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kaberett[Content note for social manipulation; mostly I'm talking about Harry Potter, but.]
Slytherin 101: How To Win Friends & Influence People (also at the OSBridge page, with wiki of people's notes).
One of the things D asked early on was how many people in the room identified with each Hogwarts house, and was a bit wry about the number of people at a tech conference who identify with Ravenclaw; hence I have been thinking, and it goes a bit like this:
Yes, Ravenclaw are entroped as ~the smart ones~, but that's not why it's where I identify, I don't think. I don't think I'm actually Slytherin: yes, I can tweak social interactions to go the way I want, but I think I'm more uncomfortable with it - and definitely more uncomfortable with power - than is consistent. Hufflepuff? No, I'm only that unshakably loyal to clan, and even then think I'm really too self-serving and too prone to give up to be sorted here. Gryffindor? I know that a definition of brave is being scared of things and doing them anyway, but courage still doesn't - to me - feel like a defining feature. Whereas asking why, and questioning, and getting caught up in details and pattern-matching and so on... well, I'm a postgrad student, and I'm staying this way at least in part because of the access it gives me to academic journals, enabling me to read current research outside my field. I think I can identify with Ravenclaw without thinking that people are stupid, and I think I can identify with Ravenclaw while recognising that excelling within the very narrow confines of the academy (1) isn't in any useful sense the only and is by no means the best way to excel and (2) in a great many respects isn't actually useful.
Of course, it's easy for me to say "being good at book-learning" is a value-neutral trait, because while it's one I have it's also one that is in general disproportionately valued and respected by my cultures (for all that some of the bullying I dealt with makes it hard for me to write that).
Identity is haaard.
Slytherin 101: How To Win Friends & Influence People (also at the OSBridge page, with wiki of people's notes).
One of the things D asked early on was how many people in the room identified with each Hogwarts house, and was a bit wry about the number of people at a tech conference who identify with Ravenclaw; hence I have been thinking, and it goes a bit like this:
Yes, Ravenclaw are entroped as ~the smart ones~, but that's not why it's where I identify, I don't think. I don't think I'm actually Slytherin: yes, I can tweak social interactions to go the way I want, but I think I'm more uncomfortable with it - and definitely more uncomfortable with power - than is consistent. Hufflepuff? No, I'm only that unshakably loyal to clan, and even then think I'm really too self-serving and too prone to give up to be sorted here. Gryffindor? I know that a definition of brave is being scared of things and doing them anyway, but courage still doesn't - to me - feel like a defining feature. Whereas asking why, and questioning, and getting caught up in details and pattern-matching and so on... well, I'm a postgrad student, and I'm staying this way at least in part because of the access it gives me to academic journals, enabling me to read current research outside my field. I think I can identify with Ravenclaw without thinking that people are stupid, and I think I can identify with Ravenclaw while recognising that excelling within the very narrow confines of the academy (1) isn't in any useful sense the only and is by no means the best way to excel and (2) in a great many respects isn't actually useful.
Of course, it's easy for me to say "being good at book-learning" is a value-neutral trait, because while it's one I have it's also one that is in general disproportionately valued and respected by my cultures (for all that some of the bullying I dealt with makes it hard for me to write that).
Identity is haaard.