This is one of the prime examples of how dangerously heteronormative our society is, especially when it comes to media. People will bend over backwards to call out something for being "too gay" but never say anything when the same content is used for a heterosexual couple. It's very disconcerting with how anything involving LGBT is considered inappropriate, while anything straight is automatically viewed as acceptable. Granted, I don't blame some people for simply not being aware, like in your post that woman literally had a lightbulb turned on when faced with the reality of the situation. Most people just aren't clued in with how heteronormative and backwards our society is until you present it in a way they understand.
Children have gender roles and heterosexuality shoved in their faces from the moment they are born, and most people are so unaware of it because it is considered part of the norm. That is something we, as a society, need to unlearn and break away from.
Not including LGBT material in books/movies/shows because adults think it's "mature content" is a very harmful mentality to have. Even more so are the excuses for defending it, such as, "children don't need to be exposed to this kind of thing" or "children will get confused" or my favorite, "it isn't important to the plot." The amount of sad excuses made to explain why LGBT content isn't/shouldn't be featured is staggering.
(Case in point, one of the worst things of late happens to be that JKR will be putting Dumbledore back in the closet for her next franchise because she doesn't want him to be "explicitly gay"....while at the same time having several heterosexual pairings be front and center which don't really need to be there. Now tell me, for a woman who proudly exclaimed after the HP books were done that he was gay, why in a new film franchise in the same universe, that is being targeted for a more adult audience anyway, cannot feature a gay character as you do the straight characters? Especially since this is directly relevant to that part of his story? Yeah....)
It is insane really - and it's funny because when I'd said about the lack of gays in the text of Harry Potter she did the automatic 'too gay and not appropriate' recoil and surreal because countering with 'but what about the hets?' threw such a spanner in the workings....
The funny thing is, outside of that situation she always tries soooo hard not to let things be heteronormative - and we've had discussions about books and LGBT before *face palm*
I would love to get rid of all the het pairings in books that aren't important to the plot....there would be a lot more male - female friendships in books then ;)
Yeah - there are a few things that put me off JKR and the whole dumbldore's gay, but will never be shown as such in text thing :/ (ditto some of the things she choose to not stop with the films despite having ulitmate say over casting....)
Children have gender roles and heterosexuality shoved in their faces from the moment they are born, and most people are so unaware of it because it is considered part of the norm. That is something we, as a society, need to unlearn and break away from.
Not including LGBT material in books/movies/shows because adults think it's "mature content" is a very harmful mentality to have. Even more so are the excuses for defending it, such as, "children don't need to be exposed to this kind of thing" or "children will get confused" or my favorite, "it isn't important to the plot." The amount of sad excuses made to explain why LGBT content isn't/shouldn't be featured is staggering.
(Case in point, one of the worst things of late happens to be that JKR will be putting Dumbledore back in the closet for her next franchise because she doesn't want him to be "explicitly gay"....while at the same time having several heterosexual pairings be front and center which don't really need to be there. Now tell me, for a woman who proudly exclaimed after the HP books were done that he was gay, why in a new film franchise in the same universe, that is being targeted for a more adult audience anyway, cannot feature a gay character as you do the straight characters? Especially since this is directly relevant to that part of his story? Yeah....)
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The funny thing is, outside of that situation she always tries soooo hard not to let things be heteronormative - and we've had discussions about books and LGBT before *face palm*
I would love to get rid of all the het pairings in books that aren't important to the plot....there would be a lot more male - female friendships in books then ;)
Yeah - there are a few things that put me off JKR and the whole dumbldore's gay, but will never be shown as such in text thing :/ (ditto some of the things she choose to not stop with the films despite having ulitmate say over casting....)
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