[HPforGrownups] Re: Stereotyping

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 86716




> "arealin" said:
>
> > I think there are lines even JKR won't cross in her books. After
> > all, even if we don't consider them children's books anymore, they
> > are read by children and even if she thought it ok to introduce
> > homosexuality issues to minors, I doubt her publishers would agree.
>

K

So it would be wrong to have a homosexual character in the books (although
since the sexuality of a lot of the characters hasn't been discussed I would
point out we don't know there already isn't, in fact it would be entirely
possible for there to be *more* homosexual than heterosexual characters),
but torture (the Longbottoms), gratuitous murder (Cedric), possession
(Ginny) etc etc are fine. Why is it that society tends to see violence as a
perfectly acceptable topic for children's literature but sex (and we're not
talking about Snape and Dumbledore going at it on one of the tables in the
Great Hall, but rather homosexuality or a homosexual relationship being
portrayed in a non-overt way similar to Percy/Penelope or Molly/Arthur) is
some how 'wrong' or a bad influence?

Frankly unless JKR decided to put something like graphic violence of the
type you'd get in an 18 film or rampant sex scenes in her book I don't think
the publishers would *dare* try and censor her - and if they did I imagine
the queue of other publishers trying to get her to sign up with them instead
would stretch from her home all the way down to London.

While there aren't any characters who have been actively stated to be
homosexual it is certainly possible to read the books and see the evidence
for at least one homosexual couple (and I'm sure that there are a lot of
people who could see more) as I've mentioned before (on the thread about
Sirius and Remus - which I gave up on because of the attitude that it was
wrong to even consider the idea in a children's book, not because I agreed
with that attitude btw but because I just couldn't be bother ed anymore, I'm
not going to change the prejudices of people who really believe that the
subject has a corrupting influence and frankly I shouldn't be wasting my
breath here either). Personally I still think the flashback in the pensieve
adds even more evidence to the gay!Sirius idea - I think he has a crush on
James, no wonder he's got so many problems by OotP!

K