Rehumanizing the Slytherins
This is the shorter version of an essay I presented at the Popular Culture Association conference on Thursday April 9. If you would like the full essay (be warned, it's 20 pages), send me a message.
“I sometimes think we Sort too soon” - Rehumanizing the Slytherins: How Fandom Gave Humanity Back to a Quarter of the Wizarding World
Imagine you are eleven years old. You are standing on Platform 9 ¾, waiting to go to Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry for the first time. Upon arrival and a welcome from the Headmaster, an old manky singing hat is placed on your head, and it announces “Slytherin!” to the hall. As you walk to your cheering green and silver table, dark looks are tossed your way from the other tables. Less than an hour in your new home, and people hate you before having met you.
In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, this is the fate of children chosen to go into Slytherin House, a faction of the school reviled by many of the other students and some teachers. Those who hate the Slytherins assume that they are chosen for the Slytherin house because they are evil, amoral, or a 'Dark Wizard'. Yet the villainous intent of twenty-five percent of the British wizarding world is highly questionable and as a label it is placed without regard to individual thought. However, fandom for the Harry Potter series is often not content with watching the adventure through the bias of one character, and seeks to examine what happens to the plot when another viewpoint is introduced, a viewpoint from the marginalized fringe, able to receive fairer representation.
Harry Potter fandom succeeds at reclaiming and de-biasing the Slytherin identity through the privileging of the Hogwarts Founding Charters and the use of fancraft. In doing so, the Slytherin characters in canon become more than two-dimensional vilified caricatures, and are allowed to develop as full characters through the lens of fandom. This can be seen in the way fans examine and utilize the House Charters, the use of fancraft to dissipate the stereotypes through positive-leaning art and fanfiction, and cosplay which renders the Slytherin identity publicly visible as a fan’s choice.
Part 1: A reexamination of the Hogwarts Founding Charters
The British boarding school system separates students into houses or factions. This helps to promote camaraderie among like-sorted student ts, providing a sense of unity and family, as well as healthy competition and rivalries through inter-house contests and sports activities. At the fictional school of Hogwarts, as a literary tool, the house system makes it easy to tell rivals apart from the protagonist’s point of view, and sometimes gives impetus for action. However, there is a social imbalance in the way each of the Houses is treated, due in part to their history, and prejudices of fear and loathing passed down from housemates or from former students, now parents. Out of the four Hogwarts houses, the Slytherin house in particular is given the dubious reputation as a malevolent house, due to being the hosting house of Lord Voldemort, the most evil Dark Wizard the magical world has seen in an age. Slytherin House is made a pariah in the school from the perspective of the reader, without the house given the opportunity to defend its position, due to the story coming from the position of the central characters from Gryffindor.
Students are magically Sorted into their Houses using the Sorting Hat, an ancient headpiece made by the four founders of Hogwarts. Each House has its own characteristics, given by and named for the founders themselves, and students possessing the correct set of characteristics are sorted into the hat’s selected House. It is worth noting that the first time the audience is introduced to the Sorting Hat, it describes Slytherin House as a place where “You'll make your real friends, / Those cunning folks use any means / To achieve their ends” (Rowling 1997, 88), paradoxically setting up the Slytherins as amiable companions for Potter, even as he rejects them. Slytherin “took only pure-blood wizards / Of great cunning just like him.” These characteristics do not on their own signify good or evil intention within a student; yet connotations over the hundreds of years since its founding have encroached on the characteristics.
Pureblood ideology is present in the House in a more concentrated way than the other three houses. The pureblood ideals value magical strength through blood purity, and see otherness as a threat to their pure lineage. The derogatory term for a muggleborn is “mudblood,” denoting an impurity of blood. In the novels, the term is most often used by Slytherin house, partly because of their fixation with pure blood ancestry, as well as the fact that the central characters from Gryffindor are rivals with Slytherin.
