The game’s character creation system approaches gender in a way that suggests it is trying to distance itself from Rowling, by ostensibly allowing players to create their own trans player characters.īut I think it is slightly more complex than this. So how does Hogwarts Legacy metabolise all of this? Hogwarts Legacy supposedly features the first transgender characterin the Wizarding World franchise, a witch named Sirona Ryan, who is the proprietor of the Three Broomsticks. This decision is made by a sentient hat who looks into each peri-pubescent child’s mind and decides their fate forever. Their house determines what colours they wear, whom they share living spaces with, and whom they have their classes with, and it inevitably becomes a huge part of their identity during their time at Hogwarts and into their adult lives. At the age of 11, new students of Hogwarts are “sorted” into a school house. No such system exists for the boys’ dormitories.Ī metaphorical kind of identity-essentialism is built into the Sorting Hat process of Hogwarts as well. The staircase magically transforms into a slide and he is ejected. The in-world equivalents for male and female are “wizard” and “witch”, respectively, but the default term for someone who uses magic is wizard – much as the word “man” refers to both the gender and the human species.Īnxieties about men in female spaces appear in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which Ron attempts to enter the girls’ dormitory.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, on which Hogwarts Legacy is based, is deeply structured around a patriarchal gender binary.

Hogwarts legacy sirona voice mod