order of the community and decided what actions and traits would define someone as a loyal follower worthy of Snape. Interestingly, Snapemaniac’s requirements seem to be built on the critiques of those who were making fun of the Snapewives. She says repeatedly that Snape doesn’t like “annoying, giggling fangirls whom think they understand [him] as being a ‘cute fluffy funny’ being”. Snapemaniac wants it to be very clear that a Snapewife is not a fangirl, which seems to be how they were commonly understood by those outside of the community (NarcissaM’s original thread warns readers of “extreme creepiness” and “fannish mental instability”, two things fangirls are often accused of). This image of the “simpering” fangirl is what Snapemaniac sought to distance the community from through positioning herself as the moral authority of the community.
This is most preserved in a conflict between Snapemaniac and Lady Darkness, who grew frustrated in her inability to contact Snape as well as Snapemaniac could.
Lady Darkness: This song was in my last dream of Severus..it was accompanied with a task I can't remember..I hope I will soon. Coldplay - Hardest Part
still don't know why I dreamt of the song, maybe I need to see holding on is harder, or maybe I need to see we are inseperable..
I don't know, but I wished he'd give me a clue on it. Somehow I think th task had something to do with it, but I really can't recall more than a word I should read (or a line). He didn't tell me in person, it was in my head I needed to do this for Severus. What if I needed to do it, and then he'd return?
What if he'd only return if I did it..darn..I really can't recall, and that makes me feel crappy and hollow inside..
Dear Tonya, can you let him know I forgot, and that I'm so sorry? I can't really sleep here, there's always someone who wakes me up too early, in the middle of a dream. I really feel so stupid…
Snapemaniac: I will try to ask him. So far, he is remaining silent to me on you.
But I think the answer is in the lyrics of that song.
What are you holding onto? What do you fear? Perhaps something needs to be released? Fears, doubts, uncertainty? Surrender your control to him, maybe?
I will keep trying to get him to answer.
Snapemaniac places the blame on Lady Darkness herself, insinuating that she has something that she must do to affirm her loyalty in order to open up that contact with Snape. This inability to contact Snape would eventually result in Lady Darkness breaking away from Snapemaniac and Rose, preferring to worship him on a private blog separate from the community.
Sexual expression in Snapism was also heavily policed by interpretation of what was and wasn’t allowed under the one-sided polygamist relationship. It seems that this was the main source of tension within the Snapewife community (and the discourse that resulted in its eventual shuttering). Nobody could ever quite agree what was and wasn’t allowed under the marriage bonds, but Snapemaniac took an all-encompassing approach that boiled down to: heterosexual marriage to a man on this plane was fine, but crushes, infatuations with other fictional characters, and homosexual relationships* were not allowed. Failure to adhere to these expectations usually meant one would be shunned by Snapemaniac (therefore losing their connection to Snape) with the expectation that the rest of the community would follow suit. These expectations are what eventually led to the death of the Snapewife community.
*Snapemaniac offered sexual “channeling services” for followers in which she would engage in sexual roleplay over Instant Messaging services. As she assumed the role of Snape, the community perceived these as heterosexual encounters despite their homoerotic nature.
Rose began to develop an interest in another fictional character, Jethro Gibbs from CBS Series NCIS. Still, she maintained her Snapist beliefs into this, as the following post was made after she began posting about Jethro Gibbs, but still refers to Snape as "master".
Still, Snapemaniac had problems with this and cut off contact with Rose, accusing her of not being a true follower. Without Lady Darkness, Rose, or Snapemaniac to hold the community together, the Snapewives died off and ceased activity all together shortly after the release of Deathly Hallows Part 2. Though there has been a recent uptick in usage of the tag “#snapewives” on Tumblr.
Pictured: three screenshots of Tumblr posts from 2024 tagged #snapewife. One displays an individual wearing a homemade bracelet that reads "Snapewife", captioned "Forever and Always"
All of these have been posted in the last calendar year. However, there is no evidence that these individuals using the tag ascribe to Snapism.
It is interesting that in the prime of the Snapewives, those in the community co-opted misogynistic and hateful messaging from their opposition as core tenets of the religion. At its peak, a Snapewife was held to expectations of sexual purity and what would be considered traditional feminine “decorum”. As these were some of the things that the women sought to escape when entering the church, it seems incongruous that they would then recreate these structures of oppression within their safe space. And still, these structures of oppression coming from both within and outside of the community led to the ultimate destruction of the first iteration of the Snapewife.
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