It stands to reason that purebloods, with a few exceptions, would uphold the value system that has existed for centuries, including the cunning and ambition that helped them survive to become the aristocrats of the wizarding world. The belief of genetic superiority held by purebloods gives weight to their claims, and the need to stay together in one House helps strengthen bonds, helps eliminate the interaction of half-bloods and muggleborns with purebloods, and creates possibilities for more pureblood unions, resulting in pureblood progeny. The aristocratic beliefs reinforce attitudes of superiority and prejudice against ‘mudbloods’ and the other houses, making them elitist and therefore ‘mean’ towards Harry Potter, the protagonist, and most importantly, as Potter is the reader surrogate character, the reader ourselves. Harry Potter has first-hand evidence that what he knows to be ‘true’ about wizarding society and wizard-muggle relations is wrong, and yet does not change his perceptions towards the Slytherins, who accept the reality of this delicate balance for what it is: dangerous.
Tom Riddle, or Lord Voldemort and the villain of the series, is a half-blood (HP Lexicon); he is therefore that which he most despises. The rise of Tom Riddle/Lord Voldemort to power, is founded on the tenets of Slytherin House. Riddle masquerades his blood purity to maintain political support for his cause and to further his ambitions, tied with the fact that he resents his own background. It should be noted that not all of the Death Eaters come from Tom Riddle’s time, and not all Slytherins are Death Eaters, nor has it been said that all Death Eaters are Slytherins.
Ambition and cunning are neutral characteristics, but when the connotations of Machiavellian tendencies are layered over top, they become increasingly negative. Slytherins are rarely shown demonstrating other qualities besides those two-dimensional depictions of what their house prizes, and the negative qualities granted by other houses. While this is true in the books, fancraft often uses the characteristics to its advantage. In the series, Professor Dumbledore looks at Severus Snape when he demonstrates bravery, and says, “You know, I sometimes think we Sort too soon” (2007, 545). The stereotyping persists: acting against type is shown to be an accident instead of character growth.
There are other canon examples of witches and wizards acting against type. It is often forgotten that Professor Slughorn is a well-respected wizard from Slytherin, who associates with all types of wizards, focusing on talent and merit (2005, 144). Narcissa Malfoy saves Harry's life, out of loyalty to her family. Severus Snape is used by people on both sides of the war, but proves himself several times over throughout the series. These are not the actions of evil people, but of those whose cunning and ambition to achieve their means rules their decision-making.
Part 2: Fancrafting: Fanfic, Vids, and Art
Henry Jenkins coined the term “textual poaching” comparing the way in which fanfiction is similar to the process of poaching from a landowner (23). It is illegal as intellectual property is being appropriated without permission. The connotation of theft is flawed, as poaching implies taking away and never returning. JM Frey prefers the term ‘fan crafting’ - any fan activity that produces a creative result by utilizing elements of that which already exists to create a different and whole picture. In addition, fancrafting often exists to examine the potentially marginalized subject position of a reader, and to find a place for it in the world presented. Here, the often-maligned Slytherins are the marginalized, and fancrafters reexamine the hegemony and their subject position.
There are shades of grey present in humanity, and it is the choice to act that influences behaviour. Fandom concerns itself with the few humanizing moments in canon for the Slytherins, and builds upon these moments: Draco with his head in Pansy’s lap on the train, his moment of indecision and pathos in Half-Blood Prince, and Narcissa’s pleading with Harry for Draco’s safety, Snape’s loyalty to Lily and Narcissa.
The propensity for reimagining the canon events to include the Slytherins also has an effect on the characters of the Slytherins themselves. The ‘ugly’ characteristics reviled in the canon books are understood to reflect logical reasons for their behaviour in fancrafts. The descriptions of the characters in the books make them unpalatable and unattractive. Blaise Zabini is the only Slytherin described as being attractive. There are common tropes in fanfiction to make these characters more attractive, and variations such as a sensually-dressed Draco appear, along with Pansy the coquettish sex kitten, and Blaise the exotic sex god. Crabbe and Goyle fanfiction focuses on their personalities, emotions, and professions to make them more appealing (Mr_mercutio, Maya, “DDG”).
Other fancrafts featuring Slytherins use what is there in canon, and provide reasoning for the characters to act the way they do. The characters are vulnerable, scared, or have low self-esteem, and lash out as a reaction to others. The Slytherins become anti-heroes, the foils to the protagonist, or subsume the protagonist position for themselves, rendering the protagonist and his actions unstable and questionable. The fancrafts remind the audience that Slytherins are people with pasts, familial connections, hopes and fears.
