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.Anxieties 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. The inclusion of a trans character and other gender-inclusive elements by the developers, such as character creation mechanics, show that tensions around gender expression also manifest in Hogwarts Legacy. Rowling has written about her “deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement”. Many reviews are prefaced by denouncements of Rowling and her views on gender, while some Harry Potter fans argue that the work should be separated from its originator. The game has been subject to controversy regarding the anti-trans remarks made by the Wizarding World franchise’s creator, Harry Potter series author JK Rowling. Much of the discourse has centred on tensions and expression around gender. Some have praised the sweeping expanses of Hogwarts castle and its surrounds, and others have criticised its stagnant loot-collection mechanics. The controversial and keenly anticipated open-world role-playing game Hogwarts Legacy was released a week ago, and reviews have been mixed. It originally appeared in The Conversation on February 15. This is an article by Dr Prema Arasu, from the School of Biological Sciences at The University of Western Australia, who completed a PhD exploring how gender is addressed in the world-building of fantasy novels.

Games where character transforms gender