On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:54:44 -0000, RC Freya <ynanakidul@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>I was going to put this with the HP thread, but since I'm relating it
>to the show, I thought I'd make a seperate topic.
>
>So JK Rowling has outed Professor Dumbledore as being gay - article
>link is below.
>http://entertainment.tv.yahoo.com/entnews/ap/20071020/119288766000.html
>
>At first, I thought this was a joke, and second, why it's supposed to
>matter now I don't know. The final book has been out for months, and
>anyone who's wanted to speculate about that or a myriad of other HP
>topics already has. In the article, Rowling points out that the signs
>showing Dumbledore is gay include never having any significant
>relationships with women, and having a troubled past. Grindlewald was
>his one true love.
>
>I would like to point out to Rowling and to the author of this article
>that absolutely *none* of the older charcters in the book ever had any
>dating/marriage relationships to speak of. The entire faculty at
>Hogwarts are unmarried, and none of James' friends ever dated. (A
>fact I am choosing to rectify in my own fan fic about Sirius Black,
>thank you. But he has been recast as Clive Owen because Gary Oldman
>didn't fit my picture of Sirius. I always thought he was supposed to
>be much more attractive than that.)
>
>It's extremely unrealistic for none of James' friends to have ever
>dated anyone. Peter's a weasel, so he might not have been that
>attractive. Remus I can see not dating, since he likes to brood about
>being a werewolf, even after he marries Tonks. But Sirius would have
>been quite a good catch and would have gotten plenty of dates. Does
>that mean that all the characters in the book are gay unless they're
>married? The article also pointed out that "explicit scenes" about
>Dumbledore (yuck!) have already appeared in fan fic on the Internet.
>Again, explicit scenes have appeared about *every* character combo you
>can think of (Remus/Sirius, Draco/Harry, Ginny/Draco, etc.) and
>bunches of ones I don't even want to think about.
>
>Now to get this back on topic, I'm addressing that whole "troubled
>past" thing. So Dumbledore had some tragedies in his life. So do
>lots of people. How does this contribute to him being / "becoming"
>gay?
>
>The same "troubled past" argument was used to explain Bayliss' gay/bi-
>curious stage. I never found that convincing, nor did I find HLOTS'
>exploration of the issue very interesting. The whole story arc just
>came out of nowhere. If there had been signs or indications in the
>earlier eps (the one where they investigate the death of the phone sex
>worker, or the one where the man was killed because he was thought to
>be gay) it would have made much more sense, and would have added more
>depth to the character.
>
>Being sexually abused (as in Bayliss' case) doesn't "make" you gay!
>Writers seem to like that as a shorthand excuse for a character being
>gay. This really makes no sense. I think it's just that a writer is
>being lazy and is trivializing homosexuality and sexual abuse as
>well. (Do the writers sit at meetings and say, "We need ratings, so
>let's make this character gay. We'll just say he/she was abused as a
>kid. That works."?)
>
>I honestly don't care if Dumbledore or the rest of the HP characters
>are gay, or if Bayliss and Frank had a raging affair. (I'm sure
>there's fan fic somewhere like that, but I don't write HLOTS fan
>fic.) It doesn't change them as people, nor does it change how I feel
>about them. But if you're going to do that, then you have to make it
>realistic and not try to use some lame plot device or lazy writing for
>your reasoning.
>
>Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Very cogent and dead on. Quite honestly, I think Rowling simply threw
this out to be provocative. There's absolutely no credible evidence
to suggest Dumbledore was gay. If she had that in mind when she was
developing the character, she failed miserably in the final product.
However, I'm sure many fanboys and girls out there will come up with
some interesting theories.
Hold on a second . . . he did keep the sorting hat in his office and
it is a male mouth . . . by Jove!
Todd
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