The Victim Card

Who else thinks it's ben played WAY too many times?

Well, WE don't play it. It's purely men playing it for us. And women, they're just stupid enough to buy it.

I'm talking about a MAJOR theme that men write about in popular music today. Especially the male lyricists that girls swoon over. (And female ones too, it pains me to say.) Lyrics that both women and men just simply overlook. I'll start with some lyrics to Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved," which was the glorious spark of inspiration for this spiel.

Beauty queen of only eighteen
She had some trouble with herself
He was always there to help her
She always belonged to someone else

Tap on my window, knock on my door
I want to make you feel beautiful
I know I tend to get so insecure
It doesn't matter anymore

I don't mind spending everyday
Out on your corner in the pouring rain
Look for the girl with the broken smile
Ask her if she wants to stay awhile
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved
And she will be loved

I know where you hide
Alone in your car
Know all of the things that make you who you are
I know that goodbye means nothing at all
Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls

From the opening line - making sure to state that said girl is beautiful as quickly as possible - to the complete and utter arrogance in the last, I hate this song more than ever. (It was once just because of the lead singer guy's annoying voice whose name I really don't even care enough to look up.) What I'm really talking about is victimization, and the idea that all men seem to have that they are our superheroes and that swooping in to save us is ideal to both genders. For guys, its a ginormous stroke to their ego, and for girls, it makes them feel like princesses in a Disney fairytale...or Mary Jane from Spiderman...or something. WAY too many girls nowadays have been put under the impression that being saved is the epitome of romance. (Thanks, Taylor Swift. You really are the death of the 21st century woman.) This victimization, thus objectification (because woman are just being used as simple tools to help prove a man's manliness), is something young women are completely missing. It's men like the vocalist of Maroon 5 that believe women are already victims - victims of sexual assault, victims of the media, even victims of their own bodies in a variety of ways - and think that it's not a big deal to keep perpetuating that idea AND believe that it's their job to save them. My two cents: men are victims in a number of ways as well; they don't get paid paternity leave, they have a high standard of masculinity in American society just as females endure a high standard of femininity; but they don't expect girls to save them. And I sure as hell never will. This is always a good strategy for me when looking at a feminist issue, by the way - just turn it around and ask if it would be right in a man's point of view.

But I just can't understand how this goes right over girls' heads. Have we seriously learnt not to listen to what is being thrown at us? Have we grown into infants, being spoon fed a barrage of harmful information, not really even bothering to question what's in the stuff? I think we did learn it at some point through music - the 90s and early 2000s were an amazing time for female musicians. But today's music somehow reversed it. And that's a whole different topic entirely.

So all the advice I really have is: OPEN YOUR EARS, GIRLS. Objectification and patriarchy isn't going to walk up to you, shake your hand, and introduce itself. (But, you know, on the off-chance that it does, I would probably go for punching it in the face.) It's going to be subtle, and it's going to hide in places that you would least expect it. I've always been a fan of the phrase "save yourself" because really, that's all that any of us is trying to do. Letting someone else do it for you is truly counter-productive.

The Betrayal of the Sorting Hat

I was beyond excited to get Sorted. You. Have. No. Idea. And I had a lot of faith in Jo's Sorting test. I know it would be fun and clever, and it was...to an extent. I always said I would be happy getting Sorted into any house unless it was Ravenclaw. So technically, I should be happy. I should be. Why am I not? Why am I actually sort of totally and completely ticked off?

Well, here's the thing. I think it's totally rigged.

If you aren't on Pottermore yet, or if you just haven't noticed, the number of members in each house are curiously close. Currently as I look at the page, the numbers of students are as follows:

Gryffindor: 90,885
Ravenclaw: 91,272
Hufflepuff: 91,378
Slytherin: 90,391

I refuse to believe that it just played out this way. There's just no way. It's understandable that they would want to keep the numbers even though - solely for the House Points feature. If the number of students in each house were hugely uneven, then the houses with fewer students wouldn't stand a chance at winning the House Cup. But of course this isn't enough to assuage me. I'M A SLYTHERIN. I'm not super-friendly enough for Hufflepuff by any means. I'm not super loyal. I'm ambitious, pretty selfish, and super strange. (And also probably very hard on myself. As a second choice, I'd probably be a Gryffindor.) A better test would have divulged this.

Somewhat moving on... (I don't know when/how I'll get over this...) All of this !!!brand new information on Hufflepuff house!!! is total crap. The description of the common room was really interesting and well-written, but the whole description of the traits of Hufflepuffs in the Welcome Message was just confusing. Basically, Hufflepuffs are: trustworthy, loyal, and protective of friends and family. Quote: "Nobody intimidates us." "We've produced the fewest Dark wizards of any house in the school." These traits totally reek of inconsistency with the Hufflepuff characters we have met in the books. Let's break it down:

Cedric Diggory, probably (sadly) the most prominent Hufflepuff, was a dick. But maybe that's just my opinion. I'm aware that he helped Harry out a few times, but in a rather shady fashion, if you ask me. He was arrogant to almost James Potter status. I truly saw Cedric Diggory as more of a Gryffindor than a Hufflepuff. (He was insanely brave to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. AND he did well in it.) As for the other Hufflepuff kids we met, they were so very undeveloped that it wouldn't even be fair to judge if they actually belonged there or not. On the upside though, if every Hufflepuff were like their Head of House, Professor Sprout, I'd be a very happy Puff.

So this is why I really regret to say that the entire House concept is very, very flawed. You simply can't partition people off like this based on four or five broad personality traits. And not allowing them to interact with other types of personalities is probably unhealthy. It unfortunately kind of reminds me of sororities or fraternities - only hanging around one type of person under the flawed idea that it will help you grow and form relationships. Well, the entire idea of Greek life is a whole 'nother topic entirely, but you can see what I mean. It's not healthy, it's over-competitive and honestly straight up pointless. The students of Hogwarts are separated nearly 24/7. They can only eat with their house, they can only dorm with their house, they can only take classes with their house and maybe one other house at a time. It's no wonder that Harry never made friends with any Hufflepuffs; he didn't see them nearly enough to probably even pick one out of a crowd. (Not minding the inconsistency in the fact that the Welcome Message also states that Puffs get along best with Gryffindors.)

So I'll take this whole Sorting deal as a grain of salt. It's a bitter outcome, but there's far more flaws in Pottermore than just this. It's just becoming even clearer that we Harry Potter fans... we're just never, ever, ever satisfied.

Oh you silly, stupid pastime of mine.

Jamie. 20. Design major. Intro time.

Like it will forever state in my about me <- (serving as more of a reminder to me, than as information to you) this is an opinion/article-driven blog. It is not a lifestyle/fashion/diary-like blog. Little tidbits of my personal life WILL jump out, because they are usually what inspire my ideas of what to blog about. But mainly you can expect comments largely on the media, feminism, analyzations of the life of a college student, Harry Potter, and whatever else I deem interesting enough to spend my precious time writing about. Some posts may even be purely "philosophical" and for those, I sincerely apologize.

God I really shouldn't have chosen this picture to start off with. But I took it today, and I like posting pictures from the same day that I'm blogging. But still...liquor bar and stuffed animals in the background? Yes. I'm weird. Here we go.