The possibility of a gay character

[madeyemood]

No: HPFGUIDX 71015


> Ultimately, as I said in my earlier post, I don't believe that there 
> will be a gay character in any of the books. I think that the series 
> itself is far too conservative in its depictions of social 
> strictures to go this far. However, neither of you addressed this 
> point in a mature or reasoned way. What both of you did was 
> essentially to cover your eyes and go "No no no, we don't want to 
> see that!". It's this sort of passive homophobia that perpetuates 
> further states in which the subject can't be discussed reasonably 
> within an adolescent context.
> 
> Kirstini

Hello!
I'm new here and I wanted to say: hurray for this topic. Ever since I put down 
Book 5 I've been dying to discuss.

JK seems to have set out to create a multicultural, multimagical world. she 
characterizes the political implications of various sorts of magic pedigrees 
(descendants of muggle and magical parents, squibs, giant-wizards, 
centaurs, characters with sporadic ability to divine the future) and hierarchies 
(the members of the fountain in the ministry: goblin, house elf, wizard, witch) 
that this diversity inevitably gives rise to. (Incidentally, Book 5 is the first time I 
recall hearing about a Hogwarts student  with a Jewish name (Goldstein?) 
who is chosen as a prefect for one of the houses.)

In Book 5 Rowling seems to tentatively explore permutations of gender and 
sexuality in the characters of Sirius Black and Nymphadora Tonks. 

The first time I meet Nymphadora Tonks I thought: here we have a very good-
natured lesbian. Let's look at the signs.
She looks hip and androgynous with her spiky florescent locks that seems to 
be her home 'do.
She has an adolescent awkward tomboyish quality, is not to be trusted in the 
kitchen and can be found forever bumping into things. 
She is hesitant to disclose her ill-fitting femme first name, nymphadora, and 
feels much more comfy with gender-neutral or boyish sounding "Tonks".
It seems prretty incontrovertible to me that if there is a spectrum of femininity in 
Rowling's books, Fleur would be at one end, Tonks at the other.

As for Sirius, he seemed gay to me for a number of reasons:
*First, he was incredibly good-looking (and yet he doesn't seem to be aware 
of it (counter-stereotypic). and yet, if he's in an implicitly homophobic culture, 
he may have internalized the butch attitude of pretending such things don't 
matter.)
**Second, women seem irrelevant to him. The only serious (excuse me) 
relationship he seems to have been emotionally invested in was his 
friendship with James. I like to think that if he'd never been exiled to Azkaban 
he might have had the opportunity to explore this aspect of his nature. As it is, 
he never seemed to get a chance to mature beyond this high school crush on 
Harry's dad.
***Further evidence of this second point resides in his inability to restrain 
himself from expressing that Harry can't act as a substitute James. Hermione 
picks up on Sirius's understandably but inappropriate desire for Harry to stay 
with him rather than return to Hogwarts. And Sirius's advice to Harry seems in 
part to be based on a sentimental nostalgia for his bad-boy days with James 
at Hogwarts.
****Is it possible that Sirius's confinement to the house suggests the misery of 
the closeted life?
*****Sirius's status as family exile. I hear that this was proffered as evidence 
that Harry was gay in a UK paper today. on it's own i don't think it does imply 
that. But in a constellation of other qualities, it may prove suggestive.

I know that i'm describing super stereotypical qualities in all sorts of rash and 
unintentionally inappropriate ways. it's difficult to describe the process of 
employing one's gaydar without such offensive shorthand.

In a way matters less if Sirius is gay or gay-like, than an exploration of what 
such a quality may imply. That is, I think that the more important question lies 
in examining how certain qualities become identified with certain groups.

I saw "queer-eye for the straight guy", a new Bravo reality show, last night and 
these straight boys seemed so grateful for the information provided by a 
gaggle of gay boys: how to clean up your room, shave, tie a tie, shop. They 
were yearning for guidance into how to employ the language of style to signify 
their ready willingness to participate in adult activities. why does the ability to 
do such things become largely a province of a certain segment of gay culture. 
why do these qualities become attached to certain groups?

Sirius felt passionate (of a non-sexual sort) commitment to James's son. Like 
Remus, he had to live an underground life that was largely negated by the 
world around him. The whole wizarding world is dealing with the 
oppressiveness exemplified by a Dark Lord who is so consumed by the 
shadow that he can't come to terms with his own mixed (wizard, muggle) 
ancestry. The relationship he has with the Death Eaters seems sadistic and 
twisted. I think of J Edgar Hoover, a man who outed others while secretly 
dressing up in women's clothes.

Perhaps these various sub-cultures---gay, Jewish, Chinese, muggle--- 
manifest our incessant grappling with our own weird unpredictable collective 
and shadowy unconscious. that is, how we are constantly confronted by our 
need to integrate, tolerate, celebrate the Other in ourselves and as a society. 
As the Sorting Hat says, the time has come to pull together and rise above the 
divisive ways that define the dark times.