busyPro: He survived to a ripe old age. He was tremendously powerful and had mastered his craft. He was tremendously respected and at the peak of his career, in charge of a prestigious school. He had friends and colleagues, and generally seemed to be enjoying his life. Anyone attempting to gay-bash him would probably have wound up as a frog. A chocolate frog. This is encouraging as an example of how high gay people could aim: the top.
Con: Nowhere in the 7 books did Rowling mention that Dumbledore was gay. He had no visible partner or romantic interest of any kind. All we have is the author's after-the-fact report. This is disappointing; it contributes to the tendency to present gay characters in a desexualized light.
I can see both sides of the debate. I tend to favor the "good role model" side, though, because I think Dumbledore is a pretty awesome character. What do you think?
In the world before John Paul II changed the rules
November 1 2007, 06:59:13 UTC 13 years ago
What would have been good about a Dumbledore who was acceptable in Catholic terms is that it would have meant that another Christian sect would not be lambasting the Potter books.
Sigh. And I thought the church was narrow in the 1970s.
November 1 2007, 13:43:55 UTC 13 years ago
We know very little about the love lives of *most* of the adults in the book. Were their bedroom habits important to the story? No, not really. And so...I'm not sure we needed to know. Not that knowing was a bad thing. It just wasn't necessarily a major point of the story.
November 1 2007, 16:57:57 UTC 13 years ago
This led to an amusing subthread on the Gaylaxian list about whether and how to reveal that one's characters have an alternative sexuality. I tend to be aware that roughly 10% of my characters are going to be homosexual, for example, and if I shook out a roomful of them I could probably figure out which ones. But I usually don't bother unless it's relevant to the plot. In some of my settings, that percentage will be a lot higher; in some, it may be a bit lower. I've encountered aliens with homofracts ranging from 0% to 100%, and that often *is* worth mentioning.
We also talked about how the divisiveness of homosexuality as an issue is fairly recent, not spanning all times and cultures. So then you have to ask, as an author of F&SF, what the cultural context will be in other times/worlds. Mine vary from places where it's unremarkable, to celebrated, to disapproved, to fatal. If it's relevant to the story I'm telling, I have to weave that in so the reader will understand the context when a character's orientation comes clear.
November 1 2007, 21:32:10 UTC 13 years ago
Tempest in a teapot, with a wedge of lime, please.
November 2 2007, 04:39:05 UTC 13 years ago
November 2 2007, 05:08:21 UTC 13 years ago
November 2 2007, 06:27:18 UTC 13 years ago
November 2 2007, 06:31:36 UTC 13 years ago
But I don't think any of the staff is married. Or if they are, you never hear of it. Which is par for the course with most kids' knowledge of their teachers' private lives, that is, nothing. (I remember being vaguely shocked at age 11 or so to hear a teacher refer to her children, and realize she meant her own kids, not us there in her classroom.)
November 2 2007, 11:43:44 UTC 13 years ago
Maybe in the next reprinting, she'll stick in some clues in the portraits, or in Snape's memories. "I loved Lily as much as you loved Oswald [or whatever his first name was]!" Let the fan fic writers argue about whether the later edition is really canon.