The problems with DD being gay

[colebiancardi]

No: HPFGUIDX 178357

 
> Lee Kaiwen:
> 
 
> Del did NOT say "DD lusts after young teens because he's gay." He 
> couldn't have, because he doesn't believe DD is homosexual at all. I 
> know, because I read Del's posts and he says so quite clearly.
> 
> My only interest in this is that I found Del's argument well-presented 
> and I was kind of hoping to see a discussion of his points. Instead
what 
> we got was a list-ful of jerky knees from a whole lot of folk who 
> apparently didn't bother to digest what he was saying before hitting 
> their Reply keys.
> 
 

colebiancardi:

I read Del's post and imho, it was not well-presented or well argued.
  I don't think people responsed with knee-jerk reactions; it was that
Del's supposition was way off the mark of what JKR stated about DD.

to refresh:

del:
"If you add on top of all this the facts that:
1- We've never heard of DD having ever loved a man, any man, any
*adult* man.
2- DD deliberately chose to spend his life at Hogwarts. Around
teenagers. Lots and lots of teenagers. Hundreds upon hundreds of them.
Compared to how many single adult men?
3- We know that DD sometimes goes *invisibly* around the castle at night.
I'd say we have a good case of DD being not gay, but ephebophile: it's
not men he loves, but teenage boys.

colebiancardi:

where on earth does one go from being gay to ephebophile?  What if GG
was a female instead of a male and the rest of the story was the same?
 Would we think that DD prefers young teen females?  Harry goes around
the castle invisibly at night - does that mean that Ginny needs to
keep an eye out on him?


del:
"Now where does that leave Harry? What do we know of DD's feelings for
Harry? Well, he told them to us himself, didn't he? He said that he
had come to "care" for Harry, that he didn't want LV to know that
Harry and DD were "more" than student and teacher, and so on. And
let's not forget DD's tear when Harry said that he was "DD's man,
through and through": what prompted those tears, Harry's expressed
feelings of loyalty, or the resonance that those words might have had
with some romantic dream on the part of DD?"

colebiancardi:

oh please.  romantic dream on the part of DD?  Trust me, children know
about sexual vibes from adults and Harry was a 15 year old at that
time.   If DD was straight and it was Helda Potter instead of Harry
Potter and Helda stated that she was DD's man's thru & thru (same
setting, same everything), would you think that 150 year old DD had
the hots for Helda?


Del:
"See, that's the problem I have with JKR revealing that DD is "gay":
the canon doesn't support at all DD being gay (ie attracted to grown
men), but it amply supports DD being ephebophile (ie attracted to
teenage boys)."

colebiancardi:

and there is where I differ with Del.  I see nothing in the HP world
that supports DD being an ephebophile - DD plays his role well;  an
adult male, who is wise and good and who CARES about the children he
teaches/protects, just like any good adult who deals with children.

wait, there is more - del goes back on his/her statement:

del:
"Do I believe that DD was ephebophile? No. First because either I
believe JKR who says "gay", or I believe what I see in the canon which
says, well, nothing at all, and thus implicitely classic heterosexual.
And second because it's just too yucky to see things that way, and
frankly I don't want to be on Rita Skeeter's side on anything.
But do I believe that the canon supports ephebophilia far more than
homosexuality? You bet. Celibate ephebophilia (ie: I don't think DD
ever sexually acted on it, at least once he became an adult), but
ephebophilia nonetheless. And that stinks."

colebiancardi:
why?  why would you think that there is canon to support that theory
over what the author has just stated?  DD had an age-appropriate
crush/love/romance with another male of his own age.  Nothing else in
the books makes DD a creepy kind of man who secretly lusts after hot
boys.  The fact that I view gays as just another facet of being part
of the human race, doesn't mean I have to canon to support this.  Just
as I know Lee is black, because JKR made him that way, DD is gay,
because JKR made him that way.

I really do not believe that JKR wanted her comments on DD being gay
to be taken so out of context that he is really a pervert who secretly
lusts after teenage boys.


del:
"And there's another thing that stinks. Look at what DD's love for GG
made him do: it made him wait for decades before confronting evil,
allowing countless innocents to be harmed and killed. How does this
compare to DD's (and JKR's) message about Love and the Power of Love?
DD keeps telling Harry that it's his ability to love which will
eventually allow him to beat LV. But what did DD's ability to love do
to him? It *prevented* him from fighting evil. DD had to set his love
aside in order to be able to beat evil. How come the rules are so
different in his case? Ah, yes: his was a gay love. Apparently,
heterosexual love and motherly love fortify one against evil, but gay
love weakens one."

colebiancardi:
DD didn't wait decades to defeat GG.  And if GG was an evil, beautiful
woman and DD was straight, the consequences would have been the same.
 It has nothing to do with being gay or straight or lusting after
age-inappropriate boys.


del:
"All of you out there who are so happy about JKR making DD gay really
should reconsider what it implies about DD and about gay love: it's
not at all what you might think."

colebiancardi:

and maybe some should reconsider this whole thread.  I think a quote
from Freud sums this up for me - "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" .


colebiancardi