Professor Julian Womble (24:28)
The next question is would you say that the word you chose for the question above is a strength or a flaw? About 88% of us said that loyalty, obviously, which is our number one word, is a strength. About 8% of us said don't know and about 3% of us said it was a flaw. And again, when you break that down by houses, you really don't see that much difference. Obviously Hufflepuffs are much more likely to say that it's a strength. But Slytherins about 87% of the Slytherins said it was a strength. 85% of Gryffindors and 87% of Ravenclaws and 91% of Hufflepuffs said that it was a strength. So again, we have a lot of unanimity here about what loyalty looks like and its importance and the fact that it matters. And what's so fascinating about the idea of this. And I want wonder when we think about breaking it out by houses, which is actually kind of fun, is the fact that that's also something that exists within each and every one of these other houses. Number one, because loyalty is baked into the housing system, right? If you are in these houses, you kind of pledge to be loyal to the houses you're not going to do things that stand in the face of what the house represents. You're not going to do things that might lose you points. You're not like you are in this for all intents and purposes like fraternity. And I mean that in a more gender inclusive sense. But like this space of this community is a better word for it. You're in this community that it's kind of building you to understand who you are through the lens of the space that you're in, of the house that you're in. And so it does stand to reason that if every single person or not every single person, but on average Hufflepuffs, Slytherins, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, who all took the survey had loyalty as their number one word to describe Hufflepuffs, but in that they would then see it as a strength not only because it's what we tend to ascribe to Hufflepuffs, but also because it's part of every single house. Right? Especially we can see it in Slytherin and Gryffindors and we don't spend enough time with Ravenclaws, but we obviously imagine that they care about this as well. But so yes, I can we. It's not difficult for us to imagine and understand why such a high number of us perceived loyalty as being a strength. And what is interesting though is that of that different houses, Slytherins are the only house that had the highest percentage of the perception that loyalty was a flaw, with about 7% saying it's a flaw. Only 3% of Hufflepuff said it was a flaw. 4% of Gryffindors and about 1% of Ravenclaw's. Oh wait. And before we even get into that, what I didn't do and it's my fault, let me give you the breakdown of the houses. So for this survey, about 40% of the takers. Excuse me, I'm not editing that out. About 40% of the takers were Hufflepuff, about 15% were Gryffindor, about 29% were Ravenclaws, and about 16% were Slytherins. So this just gives us a breakdown of the houses and I expect that as we continue to do this, the subject that the survey is about, the house that the survey is about is going to probably be the most represented. But that's a pretty decent breakdown of the houses. And so while it does seem right that Slytherins are much more likely percentage wise to say that loyalty is a flawless, it's not statistically significant. I tested that, which means that there really is no meaningful difference relative to these other individuals. This isn't a statistics class, y'. All. I just want you to know that, you know, part of my job as an academic in a social science is that I do have to do statistics every so often. And by that I mean all the time. And so this offers us the ability to do this. I know that you all are going to want me to do this for everything now. Oh, I know that you are. And it's easier to do for House things than it is to do for characters, namely, because there weren't as many questions. And so this adds a bit of nuance, which is fun and interesting. Maybe we'll go back at some point and we'll revisit some characters and we will break it down this way. But for right now, we just have to take what we've got. And what we've got is this. Is this breakdown for these characters. And so suffice it to say that it doesn't matter what house you're in, there's still a perception that loyalty is a strength and that it is the calling card of Hufflepuffs. And there's a lot that makes sense to me about why that's the case. And I think it's because there's an expectation for each of these houses that loyalty is a part of this. And I think that there's also probably a desire to have the most loyal people in your house. But I also do think that at the root of it, there's an appreciation at this stage in our lives of what loyalty actually means. And I think that when we look at Hufflepuffs and we see the notion of community and the idea of friendship, you know, one thing that you really want is a loyal friend. You want someone who's not gonna backstab you. Like, listen, yes, Ernie was in there gossiping, but at no point did he betray Justin. He's like, justin's hiding out and there's a reason why he's just spilling the tea. He's not backstabbing. And