Rehumanizing the Slytherins

[sagedarkwoods]

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.

Comments

[pathology_doc]

the audience sees Slytherins as the Other, the enemy, the ones to be loathed simply because they exist.

It's ludicrous and simplistic to claim this, and you know it. Slytherin House is seen as evil by Harry/the reader for very good reasons, the first of which is Draco Malfoy - a spoiled, bigoted, hateful little shit just like Dudley Dursley, who goes out of the way to conflate his own twisted values with those of his House even before he's sorted into it. Harry is quite justified in not wanting to be in Slytherin House, given that Draco claimed to typify the kind of child who was sorted into it.

Slytherin House's troubles began when Tom Riddle started there - IMO it was he who turned the place into a cesspit of vileness. Before that, the worst you could have said about Slytherin was that it attracted self-serving opportunists like Horace Slughorn, and the odd pureblood bigot who didn't as yet have a focus for his evil and who might still be told by his classmates to shut up or apologize if he said the M word. THAT's the real

[shiftingpath]

"Harry was never able to see any other face of Slytherin but the one that was presented to him - hostility, bigotry, foul play, cruelty and eventually outright evil. Why not? Because he was too busy trying to stay alive and sane in the face of everything it was throwing at him. He wasn't God, and he was busy enough saving himself and his friends from imminent death without being able to worry about who might, or might not, need saving from within the pit of vipers that was assailing him."

And yet for all he's the saviour of the wizarding world, for all his sacrifices and good deeds, there's no mention of "redeeming" Slytherin, no attempt to turn the other cheek. He returns hostility and foul play with more of the same, and it's the only way he deals with Slytherin.

[zanesfriend]

Well, for crying out loud, he was between 11 and 17; one can hardly expect an old head on young shoulders. And in the Epilogue he did tell his son that there would be no shame in being sorted into Slytherin, so we know that his attitude matured over the years.

[losyark]

Pathology: I think, respectfully, that you've missed the point. You're attacking the argument based on the idea that the essay is saying "Slytherin = not evil" and use the examples of the evil acts that occur within the books and are perpetrated by Slytherins as proof that yes, "Slytherin = evil

[tosheroon]

there had to have been at least a hundred other students in the house who were not ... Also, all of the evil people in the book were not Slytherin - some were Hufflepuff, some were Gryffindor or Ravenclaw, and some weren't human at all.

Well, if we assume Harry's year is of an average size, there are probably only 70 students in Slytherin, maximum. And a huge majority of the evil were in Slytherin - who are the evil Hufflepuffs and 'Claws? Who are the evil Gryffindors beyond Pettigrew?

there is nobody among the heroes for them to equate themselves with. This causes self-esteem issues and mental health problems.

Citation needed.

This meant that people first identified with Slythering house and THEN were slapped in the face with its label.No. The first we hear of Slytherin is Hagrid saying that every Dark witch and wizard came out of there. Next is Draco, acting like Dudley, and then Snape, picking on Harry for no apparent reason. For someone to identify with the Slytherins before we learned that they are considered evil, they

[losyark]

Yes, okay. My metaphores and hyperboles were a bit skewed. But that still doesn't change the fact that none of what we're debating matters to this essay.

The point is not who was evil and when.

The point is how and why fans are taking an Other as iradeemable as the Slytherins and choosing to equate themselves with this subject position and, through the creation of fan crafts, redeem it.

Edit: I feel I should clarify - when I am talking of the Other and the Outsider Status, I don't mean that the Slytherins are the Other and Persecuted Outsider within the world of the book. As you pointed out, they are mostly the aristocracy, so that doesn't work. I mean that they are the Other and Outsider among the FANS. The book indoctrinates its readers into equating Slytherin with evil; but what if a reader feels that they would have been sorted into Slytherin house? What if they feel not smart enough for Ravenclaw or Brave enough for Gryffindor and not Loyal enough for Hufflepuff? That is the problem I am addressing

[oryx_leucoryx]

but what if a reader feels that they would have been sorted into Slytherin house? What if they feel not smart enough for Ravenclaw or Brave enough for Gryffindor and not Loyal enough for Hufflepuff? That is the problem I am addressing.

Ahem. What if they see positive values in Slytherin? Myself, I identify as Ravenclaw, but if there is a House I envy it is Slytherin. When I read non-HP books I often play the Sorting Hat game with characters from there, and often I find very admirable characters who are 100% Slytherin, and I can find plenty of characters I dislike which would have been Gryffindors had they been magical and attended hogwarts.

[losyark]

What if they see positive values in Slytherin?

Yes, that's exactly what the essay is highlighting. The people who see the positive aspects of Slytherin and are trying to push them forward by embodying them. However, they're prejudiced against exactly because they are Slytherin.

