Is Harry Potter too heteronormative?

why is this such an issue? Jesus Christ

 

I wouldn't say so. Of course there are going to be more heterosexual characters - that's the case in society. It was also 1998-1991 [I think] when Harry Potter was in school, even if there were more LGBT students, they might fear coming out - and anyway, why do we need to know[?]. I do not need to have a "X person is gay" to be satisfied with the work, since nobody says "X person is straight", and like I already said, it's none of my business [unless they're a known character and there's a relationship wanted/taking place in the plot line].

Also, whilst Darry is cute in headshot [fan made work], I don't think it would work in the HP universe based on their previous encounters. Also, if they got together, Albus and Scorpius couldn't, and I think they're a much better fit.

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Going off on one so feel free to skip, but as a writer, I'm not going to make diversity for the sake of it. Reason being is that people complain when there's no representation of a particular characteristic, but then complain when there's tokenism. Since there are so many characteristics out there, for diversity to work, there must be tokenism. So since I'm never going to satisfy both, I'll just write what I want - it's not like I'm publishing for a major audience anyway.

 

Robert, is this a joke? Seriously, heteronormativity? Yes, Harry is not gay in the least. Neither is Hermione, Ron, or Snape as far as we know. Does this mean there's something wrong with the story? No, because not everything in this world is about LGBT+ people, and it doesn't need to be. Seriously, Harry Potter is a children's fantasy story that promotes the general statement of "accept everyone". It doesn't need openly gay chars in order to promote that. -_-

 

Too heteronormative? Being heterosexual is the norm. why does it matter anyway? It's such a stupid word

you can't always have equal representation of everything. that doesn't make something bad. I couldn't care less whether a series has a gay character in it. as long as its good. if people don't like something because it doesn't have 'modern progressive representation' then they're idiots.
then if something has one of every group people would probably say they're just tokens like a token black guy. there's no winning

and why does dumbledore need to be gay? if he doesn't have a love interest then what's the point? also there are loads of programmes with gay characters and other minorities in.

 

Dean and Seamus were a couple. Like Dumbledore's sexuality, she didn't write it in for fear of detracting from the story of the trio. Agreed, those are the only LGBT+ characters of which I know, but that's not to say they don't exist. Things have become much more accepting as of late, but I doubt gay marriage was even legal here in the UK when she began writing.

 

Hold up, where did you get this from? As far as I know they are good friends in the books but idk about a couple. Dean and Ginny are a couple for a period of time.

 

A lotta gay boys go through that denial phase
But yeah, I didn't know about that relationship.

What I don't understand is why, on a forum that helps promote positive LGBT+ issues, the notion that a book and film franchise, adored by millions, should do a bit more to support, promote and highlight a substantial portion of society, a lot of whom could gain strength and acceptance from the characters, has such a dismissive attitude from some members.
True, not everything is about LGBT+ issues, but until everyone on this forum is treated equally, whereever they go, then there is a responsibility of people who make popular content like the Potter world to give fair representation of all groups.

 

Ugh, seriously, this is just people whining about the fact that everyone isn't gay.

I'm a writer.
I'm also a lesbian.
And 97% of my characters are heterosexual. All of my couples except for three of them are heterosexual. Simply because hetero people are the norm and I like writing about straight couples too.

My MC is bisexual and she has a girlfriend, she also has a friend who is a gay guy. But most of the other characters are straight and straight paired. In my second story, there is zero romance whatsoever, aside from some of the characters' parents (straight paired). It would make no sense to interject representation in that story since it isn't about romance to begin with.

This isn't about me simply not caring about LGBT people and their representation. I am complaining about this as a lesbian, my sexuality doesn't take over my entire life and I am not offended if most people's characters are straight. Similarily, I have asperger's, and while Asperger representation would be nice, I will not complain if a story has only neurotypical characters. It's more off putting to stick it in there for no reason or development.