I think that, you know, there are other houses where we might expect a little bit more backstabbing, we might expect a little bit more betrayal. And because there are aspects of those different houses that might lead to some self centeredness. And I think, again, that when we think about what loyalty looks like and what does it mean to be a Hufflepuff, I think the strength of Hufflepuffs is the cohesion and the community that they Bring even when they're being messy. And I think that other houses can recognize those things and appreciate it and want it for themselves. The next question was which character in the series they don't have to be sorted into Hufflepuff, do you think best encapsulates the values of Hufflepuff? Y' all this. I'm gonna pat myself on the back. What a great question. Hi, Kee. I love it because I think that we spend a lot of time thinking about a lot of these characters and asking whether or not they belong in the houses that they're in and if they don't, then where should they be and blah, blah, blah. And so I'm excited to see what we get. And the results here did not disappoint. The first character is Neville Longbottom. Ever heard of him? The second is Luna Lovegood and the third is Cedric Diggory. So we've got a Gryffindor, a Ravenclaw, and then a Hufflepuff being the ones that best embody the values of Hufflepuff. And I think I understand. And then what else is interesting is that when you break that down by house, Hufflepuffs are more likely to name Neville. Hello. Slytherins are also more likely to name Neville. Ravenclaws are not more likely to name level on name. No. Yeah. Name Neville. Geez Louise. But Gryffindors are, on average more likely to have said that. It's Luna. And so three of our houses said Neville, one of them said Luna. And I was trying to think about, you know, obviously I understand why Neville, because in addition to being outlandishly brave, he is someone who is loyal almost to a fault. Because Neville, baby, you could have stayed upstairs in your room and let Harry and them do whatever they wanted to do, but you're loyal to Gryffindor. And you see, it's that kind of thing where I think the loyalty. Because remember, Neville's like, you're gonna go out there and get us in trouble and lose us more points. His loyalty was to the house. And I think that that's what every house wants. They want someone like Neville, someone who's going to stand up to your friends and be like, you are costing us. And I'm not going to allow that to happen anymore. And so I can completely understand why most of us would say that Neville best exemplifies Hufflepuff. I then started thinking about why it is that on average, and I have to say on average, because I know that not every person who's a Gryffindor who took the survey said Luna. But on average, Gryffindor said that Luna best exemplifies Hufflepuff. And I'm thinking about it and it could either be that, you know, she spends such a considerable amount of time with Gryffindors. There is a time where she is literally rooting for Gryffindors during. I think it's the. The match between Slytherin and Gryffindor where she's literally wearing the Gryffindor lion. And so she's kind of made herself to be like an honorary member of Gryffindor in a lot of meaningful and interesting ways. And her relationship with Gryffindor house is very different than it is even with her own house in that, you know, when we meet her and we spend time with her, literally everyone else who goes to the Ministry of Magic are Gryffindors except for Luna. And so she has a specific kind of loyalty and a specific kind of friendship with Gryffindor house that is not had with other houses. And so I. This pleases me so much because I think this is the fun kind of nuance that we get to have when I ask this kind of question, which I know is making the case for why we should have this question all the time. I won't do it because it's too much work. But I do love that we get to see this because it really offers us a little bit more nuance about who sees characters a very specific way and how do we understand that? And I have never thought about the way that Luna interacts with the Gryffindors being so unique relative to other houses. But it really, really is like she is, you know, Harry invites her to go with him to Slughorn's Christmas party. And, you know, they are obviously friends. But when you look at her wall in Deathly Hallows and she has friends kind of written out on the wall, it's all Gryffindor's. And what is that? You know what I mean? Like, what is that relationship look like? You know, we spend a lot of time talking about how Slytherins and Gryffindors are two times two sides of the cane. Oh, my gosh. I'm not editing that out. We spent a lot of time talking about why Slytherins are two sides. Oh, my gosh. Why Slytherins and Gryffindors are two sides of the same coin. I promise I can speak, but we don't really think about Ravenclaws and Gryffindors in this way. I even got a DM from someone today talking about how they were Slytherin at one point in their life and then recently got sort of into Hufflepuff. And what's fascinating about that, and they were asking me, how do we reconcile that idea? And I