|
|
|
|
 Add Me to Connections
 Send Me a Message
| So what is the big deal whether or not a character in a Harry Potter book is gay? I think that the people making such a big deal about it is worse for kids than the fact that the Dumbledore character is gay. I can't say much since I have not really read or watched Harry Potter but I just don't see what the big deal is about a gay character in Harry Potter.
Does anyone else have an opinion about this? You can read the article - Dumbledore brave, brilliant - why not gay? | | | October 23, 2007, 8:37 pm | | |
Add Me to Connections
Send Me a Message
| This makes me think of that scene in "Guess Whose Coming to Dinner" where Sidney Poiter's character says to his father, "You think of yourself as a black man, but I think of myself as a man. We won't be free until the entire dead weight of your generation is off our backs." To those of us members of GenX and GenY, someone's being gay is like their being a different race, ethnicity, religion, or political affiliation: It is part of who they are, but not the one and only overwhelming definition of who they are or what they are about. JK Rowling is simply thinking along these lines, as to her, her character's being gay is as much of an imporatance in character development as Harry Potter's being straight. It's a simple fact, and far more interesting to readers and movie goers will undoubtedly by the fact that Doumbledor had a relationship with a wizard who went evil and had to overcome his personal attraction to that wizard to defeat his evil agenda. That is a story that anyone who has ever cared for a friend or lover who "went bad" can relate to. It's a timeless story of inner strength that echos stories from across history as well as in our own personal lives. I once had an english teacher who said, "literature serves you by making you discover who you would be if presented with life situations that otherwise wouldn't challenge you in your part of the world." She was right. Seen with that perspective, I worry about the people who get "stuck" on the gay aspect of Doumbledor's character, as these are probably the same kind of people who get stuck on the gay man working as a doctor in an emergency wing of a hospital or as a teacher for a low paying public school job, or as a hard working member of the military offering her life to defend our nation. If we allow ourselves to get too bogged down with parts of each other, then we will never benefit from discovering each other's common humanity. Literature is one doorway to explore that common humantiy. But its our individual responsibilities to remain open enough to benefit from it or from the very real people who cross our lives that its characters approximate and make us recognize. | | | September 6, 2008, 6:12 pm | | |
|
