Dumbledore..... is gay?
POSTED BY: gorramgroupie
UPDATED: Saturday, November 17, 2007 07:39
VIEWED: 8346
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Who else saw that J.K. Rowling "outed" Dumbledore as a homosexual? Thoughts, comments, insulting phrases anyone?
Edit: Homophobia not insinuated, just curious about how people feel.
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I think its pretty damn wonderful. She recieved a standing ovation when she announced it, which is pretty damn wonderful too. The series is completed but it still took a great deal of bravery on her part, and I believe that anything that spreads a little tolerance in this world is worth the backlash that will inevitably follow.
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I don't have a problem with it, but wouldn't it have made more sense to announce this in the stories? Doing it after the fact seems kind of pointless unless she's planning on writing a continuation. And it would have been much more dramatically significant if we read about it in the course of the series.
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Who cares who or what Dumbledore likes to have sex with? It is just NOT important to the story. In fact, the idea of Dumbledore having sex is a little weird. It is kind of like thinking about your grandfather having sex. I am sure mine did but I don't want to think about it.
May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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Well, it didn't really have anything to do with the story, so that's why it probably never got mentioned. It's just one of those character traits that J.K. knows but never reveals in the story. It just so happens that fans wanted to know Dumbledore's romantic history, and him being gay is pretty directly linked to it. I personally think it's amazing... I think I always kind of knew.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Oenone:
Well, it didn't really have anything to do with the story, so that's why it probably never got mentioned.
It has everything to do with the story. Dumbledore's willingness to accept Grindelwald's ideas makes so much more sense when taken in the context of a young man blinded by love. Furthermore, Dumbledore's viewpoint has always been that love is more powerful than any magic; that'd be a fairly strange viewpoint coming from someone who's never loved.
People who claim this is a sexual thing are really weird. Why is it that Lupin loving Tonks or Snape loving Lily or Hermione loving Ron or Harry loving Ginny or Bill loving Fleur - why is it that none of THOSE things are considered "sexual", but Dumbledore loving Grindelwald is? The sexual aspect is far closer to the surface in Harry/Ginny (what about that "birthday present"?) and Lupin/Tonks (he got her pregnant, sex is kind of a requirement there).
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I think the book explains Dumbledore acceptance of Grindelwald's ideas as a response to Dumbledore's sister's horrible experience with muggles. You know that one that permanently damaged her and resulted in his father imprisonment and the death of both his parents. It basically destroyed his family and his dreams. That reason seems to make a lot of sense without there being any sexual or romantic attachment between the two young men.
Additionally, I believe that two people can influence each other and even love each other without wanting have sex with each other. I think that is called true friendship.
As far as the weird comment goes, I guess the "gay idea" seems strange to me because Dumbledore is a wise grandfatherly type of character whose sex or romantic life is not something I enjoy contemplating.
May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hoperules:
I think the book explains Dumbledore acceptance of Grindelwald's ideas as a response to Dumbledore's sister's horrible experience with muggles. You know that one that permanently damaged her and resulted in his father imprisonment and the death of both his parents. It basically destroyed his family and his dreams. That reason seems to make a lot of sense without there being any sexual or romantic attachment between the two young men.
It doesn't make any sense to me at all. I've only read the book twice so far but the only person who gave that explanation that I can remember was Rita Skeeter, and it carried about as much weight as her usual gibberish.
Dumbledore's father was imprisoned for a crime against particular people who happened to be muggles and was unrepentant about that particular crime, but he didn't go after them because they were muggles, he went after them because they hurt his daughter - and speaking as a father I can understand how he felt. I wouldn't go after someone who hurt my kids myself but I'd surely want to. And that wouldn't make me prejudiced against any particular ethnic group that those people happened to be. It'd be revenge, pure and simple, like it was for Dumbledore's dad. So Skeeter's claim that Dumbledore "inherited his father's anti-muggle prejudice" makes no sense, because his father didn't have one.
(And it's a sad commentary on the state of the law in the wizarding community that he was convicted for muggle-killing, as opposed to what the crime really was - murder. Why does it matter whether the victim is magic or muggle?)
Dumbledore's frustration with his dreams being shattered and his family torn apart certainly is explained in the book as a factor in why finding a "kindred spirit" in Grindelwald was so appealing. And why he was so eager to find a way out of the life he found himself stuck in. But it's still a stretch to say that even a young and frustrated Dumbledore would so readily go along with the idea of subjugating muggles, given that the idea of him being prejudiced against them is such rubbish.
The protagonist falling in love with someone who promised to "take them away from all this" is a common theme in romance literature.
Quote:
Originally posted by Hoperules:
Additionally, I believe that two people can influence each other and even love each other without wanting have sex with each other. I think that is called true friendship.
Yes, but it's a lot more plausible that someone hopelessly in love would talk himself into accepting ideas that run directly counter to his own moral values, and be blind to that person's faults. True friendship is more likely to be founded on a basis of starting out having similar ideas in the first place. And yes, love ought to be based on that too, but in the case of young infatuation, it all too frequently isn't.
Quote:
Originally posted by Hoperules:
As far as the weird comment goes, I guess the "gay idea" seems strange to me because Dumbledore is a wise grandfatherly type of character whose sex or romantic life is not something I enjoy contemplating.
Funny how grandfathers and grandmothers seem to come in pairs so much of the time. Do you seriously think it's icky every time you see your grandparents in each other's company? Just because they're married and together and presumably still in love doesn't force you to contemplate their sex life.
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Quote:Dumbldore is gay? Stuff like this is probably why the Harry Potter stories went downhill after the first.
Originally posted by gorramgroupie:
Who else saw that J.K. Rowling "outed" Dumbledore as a homosexual? Thoughts, comments, insulting phrases anyone?
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Well, I guess you forgot that Dumbledore explained the story to Harry after Harry "died".
It has been my observation that, unfortunately, people can often blame an entire group for the offenses of a few individuals in that group. Even basically good people sometimes do this. It is easy for me to imagine a sad angry young man like Dumbledore falling into this trap and blaming muggles for destroying his family and his life.
No, I do not find it "icky" when I see my grandparents together. However, I did not visualize them having sex either. When society makes a big deal out of a person's or character's sexual orientation, I tend to imagine that person or character actually having sex which, in Dumbledore's case, is a place I don't want to go. I'm just being honest here, no offense intended.
May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.
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