said, you know, I think what's true for Slytherins and for Hufflepuffs is that they are very communally grounded. Right? Like we never see Draco alone. Lucius is always running around with some cronies. Like there's just a very clear understanding of like family and community, just not with an ideology that we don't like. But that's very similar to Hufflepuff, so we might be ending. There's also the kind of running trope about every Slytherin needs a Hufflepuff best friend. I'm talking too fast and my brain is moving faster than my lips can a Hufflepuff best friend. And so that there is this kind of connection between those two houses as well. But Gryffindor and Ravenclaws. I want us to talk about this in the post episode chat. I want to talk about why it is we think that this works and why it is that you think that Luna is the one that on average, Gryffindors who took the survey put down as a best exemplar of Hufflepuff Ness in terms of the characters? Because I'm just throwing things out there, but I'm wondering if there have been any of you who, upon hearing this, immediately had a thought and said, this is it. I want to hear about it. So meet me in the post episode chat. What a fascinating revelation that is. Oh, I can't wait to think about that more. The next question is, do you think Hufflepuff is misunderstood by the broader wizarding community and or by fans? And about 83% of us said yes. About 10% of us said don't know and about 7% of us said no. When we break this down by houses, what we get is that mostly Hufflepuff. So about 88% of Hufflepuffs say yes, the house is misunderstood. About 78% of Slytherins, 81% of Gryffindors and 81% of Ravenclaws think that the house is misunderstood. It also seems that, okay, about 5% of Ravenclaw. No, no, no. About 5% of Hufflepuffs say that it's not misunderstood. About 15% of Slytherins say it's not understood. 15% of Gryffindors say it's not understood. And only 6% of Ravenclaw say that it's not understood. So Gryffindors and Slytherins are of the mind that Hufflepuff is very well understood. Now, here's the thing, and some of this is, you know, I'm like, it's not lost on me that the two houses that we spend the most time talking about would say that the house isn't misunderstood. But y' all be for real for just a second. Like, just. Just give me a quick minute of your time, y'. All. We literally spend such a considerable amount of time with Gryffindors and Slytherins, we barely get to understand anything about Hufflepuffs. And what we do understand is that, again, it's like the throwaway house. Like, everyone else just gets to go there. And yet somehow we all have such good things to say about it. And so how do we reconcile that particular reality? How do we reconcile the idea that if we agree with the argument that, like, Hufflepuff isn't misunderstood and that is not seen as this house, then why are there so many people who don't want to be Hufflepuff? Why is being a Hufflepuff seen as an insult to people? Why do people use it as an insult? And yet somehow we have established that it is actually a really great house that represents something really meaningful and important to many of us and probably to most of the houses. Right. It strikes me that there is a misunderstanding there. I think that it's seen as a house that holds not a lot of meaning in a way that I find to be like. It's important for us to think about the way that we are conditioned to understand it. And I think that Gryffindors and Slytherins come from a place of privilege in that we find ourselves on the page more. We have a much more nuanced understanding of what it means to be in either one of those houses. We have many characters that provide us with a spectrum of understanding about what it means to be in those spaces and places. And so when it comes to being understood, it's easier for us to recognize that we are understood. And so I think that sometimes what happens with privilege is that we can't recognize when what's true for us isn't true for others. And if we really sat down for a second and thought about the truth of Hufflepuff, we would realize that we only really know one for real? For real. And that was Cedric. And that we meet Ernie McMillan. Obviously, we meet Justin Flinch Fletchley. Is Ernie the one that we don't like? In order of the phoenix, I can't remember that. Ron couldn't stand him. But we get these snippets of them. But we don't really know what that means in relation to Hufflepuff House. And so many of us have had to resort to really defining it for ourselves. And I think that that's how we miss some of the more fun parts of being in Hufflepuff. Right? Like, we know that they're by the kitchens. There's a presumption like, you know, that they throw the best parties, that they always have access to the greenhouses and thus have access to fun things. And so. But like, we as a fandom have created a lore around Hufflepuffs that is in no way grounded in the canonical text, which is so not even remotely true for Gryffindors or Slytherins. And honestly, we learn more about Ravenclaws and at least what it means. We learn a little bit about the history when we think about Rowena Ravenclaw and Helena Ravenclaw and the story of