Bigotry in the Potterverse

[sartoris22]

No: HPFGUIDX 188106

Lynda:

LOL! I happen to be one of those unpartnered people. And many of my friends
both male and female are similarly unpartnered. Oh the stories I could tell.
. .I think we come on many of the same conflicts truthfully although it is
more acceptable for me to plus one my best friend (female) than for my
church mate an unpartnered male, to call one of his unpartnered male friends
to attend a work party or concert with him. 
I think it depends on how the unpartenered people handle the situation as
well. People are more likely to take us as we are if we do as well.

Now as far as HP is concerned, I'll point out that Snape and Slughorn are part of an isolated group. Professors at a school for kids living away from home, where being unpartnered is more acceptable than in the world outside wizarding academia.

sartoris22:

Increasingy, an older unpartnered male is considered threatening or weird in American society. But older unpartnered males have aways been considered somewhat strange, whch is why I say that HP takes a progressive approach to the lack of partnership. Consider Sirius. He spends--what?--fourteen years in prison, and no one thinks it strange that he's not trying to hook up with a woman--a still somewhat handsome dude with money? Wormtail doesn't have a woman. Alberforth doesn't have a woman. Fudge doesn't have a woman. In fact, many of the older male charcters are unpartnered, at least as far as the readers know. None of the characters I mention are in the academy. While I think HP is somewhat male-centric, it is liberating, in my opinon, in its acceptance of unpartnered people, particularly males.