Homosexuality: Was: Snape as the lover of Regulus Black

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 154687

 
<snip> 
> Lanval writes:
> 
> Why she has so far chosen not to include openly gay character(s) 
> is anyone's guess, and yours is a good as mine. Perhaps she really 
> did wish to avoid the controversy. What I'd find extremely hard to 
> believe is that she's personally opposed to it, be it for 
> religious or other reasons. All evidence so far points to JKR coming 
> down hard on intolerance. Dudley's and Uncle Vernon's remarks give  
> me a pretty clear idea concerning her views of homophobia...
>

I don't think it's to avoid controversy. I've had a theory about JKR 
avoiding openly gay characters (and openly religious characters) since 
before OOP, and it's to do with the way she wants to examine 
prejudice. I think that she has made a deliberate choice to examine 
prejudice by means of a form of discrimination that only exists in the 
world of the books and which makes the reader the target. 

Any other characteristic which is a 'major prejudice marker' is either 
ignored where possible; or if not possible is treated as utterly 
inconsequential in the Wizarding world. Race is treated like that. 
People's race in the WW becomes merely a description; it has no other 
significance. The only 'race' in the WW is 'pure-blood, half-blood and 
muggle-born'.

But both homosexuality and religion are utterly ignored; they're not 
needed as descriptive markers, so they are dumped. JKR doesn't want to 
confuse her exploration of a fictional prejudice by introducing 
anything that might activate real-world prejudices in the minds of 
some of her readers.

Some evidence in support of this theory came up in HBP. During 
Dumbledore's funeral, Ch.30, there's 'a little tufty haired man in 
plain black robes' [p.600 in the British hardback] who stands up after 
DD's body is placed on the marble table, and starts to speak. Harry 
can't hear what he's saying (though the few words that filter through 
suggest at least some of it was a eulogy).

So - we have a funeral. We have one person speaking at the funeral. 
And he's in plain black robes. Who is he? In both Anglican and and 
Presbyterian funerals, that would be the priest or minister. But the 
way the scene has been set by JKR, this guy in black robes could fit 
almost any religion going (or no religion at all). Was Dumbledore C of 
E, C of S, some wizarding form of Christianity, Jewish, druid, wicca, 
secular humanist (with a friend who likes black robes giving the 
eulogy)? JKR has quite deliberately put our viewpoint character in a 
place where the reader is not going to find out.

Funerals are the one situation where you usually discover someone's 
religious denomination. And in this funeral, that's exactly what we 
don't get.

So, going by this theory, we're not going to get openly gay 
characters. Nor are we going to get characters who openly practice a 
religion. JKR wants to explore prejudice, and she thinks the best way 
to do that is to stick with the fictional invention. That way, she 
knows (hopes) that all her readers have the same information - rather 
than bringing in their real-life views.

Pip!Squeak