Pretty much everyone knows atleast a little bit about the Harry Potter series. Those who are fans in whatever capacity know about Dumbledore and how he plays his part in the series. Well, I remeber when he was outed by J.K Rowling, and how much of an impact that had on a lot of people. There were the negative reactions of course, the "I knew it!" group, and then the people who were shell shocked. I don't really understand the third group as much if they read the books, because a lot of clues were dropped in the last book. But thats not really important. I fell into the I knew it group. Like I said, there were just too many clues dropped in the series. I remeber finding out on Mugglenet, and then my parents finding out on the news. They called me out into the living room and pointed to the T.V saying, "Did you know about this?" I looked and said I did. I took it all in stride, having known already, and eventually my parents did too. I think JKR outing Dumbledore is excellent, because it shows something great to those who read her books or were involved in any way with the series. It shows that someone who is amazingly powerful, intelligent, compassionate, and a great leader can also be gay. And that this is only a section of who they are as a whole person. And that it is a thing to be celebrated along with the rest of the person. Dumbledore has always been one of my favorite charecters, always in in my top three. He had me at, "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" It was such a weird quote that I knew he would be an awesome charecter, and he was. He was the charecter whose death I cried most for, and who probably taught me the most life lesson wise. And I'm glad JKR had the courage to admit she always thought of him as gay. It makes the books more realistic as well, since no other charecter is out! Anyway, I wanted to start this thread just because I think Dumbledore was a gift of a charecter, and a great example of LGBTQ charecters in literature. What do you guys think? Potterheads or not, all are welcome!
I understand the sentiment, but this is only a character. A fictitious piece of work. You could make up anything in a story, doesn't necessarily means it's true. So I don't really agree. Just because its written that way doesn't mean in reality a gay person could be a great leader (of course that IS the truth, but a piece of fiction in my opinion doesn't show that realistically). Having said that. Love Harry Potter, books and movies. Been meaning to read the books again. I've only ever done one read through! And that spanned about a decade
I don't think he needed to be gay. I mean from an LGBT stand point I can see the benefits (Hero to so many kids is gay, they're likely to become more accepting because of it) but from a fan of the series point of view it added nothing to the story in my opinion.
As far as relevance to the story goes, Dumbledore had no sexual appetite. I guess it was cool that she said "yeah he was gay" way after the books were out already, but the only lesson learned is that there are not necessarily any universal tells.
There were some hints in the 7th book involving Grindelwald , but they worked better innocent in my opinion.
I don't really look at it as that influential. Particularly the whole Dumbledore being gay thing. What have you seen it influence?
I love the series and loved Dumbledore. It didn't change the story at all for me but it's interesting to think about. He was her character from her story and outing him was totally up to her. Kind of glad she did because who knows, maybe it caused someone to think but I'm glad that it didn't take hold of his character in the story and define him and I don't want people to look back on the stories now and use it to define him because he was a great character exactly the way he was. Dumbledore is supposed to be mysterious .
It was a major cultural phenomenon. It vastly increased the active literacy of a generation of children. http://http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576419742308635716.html Albus Dumbledore was inspirational and influential to children, and if a whole generation (or at least a large part of it) learned to be tolerant of others because of it, then it doesn't matter if the character is fictional.
I think it's great that Dumbledore's gay. Even though he is a fictional character, which means that his sexuality was willfully assigned to him by Rowling, this mimics the fact that great LGBT people exist in real life, and that is a great message to convey, especially since the series has such a vast audience.
Still have never bothered with the series personally, friends extoll it's virtues but I could never get through the first book. So, not much of an influence for me!
I love to hear all opinions, so thanks guys. Dumbledores outing was actually my first exposure to LGBT charecters in literature. It gave me something cool to think about. I am one of those fans that learned to lovr books through those books.
I actually have strong feelings about this. I think that more than anything else, JK Rowling was just trying to: -seem extraordinarily magnanimous and appeal to the sympathies of the democrats/left politicians -stir up some publicity among the republicans/right politicians -increase her readership among the LGBTQ community -create a resurge in sales of her books with people rereading them to look out for clues of Dumbledore's hidden sexuality I don't see there as being much attempt to actually further gay rights or tolerance at all - I think it was entirely political. Moreover, it was neither groundbreaking nor particularly gay friendly because: -His sexuality was never referenced in the books. Fine, he's meant to be mysterious and everything, but if you don't make a point of a character being gay in the actual media then what difference is it really making? -He's completely celibate - so all of the teenage heterosexual characters are off getting it on in various combinations, but the gay character never so much as has a boyfriend after his first crush turns out badly? Nice. -She thinks she's being magnanimous by allowing this one character to be LGBT, but I think the current estimate stands at 1 LGBT person out of every 25. She's said in interviews that there are 772 characters across the expanded universe. By my reckoning, that's around 30 LGBT characters. And yet she gets all this fuss because she includes 1 LGBT character? Sorry. Maybe it had an influence on some people, but I don't think that she made nearly as big an impact on the LGBT community as she could have done.
I'm gonna have to disagree with this. There is a lot of value in characters like this, take Uhura in Star Trek for example. Though she is completely fictional, she was able to effect reality in important ways. She was a black woman who was not a stereotype, not a servant, not some background character. She was a lieutenant, she fulfilled an important role on her team, and played a major role in the events of the show. In short she was a role model to African Americans and her character changed American culture. She was proof to the world that black people could aspire to great things, that they didn't have to be the villian, or the maid, or the slave. Dr. Martin Luther King recognized this fact and convinced Uhura's actress, Nichelle Nichols, to stay on the show because her character was such an inspiration (Nichelle Nichols Tells Neil deGrasse Tyson How Martin Luther King Convinced Her to Stay on Star Trek | Open Culture). In fact Uhura inspired Whoopi Goldberg was she was a little girl (Nichelle Nichols: Influence on Whoopi Goldberg - AOL On). This is the power of fiction. Though it may not be real it does still exist as it is able to affect reality through it's effect on ourselves and our culture. Now with all that being said, I feel Dumbledore isn't as strong a role model as Uhara for one reason (Though I find both to be very strong characters). Dumbledore's sexuality is never explicitly shown or stated, whereas Uhara's race is there for all to see. This makes a difference because while an adult reading the story might pick up on Dumbledore and Wizard-Hitler being more than friends, a child isn't. A gay child reading Harry Potter won't see that this great and wonderful man, who doesn't embody gay stereotypes, is gay, they'll just see a great and powerful man. This negates the effect it would have had if his sexuality was shown more blatantly in the story both on the readers and on our culture in general. The Harry Potter series was a big thing, 7 books, 8 movies, a theme park, countless tie-in products and spin-offs, etc. To have had a prominent, popular character come out during one of the books or movies would've made an impact on our culture. But aside from a couple parts in the book that one could read into, his sexuality was kept under wraps. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I was disappointed. Had it been handled better this could've had a real positive effect. But because of how and when it was revealed, many people believe Dumbledore being gay was just a lie Rowling told to the give the series more attention. And honestly, I can't blame them for interpreting it that way.
