Slytherin Syndrome: 1. The process of overtly villfying a group of people without explicitly saying they're all evil; we just know they are because there is no evidence to the contrary. 2. Claiming the moral high ground on arbitrary personality characteristics while villifying others.
This is not a jab at Harry Potter. Disney is also to blame. All the hyenas are evil, after all.
But first let's look at Harry Potter. Slytherins are evil. All of them. Name me one good one. Snape. Okay, name me two. In any case, we spend the first six books thinking he is evil, and his revelation does not really call into question previous assumptions about other Slytherins.
But what is a Slytherin? That is easier to answer than what is a Hufflepuff. Slytherins are ambitious. Ergo, they are all cowardly cruel bullies. Because that's what ambition means, right?
What an impressionable child understands of this dynamic is that being brave is good, and being ambitious is bad. Being intelligent or diligent (I think that's what Hufflepuff is; we're just going to go with that) is not bad, but it is not particularly good either. Nothing to be proud of.
Let's look at ambition first. Ambition to take over the world and make all Muggles your slaves, bad. Ambition to find a magical cure for cancer, good. Ambition to invent a flying machine/win the Olympics/bring peace to a war-torn nation: you get put on a motivational poster.
So really, there is nothing wrong with being ambitious. There is nothing wrong with aspiring to greatness. And they wonder why kids these days aren't performing up to par academically, why they don't aspire the way they used to, what happened to the enterpreneurial spirit of America, why they're all so damn apathetic. Well, who wants to be ambitious? Be brave (and reckless), be smart (and arrogant), or be diligent (and humorless). Just don't be ambitious.
It's not just a Harry Potter problem. In children's books or shitty fantasy with a teenage protagonist, the hero always whines about "Why do I get stuck with the magic powers? Why do I have to be king? Why can't I just live on the farm and have people tell me what to do?" Not that the hero isn't constantly being told what to do by helpful wizards and deities that all secretly wish the Chosen One wasn't such a whiny bitch. Frodo did not whine. Frodo volunteered. Did we forget that after Eddings? I think we did.
In contrast, the villain is the one who is trying to get magic powers or become king. In fact, the villain is the only one that shows any gumption. See, it's more morally right to have life give you power than to seek it, which is why we have a democracy where people run for office instead of a monarchy where they are born into it. The reason villains are always more interesting is because villains have plans and goals, and don't just go where the plot takes them. Which makes them bad people.
They have ambition.
Look at Disney. Scar saw what he wanted and took action to get it. Simba dodges responsibility until he gives into peer pressure. Ursula was a shrewd businesswoman. Ariel was just...Ariel. Why shouldn't Jafar be sultan? Jasmine's father is kind of a dope - and is that really who you want leading the nation? Didn't we try that in America? How did that go?
Harry just wants to goof off with his buddies. BORING! Voldemort wants to change the world.
What really set me off on this, though, was realizing that I am a lot more interested in analyzing literature than writing it. I'm a critic. The bitchcritic. Which, if you have seen Ratatouille, makes me the bad guy. But really, is not the highest honor a rat could receive the approval of the bitchcritic? It's not that he hates everything, he just has high standards, and doesn't it make you proud to know that you are awesome enough to meet those standards?
You know, this only happens because all our creative writers and filmmakers see themselves as intrepid inventors that the world cannot do without, and anyone who criticizes them as evil.
So I'm evil. Fine. Actually, no not fine. I'm not okay with being evil. They tell the hero that they can be whatever they want, be it chef, warrior, prince, princess, human, king. But no one tells that to the villain.
Because we're ambitious.
I am the bitchcritic and proud. And to everyone out there who has an ambition (and just how different is that from a dream, Ms. Disney Princess?) - go for it. As long as you have the intelligence to come up with a plan, the diligence to follow through, and the courage to risk it.
