Monday, November 05, 2007

I got nothin

I'm processing a lot of thoughts but am nowhere near a coherent post on any of them. So um...bullets?

I've read some posts recently about the whole Dumbledore is gay thing. Some positive, some negative. My question is -- does it really make a difference? I personally wouldn't care if the man preferred merpeople. But does it matter? And further, should it matter? There's been a lot of talk about how it would help the gay community blah blah blah... I personally don't think that teachers should be discussing their sexual orientation with students (note that I teach elementary school, which, you know...it is extremely appropriate to NOT discuss those things). And since my third- through fifth-grade students were reading these books -- I don't think that was the place for a discussion of sexual orientation. And, quite honestly, I think it goes over their heads anyway -- the only reason we knew the orientation of any of the wizarding world was due to the mention of marriages or the gender of a student's parents.

On the Harry Potter vein...now knowing that Dumbledore was gay (something that I actually thought was kind of obvious in my reading of the final book without it ever being said): Will that make a difference in how the character is played in the remaining movies since there are several more yet to film? Should Dumbledore be portrayed differently than he has been? And if he is portrayed differently, doesn't that actually say more about the general homophobic views of our society than to NOT change his portrayal? Does he have to act differently than he has in previous movies to be gay?

Wow...um...ok...so maybe I had more than I thought and maybe I should go back and get rid of the whole bullets thing, but, frankly, if I do that, it's unlikely that I'm going to finish and click publish. So...there it is.

[ posted @ 7:48 PM ] [ Post a Comment ] [ View Comments (1) ]
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Comments about my post, "I got nothin":

Yes and no. It COULD have made a difference if it had been clearer in the book (if she'd spelled out that he loved Grindelwald instead of merely implying it) because it would have been a (mostly) positive role model for kids. It could have helped straight kids realize that gay people are everywhere, and it could have let gay or questioning kids see themselves in literature. Now, Dumbledore doesn't make a fantastic role model (his one love affair we know of was with a very flawed individual, and from that point onward he had no apparent romantic interests) but there are virtually no gay characters in children's fiction. Imagine not seeing yourself ANYWHERE in books. It's not fun.

However, since she only let it out in retrospect, it's far less powerful.

[ Permalink ] posted by Jen : 9:13 PM