cannibalism: and other rants

Slytherin: The Ill Conceived House

my note: lmao i wrote this for a school project and i wanted to post it cause it's something i think about daily

When kids think of the Harry Potter houses, they think of Gryffindor: The Bold, The Brave! Hufflepuff: The Kind, The Loyal! Ravenclaw: Smart... I guess? And Slytherin... : The... Evil?

Let's start by talking about my personal favourite house: Ravenclaw. The traits of Ravenclaw are: Individuality, creativity, wit, and wisdom. But most people refer to the last two when thinking of Ravenclaw, due to the underrepresentation in the books. And now the traits of Slytherin: Leadership, ambition, cunning, and clever. Once again, the last two are more commonly thought of, when referring to Slytherin. This causes a problem, as the houses are now seen as very similar and have much overlap.

When I was younger I absolutely dispised Slytherin. This was for one reason. Not because of the traits of the house, which I quite like, and not the people in the house. It was because JK Rowling painted it as a house where all the evil people go.

Yes, in the past it was more likely for a slytherin to be of pure blood and come from a family of dark wizards, but this was because of Salazar's racism. Even today, though, when kids find out their house on Pottermore is Slytherin, the first thing they'll read about the house is that it's full of dark wizards, therefore you, are more likely to be a death eater, or end up in Azkaban.

Sometimes she doesn't even take into account any of the traits. For example...

Crabbe and Goyle! Slytherins? Not quite. Stupid.... and...... loyal. Very loyal... to Malfoy. Whereas stupid is not a house trait, loyal is. A hufflepuff house trait. Historically speaking, Huflepuff was where you'd go if you didn't have a trait that belonged to any other house.

Hopefully I've persuaded you of the fact that when JK Rowling was writing Slytherin, it wasn't a priority of her's to stick to the traits, but rather make an "evil house".