[HPforGrownups] More gay discussion, lots, and I'll stop now

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 4133

Amanda Lewanski wrote:

> Susan McGee wrote:
>
> > Or it implies that the reader consider lesbians and gays to
> > be part of the population and is curious why they are not in the book
>
> And as I pointed out in an earlier post, they may well *be* in there. JKR
> does not write big neon signs to point out the characteristics of her
> characters, she just writes the characters. If some aspect of their
> personality, such as sexual orientation, becomes relevant to the story, it
> is included; if not, it may not be mentioned.
> <snip>
> Of course the acknowledged heterosexual characters imply sex offscreen. The
> children make it a certainty. Whatever it may imply for our cultural
> awareness, the fact of the matter is that approaching it as a writer she
> doesn't *need* to put any sort of scene or evidence for heterosexual
> characters, she can let it be assumed.
>
> The problem I've been addressing is how to identify a character as gay both
> clearly and satisfactorily without a physical relationship being identified
> or implied.

What you're getting at is interesting and subtle, Amanda.

I remember an extremely effective short story I read once, told from the
viewpoint of a child of about 10 in the 1950s American South, a very racist
period.  And she knows and is friends with a white woman in her neighborhood who
had a black man living at her house.  In the culture of the time, the little
girl "knows" that the black man is "her man," meaning her servant, her errand
guy.  That's all she sees, all she THINKS to see.  Until one day, when she
happens to be in the woman's bedroom, and she suddenly sees that the man's
slippers are under the bed, too.  And all hell breaks loose.

It is not until then that she recognizes and realizes that the man and the woman
are lovers.  She has not witnessed any physical intimacy, obviously.  But the
point doesn't get across to her until she sees something that implies the
physical intimacy--the slippers.  The possibility just doesn't occur to her; it
CAN'T in that culture; it's unthinkable.  The scene where she discovers the
slippers is quite wonderful; you see, in her viewpoint, how that simple little
detail, the slippers, unmoors her whole world--and spells the doom of the
interracial couple.

Wish I could remember the name of that story.  Anyone else ever read it?

Anyway, this is what you are talking about.  I've never really thought about it
before, but yes, you're right.  You see a same sex couple, and you think
"they're roommates," unless you see them holding hands, and then you think
"they're gay" -- but how do you make that transition unless you see them holding
hands?  And how do you get the point across, particularly, to a child? Very
interesting.  I'll have to think about this.

Peg