I want to write about what I want to write about. If LGBT characters are included, fine, if they're not, also fine. But I don't stick things in nilly willy to please others, I do it so the story makes logical sense. Adding diversity of every group in the world just for the sake of it is also tokenism. I would not read a story about lesbians if people added them in to be ~accepting/representative~ as I find that offensive. Though It's not to say that lesbian characters are bad or that I wouldn't read about them, I would just prefer if you added them for the reasons of interesting character development/story rather than tokenism to please people.

 

Just a few months ago I saw someone ask Mark Hamill if Luke Skywalker was gay. Hamill replied something like, "He is if he is to you. He's whatever you need him to be." I mean, those aren't his words exactly, but he was supportive of any reading of the character you want. Luke was kind of into Leia but like someone above says, there's that "denial" phase. In the book universe, Luke seems het but in the movies other than the Leia thing which ends up as siblings, he's not really involved in romance at all, so you can imagine anything you want about his inner life or relationships off screen. He can represent you if you want him to and nothing in the text directly contradicts your reading.

How does this relate to Dumbledore and Harry Potter? Well, we do have some "onscreen" romances, and they're het. But Dumbledore as an example leads us to this idea that a lot of stuff happens that Rowling doesn't depict for whatever artistic reasons. If it's not explicit in the text that doesn't mean it's still not there. I'm not super familiar with the books having only read the first one and watched a few of the movies, but aren't there a number of characters who can support a LGBTQIA reading, one that isn't directly contradicted by material in the text?

I think it's great if it's explicit, but at the same time if we take a character who appears to have no romantic life at all in a story and just assume that character is het then we're the ones being too heteronormative. It's similar to taking a character whose physical appearance is only described in general terms and assuming they're white. I want more representation from authors. I think this IS important. But I'm not waiting around passively for it, either.

 

My sister has a book in which the character is gay. It sounds so forced, and really, it ruined the book. It is because people should write what they know, not try to write something just to make other people happy. For all we know a lot of characters in harry potter are gay, but that's not the focus of the books, all that magic stuff is.

 

I wasn't trying to be dismissive, I'm just a big fan of the books and movies and I never heard of this before. I looked it up and apparently JK Rowling considered making them a couple but decided not to so as to not take away from the main trio Harry, Ron and Hermione.

 

No, it isn't. People need to stop making a fuss out of nothing.

 

I don't know and I don't care.

 

It is heteronormative, of course. And while I do love any kind of art which puts the tiniest dent in the giant heteronormativity machine, Rowling, or any other writer, doesn't owe it to anyone to be progressive or inclusive. The Harry Potter universe is flawed, sure. Would I be happy if there were openly LGBT+ characters? Hell yes. But that doesn't stop me appreciating the series.

But these are discussions that do need to happen and shouldn't be shot down, like a lot of people in this thread are doing. Pointing out things like this in popular franchises is what inspires other people to make more inclusive art.

 

If you want gay characters in stories, then read stories that have more gay characters in them.

Problem solved.

 

Or write them yourself. Even if they're just for you and have no intention of publishing.

 

Exactly what I was thinking.

The closest this can be to the truth is that a fan tweeted JK an 'LGBT' tweet in relation to Hogwarts and that no one has to hide in the closet. If JK doesn't come out (excuse the pun) and say that Dean and Seamus were a couple, then officially they're not. But people do realise that she can, at any point, turn around and label any one of the characters as homosexual if she wants to, because there's no evidence in the books to suggest whether they are or aren't? She could say that Harry was in love with Dumbledore or that Draco was in love with Harry and people would believe it because as an author it's her job to be able to write (or talk, rather) in a way that can make us, the reader, believe anything she says. It's like magic.

 

Of course it is far too heteronormative and we should all be very, very offended. I am painting my placard now and will be marching in London in the near future. It is vital to our survival that all books contain at least 5,000 gay characters and include a full discussion of the LGBT community.

(Sarcasm)