her and the Bloody Baron. We, you know, get to spend a little. We spend a considerable amount of time with Luna, which also helps us cultivate an understanding of what it means to be in Ravenclaw. We even recognize the fact that, you know, Hermione could have been in Ravenclaw, which helps us understand a little bit more about that house. But Hufflepuffs are not a house that we spend enough time. It's not a house that we spend enough time with. And so we've just made things up. We've taken the crumbs that were given to us. And I think that there are lots of things about Hufflepuff Ness that we don't understand. And I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about what it means to be in Hufflepuff. And also, you know, I think that there is a kind of romanticization of what it means to be in Hufflepuff or be a Hufflepuff. And I'm going to talk about that a little bit more in the reflection. But on the whole, I'm going to push back a little bit on the 15% of the Slytherins and the 15% of the Gryffindors who said that Hufflepuff is not misunderstood because I think that we actively do not know a lot about the house. We know that Newt Scamander was a Hufflepuff. And so we can take from. If we are even allowing for the Fantastic Beasts to be added to our kind of understanding of the world, we can take some things away from that. But what does any of it mean is not clear to us. And so much of it is open to interpretation and has been interpreted in various different ways, most of which is to say that, you know, Hufflepuffs are the stoners and the ones who throw the best parties. But I think that there's so much more to them. And so it strikes me as important to acknowledge the fact that relative to the other houses. And maybe at the end of this, what I will do is I will put all the surveys together and we can do kind of like a superlative, like we've done for some of the other episodes, and see kind of which house we think is the most misunderstood. And I guarantee you, I can already feel it in my bones that it's going to be because Slytherins and I'm one of us, that we are going to be the ones who are going to be like, it's us. And I get the impulse, but we'll cross the bridge when we get there anyways. Yes, for me, I think that Hufflepuff House is very, very, very misunderstood. It's time for some chaos. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The next question is, if the sorting hat placed you in Hufflepuff, would you accept it? 79% of us said yes, about 13% of us said no, and about 8% of us said don't. No. Now, okay, let me start here. I think this question is really fascinating because I think that, again, we're in this weird kind of paradox of recognizing the value of Hufflepuff while also combating our own socialization with this text that Hufflepuffs and Hufflepuff House is not like a place that you want to be. And so this question was a really interesting one because I really wanted us to think about and have to grapple with our own potential internalized biases towards Hufflepuff House. And we're going to do this, obviously, for every single house. And so this is what's fascinating about this, is that it really does invite us to think about. I didn't ask. I simply asked, if you had been placed in it, would you stay? Would you accept it? Not because, you know, asking, well, oh, is it because I wouldn't stay? Because, you know, I know that's not who I am or whatever. Right. Because in Theory, if we take what Canon gives us and Hufflepuff is the catch all house, well then it's going to catch you, right? There's something inside of this house that undoubtedly is inside of you. Right? Even if it's just loyalty. But we know that Hufflepuffs can be brave. We saw Cedric, we know that they are loyal. We know that they are ambitious because we know, we saw Cedric who wanted to win that cup. We know that they are intelligent because we what saw Cedric and he's the only example that we get. But we know that every aspect of the other houses can be found in Hufflepuff. So before we get into it, on the post episode chat where you all are like, well it's just, it just isn't me, I'm gonna stop you right there because there are aspects of this that probably are. And the question is is are you fighting against it? Because you have been conditioned by JKR to see Hufflepuff in a very specific way. Now, now that we've established that, let's get into the utmost chaos. So up until this point there has been near unanimity. Unanimity, unanimity. Let's go with unanimity as it pertains to the different houses and the way that they perceive things. Every house saw loyalty, every house saw it as a strength. Three of the four houses saw Neville as being the best exemplar of Hufflepuff. But here, oh but here, this is where I really got to get into my statistics bag. And what is fascinating about this is that about 98% of Hufflepuffs said yes, they would accept the decision of the sorting hat. With about 2% of Hufflepuff saying don't know. 86% of Slytherins said that they would accept it with about 6% saying oh no, 9% saying no and 6% saying don't know. About 87% of Gryffindors said yes, they would accept being put into Hufflepuff with 9% saying no and about 4% saying