Exploring prejudice WAS Re: Harry's sexual preference

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 78680

Jenny from Ravenclaw wrote:
>>JKR's hands are full with her exploration of 
prejudice, slavery, choices, hate, family...
>>

Uh huh. And JKR has made a deliberate choice to explore prejudice by 
*avoiding* any real world areas of prejudice as far as she possibly 
can.

Gay characters are likely IMO to be dealt with in the same way as 
black characters sometimes are. Their colour is mentioned, but is 
then treated as completely unimportant in the Wizarding World. 
Sometimes their colour is mentioned long after their introduction 
(as for Dean Thomas in the UK editions- it's only the US editions 
where his colour is mentioned immediately). Skin colour is like 
Weasley red hair – it's how you describe someone and has no other 
significance.

So I wouldn't be surprised if a character's sexuality was mentioned 
casually. For example, Ron might mention that he wants to ask out a 
Ravenclaw, Ginny says `She won't go out with you, she only likes 
girls', and Ron replies `Drat. Well maybe if I asked 
'

Again, JKR is, IMO, avoiding real world prejudices in her WW. 
Sexuality is only significant when you want to go out with/settle 
down with someone. Otherwise, it has so little significance that no 
one bothers to mention it.

JKR is exploring prejudice, but has made a choice only available in 
a fantasy world. She has chosen to create fictional prejudices. She 
and her readers are therefore able to explore prejudice without real 
world opinions getting in the way.

The WW has no prejudice about religion, sexuality, skin colour. 
Unlike the muggle world, these things are so unimportant that they 
are barely referred to.

But the WW *is* a hotbed of prejudice. The prejudice, where old pure 
blood families are superior to `muggle borns' and mixed bloods has 
enough of a correspondence in our world that we recognise it. It's 
not completely unfamiliar. It has echoes.  

But it's very, very unlikely that we would sympathise with it. 
Unlike if, say, JKR had chosen to examine prejudice against gay 
people. In that case she might struggle with some of her readers, 
brought up to be prejudiced against gay people. 

Instead, the reader is likely to sympathise with the victims of 
prejudice. Readers are from the muggle world. If Hogwarts suddenly, 
incredibly, turned out to be real, and the invite landed on an 
eleven year old reader's doorstep – it would be them who would be 
the target of WW prejudice. 

And the reader knows this. JKR has cunningly cast the reader as the 
target. The WW prejudices are not against some nice safe `other'. 

They're against *you*.

Pip!Squeak