Harry's Sexual Preference

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 79469


On Sun, 31 Aug 2003, jdr0918 wrote:
> > Maybe the 'closet' metaphor for Harry is deliberate.

Jen Faulkner <jfaulkne at s...> wrote:
> Without getting into the question of authorial intent (that is, 
> whether JKR deliberately intended to do anything in her writing), 
> I think one can safely say that the closet metaphors in the book 
> are not coincidental.  Even without JKR's meaning to (or perhaps 
> she did; it's quite irrelevant), the books definitely tap into 
> our cultural fascination with the closet; that is the structuring 
> metaphor for any type of secret.  Knowledge is fetishized to the 
> extent that it is regarded as a state of being, so that one either 
> is knowledgeable (possesses a certain knowledge) or is not.  One 
> is 'in the dark' or not. The closet is a place of unknowns.


Now me (Sarah):
Hm, I think this metaphor of Harry being in a closet and his 
relatives hiding his true nature from himself and the neighbors is 
very close to cultural acceptance of a person who is of mixed 
ethnic heritage.  Harry is a "half-breed"; his mother muggle-born, 
his father a "pure-blood".  Harry's mixed.  Very metaphorical for a 
family trying to deny any type of blood connection to a mutt.  
Either deny the person exists or try and have the person "pass" for 
something they're not.  (Someone who is light enought to "pass" for 
being white, for example.)  

Plus, mixed marriages and the like, while generally accepted now 
(although mixed couples still get stared at a lot), were not the 
cultural norm in the 1980 when Harry was born.  That's what I've 
always thought, but that's probably because I'm a mutt myself, and 
each side of my family doesn't acknowledge the fact that I'm mixed.  (Especially since I can "pass" for either one.)  

I never actually thought of Harry's cupboard life as a metaphor for 
his sexuality; I always saw it as trying to deny Harry's cultural 
origins.  Here, trying to pretend that Harry really is a muggle.  The 
Dursleys still try and pretend that Harry is a muggle, because they hate 
the magical half of Harry so much (reminiscent of one side of the family pretending that one family member isn't really mixed).  They even tell 
the neighbors that he goes to a school for the criminally insane!  Odd, 
that they don't care if people think they raised a criminal, but can't 
bear the thought that people know he's not 100% muggle.  (Effectively 
forcing him to "pass" for something he's not.)

Sarah