don't know. And 92% of Ravenclaw said that they would be in Hufflepuff if they would accept the sorting hats decision to be in Hufflepuff with 4% saying no and 4% saying don't know. Now I then decided to do a little statistical significance testing to basically see if the differences between Hufflepuffs, right? And I'm using Hufflepuff as the baseline because obviously if you're a Hufflepuff, the likelihood that you're going to say that you are going to stay in Hufflepuff or that you would accept a decision is pretty much a guarantee. Right? And we see that with 98% of you all saying that. Right. So they're the baseline. So we're comparing the percentages of yes, no and don't know of the other houses, Slytherin, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw to Hufflepuff to see if the change in percentage is meaningful statistically. And what we find is that it is that Slytherins are much more likely at a statistically significant level to say that they would not accept what they would not accept the Sorting Hats decision to put them into Hufflepuff and neither would Gryffindor's. But Ravenclaws, there's no statistical significance, right? Which means that there's no difference. There's no meaningful mathematical difference between I'm probably not explaining this very right. And I know that there are people who probably do statistics and they're cursing my name. I'm sorry in advance, but I'm trying to make this as digestible as possible. So I apologize, but that there's really no meaningful difference in the decline in the percentage of people of Ravenclaws who said yes relative to those Hufflepuffs who said yes that they would accept what the decision was. So basically Slytherins and Gryffindors are like not accepting that. And Slytherins and Gryffindors are much more likely than Hufflepuffs to say that they're not accepting it, whereas Ravenclaws are not. And Slytherins are much more likely to say that they don't know if they would accept it, whereas Gryffindors and Ravenclaws are not relative to Hufflepuffs, which is all to say that again we see our two most talked about houses being the ones that are the least likely to accept being placed in Hufflepuff. And then we have Ravenclaw, who again is one of our more kind of undiscussed houses. We only meet a few people. Ravenclaws are much are. Okay, how to say this? There is not much of a difference in the responses given by Ravenclaws than given by Hufflepuffs, which means that they are for all intents and purposes, their answers are statistically the same. And so there's no movement. And so Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are very much in agreement about accepting what the Sorting Hat would say if they placed them in Hufflepuff, but not Gryffindors and not Slytherins. There's something to be said about that, and I'm sure that we will have many things to say about it. And so I for one am excited about that because that is fascinating and so interesting. And again, I can't wait to think about this with you all in the post episode chat. I know my statistical talk was not great. Please forgive me. I can write it out in an academic article pretty well, but I don't teach that. And trying to teach it is not my vibe because again, we talked about it for the Trelawney episodes. Just because you can understand it doesn't mean you can teach it. And clearly I can't. So there's that. But what we do understand and what we can appreciate is the fact that clearly our two main houses, in terms of the way that they are, you know, represented and presented in the books, have a very strong affinity for that. And it's fascinating because again, the juxtaposition of appreciating the loyalty and the kindness and the fairness of Hufflepuffs while also being like, that's fine for y'. All. Y' all can keep that. I don't want it. I wouldn't want it. And I'm wondering how we reconcile that. I'm wondering how we put that into conversation with our, you know, purported appreciation of Hufflepuffs while simultaneously being like, it's a no for me, dawg. I'm good. You can keep it, but love that for you. It's not for me. Fascinating. Someone wrote. A good Hufflepuff member is someone who has a strong sense of justice and always wants to do the right thing regardless of what the personal consequences may be for them. In other words, they're always going to do the right thing because it's the right thing to do. Someone else wrote Hufflepuffs care. They care about taking care of people, treating others with respect, and standing up to people who don't do that. They're the people who animals love, which is a much higher mark of character than loving animals, which they do. Also, puffs are also chill homies who are generally solid choices but for the blunt rotation. And they know the best snacks. You see, that's when Hufflepuffs become puffs. You see, someone else wrote, someone who does the right thing even though it's hard, supporting loved ones and doing the hard stuff, even if it isn't fun. And the last person wrote, not the last person, but the last quote that I'll read is I think a good Hufflepuff partakes in community driven initiatives. Like, they're all for being part of a village and doing their part to