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[errantimpulses]

So in case you haven't read this, it contains spoilers for the last Harry Potter book. And here are my thoughts, not on the content, which I'm all, "Dur!" but on some of the comments!

Comments are spoilers for the article, of course!

Comments

[vejiicakes]

I got all excited reading the comments until they took that sadly inevitable nosedive. I mean, there was the overtly negative "OMG NO TEH GHEYS ARE GROSS!" comments, which I somehow find I can't get all that worked up over these days. Maybe just because I already know they're a lost cause, maybe because they're clearly too set in their beliefs, I couldn't say.

It was the comments from seemingly well-meaning people that incensed. Or, you know, not well-meaning people, but people who didn't seem to mean that GAYS ARE ICKY, but were clearly ignorant in other ways. Comments like, "Well, I'm glad he never came on to Harry!" or the confusing (paraphrased), "So he had to keep it a secret from Harry and treats theirs as just a father-son relationship," (which, I.. what?) I was glad to see just as many people chiming in with, "Well, I'm glad Snape didn't come on to Hermione!" or similarly snarky comments. I started in over there myself, but I suspect I'll tire of it soon.

I know that I wouldn't have assumed Dumbledore was intended to be written as gay, simply because of the rather stuffy, heteronormative outlook it had (then) appeared Rowling was taking toward interpretations of her characters. And I'm glad to be proven wrong on that front. Still, for heaven's sake, it's telling that no one saw the girly posters on Sirius' wall and wailed, "OMG I DIDN'T NEED TO KNOW HE WAS STRAIGHT!" Well, except the slashers. Heck, one could argue that we "needed" to know Harry's and Draco's sexualities just because of who they ended up with (which is pretty circular logic but anyway)--but Sirius doesn't even have that justification for having his orientation vocalized, or strongly implied. I say we should be harping on that!

[errantimpulses]

Exactly! Like, I'm ignoring the outright gay bashing because those people are obviously idiots. And yeah, since dumbledore is gay, he must want to hit on an underage harry....yep JUST as much as Snape wants to hit on an underage hermione. (I won't go off into my rant as to why lj removed Snape/Harry porn but not Snape/Hermione porn, but it's kiiiiind of the same vein.)

I wouldn't have assumed Dumbledore was written to be gay (I mean, I was all, "he has the hots for that dude!"....but I read a lot of slash, so while I see it, I know it might not be intentional, lol), either, because like I said, right now, the default is probably you assume people are heterosexual, since the majority of people tend to lean that way, and it would probably be a safer bet. However, to be fully, "I didn't need to know!" when it turns out a character is gay, you're basically saying, "I don't want him to be gay," not that you don't want to know their sexuality, because chances are, you think you DO know his orientation, and you're assuming he's straight!

Yeah, I think what I was getting at was that Harry and Draco's orientation was never central to the plot (unlike how Snape's was, it was his love for a woman that brought about Voldemort's downfall), but I tend to be more about the plot than the side romances. Yeah, they ended up with certain people, but we don't need to know they ended up with those people in order for the plot to turn out the way it did. But I think your example of Sirus being exposed casually as heterosexual is much better! :-)