Sexuality in HP

[dicentra63]

No: HPFGUIDX 40129

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ssk7882" <skelkins at a...> wrote:
> But then, the entire graveyard sequence is really just one great 
> massive sado-masochistic orgyfest, don't you think?  I mean, the 
> sexualization of the language throughout those chapters really is 
> unrelenting.

<snip examples>  

There's no doubt in my mind that Voldemort is getting off on something
here.  I just don't think the erotic imagery is necessarily pointing
to homoeroticism, per se.  I think Voldemort, as a predator, is
getting off on killing (ever hear the noises a cat makes when a bird
flies nearby?).  He's probably too dehumanized to care about the sex
of his victim. However, Harry is his Ultimate Foe, and getting rid of
him means acheiving the power he's been looking for all his life.
(This also applies to Riddle's reaction to Harry.)  And since power is
the ultimate aphrodisiac, it's no wonder he gets all hot and bothered.

As for whether his excitement is genuinely sexual or only
metaphorically so, I'd prefer not to guess.  Because if it's the
former, it buries the needle on the EWWWW scale, as far as I'm concerned.

On the other hand, the problem with sexualized language is that it's
not specialized language. I mean that many of the euphemisms we have
for sexual things are extremely ordinary words.  I've been around
people who, to amuse themselves, interpret everything I say as sexual
innuendo.  They laugh at how I try to avoid saying something they can
twist, but I end up being unsuccessful. It's actually very difficult
to use ordinary language without invoking a word or phrase that can be
made sexual-sounding.  Even in writing this paragraph, I've had to
choose my words carefully because of the context.    

As for JKR's use of language, the ecstasy she describes might be
sexual or it might not.  Mystics frequently describe their encounters
with the divine using quasi-sexual imagery, but only because they're
trying to describe intimacy and union.  They're not getting off on God
or whatever.  Similarly, Voldemort's return to a physical body is
bound to be a sensual experience for him because as a noxious fume he
couldn't touch things.  It doesn't surprise me that he strokes his
wand gently: he's finally got his old power back, his trusty wand, his
means to murder, which seems to be his ultimate pleasure.

Freudians would say that wand = phallus = potency.  But it's true in
GoF only if JKR buys into Freud.

Because maybe a cigar, in this case, is just a cigar.

--Dicentra, who'd better quit now