make the community a better place for all. I think the Hufflepuffs might have been good spew initiates because ideally their compassionate and empathetic nature would be a good basis for them to fight for the rights of house elves. I imagine a good Hufflepuff is a magical creatures rights activist. They're grounded and emotionally intelligent and once educated to recognize and understand what magical supremacy is, they'd be the first ones signing up for the fight against the man. This is so fascinating because I wonder where we get this from. Like, I don't disagree with any of these particular perspectives, but I do wonder how we arrive at this, because when I think about what we get in the books from Hufflepuffs, we get Ernie being messy, we get Cedric, we get Ernie being messy. Again, we get Hufflepuffs being upset with Harry because he got his name pulled out of the Goblet of Fire. And so again, I'm not discounting any of this, but what feels fascinating to me is how we filled in the gaps about what it means to be a good Hufflepuff and how do we reconcile and recognize one when we see it. And what's interesting here is it's seemingly all about care and justice and fairness and doing the right thing. And I feel like, is that a lot to put on Hufflepuffs? Is that like a realistic thing? Like, it strikes me that what we want from Hufflepuffs, and this is, I think, what we tend to do, I think in fandom in general, but particularly in the Harry Potter fandom, is that when we don't get a lot of information, we imbue the characters, the houses, the themes, the classes, the whatever with idealized understandings of things. And I know that I asked, you know, what makes someone an admirable Hufflepuff, but no one mentioned something like, you know, making up for your mistakes or, you know, apologizing when you're wrong. And what's fascinating is that in my conversation with the Chronic Overthinkers last September, somebody said, the thing I love about Ernie, though, is as soon as Hermione gets Petrified, he's like, I was so wrong. This person said, no Ravenclaw, Gryffindor or Slytherin would ever do that. And Ernie's like, nah, I just screwed up. And I think that that feels important to me. Many of us focused on this sense of justice and all of these things, which are important. But I think that, for me, what makes Hufflepuffs Hufflepuffs is that they're not afraid to be human. They make mistakes. They do things that are messy, but they don't allow those things to define them. And they're okay with saying, that wasn't great. I should have done better. I shouldn't have done that. I could have done this differently. Because then it's Ernie who ends up joining the da, if I'm not mistaken, right? He's there. And even though he's still a jerk, he still shows up. And so I don't want to dissuade us from, you know, from being overly positive about Hufflepuffs, but I also do want to invite us to take what Canon gives us, which are people who are flawed. They're not infallible. They make mistakes. And I think that because of the absence of a lot of detail, we put in a ton of things that we want to be true. It's like when I ask the question, you know, how do we define what it means to be a good pureblood or a good half blood? And what many of us did in our definitions was given idealized version, the version of this is what we want it to mean. This is what we want people to think about when they think about what it means to be a good insert thing here. This is what we want people to think about when they think about what it means to be a good Hufflepuff. We want them to think about someone who is all about justice and who is all about kindness and fairness and doing the right thing, no matter what, and even if it comes at a cost to themselves that they're willing to do it. And I understand why, but is that, like, real? Is it realistic, like, doing the right thing even when it's hard? Like, that's what we want to do. That's what we. That's our goal, right? But sometimes we can't, and sometimes that's not good for us, right? Sometimes loving someone, even when it's hard, is detrimental to us. Is that an expectation that we should have of people? How do we reconcile this idea of the idealized version of an admirable Hufflepuff is something that feels almost unattainable and that we don't have a lot of evidence of people actually embodying that in the text. So what do we do with that? We've now reached the point in the episode where I'm going to reflect on Hufflepuff House, and in the spirit of what we just discussed about the kind of idealized, romanticized understandings that we might have for Hufflepuffs, I thought it would be fun to do something a little bit different for these reflections. Namely, because I think that obviously Hufflepuffs are not the only house that's romanticized. I think we romanticize Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, and then we demonize Slytherins. And so I thought, why don't we just flip it a little bit? Because, like, listen, we already know the stereotypes, we have the merch, we know the slogans and the sorting quizzes and the friendly rivalries and all the things. But what we don't talk about enough, I think, and what we've talked