This is not a wand. It is the image of a wand. It is also a symbol of power. Sometimes it is a symbo

This is not a wand.

It is the image of a wand.

It is also a symbol of power.

Sometimes it is a symbol of oppression.

But it could also be a symbol of hope.

The image itself has no meaning. Every bit of meaning you see in this picture depends on how you were raised to see it.

For a pureblood, the wand is who they are. Take away the wand and they are nothing.

For a half-blood, magic is power, the wand saves them from the complexities of liminality. Without their wands they can never truly have a place in this society they are born into, always wandering the strange border between mugglesociety and magical society - never quite fitting in.

For a muggleborn, the wand is the Other. The exotic stuff of fairytales, made real.

For muggles, this is pure myth. But even myths may have their purpose, when used to reinforce moral-political stances. Magical witches and crones are evil, good Christians rely on love or strength of arm to defeat these magical folk.

And for sentient magical creatures? The wand is nothing more than an arbitrary signifier of differences. A tool of oppression, denied to them and used to suppress and harness them.

This is not a wand. This is the image of a wand. How you understand it depends on where you were born and to whom you were born.

(R.I.P. Stuart Hall (3 February 1932 – 10 February 2014), cultural studies theorist and sociologist, without whom this blog may have never happened.)