[oryx_leucoryx]

What I was trying to say is that you are presenting it as if a reader feels s/he is not good enough to be a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw, so s/he tries to make do with being a Slytherin, while I think it is legitimate to have the opinion that Slytherin is a worthy place in itself (I'm just not good enough at Slytherinishness to qualify, but I can appreciate it in others). I also am less than impressed with the majority of Gryffindor characters and feel that if I were at Hogwarts in whichever House I'd try to avoid *most* Gryffindors. (I suppose I could get along with Percy or Neville.) And if I were a teacher at Hogwarts my attitude towards the behaviors and the choices of the trio would have been closer to the attitude of Severus Snape than that of their various Gryffindor teachers.

[losyark]

What I was trying to say is that you are presenting it as if a reader feels s/he is not good enough to be a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw, so s/he tries to make do with being a Slytherin, while I think it is legitimate to have the opinion that Slytherin is a worthy place in itself

Sorry, that's my fault then. I agree with you totally. The Slytherin fans are CHOOSING Slytherin, the're not going there because it's all that's left.

[tosheroon]

if a reader feels that they would have been sorted into Slytherin house?

Technically, I'm one of them. I usually identify as Slytherclaw (lol nerdiest), because I'm devoted to learning esoteric bits of knowledge for the sake of it, like how to read Middle Egyptian and how to construct clothing in period ways, and I am also devoted to keeping myself safe. (One time, in an English class, the professor asked us to write a short essay on what we would do if the draft were reinstated tomorrow and we were drafted. I was the only person who said they'd file as a conscientous objector or run away to Canada. The only one. I was also the only one who admitted to having Sorted themselves when they read HP.) I ought to identify with Hermione, because we look similar and like to read, but I like to read novels, not non-fiction, and I prefer learning to studying, so she just kind of irks me sometimes. (Also, is there anyone in the fandom who doesn't think they're smart enough for Ravenclaw? Because we all seem to be hardcore nerds. And

[oryx_leucoryx]

What would he have played on, though? How would he have gotten Hufflepuffs to rally against Muggleborns when the House allows them?
He'd convince the Hufflepuffs that the school is unfair to them as 'puffs. We'd have seen a more extreme version of the 'Support Cedric Diggory/Potter stinks' campaign (adjusted to the events of his time). He'd have the 'puffs demanding respect and uniting around him as the one who could get that for them. You see, I don't believe Voldemort himself believed in pureblood supremacy (though like all wizards he believed Muggles were less than human). Even if he ever held that view he must have abandoned it after meeting Morfin Gaunt, pureblood Slytherin descendant. He made use of beliefs that existed in his environment to serve his goal of being the one immortal leader of all wizarding-kind.

[oryx_leucoryx]

No. The first we hear of Slytherin is Hagrid saying that every Dark witch and wizard came out of there. Next is Draco, acting like Dudley, and then Snape, picking on Harry for no apparent reason. For someone to identify with the Slytherins before we learned that they are considered evil, they would have had to somehow do it before the book started.

Ahem. Upon second reading we know Hagrid was over-generalizing (we also learn he is not a particularly nuanced reporter of anything and not particularly reliable). Draco does not act like Dudley at Madam Malkin's, he acts like a normal kid trying to make friends before going to a new school (he does engage in bullying behavior later, on the train). And Severus believed Harry hated him for no reason (Harry's pained reaction to their making eye-contact during the feast), and later Harry was cheeky with him in class. Once one drops the Harry-centric POV many things look very differently.

Nobody in real life is actually a Slytherin, and there are no real-life stereotypes that define

[tosheroon]

But that wasn't what I was saying - it doesn't matter whether Hagrid was wrong, because it's still the first thing we hear about Slytherin. Draco said right off the bat that "the other sort" (those without wizard parents) shouldn't be allowed to go to Hogwarts; what reminds Harry of Dudley is that Draco plans to "bully" his parents into buying him a broom, despite the fact that he knows it's against the rules. It doesn't matter whether Snape thinks Harry hates him from a grimace (which is pure, pure speculation), because right from that first second the reader sees him as nasty; and during the first class he singles out Harry to ask questions he knows the kid can't answer. I'm not arguing that Slytherin is unquestionably bad, but that it's simply not possible to "identify" with Slytherin before learning that everyone in canon thinks they're badOf course there are people who see themselves as each House, but what makes them different than the (racist) analogy is that they didn't start off the book as actual Slytherins. There was no

[oryx_leucoryx]

I'm pretty sure Draco knew Severus was a half-blood. Severus did not change his name, and I doubt there are any Snapes in Nature's Nobility. Also Severus makes no attempt to hide familiarity with Muggle items such as match-boxes. But his mother was a witch and he had a wizarding upbringing before Hogwarts, which makes him one of the 'right' sort

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, if we assume Harry's year is of an average size, there are probably only 70 students in Slytherin, maximum. And a huge majority of the evil were in Slytherin - who are the evil Hufflepuffs and 'Claws? Who are the evil Gryffindors beyond Pettigrew?
I suppse it is a matter of taste, but I consider James, Sirius and the twins rather evil, or at least people to stay away from, despite being white hats in the political sense.

And while we do not know who they were, those Ravenclaws who constantly bullied Luna fall in the same category regardless of which side they took in the war.