SHIP: Sexuality in HP (WAS So, why did Snape turn on Voldermort?)

[jenny_ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 40119

I thought about this post all day today and decided I had to respond 
to it.

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Rochelle <goddess at y...> wrote: 
> 1)From the "easily ignored" category, we have the thing that Harry 
would "sorely miss" [p.463] which, of course, turned out to be Ron 
[p.498] Granted, this is innocent enough; Harry IS ron's closest 
friend.  But especially when given the fact that two of the other 
three competitors had to rescue their girlfriends/dance dates (Krum 
had to save Hermione; Cedric had to save Cho), the homoerotic subtext 
here isn't that hard to find.

and:
 
> 3)Tom Riddle's "hungry eyes" in CoS [p.309, 311].  Okay, so maybe 
looking at someone "hungrily" means something completely different i 
England than it usually does in the States (though I doubt it).  An 
yes, if you try, you can just brush it off.  But nonetheless, we've 
got some pretty blatant homoerotic subtext going on.
 
> Personally, I think J.K.R. is a closet slasher. ;) But that's just 
my opinion.>

As interesting an interpretation of the text as this is, I disagree.  
Why can't Harry and Ron's friendship be just that?  When I found 
sexual content in HP, homoerotic didn't really make the list (although  
plenty of others find it throughout the series).  I wasn't too crazy 
about the way Rowling put together the second task because it was a 
little too convenient that Ron, Hermione *and* Cho were all down in 
the lake, but still.  Harry and Ron hadn't long before made up from a 
fairly ugly bout of not talking, so it is understandable that he would 
miss the friendship of Ron.  Considering Harry's hefty crush on Cho, I 
can't say that his friendship with Ron is anything more than that: a 
friendship.

As for Tom's "hungry" eyes, it never once occurred to me to see that 
description in a sexual way.  People can be hungry for many reasons: 
physically, emotionally, intellectually...  There's the expression 
"money hungry" which also has nothing to do with sexuality.

Sexuality is definitely there in HP (Moaning Myrtle spying on the 
prefects is an excellent example).  In PoA the security trolls 
"comparing the size of their clubs" is about as blatant as JKR gets 
and I get the feeling that Dumbledore's joke that was interrupted by 
McGonagall in GoF was probably going to be a good and dirty one.  
Mostly, though, I see sexuality as developing along with the 
characters.  Even Hagrid, who is more of a child than the children in 
the series themselves, develops a rather obvious attraction to Madame 
Maxime and the tension between Ron and Hermione is something that *I* 
can personally feel just by reading (Penny vehemently disagrees with 
me on that one, though).  

Perhaps we would *like* JKR to take a risk and write a gay character.  
It would be exciting, daring and controversial.  However, I can't 
imagine that happening, so for now, I'll have to say that any 
homoerotic subtext is in the imagination.  Then again, I'd say H/H is 
too, but once again, that's just me.

--jenny from ravenclaw *****