about a little bit for some of these characters is the underbelly, the other side, the dark shadow that hides beneath the houses, these houses best qualities. Because every strength has a weakness, a flaw. Every value can be twisted or corrupted. And that is where I find very interesting things. Many of you know that, you know, we spend a lot of time talking about, you know, the dark side of the houses, right? We've spent a considerable amount talking about that for particular characters. And so I want to talk about that for Hufflepuff. The house of the kind, the fair, the loyal, the ones who, according to the common refrain, take the rest, right? The house of the hard working, the friendly, the just. The ones who don't see glory or ambition or cunning, but see simply doing the right thing because it's the right thing. It sounds so good. But here's the thing, here's the wrinkle, right? The top three words that people use to describe Hufflepuffs across the board, across houses were loyal, kind and fair. And those are beautiful traits, but they're not objective ones. If we ask ourselves some questions, then we might get some interesting answers. If we ask ourselves, loyal to what? Fair for or to whom? Kindness at what cost? Because let me tell you something. Loyalty is only a virtue if the thing you're loyal to is worthy of it, and not even just worthy of it, but is good in, like, an objective sense and fairness. Fairness is not an immovable truth. It's shaped by what you believe is right. And what you believe is right is shaped by who you listen to, who you trust, who you serve. And like, we're living in a time where we are seeing this truth be too real for us, right? But in the text in Chamber of Secrets, Justin Flinch Fletchley goes into hiding because he thinks Harry is the Heir of Slytherin. And it is a Hufflepuff spreading that rumor. I just talked about this moment right at the beginning of the episode. That's not kindness. That's not humility. That's gossip. And then again, in Goblet of Fire, it's the Hufflepuffs along with Slytherins. Another moment of connection for these two houses who wear the Potter Styx badges. It's Hufflepuffs who turn on Harry, not because he did anything wrong, but because in their eyes, it wasn't fair that he got chosen as a second champion. They were loyal to Cedric. They believed that Cedric deserved better. They believed that Harry should not have done it. They thought that he had gotten ahead of himself and no one even was interested in trying to figure out what was true. And their loyalty turned to cruelty. And it got. And the fairness got twisted into anger and angst and resentment and the kindness disappeared. And it doesn't stop with the students. Because if we really want to understand the danger of a corrupted Hufflepuff and the traits therein, we don't need to look any further than Bellatrix Lestrange or Barty Crouch Junior. And like, I know that they're both Slytherins, but let me tell you something. What do we see from them if not corrupted loyalty, twisted ideas of fairness and justice? Voldemort was Voldemort. Geez Louise. Bellatrix was Voldemort's. We'll add Voldemort to our list of names. We'll add it to our list of names. Bellatrix was Voldemort's most devoted follower. She went to Azkaban with a smile on her face. She tortured and murdered in service of someone who she believed in completely. She never wavered. Not a single time. And when Harry tells her that Voldemort is half blood, she refuses to believe it. Her loyalty had made her blind. And Barty Crouch Jr. The boy that believed in retribution, in balance, in punishing, betrayal, eye for an eye, he killed his own father. But after he watched and relished him being put under the Imperious Curse by Voldemort, he then put students under the Imperious Curse because he believed that what he was doing was fair. He wanted to teach them so that they would not be subject to what he was subjected to. And you know what makes Bellatrix and Barty so terrifying? Is that they're not stupid. They're not just following out of ignorance. These two are Some of the most prodigious, magical people that we meet in the series. And at the same time, their loyalty to Voldemort is absolute. And part of the reason why I think this is the case is because no matter how you want to spin it, Death Eaters are a community. And they are a community that allow for you to come in and be who you are. And isn't that what I said at the top of the episode about Hufflepuffs? Voldemort cultivated a community where you could believe what you wanted to believe within the realms of, you know, pure blood supremacy, and you wouldn't be punished for it. You got branded, some of them with a dark mark as a sign of your community and your loyalty to him. And so that when we think about the definitions of justice and loyalty and fairness, they're all corrupted in this case. And that's what makes Bellatrix and Barty perfect lieutenants. It makes them ideal followers. They don't question the cause, they embody it. And every single leader, every authoritarian, every zealot, every chosen one wants followers like that. And that should terrify us, because we are currently, again, living in a world where loyalty