does anyone else notice how misinterpreted the houses are?
like why are slytherins referred to as being ‘edgy bad chicks/guys’ and ‘sex gods/goddesses’ when it’s their house, of all four houses, that values traditionalism?
why are hufflepuffs described as relaxed hippies who prefer to chill and eat cookies all day when their house is the one that values hard work?
why do people think ravenclaws are stuck-up and boring bookish nerds when literally the only personality traits you have to possess to be a ravenclaw are creativity, wit, wisdom, acceptance, originality, intelligence and individuality?
why are gryffindors depicted as brash, rude rulebreakers when chivalry is so important to them?
They’re not "misinterpreted”. They’re broadened, the way they’re understood expanded, to communicate the scope of human diversity, good or bad or in between, in all their various walks of life with all their various abilities and all their various applications of the values the Houses stand for.
Slytherins are referred to as ‘edgy’ because seriously, you REALLY think that the “any means to achieve their ends” crowd won’t INVENT new ones? Won’t go against the grain if the ones already available aren’t working? Slytherins are defined as AMBITIOUS as SHIT, you REALLY THINK NONE OF US ARE REVOLUTIONARIES? Get the super politicized, overly binarist anti-Slytherin Gryffindor chauvinism of JK out of your ears and eyes, and look around. We are.
(I’m not going to go into the ‘sex gods/goddesses’ thing cos that ties a lot into the fact that some of the most ambitious people/characters, especially the Evil ones, weaponize sexuality to varying degrees to get shit done, and sexualizing that in any glorified manner is an issue I would like to eradicate, not validate. But in the interest of equalizing, maybe look up the history of rape by the chivalrous.)
Gryffindors are depicted as ‘brash, rude rulebreakers’, because “chivalry” in its original form is not about respect, it is about courage, especially the image of brazen acts, and control. It is about order, about a power difference enforced by specific behavioral markers. Unlike Hufflepuffs, who are more explicitly about fairness/justice and kindness, about people, chivalrous Gryffindors can be like knights, at times: worried about the glory of heroism, enforcing their moral code on people by imposing upon their agency, rather than actual considerate aid.
Hufflepuffs are depicted as ‘relaxed hippies’ because, and I don’t even know why the HELL I have to SAY this, what you value does not determine what you do every minute of every day, and Hufflepuffs also value fairness and kindness, so they probably value the various ways people work hard and what it takes for some people to be able to? That value probably sometimes dedicates some antipathy for ableism in an unfair, oppressive class system? And again: you can value something and still not BE DOING IT.
Ravenclaws--lol was this post made by a biased Ravenclaw; practically none of that is attributed to Ravenclaw House officially--value wit, wisdom and intelligence. So they, unlike Hufflepuffs, are probably going to arrive at ableism, rationalism, and what’s “proven” as likely as, if not more than, they are to arrive at creativity, curiosity, inventiveness and exploratory knowledge-gathering. That tends to be anti-acceptance, tbh, ableism, rationalism and what’s proven, and in my experience, is typical of ‘Claws (and this post could stand to underline that).