Hogwarts Houses
The Story Behind the Designs
There’s something particularly intriguing about the Hogwarts House system.
It draws us in, begs us to wonder which House the Sorting Hat would shout from atop our head, which colors we’d show walking through the halls of the great school of witchcraft and wizardry.
The glorious amount of House-affiliated pins, patches, scarves, and shirts you can buy anywhere from conventions to Etsy to Hot Topic attests to that curiosity — and to our desire to signal what we think the answer might be.
In fact, this fascination with Hogwarts Houses is so enduring and pervasive that the NPR psychology podcast Hidden Brain published an episode in 2017 called “Sorting Hat” that discusses how we scratch the universal human itch to “find our tribe”.
While you’ll need to listen to the episode to hear the nuances of this topic, what stood out to me was how some people found sorting systems helpful in understanding who they are, while others found themselves attached to labels they didn’t identify with and were judged for.
The episode, my interest in symbols, and my own history with Hogwarts Houses made me think about how we construct the story we tell ourselves about who we are, how we tell that story to others, and how others construct their own version of the story of who we are.
For most of my life, I considered myself a solid Ravenclaw — my deepest fear was not getting into college, I had a statue of Athena (goddess of wisdom) on my desk, and I considered some emotions to be a bit like a child tugging ruinously at the sleeve of reason and sound judgement.
A few years ago, while preparing to host a Harry Potter-themed party, I decided to reassess.
Who was I now? What parts of myself did I want to identify as core to my being?
(Serious stuff this sorting business.)
After taking a handful of online quizzes, I faced a tie between Ravenclaw…and Hufflepuff.
I felt conflicted — not only because I viewed continuous education as core to my life as a person and artist, but also because a “Hufflepuff artist” felt too close all the stereotypes about artists being frivolous oddballs. I’d chafed under those stereotypes for years and had no desire to encourage them.
However, my relationship with my emotions had changed significantly over the years. I’d been working with a therapist off and on for years to understand the patterns of behavior that had shaped my life and the way I interacted with the world. Some of that work included recognizing that I sometimes struggled to value my own emotions.
As inconsequential as the choice was in the big picture, choosing between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff felt a bit like choosing between two entirely different versions of myself.
And, as someone steeped in geek culture both in my personal and professional life, I knew which House I chose would be a broadcast about who I was to both my friends and my followers.
A couple days later, I sat holding a Hufflepuff pin.
At the time, my decision was less about identifying “who I am”, and more about using the Hogwarts House system as a thought exercise to remind myself of what I wanted to work on in my life.
Now, sporting my little badger helps me celebrate parts of myself I don’t always acknowledge.
I may wear a snake or a lion or even a raven pin in the future to celebrate or focus on other parts, but for now, this one fits.
And yes, folks are rarely surprised when I tell them I’m a Hufflepuff, but I have as much control over their reaction to my House as their impression of what it means to be an artist.
I know that in the Harry Potter series, you’re in one House for your whole life. But I like to take some liberties.
I like to use the Hogwarts House system to remind myself and others that we are not static creatures — examining the story we’ve constructed about ourselves allows us to celebrate who we are and who we’ve been, as much as it gives us room to consider and grow into who we’d like to be.
Your Hogwarts House might be one sliver of that equation for you — after all, no single symbol will ever represent all of who you are. Or, your House it might be just a fun fact to bring up at parties.
Either way, whether you’re Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin is likely to mean something to geeks and geek culture for years to come — as we all wait for our belated letter from Hogwarts.
