There are few things more universally loved than the "Harry Potter" series. Maybe kittens, but only slightly. And yes, "Harry Potter" is excellent. It’s fun and magical and surprisingly deep for a children’s series. But it seems to me that there are a few major problems that no one ever talks about.

1. No Muggle Tech Allowed

I’ll admit, it’s been a long while since I’ve either seen the "Harry Potter" films or read the books. But one thing that has stuck with me is the way muggle technology is treated by magical folk. Sometimes, muggles are mocked for their attempts to make do without magic, though every now and then, a character pops up who has some amount of respect for muggle tech. Whether they’re mocking or appreciating doesn’t seem to matter, though, because the entire wizarding world has, for no discernable reason, decided to cut itself off from all muggle technological advancements.

In the rare case, that muggle tech is used in their world, it’s twisted into something a little more magical. Yeah, it’s cool to see a flying car. You know what else is cool? Just driving the damn car which, considering how it went for Ron and Harry, might have been just as useful.

My question is: why? Why does the wizarding world insist on staying behind the times? Why do they feel the need to keep muggle tech out of their world entirely? Why the hell are they still dipping quills in ink and knitting their own sweaters and sorting through dusty old books every time they need information? Is it prejudice against muggles? Is it respect for tradition? Is it just for the aesthetic of sitting in dusty libraries draped in robes? Why?

2. Dumbledore

There are people out there who still believe Albus “I have a ridiculously long name for no goddamn reason” Dumbledore is actually a good guy. Those people are either idiots or very, very disturbed individuals. Yeah, okay, Dumbledore occasionally steps in at the last minute to allow Gryffindor to snatch up the house cup, but this is actually one in a long list of shitty moves the Hogwarts headmaster has made throughout the series. Shall we recount the crimes of Dumbledore?

The man has been shown to not only play favorites with his students but also to withhold important information from a kid who is literally being pursued by evil wizard murderers in every goddamn book. In addition, we as readers are constantly reminded that Dumbledore is supposed to be this very wise figure, and yet he frequently makes foolish decisions that only land Harry and his friends in worse danger, usually just because Dumbledore didn’t bother to mention extremely important things to any of them.

But before all of that, before the truth omitting and the manipulation of a child who looked up to him with blind faith, let’s not forget Dumbledore’s first sin of the series. Faced with the problem of having an orphaned baby Harry on his hands, Dumbledore abandoned him to the Dursleys, a family that abused and neglected him for years, a family that was known to not be particularly friendly toward magical folk. Dumbledore abandoned Harry to be abused for the whole of his childhood and frequently sent him back there to spend every summer between school years.

Dumbledore is the most disturbing character in the entire series, first leaving a defenseless child in an abusive home, and then going on to lie to and manipulate that same child through most of his Hogwarts years. And yet people still call him a hero. Hell, even Harry idolized him so much he named one of his kids after him.

3. The House System

Whatever my issues with the " Harry Potter" books, I mostly adore the world that was created within it. I’m always up for a movie marathon, I’ve tried recreating the food in my own kitchen, and yes, I rock some sick Slytherin merch proudly.

But even if I think it’s a fun idea to be sorted into one house or another (humans do love to categorize things), that doesn’t mean I’m not very aware of how damaging and disturbing the system is as it works at Hogwarts.

Say you’re a small eleven-year-old muggle-born wizard who only discovered magic was real recently. You’re full of wonder and awe as you step up to the Sorting Hat, certain that your life is going to be magical and wonderful forever. And then you get sorted. And suddenly you're branded for life as a specific kind of person.

You're brave or smart or ambitious or loyal. You wear certain colors. You hang out exclusively with certain people. And not just in school for the purposes of friendly competition. Even adults in the universe are often described by their Hogwarts houses, and often despised or trusted based solely on this information.

And, according to Rowling, this is a common practice in the American school as well, and possibly in other areas of the wizarding world. So you’ve got an entire population of people who judge each other based on what some stupid magic hat said about them when they were eleven years old. You have kids who grow up thinking they have to behave in accordance with a certain set of character traits. The house system is like gender expectations with a couple more options, where it isn’t even your body people judge you on, but again, what a stupid magic hat said about you when you were eleven years old.

Note: To Dumbledore’s credit, he is the only person ever seen to come close to criticizing this system. Still a bad guy.

4. JK Rowling’s Retroactive Representation

Diversity is all around us in children’s and young adult literature these days. So maybe expecting characters who aren’t all white and straight is a little much to expect from a series that started in the 90s. Then again, non-white, non-straight people have existed for literally ever, so where are they in the books?

Well, if you ask Rowling herself, it was always there. She asserts that Dumbledore was gay, that there were at least one or two Jewish characters, and has implied that a main character, Hermione, was written as black. Of course, she didn’t actually explicitly say any of this in her books, which begs the question of why not? Why not say it outright? Why say it, after all seven books (and eight films) have become such mainstays of popular culture?

I’ve heard a few theories on this, from “the 90s were a different time” to “she feels guilty for not writing it explicitly” to “it shouldn’t have had to be said.” But the truth is that JK Rowling did not explicitly write diversity into her books, and it was only recently that she started retroactively adding it in through tweets and Pottermore stories.

I think it’s important to remember that Rowling was secure in her success before she ever mentioned any of this and that until that point, she was content to let her work be white, straight, and utterly lacking in diversity. I’m not going to fault her for playing it safe and not writing those things into her books. But we should not be sitting here and accepting her crumbs of retroactive representation as if they’re anything more than an attempt to stay relevant now that readers are demanding more from authors.