It took me a while to recognize why Rowling’s outing of Dumbledore bothered me.
It’s not because a mega-billionaire author turned around and categorized a major character in a children’s series as gay. I think that’s hilarious. I’ve never seen an author explicitly validate an entire sub-genre of slash fiction devoted to her work. Can you imagine Gene Roddenberry standing up and saying “Yeah, you know, you guys were pretty much right about Kirk and Spock. There was a reason they always got themselves mind controlled so they could wrestle each other with their shirts off.”
No, my problem is the justification that Rowling gives. She talks about Dumbledore’s youthful friendship with the dark wizard Grindelward, and remarks “He met someone as brilliant as he was and, rather like Bellatrix, he was very drawn to this brilliant person and horribly, terribly let down by him.”
I take issue with this reading because it continues a tradition of pointing at close, affectionate male relationships and basically saying “Yeah, that’s just suppressed gayness.” It has the effect of bringing back a different kind of homophobia by saying that anything involving deep emotional bonding between men can’t be affection for its own sake but rather subconscious sexuality.
I, myself, have suffered from this sort of viewpoint. My friends can tell you that I’m the single worst hugger on the planet. I don’t really hug people; I kind of hang off them like a jacket that’s three sizes two small. It’s even worse when I hug my male friends. Sure, I can take responsibility for my own hugging inadequacies, but when you have a society that says “close male friendships = gay,” it doesn’t really help one to improve one’s hugging prowess. I need society’s support in my attempts to hold my male friends close without suddenly being the love that dare not speak its name.
There are many famous male friends who shared close, intimate emotional relationships without being gay. Lewis and Clark. Mason and Dixon. Penn and Teller. Shatner and Spader.
When I was sixteen, my friend and I got drunk behind a supermarket. (We were subsequently arrested by a pair of Mormon cops, but that’s another story.) We had been a bit estranged prior to that evening, but the alcohol helped remove our emotional inhibitions and we admitted that we cared about each other and that we were, in fact, friends. And yes, we hugged. Shouldn’t men in our society be able to do this without the influencing factors of alcohol or, worse, Mormonism?
Don’t get me wrong: Rowling is the writer and I completely accept her interpretation of her own character. I’m even entertained by it. I’m simply saying that her justification for the interpretation raises its own problems because it allows very little space for non-sexual male bonding. To my mind, homosexuality isn’t simply a byproduct of male intimacy but something that specifically denotes sexual attraction. Well, that and also an extremely intuitive ability to accessorize.
It isn’t as if she invalidated ALL the close male relationships that were not romantic in nature in the entire series of books. Harry and Ron...Harry and Hagrid...Sirius and James and Lupin...Crabbe and Goyle
. And obviously Dumbledore had lots of good relationships with men that were not romantic in nature at all. That is part of the point, isn’t it, gay men aren’t out stalking all the straight men in the world trying to “TURN” them.
Damon and Affleck!
The article in TIME summed it up pretty well for me:
“Rowling couldn’t spare two of those words—"I’m gay"—to help define a central character’s emotional identity? We can only conclude that Dumbledore saw his homosexuality as shameful and inappropriate to mention among his colleagues and students. His silence suggests a lack of personal integrity that is completely out of character.”
I think Rowling didn’t think about sex for any of the characters over 50 years old, and I think she added this in afterwards, for SCANDAL. But even if she had planned it, making him a closeted gay was just icky.
i am a worse hugger than you
when I see someone moving in for the hug, my heart rate goes up from fear
I think it is an outrage, and Dumbledore (or his estate) should sue.
Atmikha
hugging prowess, i will have to remember that one.
I want to believe that she just knew that he was gay, but didn’t really know why she knew it… he’s her character, and she just knew. So the reasoning given was off the cuff.
I don’t know. I do rather see your point. Here, have a hug. I’m good at them.
I agree, she flubbed the pass on that one. But, Lewis & Clark = so leather gay.
Interesting stuff, Greg. With your lack of hugginess, I always thought of you as having fewer issues than most people. Now I’m not so sure. Thanks for sharing… .
I don’t think I LACK hugginess; I like hugging. I’m just not good at it. I have the same relationship with poker.
Here here about the article, AND about poker. Tho I admit to being a hell of a hugger. But no go on the poker front, tho I love it so.
AGH! I just read the “Dammon & Affleck” comment and lost my train of thought!!
Darn it. I don’t read Harry Potter, so I really can’t comment on this fully.
And just think that the Ap. Paul told us to greet each other (men)with a holy kiss. Our maleness has been perverted.
I mean no offense to the many who have been discussing this issue since J.K. spilled the, er, beans, but I find it kind of goofy that so many seem so perturbed, even outraged, about Dumbledore’s outing.
Let’s see: there’s global warming (and the continuing resistance to that idea), there’s the terminal rot of the political system in the U.S. (not to mention the ongoing damage being done by the lying halfwits in the White House), there’s the horror in Darfur, etc., etc. And there’s an author talking about a benevolent character she invented, who turns out to be gay. Which of those warrants upset? Hmmmmmm......
By the way—Crabbe and Goyle? Totally on the downlow.
Yeah, I agree with the Crabbe and Goyle assessment. What about Fred and George? Twins - kinda kinky.
I squawked out loud at your Roddenberry outing of Kirk and Spock. Hah! Too bad Jim Henson isn’t still around to out Bert and Ernie.
What? Bert and Ernie? I thought they were brothers!
I guess they really didn’t look that much alike, now that I think of it.
(sigh)