Homosexuality in HP - Clarification

[Brenda M.]

No: HPFGUIDX 105072

>>> Sad1199 says: Why should there be any homosexual relationships 
in the book at all? Unless HP is gay, there is no reason to have any 
kind of homosexual relationship anywhere else. I mean, if Sirius was 
gay (I say not!) how would that affect the end of the series? JKR 
does not seem the type to have unnecessary relationships and/or 
characters in her books, so why bother?


Brenda now:

"How would that affect the end of the series?" you ask. But does it 
necessarily have to affect the plot, I rebuttal. It will most likely 
remain ambiguous to be read as subtle innuendos, leaving rooms for 
different interpretations. It just enriches the literature as a 
whole, with multiple-layered subtexts and nice parallel to the real 
world that we all live in. Did JKR choose this route to be 
politically correct -- I doubt it. I believe she is simply creating 
the magic world drawn from our everyday life, as you are bound to 
run into many minorities nowadays (heck, half of my male friends are 
gay anyways but I still love them!)


>>> Stefanie: I'm the first to don the "'SNAPE'S WORST MEMORY' WAS A 
20 MINUTE 
> > SNAPSHOT INTO THE LIVES OF THESE BOYS AND HARDLY A DOCUMENTARY 
OF 
> > THEIR ENTIRE LIVES" sandwich sign,
> 
> Burbs: I find it amazing that all of this conjecture about 
Sirius's romantic past (or lack thereof) is being hotly discussed 
with no evidence whatsoever.  Who *says* he didn't have 
girlfriends?  (OK, *or boyfriends*)  The fact he doesn't notice some 
girl sitting behind him, eyeing him off on one single occasion 
doesn't really mean that he doesn't *ever* notice girls, does it? As 
you say, these moments are simply that -- moments. We don't really 
know that much about *any* of the Maurauders. 
> 
> (Mrs) Lee Storm: Personally, I didn't read any homosexual innuendo 
or anything in OOTP. I saw people who cared for each other as really 
good friends do. Why is it that if the word "affectionate" is used 
with men, the possibility of homosexuality is brought forth? 
Affection can be bestowed upon anyone a person happens to love as a 
friend, as a family member, etc.
> 
> Burbs again: No, I didn't either, Lee.  To me, "affectionately" 
could be replaced with "fondly", rather than "lustfully" 
or "longingly"!  IMHO there's waaaaaaaay too much being read into 
this one; bit of a knee-jerk on the part of folks who are a bit 
timid with the old boy/boy, girl/girl thing, methinks. <<<


Brenda steps in:

When I started this thread (and caused all the mayhem ;P), my 
intention was NOT to point out who is homosexual and who's not. I 
just wanted to get the message across that the amount of canon given 
at this moment is too little to draw our final conclusions. We all 
have different experience, of much different combination of 
backgrounds, with varying degree of attachment/connotation to 
certain words (e.g. "affectionately"). Thus it is no surprise that 
we all share different opinions and interpretation on the matter, 
and I daresay this makes it more exciting for JKR (and the rest of 
us) to appreciate the series even more so.

Also in my original post, I talked about the famous Hamlet's attack 
on Gertrude and the Oedipus Complex. IMO it is unlikely that 
Shakespeare created this scene to portray this certain aspect of 
human psychology/psychoanalysis. However after many years, with the 
tremendous amount of contribution from Sigmund Freud who formally 
constructed the theory, it is *now* viewed as one of the classic 
moments of Oedipus in English literature. It is safe to assume that 
this is what happened with our beloved character Sirius. As Katie 
had eloquently put it (in one of the following posts to the thread), 
it is doubtful she created him with full intention of making him, 
well "bent" (apologies for my favorite slang). But in the process of 
adding more shapes and shades to the character, she might have 
decided to play on it, hopefully for a *short* while. For more 
information, please refer to Message # 104932 and following posts.

Just to clarify, I am one of the LAST groups of people (mostly girls 
I suppose) who wish he was emotionally unavailable to us (me wants 
him for me
). But I can see how other people will interpret it this 
way and as much as this taunts me, it is still FUN to play on this 
idea (sadistic kind of fun, to be honest). I posted a CRAZY far-
fetched fan-fiction continuing on this stream, borrowing the 
fundamentals from Alla's favorite "Sirius-Snape SHIP". That is how 
much I *detest* the thought of it, really.


Brenda