is being weaponized, where fairness is being redefined by the people who can control the narrative. And we are swimming in misinformation and disinformation, and people are falling for it. And it's not because they're stupid. They're falling for it because it confirms what they already want to believe, because it feels fair to them, because they are loyal to a party or a figure or an ideology, and that loyalty filters what they believe is true. And I know that some of us don't love that. We're continuously getting political. But, y', all, this is how I have to process it, because what else are we doing? How else are we supposed to navigate this crazy world that we're living in? And when we think about how people navigate this world that we're living in, they lean into the things that they believe and they allow that to filter the world that they live in. And that's the danger, right? Like, I could stop there, but you know that I won't. Because I need you to hear me when I say that this is not just about evil, that sometimes it can show up in subtler ways. So I, as you know, am obsessed with musical theater. And Wicked was one of my first, like, big forays when it first came out on Broadway in 2003. And I have always loved the musical, so of course, I loved the movie. And now Whenever I fly, I watch it. And now that I do what I do for a living, I look at the characters in that show and the movie and the show and I made a statement once and I said, you know, to me, Elphaba is a Hufflepuff. And I know that a lot of people love it because they're like, well, she's a Ravenclaw. Cause she likes books. But just hear me out for a second, right? Elphaba, this like so called Wicked Witch of the west is not driven by glory. She's not craving knowledge for its own sake. She's not playing political games. She simply wants to do what's right. Her sense of fairness is unshakable. Her loyalty to animals, to the oppressed, to truth is uncompromising. And that's why the wizard hates her. And that is why the system turns her into a villain. But the reality is, is that like the way that they do that is by actively just taking the things that she's been doing that are, in her mind, fair and making it out that it is injustice. So they make her, you know, try to do the levitation spell and she ends up giving wings to all of the monkeys, which was not her intention. And that's what the wizard wanted. But then he completely frames it as if she's mutilated the monkeys. And I think that that's the thing about Hufflepuffs. When you're at your best, you're the moral compass, the heartbeat and the quiet courage that doesn't ask for applause. But when those traits are turned either by you or by someone else, they can be exploited, corrupted or, or applied without reflection. And then they become something completely different. And that's where we leave it, right? Because loyalty is only good if the thing that you are loyal to is worthy. And fairness is only good if it is rooted in justice. But the problem with both those words, loyalty and justice and kindness and fairness, is what does it mean? Who gets to define that there's such a subjectivity to all of these things. And so that when we place onto Hufflepuffs this impossible bar to reach, we can see how easy it would be to corrupt those things. And just like Elphaba, the world is not always going to understand you. But that doesn't mean that you're wrong. It means you'd better know why you believe what you believe. Because if you don't define your values, someone else will. And isn't that what we've done for Hufflepuffs? Instead of allowing what is given to us, even the little bit that we get to define how we understand the house. We filled in the gaps ourselves with the things that we want to be true, with the things that we hope will be true. And sometimes, sometimes that's an injustice. Because when they don't meet your bar, when they don't live up to the expectations that you've created for them, you punish them. We punish them. We make their lives more difficult. We treat them like they've always been a villain when they're just human. This has been another episode of Critical Magic Theory. I'm Professor Julian Womble and if you liked today's episode, first of all, thank you. Please feel free to like, rate, subscribe and do all the things that one does where pods are cast. Y', all, I want to thank you so much for going on this deep dive of houses with me. I cannot wait for our post episode chat. I know it's going to be a good time because I feel like I kind of maybe called some of us out, called some of us in. I know I felt a little bit arrested in that reflection. Y', all, I cannot thank you enough for your continued support on the Patreon in your post episode chats in every single place. If you haven't joined us on Patreon, please feel free to do so@patreon.com criticalmagictheory follow me on social media rof jw on Instagram, profw on TikTok. Send me an email at criticalmagictheorygmail.com and look at our website criticalmagic theory.com y'. All. The Ravenclaw survey will be up, if not already up by the time this comes out. Just be on the lookout for it on Patreon. Until then, be critical and stay magical, my friends. Bye.