Part 3: Queering the Slytherin Identity
Slytherin House is regarded with scorn and prejudice, and in turn they regard the rest of the wizarding world in a similar fashion. The traditional pureblood views create an exclusionist culture. As a result, ostracization occurs, creating an insular culture, which closes itself off in order to simultaneously protect itself and retain its unique community. The queer community has parallels to this: the insular community is for protection and belonging when others show dislike. The similarities in ostracization and unique community-centric socialization have a link to the Slytherins, often explored in fancraft.
As Slytherins are frequently seen as ‘bad’, this sometimes translates to ‘debauched’ in fandom, a mirror of the queer community’s imposed and biased labels as ‘degenerate’ and ‘deviant.’ Queer fandom culture can reassess canon through their own queer lens, using the Slytherin identity to explore and centralize their own personal marginalization and subject position. Finding a queer identity in the canonical reading is difficult, as the books are largely heteronormative. A queer member of fandom can reorient the text in order to find space for his or her desires (Willis 155), but in order to do that, the crafter must still negotiate canon.
The queer community could recognize itself in the marginalized Slytherins, as a fellow ostracized community, banding together to keep a sense of belonging. The pervasiveness of queer crafts between characters within Slytherin house could be explained as a fear of reprisal from housemates or other students for propagating inter-house relationships. Thus, queer relationships are constructed as preferable to inter-house relationships, the queer becomes the norm, and the Slytherin identity is reconstructed as tolerant. However, it is also common in fancraft to construct a queer relationship between Draco and Harry, using the trope of passionate hatred turning to love. The queer reading of this fiction can be seen as making the protagonist part of the other, validating the Slytherin worldview. The queer community can now better relate to the now-marginalized Potter, validating the queer readership and offering them a centralized role.
Part 4: Roleplaying and Cosplay
Cosplay is an abbreviation of the words ‘costume’ and ‘play,’ coined by Nov Takahashi visiting WorldCon in 1984 (“Cosplay,” 2009). Mostly, cosplay and costuming is found at science fiction and fantasy conventions, though it is also found at film premieres and book launches. The Harry Potter phenomenon has added to these events.
Cosplayers who dress as Slytherins are donning the colours of the disenfranchised House, and give them a literal voice where it was ignored in canon. They are accepting the burden of the Slytherin identity (freighted as it is with negative connotations and prejudice) and, through enacting the positive traits of the Slytherin and behaving in a socially acceptable manner, the cosplayer can redeem the identity. As cosplay is a public and highly visible practice, wearing the green and grey of Slytherin means literally declaring one’s allegiance in a crowd, and defying the norm.
As cosplay is an activity that is generally viewed with skepticism and outright derision, there are several costumers who focus on Slytherin. Perhaps this is a reflection of the cosplayers identifying with the House that is outside of the norm; like the queer community, Slytherin offers a shelter of belonging and the comfort of community for crafters who feel derided and shamed by the negative attention of society at large. The decision to dress as the ‘other’ house is a deliberate proclamation of one’s affiliation, a bold statement, and an attempt to positively affect the perception of that identity.
Conclusion:
As the titular protagonist of the Harry Potter series is a Gryffindor, and the perspective of the series is solely through his eyes, the audience sees Slytherins as the Other, the enemy, the ones to be loathed simply because they exist. Fandom takes this single-minded framework and expands it to include the others trapped in the peripheral, to transfer the focus to a character who can give a new perspective to canon events. The need to de-Other the Slytherin identity redeems the villains of the piece and redirects the mistrust and slander onto the few individuals that deserve it, rather than the whole of the house. Fancrafters create new versions of the text, reorienting the text to reflect their own desires and frame of reference. The cosplayers take the text onto themselves, and tout the disenfranchised as a viable choice. The need to readdress individuality in two-dimensional characters is one of the main goals of fandom, and many succeed in presenting the Slytherins as more real, more human, more driven and more flawed than they are presented in canon. Sometimes, Dumbledore said, the wizarding world sorts too soon. Luckily, fandom is ready to step in and remedy the error.